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ISSN 2084–1418
The paper edition of the Anthropology of History Yearbook is the definitive version

2014, No. 2 (7), History and Gender

Agnieszka Janiak-Jasińska
The typewriter and its influence on the situation of women on the office jobs market in Poland from the early 20th century

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Keywords: typewriter, women, work

Abstract:
Over the first three decades of the 20th century the typewriter, recognised as a tool of work for women, first made it easier for them to enter the market of office work, but soon tied them to the lowest-paid and the least prestigious jobs. In the public discourse in the Polish press, in academic publications, and in the Polish popular culture, e.g. in the cinema, the typewriter became a symbol of female incompetence to some, and a symbol of ineptitude and lack of ambition of “misses in office jobs” to others. The author decided to find out how this situation came to pass. An important inspiration for the studies on the influence of the typewriter on the situation of women on the labour market was drawn from the analysis of the German researcher Karin Hausen on the sewing machine(also ‘female’) and the machanisation of clothing production. When they started to be mass-produced, both of these very similar inventions were advertised as tools suitable to ‘female nature’ and both tied women to auxiliary jobs, which did not require qualifications or creativity, and only required manual proficiency, hard work, and diligence.

About Author:
JANIAK-JASIŃSKA AGNIESZKA – historian, Assistant Professor in the Institute of History of the University of Warsaw.

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