ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the role of women as purchasers and users of the new commodities they had produced or assembled in factories. The products of domestic labour were intended for direct use and they were consumed within the household. They were not produced as commodities in order to be exchanged for money outside of the household and their consumption did not realize any profit. Domestic labour was undergoing enormous changes in both middle- and working-class households. However, the availability of consumer commodities was not the only factor affecting the amount of work to be undertaken in the domestic economy by the inter-war period. Two other independent developments were also responsible. The first was the reduction in family size. The other development affecting domestic labour was the provision of the infrastructure for the modern home: running water on tap, sewage disposal, houses wired for electricity and a laid-on supply of gas.
