"A Woman's House": Gender, Labor, and Home-Design in American Magazines, 1890 to 1920

Abstract

During the domestic reform movement of the Progressive Era, a genre of magazine emerged appealing to middle-class women, home enthusiasts, and members of the architecture and buildings trades. This thesis surveys three of these magazines from 1896 to 1920—House Beautiful, the Craftsman, and the Bungalow—as influential examples of this early genre. An analysis of the material, including its practical applications, journalistic voices, and tone and rhetoric, demonstrates their willingness to invite white, middle-class women’s participation in architectural practice and public discourse during this tenure. In addition, through an examination of architectural reviews, floor plans, and first-hand accounts of women’s design experiences, this thesis explores the physical and emotional manifestations of women’s designs within the built environment, and how women’s choices differentiated from the traditional patterns of domestic architecture derived from accepted forms of male-oriented architectural knowledge. Lastly, it examines the shelter genre’s post-war transformation from its domestic reform origins to a harbinger of technocratic guidance, traditional gender roles, and accelerated aspirations of home consumerism, limiting women’s access to everyday architectural practice and the stagnation of the domestic built environment.