THANK YOU, MR. EDISON Electricity, Innovation, and Social Change   Lesson Four: Women and the Mass Consumer Society

Mrs. Lathrop represents an important element of the mass-consumer society. Christine McGaffey Frederick's Selling Mrs. Consumer, published in 1929, provides factual material, but also illuminates the larger issues relevant to women as consumers, and to the development of a mass-consumer economy.

Introductory Assignment

Provide the answers for these questions that are raised in Selling Mrs. Consumer:

1. What are the characteristics of the "New Woman" emerging in the 1920s?
2. What is the relationship of the mass-consumer society to this "New Woman?"
3. What are the essential elements of electrification, both technological and social?
4. How has the process of electrification affected women in particular, as well as men?
5. What impact has electrification had on the household?
6. What is the relationship of electrification to the developing mass-consumer society?

Specific Assignments

1. Host a radio show.

   • Create a radio interview program with Mrs. Frederick as the guest. Choose a "show host" to pose questions to Mrs. Frederick and her staff. Different classmates may alternate role-playing Mrs. Frederick.
   • Write and perform commercials for consumer products from the magazines in Prosperity and Thrift, 1921-1929. The actual text for the ads can come directly from the ads in the magazines. Create a real radio show atmosphere. Include music in the the show, perhaps from Edison recordings from Inventing Entertainment.

2. Enter contests in Good Housekeeping. Select one:

   • "My favorite appliance is . . ."
   • "I would like a set of appliances[Name them] because . . ."
   • "How electricity has changed my life"
   • "How electricity helps the man of the house"
   Questions for the man of the house:
   • "What arguments would you accept as reasons to purchase electrical appliances?
   • "What are the reasons you want electricity in your home?"

3. Enter a contest in Country Gentleman in 1926 aimed at the rural readers. Write a letter to the editor in 250 words or less explaining how life on the farm has changed with the availability of electricity. Assume that children are a part of the family you write about.

4. Read the following:

   Robert S.and Helen Merrell Lynd's Middletown: A Study of Modern American Culture based on fieldwork completed in 1925, examines the daily life of Muncie, Indiana, considered the typical small town in America in the 1920s. Topics covered in their study include marriage, childrearing, housework, school, religion, leisure, and earning a living. It is a marvelous source for insights into the technological and social changes which occurred. Prosperity: Fact or Myth by Stuart Chase is a summary of the economic conditions of the 1920s. Chapter IV looks at "the specific goods and services delivered to the ultimate consumer." In particular, Chase looks at Middletown and identifies the changes since the Lynds completed their study.

   • Compare and contrast the changes Chase described by answering the question, "Where would Mrs. Lathrop be in the social structure of Middletown?"

   • Answer the following questions about the Chase article:

     1. To what extent has Middletown changed since the Lynd study (p. 53)?
     2. How is Middletown linked to the larger world (p. 55)?
     3. Chase analyzes the classes of Middletown. Identify some of the characteristics of the different classes. (p. 55)
     4. Summarize Chase's findings about working class houses valued at less than $2500. (pp. 56-7)
     5. Summarize Chase's findings about houses valued at $2500 to $4500. (pp. 57-8)
     6. Summarize Chase's findings about houses valued at $7500 or over. (pp. 58-9)
     7. The rest of the chapter (pp. 59-63) covers a variety of characteristics about homes of the 1920s. Identify those statistics which focus on aspects of electrification and usage.

5. It is 1926. You have just moved into a new house with electricity. As a housewife you have been reading Good Housekeeping and other magazines, including those with articles by Christine Frederick, the author of Selling Mrs.Consumer. You want to purchase electrical appliances. What arguments would you use to persuade your husband to agree to such purchases?