The Women's Movement and the Rise of Industrial Food Production in America: A Symbiotic relationship?

This paper hypothesizes a symbiotic relationship between the women's movement and the rise of industrial food production in America. I will explore the possibility that the women's movement and the adoption of industrial food production were tied to one another, influencing each other's rise. Stated differently, I will analyze the historical relationship between women and food during the 19th and 20th centuries, and how this relationship has had an impact on the development and identity creation of each.

This hypothesis will be explored in four parts. Part 1 will discuss the American women's movement and will provide a brief chronological history, explain the three most significant contextual factors that catalysed the movement, and describe the feminist theories that helped to shape and define the movement. Part 2 will discuss the rise of industrial food production and will describe its history, explain how and why it was adopted on a national scale, and outline the social, economic, and physical consequences of the reliance on industrial cuisine. Part 3 will discuss how the aspirations, objectives, and theories that defined the women's movement encouraged the use of industrial cuisine, and subsequently industrial food production. Lastly, Part 4 will explain how industrial food production promoted the rise of women's independence, and therein the women's movement, through its marketing strategies and the creation of a consumer-based food culture.

It will be demonstrated that although there are different streams of feminism, all streams supported lessening women's presence within the private sphere. The most time consuming responsibility within the household was cooking and meal preparation; thus, womensought to minimize their time and efforts devoted to it. One way to achieve this was to utilize processed food stuffs. It will be shown that the purchasing of processed food increased with the rise of the female labor force. Had women remained in the private sphere, absent from the workforce, there would have been little or no need for convenience foods. The American women's movement gave the food industry a chance to provide a new kind of service, which gave way to mass-consumption and mass-production, leading to demands that industrial food production could readily fulfill.

The development and success of industrial food production was based upon the growing need for greater convenience and efficiency in food production and provision within the private sphere. Thus, this industry was rooted in the idea of providing a value-added product: time. The idea of saving time was the most alluring to women, particularly working women. Therefore, the industry became dependent upon women. Industrially produced food products gave women an opportunity for more time and energy to follow their aspirations for equality and liberation. Had food provision remained in the production realm as opposed to evolving primarily into consumption, women would have had to dedicate a substantial amount of time to food production and provision, which would have made it nearly impossible for them to enter the public sphere.