Charles Kettering Liberated Women More Than Betty Friedan & Gloria Steinem
Charles Kettering with the first electric self starter
Charles Franklin Kettering was born 135 years ago yesterday, on August 29, 1876, in Loudonville, Ohio. Kettering was one of a number of men whose inventions “liberated” women long before the modern women’s movement and feminism. Before the age of invention in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the simple tasks of running a household, which is what most adult women did, took most of their waking hours. Electric powered sewing machines, vacuum cleaners, washing machines and other home appliances significantly reduced the amount of labor and time needed to run the home. Refrigerators reduced the amount of time needed to shop for fresh food. By the 1910s, that tasks and drudgery that had formerly taken more time than a full time job to do, could be handled in much less time due to machines doing most of the labor. It’s not surprising, then that by the 1910s, the suffragette movement was in full swing. Women had time on their hands and wanted to be doing productive things.
To a liberated woman in 1912, the world had many more opportunities available to women than in their mothers’ and grandmothers’ ages. One of the effects of industrialization, the age of invention and consumer goods was that companies needed labor, women included. While jobs were usually gender segregated, there were indeed jobs available to women and they had their own incomes. One thing, though, stood in the modern woman’s way in 1912, driving. Or more specifically, the gasoline powered automobile.
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When he’s not busy doing custom machine embroidery, Ronnie Schreiber edits Cars In Depth and contributes to The Truth About Cars and Left Lane News
Gosh Darn it! Another DEAD WHITE MALE!
POOPIE!
It’s not fair that men are smarter and more capable than we are, and that the best that my party can do for leadership are buffoonettes like myself and Nancy.
We must double down on the fantasy that white men have been the cause of nothing but misery and destruction! Are you hearing me MSM and America’s teachers?
Debbie Blabbermouth Putz:
Never fear: the liberal “Womens’ Studies” on college campuses will continue to mold youthful, pliable minds to the perfidy of Dead White Men. College students will never learn about Charles Kettering, and others like him, in the educational systems of this country. The fix is in.
Cool story. And, now I know where Kettering, OH got it’s name.
Not to mention the hospital and medical school.
There’s a high school in Detroit named for Kettering, and Kettering University in Flint too (formerly the General Motors Institute).
The other half of Sloan-Kettering Hospital’s name was Alfred P. Sloan, the guy who took Billy Durant’s GM and made it into a modern corporation.
“Charles Kettering Liberated Women More Than Betty Friedan & Gloria Steinem”
Damn straight! And I’m exceedingly grateful to all those from the past who made our lives easier with their inventions.
The automatic transmission was equally important to allow women freedom to get out of the house. It was nice they could start their own cars, with the automatic transmission they could go somewhere.
I’m a big fan of “Boss Ket” as he was affectionately called.
He held more than 300 patents, contributed to innovation and success at NCR, GM and Delco (his own company). He had great respect for skilled craftsmen and helped establish training and education programs for engineers and craftspeople, emphasizing hands-on discovery, exploration and skill development.
A great man. One of my favorite Boss Ket quotes:
“There are two kinds of people: Those who work at desks with pencil and paper – the businessperson, the executive, the planner – and the ones who work on the bench with screwdrivers and pliers. I’m the screwdriver-pliers type.”
He seems great. Personally though, I thank Steve Jobs and Bill Gates everyday for what they’ve given me — cheap PCs have done more for my liberation than even an automobile (where I live everything is in walking distance).
I don’t HAVE to leave the home now. I can stay close to my babies, be here for belly aches, boo-boos and first steps, and I can earn a living.
Steve and Bill (oh, and probably Michael Dell), they’re billionaires and deserve it for what they’ve done for me and millions (billions?) of others.
One of my all time favorite maxims is a Kettering quote:
“The solution, when found, will be simple.”
My wife has embroidered it into a sign in my office.
Boss Kettering is one of three, who freed women to travel.
Col Colt was another, who made affordable effective means of self defense available to women (and men).
Philo Remington diversified the famous firearms manufacturer to sewing machines (1870) and typewriters (1873), which permitted high productivity in manufacturing and office work without manly hand strength.