Why Victorian Kitchens Suck
The evolution of spaces traditionally reserved for women.
I grew up in a Victorian house, and it came with all the quirks. Our kitchen had a tiny window, was located in the back of the house, and had a door that closed it off from the rest of the house (later removed).
Despite all this, we spent most of our childhood in this space, watching our parents cook, and later learning their recipes.
Once I moved out, the majority of houses I live in, including the one I am currently in, are Victorians. My partner and I spend a huge percentage of our home lives cooking and entertaining out of our cramped, separate kitchen.
Newer houses have adjusted their kitchen designs towards open, social spaces, but why has there been this shift? In older houses, kitchens were either the main room of the house, or reserved for servants.
Later trends, such as the Frankfurt kitchen, provided what was called an ‘emancipatory kitchen’ or ‘work kitchen’, that gave middle class women without servants a chance to use the space as efficiently as possible.
Of course, to avoid spreading smells throughout the house, these kitchens were separated from the rest of the house, thus confining women into a dark, small, smelly corner of their own home.
When the extractor hood was introduced in the 1980’s, open kitchens once again became possible. Slowly, over time, these spaces became reintegrated within the design of the overall home.
Feminist movements of the 1970’s and ’80’s pushed women out of the home, and into the workforce in mass. Kitchen design now seems to have over-corrected into taking on a more masculine overtone.
Just look at the shift from the flowered pastel motifs of the 1950s and ‘60’s to the stainless steel spaceships of the present day.
So, while I approve of the shift to a more open concept kitchen, the vestiges of this sexist past in design remains present in every rental I have lived in. Go figure.
