The charts given below illustrate the percentage of households’s electrical appliances and the number of hours of doing chores in one country between 1920 and 2019.
Overall, the ownership of all three electrical appliances mentioned was on an upward trend with that of refrigerators having the greatest growth. In contrast, at the same time, the amount of time spent on doing chores witnessed a downward trend.
As seen from the first chart, in 1920, washing machines accounted for the highest proportion of household appliances with 40% while refrigerators were the least common items with only 0%. Vacuum cleaners were used in 30% of households. By 1960, the percentage of refrigerators ownership witnessed a significant increase to approximately 90%, overtaking both that of vacuum cleaner and washing machine. With the same pattern, the figure of washing machines and vacuum cleaners both reached 70% in 1960. After 20 years, the percentage of households with washing machines experienced a slight decrease to 65% while that of refrigerators and vacuum cleaners increased with 100% and 90% respectively. The figure refrigerators ownership maintained that percentage by the end of the period. In 2000, the ownership of vacuum cleaners was 100% and remained unchanged in 2019. At the same time, the proportion of washing machines grew slowly and reached 75% by the end of the period.
Turning to the second chart, the amount of time spent on doing housework, in contrast, fell significantly from 50 to 20 hours per week at the beginning of the period. In two years 1980 and 2000, the figure continued to decline and had the same amount with 15 hours. At the end of the period, it experienced a small drop to just over 10 hours a week.