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Hello from Wonder Media Network. I'm

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Jenny Kaplan, and this is Womanica. This

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month, we're talking about workers, women who fought

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for labor rights and shaped the way we do business

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today. They advocated

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and innovated to make the office wherever

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it is, a more equitable place. Today's

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Wimaniquin redefined the meaning and importance

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of housework over a decades long period

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of change in America. She

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emphasized the skill that went into maintaining a

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home and advocated for women's work in

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the house to be valued just as much as that of

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their male counterparts at the office. To

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her, the home was a factory and she was

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its fore woman. Let's

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talk about Mina Miller Edison. Mina

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was born in Akron, Ohio, in eighteen sixty

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five. She grew up in a large

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family, the seventh of eleven siblings.

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Her father, Lewis Miller, was a prominent

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activist and inventor. He

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spearheaded me Methodist education reform

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in the late eighteen hundreds, engineered

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agricultural equipment, and co founded

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the Chautauqua Institute in Upstate New

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York, an educational center and lakeside

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retreat. As

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Mina grew up. It seemed that she was destined

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to live a life as a middle class housewife,

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But then her story took a turn.

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In eighteen eighty five, Mina met Thomas Edison,

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the famous American inventor and businessman, at

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a dinner party. Just

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one year earlier, Thomas's wife Mary

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had died, so he was a single

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man and twice Mina's age.

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At the dinner party, Mina, seemingly unfazed

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by the inventor's celebrity status, played

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the piano and sang for the partygoers. Thomas

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was mesmerized by her confidence, later

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explaining, I could not help

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in being interested immediately in anyone

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who would play and sing without hesitation when

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they did it as bad as that. Mina

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and Thomas hit it off, and not long after he

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proposed via Morse code,

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Mina said yes. Suddenly

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Mina was thrust into a new life. Was

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Thomas Edison's wife. She immediately adopted

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a new celebrity status. People

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would stare as the couple walked by and

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off Thomas and his reputation as the Wizard

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of Menlo Park. The

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newlyweds bought a home together in eighteen eighty

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six. Mina quickly realized

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that being missus Thomas Edison was going to

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be a lot of work. Not

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only did she have three new step children who were

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mourning the loss of their late mother, but

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she also had to maintain the family's new twenty

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three room abode, a mansion called

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Glenmont. At

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the time, America was rapidly industrializing

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and men were increasingly working outside of the

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home. Women were expected

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to stay home and provide for their children and husbands,

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but the domestic labor of women went unpaid

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and often unacknowledged. Housewreck

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was seen as something outside of the sphere of capitalist

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production, something less

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difficult than the work men did. Mina

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rejected this notion wholeheartedly. She

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recognized the hard work that went into tending a

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home. As Thomas's wife,

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she was responsible for managing his busy schedule.

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Her husband would often be gone for long hours,

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consumed by his work, leaving

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Mina to deal with the house alone.

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She even helped him take lab notes sometimes.

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On top of that, she had to hire a

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staff to run their large house and delegate duties

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among them. All of

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this happened behind the scenes while she and her husband

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entertained famous guests like President

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Wilson, Helen Keller, and Henry

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Ford. And if that wasn't

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enough, Thomas and Mina had three more children

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together after they married. That

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was six children total to keep track of.

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Mina was so insistent on the importance of her role

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that she referred to herself as home executive

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rather than mere homemaker. She

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read manuals on housekeeping and learned tricks

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for becoming more efficient. Mina

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believed that there was a distinct science to home economics

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and that women should receive proper schooling on how

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to manage a home. Her

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dedication to this philosophy only increased

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during World War One, when President

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Wilson called upon housewives to preserve food

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and eliminate waste to aid in the war effort.

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Mina took this call to action very seriously

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and became convinced that domestic work was

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intrinsically linked to America's national

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interest. She saw

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housekeeping as a public good and civil service.

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Mina believed in the importance of homework so

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fervently it was sort of limiting. She

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still believed women should work at home and subscribed

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to more traditional beliefs about gender roles.

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She did advocate for husbands and wives to

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split their family income equally. She

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also said that if a family only had the money

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to send one child to college, it should be the

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daughter who would eventually become the home executive.

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Mina was also highly engaged in work outside

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the house. She was an active member

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of the conservation movement and was

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known for her philanthropy. She

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was also involved in the Chautauqua Association,

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the National Audubon Society, her local

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Methodist church, the Daughters of the American

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Revolution, and the School Garden

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Association of America, to name a few.

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Thomas Edison died in nineteen thirty one,

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Mina continued her work in her home community

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and beyond. She remarried

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four years later and lived at Glenmont until

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her death in nineteen forty seven. All

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Month We're Talking about Workers. For more information,

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find us on Facebook and Instagram at Wamanica

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podcast special thanks

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to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co creator.

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Talk to you tomorrow.