5 Machines That Liberated Women

5. Sewing machine

The very first sewing machine was invented by Thomas Saint in 1790. In an article titled Our First Experience with a Sewing-Machine, published in 1858, Henry Ward Beecher wrote, “The dismayed woman of the house saw her three days’ prepared work melting away before noon, as a three days’ April snow disappears in a few hours!”

Although the sewing machine no longer is associated with women’s emancipation, the dawning of such a technology freed women hours of labor to instead focus on intellectual studies or recreational activities.