The mystery of the suitcase with wheels: how to believe that he was 'of girls' delayed his invention decades

The mystery of the suitcase with wheels: how to believe that he was 'of girls' delayed his invention decades

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There have been several economists and researchers who, for years, have wondered about the mystery of the suitcase with wheels.Why, if the wheel has existed for millennia and modern suitcases since the end of the 19th century, humans were not able to put them together until just fifty years ago?

Katrine Marçal is a Swedish writer and journalist who, documented for his latest book, took a new theory: wheels with wheels did not popularize before because they were considered a female object.A real man could load with his suitcase for the handles and without the need for wheels to help him.

Marçal, 38, has been studying the relationship between the economy and patriarchy for some time.In her first book, 'Who did the dinner to Adam Smith?', She explored the invisibility of female work in classical economic thinking.In 'The mother of ingenuity', published last year and newly translated into Spanish, she reviews the history of innovation with a feminist look.

Through several examples - the walker, the pan with Teflon and even electric cars - concludes that gender stereotypes delay, sometimes for hundreds of years, technological progress.

The Spain newspaper talks with her by videoconference during her visit to Spain to make promotion.

QUESTION.How did you discover that the popularization of the suitcase with wheels was delayed so many years for being considered feminine?

RESPONSE.She had heard of the mystery, how it was possible for us to send man to the moon before putting wheels to the bags.I was watching a lot of examples, which is what you do when you start writing a bookits patent].

From there, it didn't take me too long.There are quotes from Bernard Sadow saying that there was resistance to the product by its gender nature.I interviewed some travel journalists from the time and confirmed it to me.It was not difficult, it simply made me realize that nobody had seen it before.That shows that we are not used to looking at innovation with a gender perspective.As soon as you do you realize things like this.

Q. How had other thinkers resolved the mystery?The book cites the Nobel Prize in Economics Robert Shiller and researcher Nicholas Taleb.

A. Previous explanations talked about group pressure: if people do not wear bags with wheels, nobody wants to be the first.Others have said that we tend to look for solutions to very complex problems, such as going to the moon, and we forget things as simple as putting wheels to the suitcases.And there are also those who argue that not many people were traveling by plane until after the 70s, so they assume that the suitcase could only succeed thereafter.And I believe that it is so, but that there was also gender resistance.

***

Sadow, the official inventor of the suitcase with wheels, was a man from Massachusetts who worked as vice president in the US Luggage suitcase company.At that time the airports had buttons that dealt with luggage in exchange for money.One day, going on a trip, Sadow did not want to look for buttons and loaded the same with his bags.He watched a man moving a machine on a platform with wheels and had the great idea of him.The patent dates from April 4, 1972.

While writing her book, the Swedish journalist not only saw ancient photographs of women carrying suitcases on wheels.She also discovered advertising in the British press of the 40s of a similar product, something like a "portable buttons", essentially directed to women."But it was a very niche product and too cheap for English women who did not prosper," writes Marçal."That a product for women could make life easier for men was not an idea that the world was ready to conceive then."

El misterio de la maleta con ruedas: cómo creer que era 'de chicas' retrasó décadas su invención

Other reports on the 'Mystery' have compiled more versions of the suitcase with wheels prior to 1972, such as that of a German lady in the 40s, that of another American man in 1947 and that of a Yugoslav painter in the 50s. But the testDefinitive for Marçal are the statements of the official inventor.

In one of the few interviews he gave, Sadow said that no department store bought the idea because no man wanted to wear bags with wheels.

"En ese momento, imperaba un espíritu masculino", dijo Sadow. "Los hombres solían llevar el equipaje a sus mujeres. Era… lo más natural, supongo".

Katrine Marçal, author of 'The Mother of Ingenio'

/ Principal de los Libros

After the wheel suitcase, Marçal dedicates a chapter to cars.He says that Bertha Benz, Karl Benz's wife, the creator of the first vehicle with combustion motor, was the first person to make a long trip with the invention of her husband, although later the belief that women do notThey were trained to drive cars.

From this assumption the market division arose by type of motor.At the beginning of the 20th century, electric cars not only existed, but were more than a third of the market in Europe and the United States.But due to their characteristics they ended up being 'girls'.

"The cars that worked with gasoline were unreliable. Difficult to start and very loud (...) were virile machines to travel at full speed, cars that could take you away from home. It was the adventurer's car. And the adventure, likeWe already know, it is for men, "writes Marçal."The idea that the electric car was more 'feminine' emerged.

Henry Ford's own wife, Clara Ford, was driving an electric car.

Image that shows a woman and a girl carrying an electric car at the beginning of s.xx

/ Henry Ford

"It was a luxury room on wheels, a motorized hall in which she could welcome her friends as they took a quiet turn around the city. Clara Ford's vehicle did not have a steering wheel, but she ruled the vehicle from behind,Using two helm reeds (...) the car had integrated vases for flowers and space for three ladies to travel comfortably. The cargo stations for electric cars soon began to sprout in the commercial districts of the large cities of the United States so thatThe rich women could load the car while they bought. "

The advertising of the electric cars of the time gives good account of this description that the author makes.

***

QUESTION.Is it the fault of the patriarchy that we do not drive all electric cars today?

RESPONSE.It was not the main reason.There were problems with batteries and other aspects.But, ultimately, there were cultural factors that caused him.And one of those factors was sexism: the assumption that a car that was slower, safer and more comfortable was necessarily a car for women.And that, if it was for women, men would not want it.

Under this assumption two markets were created: one for men, gasoline, and another for women, the electric.It didn't make too much sense, because cars were expensive and families could only allow one.

Q. Did you know this case before writing the book?

A. I knew that electric cars had been among us for some time.I do not remember how it fell into it, but I found it interesting and I thought it was strange, because now there is a lot of talk of electric cars.I thought this story should be more widely known.

Q. What is the perception of electric cars today?Elon Musk has masculinized, right?

A. Yes, they are now very masculine.In fact, today more men who drive electric cars.That is partly because they are very expensive.I also think it has to do with marketing.The Tesla is a very masculine car, it has no room for flowers like those before.

Q. Data often aim for women to use public transport more than men, who are going more by car.

A. Yes, in fact electric cars are raised as a solution to climate change.And it is clear that they are better than those of combustion, but what about public transport?

Q. What other inventions can be lost because of gender stereotypes?

A lot of!A very small percentage of investment goes to women's companies.I am from Sweden, a country famous for its gender equality policies.But it doesn't matter: when we talk about risk capital investment, in Sweden only 1% addresses women.In the United Kingdom it is a little better, but similar.In Europe, teams formed only by men capture 91% of all investment.Innovation, which is supposed to bring us new things, is totally dominated by men.And that is where we lose ideas such as the suitcase with wheels or the electric car.That's why I wanted to write this book.

P. counts the case of Aina Wifalk, the Swedish woman who invented the walker.She did not ask for money to finance it because she doesn't even value them to lend it.But instead she talks about the world of influencers, women who are doing a big business selling prescription, makeup, clothing ...

A. Yes, it goes in the right direction.But, also, men receive more than 90% of money everywhere.In the media there is much talk about female entrepreneurship but does not move to investment.

Women are super powerful as consumers.They influence 80% of consumption decisions.The market should take that into account, but it is still determined to make gender differences.

P. was the wife of the founder of Tefal [Colette Grégoire] who had the idea of covering the pans with Teflon, but he who monetized her.How usual believe this?

A. Yes, and he did very well.This is a typical story in the history of innovation.Women could not register patents for a long time, they had to do it on behalf of their husbands, so they are literally invisible.You can't find them.In this story, at least we know her.

P. does not mention the world of haute cuisine.Did he think of him as he wrote?

A. Yes. I have a newsletter and wrote about it a few months ago.Cooking has always been seen as a female ability, but haute cuisine is ultramasculina.It is a good example of how when something scale tends not to be considered feminine.Because if women do something, they do it naturally, full of love.But when men do it becomes technical, qualified and performative.

The problem is that economic logic dictates that, if you do something for love, why should you be well paid?And that if it is something qualified and super technical, as with the haute cuisine, it must be very well paid.

Q. Finally, it points several ideas about the future of work, the arrival of robots and the tasks that they will replace.Regarding cleaning robots he says, for example, "who would want technology to solve problems that remain invisible when women take care of them for free?"

A. I think that when economists try to analyze what work will be replaced by machines, there are gender differences.There are a lot of works occupied by women, such as care or cleaning, which is quite difficult for a machine to replace.That means that, probably, machines leave more men without work than women.We do not know, but it is an interesting scenario.And it is something that has already happened in the first industrial revolution: it was the men, mainly, those who were left without work and that created many tensions in society.

We must be aware.What happens if we have to teach thousands of unemployed men to work as caregivers?It will be complicated.We need to think about technology and its impact on the labor market from a gender perspective.

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Q. And there is no one doing it?

A. Some economists say "yes, this will happen, we see that men could have more unemployment than women."But then they say nothing more about it.

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