It’s just past 10 a.m. and my partner, on his third virtual meeting today, is working nonstop in our home office. My son has taken over the family room to attend a virtual science camp and video-editing classes and to play video games. I now realize that this will be his work space to attend distance learning classes in the fall.
For this reason, each morning, I find myself carrying my laptop and tea around my house trying to find a quiet place to work. Before the pandemic, I never needed a dedicated space at home for work. But now I’m faced with teaching online this fall and won’t have access to my campus office, which closed in March.
With Google announcing that its 200,000 employees can work from home until June 2021—and Twitter, Square, and Slack announcingthat employees could still continue working remotely after the pandemic ends—I’m sure others find themselves in the same boat of not having their own dedicated professional work space.
And as I explain in my recent book on the social history of the home office, historically, it’s been women who have been the ones left searching for space.
THE EMERGENCE OF THE “CHAMBER ROOM”
To better understand the makeshift nature of workspaces in the home—and why the spaces are often gendered—it’s important to look at how the home office first emerged as a distinct space.
In the 18th century, three separate spheres of domestic activitystarted to appear in middle-class and wealthy single-family homes. There was a social area for hosting guests, such as dining and living rooms; a service zone, which included the kitchen, cellar, and laundry areas; and a sleeping area, which was the most private part of the house.
What we now call the home office emerged from generically named “chamber” rooms used by both men and women prior to the 19th century. The majority of the chamber rooms were later simply labeled “bedrooms” on builders’ floor plans. However, beginning in the 19th century, some of these spaces depicted on floor plans were interchangeably referred to as the library, den, or study.
By the late 19th century, the study became primarily a space reserved for male professionals to conduct business at home, indulge in scholarly pursuits, and entertain friends. For example, clergy, merchants, and doctors needed a study or “interview room” because their work was more likely to be conducted at home.
The study was often separated from the private zones of the house and placed as close to the front door as possible—in the home’s social zone—to maintain family privacy.
But then, in the early 20th century, the study largely disappearedfrom standard, middle-class homes, which were getting smaller, remaining only in houses built for upper-middle-class professionals, creative professionals, and the wealthy.
SELLING THE IDEA OF WORKING FROM HOME
Even though the study was a male space for leisure and occasional work, the home was largely seen—and championed—as a place that fostered family life.