Women, technology, and domestic soundscapes. The role of women in the phonograph and gramophone industries

Abstract

This article examines women’s central role in the adoption, consumption, and dissemination of sound technologies between 1890 and 1930. It analyzes how women acted as consumers, cultural curators, technological users, and employees within the emerging recording industry. Advertising sources reveal their expertise in selecting machines and repertoires, while domestic practices show how recorded sound reshaped musical life in bourgeois households. The article argues that women influenced both the cultural integration and commercial development of phonographs and gramophones, challenging assumptions about their marginality in technological modernity.