Kōrero: Unpaid domestic work

The classic 1950s domestic set-up was a husband in full-time work and a stay-at-home wife whose time was devoted to housework and childcare. In the New Zealand ‘DIY’ tradition, men were expected to do whatever household maintenance tasks they could – including jobs like laying laminated benchtops. This mid-1950s advertisement for Laminex encourages the husband to ‘do it yourself (for her)’.

Courtesy of Laminex Industries