Plural form: 1) machines that automatically wash and dry dishes, or 2) people employed to wash dishes, typically in restaurants or institutions.
From dishwash plus -er suffix. The machine sense emerged in early 1900s (mechanical dishwashers were invented in the 1890s), while the human sense dates to the 19th century for kitchen workers.
The dishwasher machine, invented by Josephine Cochrane in 1893, was marketed as a labor-saving device for wealthy women, but ironically the machine job created new low-wage positions, and hand-dishwashing persisted for over a century in many homes.
Dishwashing became feminized domestic labor in the 20th century; 'dishwasher' historically referred to women and girls, later to appliances. The gendered association persists in how unpaid kitchen work is culturally assigned.
Use 'dishwasher' neutrally for appliances and workers of any gender; contextualize historical labor division when discussing domestic work distribution.
["dish-cleaning appliance","dish-cleaning professional"]
Women's unpaid kitchen labor subsidized industrial economies; many immigrant women and women of color dominated paid dishwashing work, their expertise often unrecognized.
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