Workers: Mina Miller Edison

Mina Miller Edison (1865-1947) was the second wife of American inventor and businessman Thomas Edison. She was an advocate for acknowledging the domestic labor required of women. She called herself a “home executive” and emphasized the importance of women’s work as actual work, not an idealized calling.

For Further Reading: 

• Mina Miller Edison
• Honoring Mina Edison for Women’s History Month
• Mina Miller Edison Was Much More Than the Wife of the ‘Wizard of Menlo Park’
• Seduced by the Light

This month we’re talking about workers: Women who fought for labor rights and shaped the way we do business today. They advocated and innovated to make the “office” – wherever it is – a more equitable place.

History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.

Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.

Womanica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Edie Allard, Lindsey Kratochwill, Adesuwa Agbonile, Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, Sara Schleede, Paloma Moreno Jimenez, Luci Jones and Abbey Delk. Special thanks to Shira Atkins. Original theme music composed by Miles Moran.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello from Wonder Media Network. I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this
is Womanica. This month, we're talking about workers, women who
fought for labor rights and shaped the way we do
business today. They advocated and innovated to make the office
wherever it is, a more equitable place. Today's Wimaniquin redefined
the meaning and importance of housework over a decades long

(00:24):
period of change in America. She emphasized the skill that
went into maintaining a home and advocated for women's work
in the house to be valued just as much as
that of their male counterparts at the office. To her,
the home was a factory and she was its fore woman.
Let's talk about Mina Miller Edison. Mina was born in Akron, Ohio,

(00:49):
in eighteen sixty five. She grew up in a large family,
the seventh of eleven siblings. Her father, Lewis Miller, was
a prominent activist and inventor. He spearheaded me Methodist education
reform in the late eighteen hundreds, engineered agricultural equipment, and
co founded the Chautauqua Institute in Upstate New York, an

(01:09):
educational center and lakeside retreat. As Mina grew up. It
seemed that she was destined to live a life as
a middle class housewife, But then her story took a turn.
In eighteen eighty five, Mina met Thomas Edison, the famous
American inventor and businessman, at a dinner party. Just one

(01:30):
year earlier, Thomas's wife Mary had died, so he was
a single man and twice Mina's age. At the dinner party, Mina,
seemingly unfazed by the inventor's celebrity status, played the piano
and sang for the partygoers. Thomas was mesmerized by her confidence,
later explaining, I could not help in being interested immediately

(01:52):
in anyone who would play and sing without hesitation when
they did it as bad as that. Mina and Thomas
hit it off, and not long after he proposed via
Morse code, Mina said yes. Suddenly Mina was thrust into
a new life. Was Thomas Edison's wife. She immediately adopted

(02:16):
a new celebrity status. People would stare as the couple
walked by and off Thomas and his reputation as the
Wizard of Menlo Park. The newlyweds bought a home together
in eighteen eighty six. Mina quickly realized that being missus
Thomas Edison was going to be a lot of work.
Not only did she have three new step children who

(02:37):
were mourning the loss of their late mother, but she
also had to maintain the family's new twenty three room abode,
a mansion called Glenmont. At the time, America was rapidly
industrializing and men were increasingly working outside of the home.
Women were expected to stay home and provide for their
children and husbands, but the domestic labor of women went

(03:00):
unpaid and often unacknowledged. Housewreck was seen as something outside
of the sphere of capitalist production, something less difficult than
the work men did. Mina rejected this notion wholeheartedly. She
recognized the hard work that went into tending a home.
As Thomas's wife, she was responsible for managing his busy schedule.

(03:20):
Her husband would often be gone for long hours, consumed
by his work, leaving Mina to deal with the house alone.
She even helped him take lab notes sometimes. On top
of that, she had to hire a staff to run
their large house and delegate duties among them. All of
this happened behind the scenes while she and her husband
entertained famous guests like President Wilson, Helen Keller, and Henry Ford.

(03:45):
And if that wasn't enough, Thomas and Mina had three
more children together after they married. That was six children
total to keep track of. Mina was so insistent on
the importance of her role that she referred to herself
as home executive rather than mere homemaker. She read manuals
on housekeeping and learned tricks for becoming more efficient. Mina

(04:07):
believed that there was a distinct science to home economics
and that women should receive proper schooling on how to
manage a home. Her dedication to this philosophy only increased
during World War One, when President Wilson called upon housewives
to preserve food and eliminate waste to aid in the
war effort. Mina took this call to action very seriously

(04:28):
and became convinced that domestic work was intrinsically linked to
America's national interest. She saw housekeeping as a public good
and civil service. Mina believed in the importance of homework
so fervently it was sort of limiting. She still believed
women should work at home and subscribed to more traditional
beliefs about gender roles. She did advocate for husbands and

(04:51):
wives to split their family income equally. She also said
that if a family only had the money to send
one child to college, it should be the daughter who
would eventually become the home executive. Mina was also highly
engaged in work outside the house. She was an active
member of the conservation movement and was known for her philanthropy.
She was also involved in the Chautauqua Association, the National

(05:14):
Audubon Society, her local Methodist church, the Daughters of the
American Revolution, and the School Garden Association of America, to
name a few. Thomas Edison died in nineteen thirty one,
Mina continued her work in her home community and beyond.
She remarried four years later and lived at Glenmont until

(05:34):
her death in nineteen forty seven. All Month We're Talking
about Workers. For more information, find us on Facebook and
Instagram at Wamanica podcast special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my
favorite sister and co creator. Talk to you tomorrow.