Victoria Plutshack

Contributor

Victoria Plutshack is a qualitative social scientist, whose work focuses on energy, gender and technology change. She holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge and is a Senior Policy Associate at the James E. Rogers Energy Access Project at Duke University. Her recent work includes a study on gender, rural electrification and appliance campaigns during the New Deal.

History

Better Sight, Better Light: Eyesight and Selling the Farm Wife on Electric Modernity

By Victoria Plutshack • July 26, 2022

On a chilly Monday in early February 1940, hundreds of locals had crowded into a “big top” tent in Johnson City, Texas to see the electric circus.[1] On the stage, a woman stood before a table of lamps, prepared to give a speech that she’d given dozens of times before. She would begin: “Everybody here… Read more →