Rethinking Home Economics

by Stage, Sarah; Vincenti, Virginia B.

• ISBN13: 9780801481758
• ISBN10: 0801481759
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-05-01
• Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr

Summary

Until recently, historians tended to dismiss home economics as little more than a conspiracy to keep women in the kitchen. This landmark volume initiates collaboration among home economists, family and consumer science professionals, and women's historians. What knits the essays together is a willingness to revisit the subject of home economics with neither indictment nor apology. The volume includes significant new work that places home economics in the twentieth century within the context of the development of women's professions. Rethinking Home Economics documents the evolution of a profession from the home economics movement launched by Ellen Richards in the early twentieth century to the modern field renamed Family and Consumer Sciences in 1994. The essays in this volume show the range of activities pursued under the rubric of home economics, from dietetics and parenting, teaching and cooperative extension work, to test kitchen and product development. Exploration of the ways in which gender, race, and class influenced women's options in colleges and universities, hospitals, business, and industry, as well as government has provided a greater understanding of the obstacles women encountered and the strategies they used to gain legitimacy as the field developed.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Home Economics, What's in a Name?	p. 1
More Than Glorified Housekeeping	p. 15
Ellen Richards and the Social Significance of the Home Economics Movement	p. 17
Spreading the Germ Theory: Sanitary Science and Home Economics, 1880-1930	p. 34
Modernizing Mothers: Home Economics and the Parent Education Movement, 1920-1945	p. 55
Women's Place: Home Economics Education	p. 77
Liberal Arts or Vocational Training? Home Economics Education for Girls	p. 79
The Men Move In: Home Economics in Higher Education, 1950-1970	p. 96
Reminiscences	p. 118
They Cannot All Be Teachers: Forging Careers in Home Economics	p. 123
Home Economists in the Hospital, 1900-1930	p. 125
Legitimizing Nutrition Education: The Impact of the Great Depression	p. 145
"Where Mrs. Homemaker Is Never Forgotten": Lucy Maltby and Home Economics at Corning Glass Works, 1929-1965	p. 163
Reminiscences	p. 181
Home Economics, Race, Class, and Ethnicity	p. 187
Defining the Profession and the Good Life: Home Economics on Film	p. 189
Grace under Pressure: The Black Home Extension Service in South Carolina, 1919-1966	p. 203
Reminiscences	p. 229
Who Speaks for the Consumer? Home Economics and Business	p. 235
Agents of Modernity: Home Economists and Rural Electrification, 1925-1950	p. 237
Safeguarded by Your Refrigerator: Mary Eagle Pennington's Struggle with the National Association of Ice Industries	p. 253
Part of the Package: Home Economists in the Consumer Product Industries, 1920-1940	p. 271
Reminiscences	p. 297
Home Economics Moves into the Twenty-First Century	p. 301
Chronology of Events and Movements Which Have Defined and Shaped Home Economics	p. 321
Suggested Reading	p. 331
Contributors	p. 335
Index	p. 341
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