In the early 20^th century, the emerging field of Home Economics gave educated women an opportunity to become professionals within a respected field of expertise. As new electrical appliances became available in the early 20^th century, home economists became responsible for training housewives in their use. Home economists could translate technical knowledge into every day language and show women how to apply it. 

I have mixed thoughts about the emergence of home economics as a field. They probably stem from the home economics classes I had to take in middle school. While boys learned woodworking and tried not to hit their fingers with hammers. Girls learned to set a table properly and make white sauce without lumps. I’m sure the classes must have had other topics, but those are the ones I remember. The recipe for white sauce, by the way, first appeared in the 1950 Betty Crocker Cook Book. Milk, flour, butter, seasonings, and lots of stirring. Not surprisingly, learning to stir white sauce didn’t teach me any technical knowledge. But enough about my culinary disasters.

The problem women had in the early 20^th century was that, in general, women were considered to be less intelligent than men. Pioneers in the home economics discipline believed that with proper technical skills, women could prove their intelligence and gain respect without crossing male boundaries by, for example, attending chemistry classes.

Home economist Marion Talbot spent most of her career at the University of Chicago where in 1912 she created the Department of Household Administration. The topic of Sanitary Science had previously been a coeducational program housed in the Department of Sociology. But with Talbot’s innovation, the topic was reserved for women only.

“Home economics is the best subject yet found to teach the power of things,” Talbot said. “It is humiliating to be conquered by things.” Talbot and other leaders in home economics believed that as women gained scientific knowledge about food, cleaning, and efficiency, they could make informed decisions for themselves and their families.

Catherine Beecher said much the same thing in 1872:
“The care of a house, the conduct of a home, the management of children, the instruction & government of servants, are as deserving of scientific treatment and scientific professors and lectureships as are the care of farms, the management of manure and crops, and the raising and care of stock.”
But Beecher’s thoughts didn’t found a new academic discipline.

The mantra of the American Home Economic Association established in 1908 was that for women to improve their position, they must follow expert advice from home economists and denounce tradition. And yet, most women continued to perform the same domestic tasks as they did before, albeit with more modern design principles.

Mary Pattison observed in her Principles of Domestic Engineering published in 1915, “our hope is to bring the masculine and feminine mind more closely together in the industry of home-making by raising housework on the one side to the plane of scientific engineering, and by proving on the other, fuller individual returns for every complete and right domestic activity.” And yet, as this 1927 illustration demonstrates, male and female roles remained much the same.

Iowa State College became the first college to offer an undergraduate Bachelor of Science program in the study of household equipment. Between 1930 and 1955, Iowa granted 308 BS degrees. The school followed up with a master’s degree program that taught women how to understand and repair equipment. Both programs proved women could fully understand the new household technology.

Graduates of this and other collegiate programs found positions with utility companies and appliance manufacturers. In 1935, Betty Melcher who worked at Buffalo General Electric, observed “If Mrs. Jones swears she can’t bake a cake and threatens to throw her range out, it is my job to prove to her that she can and incidentally sell her on keeping the range.”

Of course, Betty didn’t need a home economics degree to sell electric ranges. But without it, she had no credentials for the job. In 1949, a woman without a degree in home economics couldn’t possibly know anything about how the new electric ovens worked, or teach middle school girls how to stir a white sauce. And if women and girls didn’t know these things, they would be as ignorant as the greater culture assumed.

It wasn’t until the second wave of feminism that young women had a choice denied to the founders of home economics. In 1960, women were six percent of doctors, three percent of lawyers, and less than one percent of engineers. In 2022, 37 percent of doctors and 15 percent of engineers were women. In 2024, 41 percent of lawyers were women.

Women have broken out of the domestic cage, and have choices Catherine Beecher never imagined. From my perspective, that’s progress. No stirring required.

Illustrations & A Few Sources

Ladies Home Journal, 1948; Home Economics Class at Goshen College, 1948; Vacuum cleaner Advertisement, Saturday Evening Post, 1920; Marion Talbot, 1911; Title Page for Beecher’s The New Housekeeper’s Manual, 1873; Country Gentleman, 1927; Electric Stove, 1949; College of DePage President Dr. Ann Rondeau by COD Newsroom, 2018. Glenna Matthews. “Just a Housewife”: The Rise & Fall of Domesticity in America. 1987. Barbara Spindel. “The Secret History of Home Economics Review: Engineering the Everyday.” Wall Street Journal. May 2, 2021.

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The post Home Economics & Modern Domesticity first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

This is my second of blog celebrating Women’s History Month. The commemoration gives us many opportunities to cheer women’s achievements. Often, however, the ordinary activities of women’s lives are, if not overlooked, at least unsung. It is impossible to consider women’s history without noting women’s activities in the home, the often invisible work space where women have spent much of their time. Historically, thoughts on household activities were confined to middle class white women who had not only their own homes to look after, but also the education and training of household servants.

In the early American Republic (c.1790-1830), women were praised as Republican Mothers and Angels of the House. Their well-ordered homes were sanctuaries from the stresses men faced on a daily basis, a source of love in a cruel world. Beyond that, women were the custodians of civic virtue who upheld the morals of their husbands and children. Both roles were crucial to establish a model American Republic of domestic tranquility.

However, as Abigail Adams had warned, in exchange for their invaluable service to the young nation, women lost their separate identity at the time they married. With few exceptions, many women could not sign contracts, let alone vote. Married women could not own property. Children belonged to their fathers.

In 1841 Catherine Beecher, an unmarried minister’s daughter, published A Treatise on Domestic Economy. The book made Catherine a household name and gave her an independent identity and income. Catherine built on the model of Republican Motherhood to assert that only women’s efforts in the home could prevent society from fragmenting under the pressure of industrialization, immigration, and growing cities with their noise and dirt. Catherine believed that if women gave up efforts to actively participate in civil society, they could claim their rightful place as society’s moral leaders in education and philanthropy. Catherine emphasized that by creating well-ordered homes, women could hold society together.

Catherine’s vision of a well-ordered home was a structure that by today’s standards seems like more than a full-time job. The housekeeper aka wife must be knowledgeable about health, nutrition, cleanliness, appropriate clothing, exercise, manners, orderly habits, charitable giving, and able to supervise domestic workers. And everything must be done efficiently which is why Catherine included instructions for building houses and arranging work spaces, including this plan for laundry and food storage rooms. No detail can be overlooked, including locations for the ice closet which is next to the linen closet and the laundry area with its own stove.

You cannot make women contented with cooking and cleaning, and you need not try. — Ellen Swallow Richards

Ellen Swallow Richards is generally viewed as the founder of the discipline of Home Economics, a profession that welcomed professionally trained women scientists into its ranks while uplifting women who were still trying to figure out how to prepare nutritious food. She and her disciples explained to middle class women that thanks to improvements in science and efficiency, they can provide a healthy home for their families with such efficiency that not only could they forgo the necessity of servants, but also have time for themselves. But the women must be diligent in their efforts.

Ellen herself was a highly educated woman. In 1868 she entered Vassar College to study astronomy, receiving her bachelor’s degree two years later and embarking on a quest for a Master of Arts degree, which she also received after writing her thesis on her chemical analysis of iron ore. Armed with academic degrees, Ellen applied for several positions as a commercial chemist, but no one would hire a woman in such a masculine field.

Disappointed but undeterred, Ellen applied for admittance to the school that became the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was admitted as a special student. The designation made it clear that MIT would not open general admissions to women. It also meant Ellen did not have to pay tuition. In 1873, Ellen received a bachelor of science degree. For the next five years Ellen taught chemistry and established a Women’s Laboratory without a salary or official academic appointment.

In 1875 Ellen married Robert Richards, chair of the MIT mining & engineering department. MIT graciously allowed Ellen to continue volunteering her academic services and also to donate $1000 annually to further women’s scientific education. [Note: One thousand dollars in 1875 was the equivalent of about $29,568.36 in 2013.] Ellen developed a curriculum stressing chemical analysis, industrial chemistry, mineralogy, and applied biology.

Ellen decided that the best way to provide a career for other women scientists and to allow women to pursue interests outside the home was to apply basic scientific principles to the home with an emphasis on nutrition, food safety, appropriate clothing, physical fitness, sanitation, and efficiency in carrying out household tasks so women could pursue interests outside the home. Ellen Richards had the same basic approach as Catherine Beecher, though whether the two women would agree is difficult to say. Ellen would probably argue that her academic qualifications outranked Catherine’s thoughtful advice. In 1882 Richards published The Chemistry of Cooking and Cleaning: A Manual for Housekeepers. The Chemistry of Cooking sounds so much more official than A Treatise on Domestic Economy, even if both authors had the same goals of efficient households and women who could turn their talents to social problems in the greater society.

To Produce and Perpetuate Perfection—or as Near to Perfection as may be Attained in a Household

Just in time to spread scientific ideas about domestic economy, the first issue of Good Housekeeping Magazine appeared on May 2, 1885. In its early years, Good Housekeeping published numerous articles on food safety and food adulteration. In 1888, an article discussed candy contaminated with pulverized asbestos, and in 1902 there was an article about formaldehyde in infant formula, milk and cream.

As the century turned, running a household was becoming complicated. Some of the confusion was due to the increasing amount of household equipment powered by electricity. But a more powerful challenge was changing domestic expectations as professional women carved out a career path for themselves and their sisters. What would this new world look like?

Illustrations & A Few Sources

Liberty in the form of the Goddess of Youth by Mabel Brady Garvan Collection 1796; The Artist & His Family by James Peale 1795; Floor Plan of Laundry & Food Storage Rooms from the New Housekeeper’s Manual 1873; Ellen Swallow Richards between 1890 & 1900; From the Boston Cooking School Magazine 1896; Good Housekeeping Cover by John Cecil Clay 1908. Glenna Matthews. “Just a Housewife”: The Rise & Fall of Domesticity in America. 1987.

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The post Women’s Roles: From Republican Motherhood to Scientific Household Management first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.