The History of Home Economics

The history of Home Economics can be traced over 150 years ago. One of the first champion the economics of running a home was Catherine Beecher (1800-1878), sister to Harriet Beecher Stowe. Both Catherine and Harriet were leaders in the mid 1800s in talking about domestic science. Beecher argued for the importance of domestic life and sought to apply scientific principles to child-rearing, cooking, and housekeeping, and she also advocated access to liberal education for young women, although she opposed female suffrage on the grounds that women should leave the public sphere to men.

Catherine Beecher

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Other forerunners of home economics were the cooking schools that began coming into being in the 1870s. Women such as Maria Parloa and Fannie Farmer, both of whom taught at the famous Boston Cooking School, offered instruction in preparing healthful, low-cost meals. At first they provided training mainly for professional cooks, but over time, they opened up their classes to an eager general public. 

Ellen Swallow Richards (1842-1911) was one of the major figures in the emergence of home economics as a profession. As a young woman who had grown up in modest circumstances in a small town in Massachusetts, she defied convention by leaving home to attend the newly founded Vassar College, from which she received a bachelor's and later a master's degree. She went on to be the first, and for many years the only, woman to earn a degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After graduating, she taught at MIT as an instructor of sanitary education. She was also active in public health and social reform efforts in the Boston area. Throughout her career, she emphasized the influence of environment on health and well-being.

Ellen Swallow Richards

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Beginning in 1899, Richards, along with Melvil Dewey and other educators and activist, organized a series of annual gatherings that became known as the Lake Placid Conferences, because the first of these, and several of the later ones, was held at Lake Placid, New York. Out of these conferences, a movement took shape that slowly defined itself and began pursuing specific goals. At the first conference,  participants agreed on the term "home economics", which was held to be sufficiently broad to cover a wide range of concerns, and they began energetic and successful efforts to promote the teaching of home economics in secondary schools and in colleges and universities.

In 1908, conference participants formed the American Home Economics Association. This organization effectively lobbied federal and state governments to provide funding for home economics research and teaching, including adult education work through agricultural extension services, leading to the rapid expansion of educational programs. Over the following decades, home economists worked as homemakers and parents, and also played significant roles in diverse areas of public life. Many pursued careers in business, including the food industry, textiles and clothing, hotel and restaurant management, and interior design. Home economists also often found jobs in public-sector and nonprofit organizations in such fields as public health, institutional management, social work, housing, and, of course, education. In addition, home economists contributed heavily to public debate on a variety of policy issues, including social welfare, nutrition, child development, housing, consumer protection and advocacy, and standardization of textiles and other consumer products.

References

Hearth.library.cornell.edu, (2014). Home Economics Archive: Research, Tradition and History. [online] Available at: http://hearth.library.cornell.edu/h/hearth/about.html [Accessed 29 Aug. 2014].

Ellenswallowrichards.com, (2014). History of Home Economics | Ellen Swallow Richards. [online] Available at: http://ellenswallowrichards.com/?page_id=4 [Accessed 29 Aug. 2014].