# The History of Home Economics in the US - More than you might expect.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-history-of-home-economics-in-the-us-more-than-you-might-expect/453085>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [June 16, 2008, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-history-of-home-economics-in-the-us-more-than-you-might-expect/453085 "2008-06-16T06:31:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2008, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-history-of-home-economics-in-the-us-more-than-you-might-expect/453085/1 "2008-06-16T06:31:25Z")

</div>

[From Domesticity to Modernity](http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/homeEc/default.html)

Check out the online exhibition!

> [@](#):
>
> What Was Home Economics?  
> Canning peaches. Sewing a dress. Making perfect gravy. These are familiar images of home economics, but do they tell the whole story? So often home economics has been cast as a “conspiracy to keep women in the kitchen,” an interpretation that has overlooked its impressive and diverse contributions. New scholarship in American women’s history suggests that home economics was a progressive field that brought science to the farm home and women into higher education and leadership positions in public education, academia, government and industry.  
> At the turn of the 20th century, home economics was a critical pathway into higher education for American women, largely associated with co-educational land grant institutions such as Cornell. From its inception, collegiate home economics was multidisciplinary and integrative with an emphasis on science applied to the real world of the home, families and communities.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2008, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-history-of-home-economics-in-the-us-more-than-you-might-expect/453085/2 "2008-06-16T06:34:01Z")

</div>

Lots of fascinating little detours like this onne.

[“Milkorno”](http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/homeEc/lg/C4_3_articleAlt.htm)

[Afraid of the Hoe](http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/homeEc/lg/C6_3_pamphlet1Alt.htm)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2008, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-history-of-home-economics-in-the-us-more-than-you-might-expect/453085/3 "2008-06-16T11:32:56Z")

</div>

The cult of Donna Reed & Mrs Cleaver.

Aprons…aprons everywhere…