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A Home Economics instructor giving a demonstration, Seattle, 1953

A training class 1985 at Wittgenstein Reifenstein schools

Home economics, domestic science or home science is a field of study^[1] that deals with the relationship between individuals, families, communities, and the environment in which they live.

Name

Family and consumer science was previously known in the United States as home economics, often abbreviated "home ec" or "HE". In 1994, various organizations, including the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences, adopted the new term "family and consumer science" to reflect the fact that the field covers aspects outside of home life and wellness.^[2]

The field is also known by other names, including human sciences, home science, and domestic economy. In addition, home economics has a strong historic relationship to the field of human ecology, and since the 1960s a number of university-level home economics programs have been renamed "human ecology" programs, including Cornell University's program.^[3]

History

Catharine Beecher, American educator

Ellen Richards, photograph ca. 1864

One of the first to champion the economics of running a home was Catherine Beecher, sister to Harriet Beecher Stowe. Catherine and Harriet both were leaders in mid-19th century North America in talking about domestic science. They came from a very religious family that valued education especially for women.

The Morrill Act of 1862 propelled domestic science further ahead as land grant colleges sought to educate farm wives in running their households as their husbands were being educated in agricultural methods and processes. Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Illinois, Minnesota and Michigan were early leaders offering programs for women. There were women graduates of these institutions several years before the Lake Placid Conferences which gave birth to the home economics movement.

The home economics movement started with Ellen Swallow Richards, who was the first woman to attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology and later became the first female instructor. Through her chemistry research, she became an expert in water quality and later began to focus on applying scientific principles to domestic situations. At the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, she designed the Rumford Kitchen, which was a tiny kitchen that served nutritious meals to thousands of fair goers, along with a healthy dose of nutrition education. She shunned an invitation to participate in the Women’s Building as she said none of her research was just women’s work, but rather information for all.

A home economics class in 1911 in Toronto

Late in the 19th century, Richards convened a group of contemporaries to discuss the essence of domestic science and how the elements of this discipline would ultimately improve the quality of life for many individuals and families. They met at pristine Lake Placid, New York at the invitation of Melvil Dewey. Over the course of the next 10 years, these educators worked tirelessly to elevate the discipline, which was to become home economics, to a legitimate profession. Richards wanted to call this oekology or the science of right living. Euthenics, the science of controllable environment, was also a name of her choice, but "home economics" was ultimately chosen as the official term in 1899.^[4] Richards then founded the American Home Economics Association (now called the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences) in 1909.^[4]

In the 1910s the AHEA won passage of two crucial pieces of legislation that allowed home economists to establish formal niches for research and teaching within institutions of higher education. The Smith-Lever Act of 1914 and the Smith-Hughes Act of 1917 provided funding to expand demonstration work in rural communities and to develop and teach a home economics curriculum on the campuses of most state land-grant colleges.^[5] This legislation contributed to the creation of the Office of Home Economics, which grew into the Bureau of Home Economics, at the US Department of Agriculture during the early 20th century.

Home economics emerged at the turn of the twentieth century as a movement to train women to be more efficient household managers. At the same moment, American families began to consume many more goods and services than they produced. To guide women in this transition, professional home economics had two major goals: to teach women to assume their new roles as modern consumers and to communicate homemakers’ needs to manufacturers and political leaders. The development of the profession progressed from its origins as an educational movement to its identity as a source of consumer expertise in the interwar period to its virtual disappearance by the 1970s.^[6] An additional goal of the field was to “rationalize housework”, or lend the social status of a profession to it, based on a theory that housework could be intellectually fulfilling to women engaged in it, along with any emotional or relational benefits.^[7]

In the 19th century, home economics classes were intended to ready young women for their duties in the home in healthy environments. Classes were first offered in the United States, Canada, Germany and Great Britain, followed by Latin America, Asia, and Africa. International organizations such as those associated with the United Nations have been involved in starting home economics programs around the world.^[8]

Through the 1940s Iowa State College (later University) was the only program granting a master of science in household equipment. However, this program was centered on the ideals that women should acquire practical skills but also a scientifically based understanding of how technology in the household works. For example, women were required to disassemble and then reassemble kitchen machinery so they could understand basic operations as well as repair the equipment. In doing so, Iowa State effectively created culturally acceptable forms of physics and engineering for women in an era when these pursuits were not generally accessible to them.^[9]

A Home Economics class receiving instruction in cooking, Ottawa, Ontario, 1959.

Home economists … found a receptive audience among many of its young female members who expressed interest in learning about how to improve their homes, spend their leisure time, and make decisions about what to buy, what to make at home, and even what books to read.^[10] Though men’s participation in Home Economics programs was encouraged it was not actively recruited, and in future courses at universities such as Cornell, men’s roles became entrenched in such courses as hotel management in the hospitality industry.^[7]

A Standards Committee’s proposal in 1924 changed the AHEA constitution allowing for a special voting membership section clearing the way for HEIB (Home Economists in Business) section.^[11] The largest group of HEIB members worked for food companies such as Washburn Crosby (later General Mills), Kellogg’s, ..or trade associations charged with promoting particular foods such as the Institute of American Meat Packers and the National Dairy Council. [Some] worked as journalists for women’s magazines such as.. the Ladies’ Home Journal. [Others] worked for utility companies.^[12]

The function that home economists have been performing for more than a century remains key to our experiences as consumers, but the professional identity has disappeared. Indeed, efforts to reposition the discipline ultimately led to its renaming in the late twentieth century. In 1994, “home economics” was replaced by “family and consumer science.”…This renaming signaled a formal break from the field’s association with domesticity, highlighting instead issues of “family” and “consumption.”^[13]

A new actor that rose to prominence in the 1980s was the charismatic celebrity unaligned with home economists or any other professional group. Martha Stewart and her fellow “domestic celebrities,” in television programs, books, magazines, and websites, attest to the continued importance of independent experts and commercial mass-media organizations in facilitating technological and cultural change in consumer products and services industries.^[14]

To a great degree, Americans today tap into values once enshrined in a home economics curriculum to express a national identity and assert a standard of living that is distinct not only from Developing Nations but also from the cultures of other Industrialized Nations.... Even as luxury consumption exerts a cultural pull for many, middle-class culture still celebrates consumers who make sensible, controlled choices in the marketplace, resisting pure pleasure, impulse purchases, and cheap or shoddy goods.^[15]

Practice homes in American colleges

Practice homes were added to American universities in the early 1900’s in order to model a living situation, although the all-women ‘team’ model used for students was different from prevailing expectations of housewives. For example, women were graded on collaboration, while households at the time assumed that women would be working independently.^[7]

Nevertheless, the practice homes were valued. These practicum courses took place in a variety of environments including single-family homes, apartments, and student dorm-style blocks. For a duration of a number of weeks, students lived together while taking on different roles and responsibilities, such as cooking, cleaning, interior decoration, hosting, and budgeting. Some classes also involved caring for young infants, temporarily adopted from orphanages. Childcare practicums were often included at the same time as other classwork, requiring students to configure their intellectual and home lives as compatible with one another. According to Megan Elias, “in the ideal, domestic work was as important as work done outside the home and it was performed by teams of equals who rotated roles. Each member of the team was able to live a life outside the home as well as inside the home, ideally, one that both informed her domestic work and was informed by it. This balance between home and the wider world was basic to the movement”.^[7]

American university departments

Departments were set up in a number of American universities. For example Brigham Young University had a department from 1920-1950.^[16]

By country

Home economics building at an elementary school in Sariaya in the Philippines

FCS is taught worldwide, as an elective or a required course in secondary education, and in many tertiary and continuing education institutions. Sometimes it is also taught in primary education. International cooperation in the field is coordinated by the International Federation for Home Economics, established in 1908.^[17]

Germany

Gardening in Ofleiden, 1898

Between 1880 and 1900, the Reifenstein schools concept was initiated by Ida von Kortzfleisch, a Prussian noble woman and early German feminist. Reifenstein refers to Reifenstein im Eichsfeld, a municipality in Thuringia and site of the first permanent school. Reifensteiner Verband comprised from 1897 till 1990 about 15 own schools and cooperated with further operators. About 40 wirtschaftliche Frauenschulen, rural economist women schools were connected to the Reifensteiner concept and movement and allowed higher education for women already in the German Kaiserreich.^[18] The 1913 doctorate of Johannes Kramer compared different concepts of home economic education worldwide and praised the system e.g. in Iowa.^[19]

South Korea

In South Korea, the field is most commonly known as "family studies" or "family science" (가정과학, gajeong-gwahak). The field began in schools taught by Western missionaries in the late 19th century. The first college-level department of family science was established at Ewha Womans University in Seoul in 1929.^[20]

United States

In 2012 there were only 3.5 million students enrolled in FCS secondary programs, a decrease of 38 percent over a decade.
^[21]

Home science in India

Many Education boards in India such as NIOS,^[22]CBSE, ICSE,^[23]CISCE^[24] and various state boards offer home science as a subject in their courses.

United Kingdom

In the UK, Home Economics was once a GCSE qualification offered to secondary school pupils, but has since been replaced with a course entitled Food and Nutrition which focuses more on the nutritional side of food to economics.

In Scotland, Home Economics was replaced by Hospitality: Practical Cooking at National 3,4 and 5 level and Health and Food Technology at National 3, 4, 5, Higher and Advanced Higher. The awarding body is the SQA.

Content

Home ec students at Shimer College practice cooking on an electric stove, 1942

Situated in the human sciences, home economics draws from a range of disciplines to achieve optimal and sustainable living for individuals, families, and communities. Historically, home economics has been in the context of the home and household, but this has extended in the 21st century to include the wider living environments as we better understand that the capacities, choices, and priorities of individuals and families impact at all levels, ranging from the household to the local and the global community. Home economists are concerned with promoting and protecting the well-being of individuals, families, and communities; they facilitate the development of attributes for lifelong learning for paid, unpaid, and voluntary work. Home economics professionals are advocates for individuals, families, and communities.

The content of home economics comes from the synthesis of multiple disciplines. This interdisciplinary knowledge is essential because the phenomena and challenges of everyday life are not typically one-dimensional. The content of home economics courses vary, but may include: food, nutrition, and health; personal finance; family resource management and planning; textiles and clothing; shelter and housing; consumerism and consumer science; household management; design and technology; food science and hospitality; human development and family studies; communication and extension education and community services, among others. The capacity to draw from such disciplinary diversity is a strength of the profession, allowing for the development of specific interpretations of the field, as relevant to the context.

Cleaning

Home cleaning tasks can be separated into four categories: litter removal, storage of belongings, dusting, and washing of surfaces. Washing of surfaces is the most dangerous and complicated part because of the cleaning solutions. For example, hard water deposits are cleaned with acid solutions and grease is cleaned with alkaline solutions; they can both harm the skin and are reactive toward each other, potentially producing unwanted by-products. Mixing together chlorine bleach and strong acids (e.g. limescale remover containing HCl) forms chlorine gas, which is toxic. Solvents such as paint thinner and rubbing alcohol are toxic and flammable. Some disinfectants are toxic. Even dish water can require rubber gloves.

Professional associations

The AAFCS (American Association of Family & Consumer Sciences) represents teachers, educators, cooperatives, business, designers and nutritionists.The American Association of Family & Consumer Sciences (AAFCS) is the only national forum where K-12 teachers, university educators, and corporate executives collaborate to improve the quality of individual and family life.

The Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) is the largest American national education association dedicated to the advancement of education that prepared youth and adults for successful careers. ACTE's core purpose is to provide leadership in developing an educated, prepared, and competitive workforce. The ACTE division of Family and Consumer Sciences Education includes three sections (1) NATFACS - National Association Teachers of Family and Consumer Sciences (2) NATEFACS - National Association Teacher Educators of Family andy Consumer Sciences, andy (3) NASAFACS - National Association State Administrators of Family and Consumer Sciences.

The National Council on Family Relations, (NCFR) founded in 1938, is the oldest multidisciplinary, nonpartisan professional organization focused solely on family research, practice and education. They claim to be the premier professional association for the multidisciplinary understanding of families. The members’ interests—as diverse as their careers and backgrounds—are focused on topics and efforts that yield a common benefit: …understanding and strengthening families. NCFR members are professionals dedicated to understanding and strengthening families. The 3,400-plus members come from more than 35 countries and all 50 U.S. states, and include: researchers, demographers, marriage and family therapists, parent/family educators, university faculty, students, social workers, public health workers, extension specialists and faculty, ECFE teachers, clergy, counselors, K-12 teachers, and more.

See also

• Consumer economics


• Domestic technology


• Ellen Swallow Richards


• Euthenics


• Family (economics)


• Homemaker


• Human ecology

References

Further reading

• 
  Goldstein, Carolyn M. (2012). Creating Consumers: Home Economists in Twentieth-Century America. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.
  


• 
  Lee, Tsz Ngong (1999). "Home Economics". In Altenbaugh, Richard J. Historical Dictionary of American Education. Greenwood Press. pp. 175–176. ISBN 031328590X.
  


• 
  Solomon, Barbara Miller (1985). In the Company of Educated Women. Yale University Press. ISBN 0300033141.
  


• 
  Tolley, Kim (2003). The Science Education of American Girls. RoutledgeFalmer. ISBN 0415934737.
  


• 
  Walker, Melissa (1998). "Home Economics". In Eisenmann, Linda. Historical Dictionary of Women's Education in the United States. pp. 201–206. ISBN 0313293236.
  


• 
  Woody, Thomas (1929). A History of Women's Education in the United States. 2 (1966 reprint ed.). Octagon Press.
  


• 
  Nutrition Education - Making it work By Dr. Janet Reynolds ^{[permanent dead link]}


• People and Practice: International Issues for Home Economists by Elanour Vaines, Doris Badir and Dianne Kieren


• Toward an Ideal of the Person Educated in Home Economics: An Invitation to Dialogue by Jane Thomas and Gale Smith


• Sustainable food futures: Lessons for home economics pedagogy and practice by Martin Caraher and Janet Reynolds


• 
  Shapiro, Laura (2008). Perfection Salad. University of California Press.
  

External links

Societies and associations

• International Federation for Home Economics (IFHE)


• American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences


• National Extension Association of Family and Consumer Sciences


• Teachers of Home Economics Specialist Association

Resources

• "What Was Home Economics?" web pages at the Cornell University library on the history and influence of home economics


• USDA Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service


• Home Economics Archive: Tradition, Research, History (HEARTH)


• Family Consumer Science Lesson Plans


• National Standards for Family and Consumer Sciences Education (India)


• Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA)