The Secret History of Home Economics

Starred review from January 18, 2021
Journalist Dreilinger debuts with an eye-opening history of the field of home economics. Created in the late 19th century as a progressive, reform-minded discipline that sought to “change the world through the household,” home economics was viewed by its founders, MIT chemist Ellen Swallow Richards (1842–1911) among them, as a natural subfield of economics that had the potential to eliminate both poverty and drudgery. Universities established home economics departments and the government sought out the expertise of leading home economists during both world wars and the Great Depression. Noting that African Americans were often excluded from professional organizations and opportunities, Dreilinger gives full consideration to the work of Black home economists including Flemmie Kittrell (1904–1980), whose career spanned academia, government service, and domestic and international civil rights activism. Detailing changes in American education that have largely marginalized the field since the 1980s, Dreilinger outlines steps for its revitalization, including diversification and a renewed emphasis on the life skills and transformative social and ecological vision the discipline at its best has espoused. With lively prose and engrossing portraits of dynamic and accomplished women, this is a vital and inspiring reassessment of an oft-caricatured field.

March 1, 2021
A study about how home economics has reflected changing attitudes about women's lives in the past 150 years. Education journalist Dreilinger makes a spirited book debut with a well-researched history of home economics, founded in the late 19th century by women who believed that improving the home through science would improve society. Through the years, the field, branding itself as domestic science, enlarged its scope. Home economists, writes the author, "originated the food groups, the federal poverty level, the consumer protection movement, clothing care labels, school lunch, the discipline of women's studies, and the Rice Krispies Treat." The author offers adroit portraits of women who shaped the field. These include Ellen Swallow Richards, for example, a chemist who became MIT's first female instructor and wrote books about adulterated food and the chemistry involved in housework; and her contemporary Margaret Murray Washington (wife of Booker T.), who wrote Work for the Colored Women of the South, a household manual for impoverished Black rural women, hoping that improving the home would hasten racial equality. For much of its history, the field was blighted by racism and xenophobia. Still, home economists found opportunities in business, laboratories, and academia that might otherwise have been closed to them. In 1923, the field gained status when President Warren Harding created the Bureau of Home Economics, whose purpose was to research "the scientific basis for the mechanics of living." World War II saw a surge of respect for Bureau scientists, who "figured out how to sterilize wool, treat cotton against mildew, and improve the flavor and nutrient retention of dehydrated food." After the war, though, when women were enjoined to leave jobs and stay home, the field, Dreilinger writes ruefully, became "repressive, boring," and trivialized. The Bureau ended in the early 1960s, and home economics turned from its scientific roots to emphasize the delights of homemaking and women's responsibilities to nurture strong, happy families. A fresh contribution to women's history and a resurrection of contributions too often overlooked.

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May 1, 2021

In this debut, journalist Dreilinger looks at the history of home economics from a feminist perspective. She argues that home economics was intended to empower people of color and white women by giving them a way to enter fields, like chemistry or business, that were otherwise closed to them. Dreilinger's book follows the evolution of home economics through the present day. Beginning with the expansion of education after the Civil War, home economics was formalized as a field of study at the Lake Placid Conference. Its founders believed they could improve people's lives through science, and dedicated themselves to studying nutrition, marketing, child development, textiles, and cooking. The field grew during both World Wars and the Great Depression, but in the 1950s it was recast as the realm of homemakers only. Dreilinger devotes a chapter to racism, sexism, and bias in the field, and explains that Black women in home economics were often sidelined or dismissed while white women gained influence. She argues that home economics is still useful and offers recommendations to rejuvenate the field. VERDICT An intriguing analysis of a stereotyped field that will find a welcome place among collections specializing in feminism and women's studies.--Rebekah Kati, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

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