Home economics
Politics played a role in home economics education, and it wasn't until later in the century that the course shifted from being woman-dominated to now required for both sexes.
[5] Despite the widening of the subject matter over the past century, there has been a major decline in home economics courses offered by educational institutions.
[12] Between 1880 and 1900, the Reifenstein schools concept was initiated by Ida von Kortzfleisch, a Prussian noble woman and early German feminist.
[13] The 1913 doctorate of Johannes Kramer compared different concepts of home economic education worldwide and praised the system e.g. in Iowa.
[14] Additionally, home economics are taught as an optional course in lower- and mid-level secondary schools (Haupt- und Realschule).
Home economics are known in Indonesia as Family Training and Welfare (Indonesian: Pembinaan dan Kesejahteraan Keluarga, PKK).
For many decades, the subject was only called "hemkunskap" and had a strong focus on the traditional common tasks of a home, family and practical cooking and cleaning.
[25] The intention was to ensure that females would learn sewing and in time other domestic subjects in separate gender based education.
[25] Women were seen as centres of moral and religious values for families and upper class ladies in the new association saw it as their role to provide it.
[26] In 1853 Hope published, The Female Teacher: Ideas Suggestive of Her Qualifications and Duties where she notes that women should be "keepers at home" and men should see to his "labour and his work until the evening".
[27] Hope organised a petition of 130 signatures of "principal ladies of Scotland" demanding improved sewing lesson for girls in Scottish schools.
In the United States, home economics courses have been a key part of learning the art of taking care of a household.
[34] In the United States, the teaching of home economics courses in higher education greatly increased with the Morrill Act of 1862.
Such land grants allowed for people of a wider array of social classes to receive better education in important trade skills.
[36] Home economics allowed for women to receive a better education while also preparing them for a life of settling down, doing the chores, and taking care of the children while their husbands became the breadwinners.
At this time, homemaking was largely accessible to middle and upper class white women whose families could afford secondary schooling.
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.
[4] Pioneers of the field included numerous female figures, such as Ellen Swallow Richards, who had profound impacts on the home economics profession.
[37] From 1900 to 1917, more than thirty bills discussed in Congress dealt with issues of American vocational education and, by association, home economics.
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.
[46] 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.
"[4] There was a great need across the United States to continue improving the vocational and homemaking education systems because demand for work was apparent after World War I and II.
However, this program was centered on the ideals that women should acquire practical skills and a scientifically based understanding of how technology in the household works.
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.
Starting in 1994, home economics courses in the United States began being referred to as "family and consumer sciences" in order to make the class appear more inclusive.
[53] With desegregation and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, men and women of all backgrounds could equally learn how to sew, cook, and balance a checkbook.
Celebrities, such as Martha Stewart, created television programs, books, magazines, and websites about homemaking and home economics, which attested to the continued importance of independent experts and commercial mass-media organizations in facilitating technological and cultural change in consumer products and services industries.
Students can take classes in culinary arts, education, food science, nutrition, health and wellness, interior design, child development, personal finance, textiles, apparel, and retailing.
[3] In 2020 the AAFCS estimates that there are 5 million students enrolled in FCS programs,[63] a significant increase from past years that is still growing.
