During her time teaching at Iowa State she, and the other school's scientists were asked, under pressure from the dairy industry to support the idea that, "butter is better for you than margarine."

In what became known as the oleomargarine diaspora, she, her husband, Theodore Schultz, D. Gale Johnson, and others left the university as a form of protest.

[3] She served as Director of the Northwest Central Region Consumer Purchases Survey for the United States Department of Agriculture during academic year 1935–36 and was a visiting professor at the University of Minnesota in 1941.

[4] She served as a visiting professor in Yugoslavia, Brazil, Sweden, the London School of Economics and with the World Bank.

[5] Mary Jean Bowman was the only female member of the social science research council, and she served at the national level for the American Association of University Women in 1953.

[4] Using data from the United States, Mexico, Japan and Malaysia, Bowman investigated the effects of education on economic development and income distribution, with an emphasis on the relationship between fertility and technological change.