May Louise Cowles (September 25, 1892 – January 11, 1978) was an American economist, researcher, author, and advocate of Home Economics.

She also produced several widely read pamphlets, including Meeting Housing Needs of Older People in Rural Areas (1957), and spoke at a string of national seminars to encourage the addition of family economics to home economics instruction across the United States.

Cowles "created some of the first family economics courses in the nation" at the collegiate level.

Her Ph.D. dissertation investigated the economics of clothing consumption and whether consumer behavior could be classified according to "laws."

[5] She also completed significant work in the study of home economics and its impact on rural families in the United States.