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The Secret History of Home Economics: How Trailblazing Women Harnessed the Power of Home and Changed the Way We Live
Maybe someday
46
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
31/100Critics
17/100Scholars
91/100Author:
Danielle Dreilinger
Publisher:
W. W. Norton & Company
Date:
May 4, 2021
The term âhome economicsâ may conjure traumatic memories of lopsided hand-sewn pillows or sunken muffins. But common conception obscures the story of the revolutionary science of better living. The field exploded opportunities for women in the twentieth century by reducing domestic work and providing jobs as professors, engineers, chemists, and businesspeople.
What The Reviewers Say
... captivating.
... a fascinating history of the field and of the contributions of some very determined women. It is also a revealing account of the title's reverse: how changes in the way women lived affected home economics. Further, it explores an issue generally ignored: Home economics, as an organized field, was as permeated by racism as the society around it.
Although Dreilinger voices discomfort with home economists who preached middle-class norms to the poor, her history demonstrates that the field has always been about the good life as defined by educated middle-class women.
Dreilinger’s lively account offers a thorough look at a profession that allowed women to participate in public life even as they were barred from most jobs and areas of study.
