Early History of Women’s Education

and the
Home Economics Movement
 Dame Schools
– earliest schools for girls in the colonies
 needlework
 cooking
 reading, spelling and writing
 1780
- first admissions of women to coeducational
academies
 1780 - Domestic Economy
- Count Rumford
• Application of science to
household problems

 1821- Troy Female Seminary

• New York
• Emma Willard
• theory and practice of
housewifery
• combined liberal and practical
studies
1822 - Catherine Beecher established a
private girls’ school in Hartford, CT

1836 - Mount Holyoke Female Seminary

• Massachusetts
• Mary Lyon
• cooperative housekeeping plan
• forerunner of home management
laboratories
1837 - Oberlin Ohio College
- First co-educational program
- First to admit African-Americans

Finishing Schools in New England

- emphasized learning housewifery
duties and becoming a lady
1840 - Treatise on Domestic Economy
- first textbook on Home Economics
- Catherine Beecher

1852 - Antioch College admitted women (Horace Mann)

1857 - Handbook of Household Science

- scientific study of food, air, heat, and light from the
standpoint of the homeworker
- Edward Livingston Youmans
1862 - The Morrill Land-Grant Act passed
- Higher education became available for the common
individual
- practical pursuits of living
- programs for women were included
- Iowa, Kansas, and Illinois
1869 - The American Woman’s Home or Principles of Domestic
Science
Catherine Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe

1873 – Winthrop School in Boston appointed first sewing teacher

1876 - New York Cooking School
- instruction to working and moderate income
families
- women who wished to train others
1880 - 51% of higher education institutions
were coeducational
1888 - “Domestic Science” was introduced in
New York City public schools
 1893 - Chicago World’s Fair
National Household Economics
Association
The Rumford Kitchen (Ellen H.
Richards)
Food exhibits by the U.S.D.A.

 1894 - first school lunch established in

Boston by Ellen H. Richards
1899 - Lake Placid Conferences began

1908 - American Home Economics

Association was formed
 Lake Placid Conferences

 Initiated by Melvil Dewey, based on an interest in the field of

household science

 1899 - First Annual Conference

- selection of a name for this new field of education
• Home Economics
- education of women for leadership
- raising the standard of living for American families
 1900 - Second Annual Conference
- Home Economics and education

 1902 - Fourth Annual Conference proposed the

following definition - - -

“Home economics in its most comprehensive sense is the study
of the laws, conditions, principles, and ideals which are concerned
on the one hand with man’s immediate physical environment and
on the other hand with his nature as a social being, and is the
study especially of the relation between those two factors.”
1904 - Sixth Annual Conference
- discussion of the name of the field again occurred

1908 - Tenth Annual Conference

- American Home Economics Association formed
 Later Highlights

 1959 - Home Economics, New Directions presented

findings of an AHEA committee which reviewed the
discipline
- reinforced the emphasis on strengthening family
life.

 1971 - Accreditation of higher education programs was

authorized
 1973 - Eleventh Lake Placid Conference, “Lake Placid Re-visited,”
discussed the definition, focus, role, name, and values of home
economics

 1975 - Home Economics - New Directions II was developed

to provide leadership in the field
 1979 - Home Economics Defined

- Marjorie Brown and Beatrice Paolucci

- provide a definition and description of the field:

“The mission of home economics is to enable families, both as

individual units and generally as a social institution, to build and
maintain systems of action which lead 1) to maturing in individual
self-formation and 2) to enlightened, cooperative participation in the
critique and formulation of social goals and means for accomplishing
them.
To fulfill this mission home economists engage in the provision of
services (directly or indirectly) to families.” (p. 23)
  1985 - Certification of home economists was endorsed at the
annual meeting

 1993 - Scottsdale Conference - proposed

the name of the discipline be changed to
Family and Consumer Sciences.

What is the profession about?

*Empowering Individuals
*Strengthening Families
*Enabling Communities
 Ellen Hallow Richards
- She was born on December 3, 1842 in Dunstable,
Massachusetts, United States
- She was an industrial and safety engineering, environmental
chemist, and university faculty member in the United States
during the 19th century.
- She was a pioneer in sanitary engineering and a founder of
Home economic in the United States
- She was the first woman to be admitted to the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology
- The most prominent female in 19th century
- She was died on March 30, 1911 in Jamaica Plain, Boston,
Massachusetts, United States
- She was one of the America’s first female professional
chemists and the first woman to be accepted by a scientific
school.
 Ellen Hallow Richards

- educated mainly at home and was trained as a chemist, earning an A.B. from Vassar College
in1870 and, as the first woman admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a B.S.
in 1873.
- Richards published several books and pamphlets as a result of her work with the Woman’s
Laboratory, including The Chemistry of Cooking and Cleaning (1882; with Marion Talbot) and
Food Materials and Their Adulterations (1885).
- was also head of the science section of the Society to Encourage Studies at Home.
- In 1890, under Richards’s guidance, the New England Kitchen was opened in Boston to offer to
working-class families nutritious food, scientifically prepared at low cost, and at the same time to
demonstrate the methods employed.
- Under her chairmanship the series of such conferences held over the next several years established
standards, course outlines, bibliographies, and women’s club study guides for the field, for which the
name “home economics” was adopted.
- In 1910 she was named to the council of the National Education Association with primary
responsibility for overseeing the teaching of home economics in public schools.
 Catharine Beecher

- She was born on September 6, 1800 in East Hampton, New

York
- was an American author and educator, born into a family of
religious activists.
- was the eldest of 13 children born to Lyman Beecher and his
wife, Roxana Foote.
- Catharine, who was born in 1800, spent the first ten years of
her life being educated at home.
- By the time she was 23, she and her sister Mary had opened
the Hartford Female Seminary to provide educational
opportunities for girls.
- Died on May 12, 1878 in Elmira, New York, United States
 Catharine Beecher
- She spent her life working to further the education of
women, believing that educated and moral women were the
foundation of family life in society.
- Catharine believed that it was important for women to be
well-educated, so she taught herself all sorts of subjects that
she could then pass along to her students.
- Her goal was to educate women so they could become
teachers, which had traditionally been a male-dominated
profession.
- Catharine, who never married, saw women as natural
teachers, with education as an extension of their roles as the
guides of domestic home life.
- Over her lifetime, Catharine opened numerous schools for
women, wrote dozens of essays and pamphlets for causes in
which she believed, and lectured around the country.
 Harriet Beecher Stowe
- An author and Philanthropist (1811–1896)
- She was born on June 14, 1811, in Litchfield,
Connecticut.
- She was one of 13 children born to religious leader
Lyman Beecher and his wife, Roxanna Foote Beecher,
who died when Harriet was a child.
- Harriet’s seven brothers grew up to be ministers,
including the famous leader Henry Ward
Beecher. Her sister Catharine Beecher was an
author and a teacher who helped to shape
Harriet’s social views. Another sister, Isabella,
became a leader of the cause of women’s rights.
- Stowe died in Hartford, Connecticut, on July 1,
1896.
 Harriet Beecher Stowe
- Stowe was an author and social activist best known for her popular anti- slavery novel Uncle Tom’s
Cabin.
- Stowe achieved national fame for her anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which fanned the
flames of sectionalism before the Civil War.
- Stowe decided to express her feelings through a literary representation of slavery, basing her work on
the life of Josiah Henson and on her own observations.
- In 1851, the first installment of Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, appeared in the National Era .
Uncle Tom's Cabin was published as a book the following year and quickly became a best seller.
- Stowe’s emotional portrayal of the impact of slavery, particularly on families and children, captured
the nation's attention.
- Stowe continued to write and to champion social and political causes for the rest of her life. She
published stories, essays, textbooks and a long list of novels, including Old town Folks and Dred.
 The importance of Home Economics
- Helps the society to develop human progress for it comprises major ideas on food, clothing,
home and family.
- Human progress is necessary for the society to grow. It is so important since well-being vibrant
all aspect of human experience.
- It is defined as the science and the art of homemaking which includes nutrition, clothing,
entrepreneurship and child care.
- Helps students in dealing with how to run a house well and efficiently.
- Helps people to improve the quality of their lives. This is very important since we all know that
the basic structure of the society is the family.
- Helps the person to shape his/her personality, perspective and view of life.
- It has a very significant role in nation building.
- The contribution that home economics will bring to the society will be designed as successful
living opportunity for both girls and boys. Within this, students will be and come prepared to
meet the demands of the world.
 MEMBERS
F THE GROUP 1: LIBRADILLA
 JEZRIEL
 JHEA AUDREY CATACUTAN
 MANOLITO Jr. DUERME
 EDLEN RJ SAUSA
 MARK JESSEL TALABA
 ROWEL LASTIMOSO
 MARIELLE LANGUITA
 GERILYN CABANTUGAN
 Ma GENEROSA DELIMA
That would be all

Thank you..