The Secret History of Home Economics: How Trailblazing Women Harnessed the Power of Home and Changed the Way We Live

 

Today's post is on The Secret History of Home Economics: How Trailblazing Women Harnessed the Power of Home and Changed the Way We Live by Danielle Dreilinger. It is 348 pages long and is published by W.W. Norton and Company. The cover is two picture one with a woman breaking an egg into a bowl and the bottom one with a woman in a science lab. The intended reader is someone interested in forgotten history and science. There is no foul language, no sex, and no violence in this book. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the dust jacket- The term "home economics" 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, chemist, and businesspeople. And it has something to teach us today.
In the surprising, often fiercely feminist and always fascinating The Secret History of Home Economics, Danielle Drelinger traces the field's history from Black colleges to Eleanor Roosevelt to Okinawa, from a Betty Crocker brigade to DIY techies. These women- and they were mostly women- became chemists and marketers, studied nutrition, health, and exercise, tested parachutes, created astronaut food, and took bold steps in childhood development and education. Home economics followed the currents of American culture even as it shaped them. Dreilinger brings forward the racism within the movement along with the strides taken by women of color who were influential leaders and innovators. She also looks at the personal lives of home economics' women, as they chose to be single, share lives with other women, or try for egalitarian marriages.
This groundbreaking and engaging history restores a denigrated subject to its rightful important, as it reminds us that everyone should learn how to cook a meal, balance their account, and fight for a better world.

Review- This was a great read about a forgotten piece of American and women's history. Dreilinger is an engaging writer and has a great passion for her study. She starts at the very beginning of we would understand as the class of home economics and follows all the changes that the course has undergone. Home economics was a science that women could get into and they could do really science and help people live better lives. Dreilinger takes the reader some a journey from when home economics was a women's only science that had no respect to home economics being seen a great job for women to have to been seen as old fashioned and only for women who want to be stay at moms and wives. This is a great history book about forgotten women who did make a difference, not only in their own time, but their influence is still being felt today. I highly recommend this book.

I give this book a Five out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.