The topic of home economics as a course is very intriguing to me. To think that there was actually an attempt to “professionalize the role of the housewife,” is probably controversial to today’s world. Even in today’s world we know that there are people out there who take a women’s job as a housewife very lightly. I, myself, would consider being a housewife a profession. Those traditional housewifey mom’s do astonish me, they cook, clean, do laundry, etc like a super woman! But now a days, I believe that there are less and less housewives especially in America. My mom would always nag me to do chores and tell me stories about how in the past she has done everything in her household as a child. And I would always think in my head that American kids don’t need to worry about those things anymore. So to think that, as the book mentions, that there was a belief that “home economics would imrpove society” is probably not a very prominent belief in today’s world. But of course that’s only my perspective. A possible discussion would be: Where does the importance of home economics stand in today’s America compared to the 1900’s?
Another interesting topic from this chapter is the section on “School Cafeterias, The American Cuisine, And Processed Foods.” It was interesting how home economists “hoped to Americanize the diet of immigrants,” and “hoped to persuade immigrant children to abandon the diet of their parents for the new American cuisine.” The results were “the development of new food products and made possible the proliferation of fast-food chains” and “helped…develop… refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, and washing machines.” I guess in a way home economists did help to ‘modernize’ America the way it is today. This topic stirred about the idea of cleaniliness and the organization “FDA” and “USDA.” Just made me think about a man in the book called “The Jungle” lost his finger, etc. A possible discussion question would be: What are your thoughts of one abandoning (tastes of )one’s own culture and being more appealed to the ‘American’ cuisine/culture?
