User talk:Aahammer99/sandbox

Over the years, home economics has been a foundational piece of homemaking. By definition, home economics is “the art and science of home management”. In the United States, home economics courses have been a key part of learning the art of taking care of a household.

19TH CENTURY Since the 19th century, schools have been incorporating home economics courses into their education programs. In the United States, the teaching of home economics courses greatly increased with the Morrill Act of 1862. Signed by Abraham Lincoln, the Morrill Act of 1862 granted land to each state or territory for higher educational programs in vocational arts, specifically mechanical arts, agriculture, and home economics. Such land grants allowed for people of a wider array of social classes to receive better education in important trade skills. Home economics courses, or domestic economy programs, taught students how to cook, sew, garden, and take care of children. The vast majority of these programs were taken by women because they were expected to settle down and become homemakers during this time period whereas the males were expected to perform hard labor or white collar professions.

20TH CENTURY Homemaking increased in popularity in the early 20th century. From 1900 to 1917, more than thirty bills in Congress dealt with vocational education. As stated by the National Education Association (NEA), “one-third of our menfolk are in agriculture, and one-third in non-agricultural productive areas; while two-thirds of our women are in the vocation of homemaking” (Hayes, 1908). Therefore, there was a great need across the United States to continue improving the vocational and homemaking education systems. Then, in 1917, women's groups, political parties, and labor coalitions worked together in order to pass the Smith-Hughes Act. The Smith-Hughes Act of 1917 created federal funds for "vocational education agriculture, trades and industry, and homemaking" (Alexander et al, 228). However, in the early 20th century, homemaking was still outdated in nature. Home economics was still only socially acceptable for women. However, the Vocational Education Act of 1963 sought to "improve the effectiveness of consumer and homemaking education and to reduce the limiting effects of sex-role stereotyping on occupations, job skills, levels of competency, and careers" (Sec 2:8).

21ST CENTURY less prevalent in our schools because of the negative gender bias associated with home economics courses. Also, homemaking is now socially acceptable for both men and women to partake in. Both men and women are now expected to take care of the home, the children, and the finances.

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY Hayes, W.M. Agriculture, industries, and home economics in our public schools. Address delivered before the Department of Superintendents. Chicago: University of Chicago. This was a speech given in 1908 at an education convention put on by the NEA, the National Education Association. This speech talks about the move in higher education towards incorporating more vocational learning for men and women. For men, a majority were learning agriculture or mechanical arts. For women, a vast majority were learning homemaking. I will use this source to detail the rise in the education and practice of homemaking in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I will be using a quote from the speech detailing the percentage of men and women participating in these vocational studies.

Peer Review 2/21
Home economics:

Things we like: - good use of citations - we like the background information, it is very useful for understanding the topic - substantial amount of support for the subjects (i.e. laws, organizations involved, etc.)

Things to improve: - organization: add titles and subsections — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bear606 (talk • contribs) 21:13, 21 February 2019 (UTC)