It is the purpose of the present study to add to the growing source of information, so valuable to curriculum makers, by studying the relationship of certain background variables to the Negro girl's curriculum in foods. The background variables included in this study are age, siblings, residence, father's occupation, and mother's education.

My dissertation demonstrates how housewives manipulated and redefined the image and identity of the housewife in the U.S. during the second half of the twentieth century. From the eras of June Cleaver to Gloria Steinem and Phyllis Schlafly, women invoked motherhood and domesticity for both progressive and traditionalist ends. They did so amid shifting expectations of homemakers. In the decades following World War II, the legalization of contraceptives and abortion transformed understandings of the connections among womanhood, marriage, and maternity; legislation offered limited opportunities for women to acquire education and participate in new sectors of the workforce; and the decline of the family wage and the introduction of no-fault divorce increasingly curbed men's and women's ability to keep mother at home. Whereas in 1962 more than fifty-five percent of women aged twenty-five to fifty-four were engaged in full-time homemaking, by 1985 housewives made up just over twenty-six percent of the same population. Amid this change, the word housewife served as a lingua franca in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s that helped people to organize under the banner of domesticity. The arbiters defining the American housewife included not only members of the conservative Silent Majority, but also members of the feminist National Organization for Women (NOW); not only white television stars like Donna Reed who spearheaded protest against the Vietnam War by the group Another Mother for Peace, but also African American and Catholic and Jewish women working together to promote cross-racial understanding; not only women who earned wages outside of the home, but also non-wage-earning househusbands. I investigate how women's groups in the 1960s and early 1970s turned the dismissals that frequently accompanied the phrase "just a housewife" into an asset. Some groups deployed the housewife as the antithesis of the expert: Housewives' opinions about racism could be trusted as an authentic voice of the people because they did not rely on statistics calculated to fit into theories or models. Others relied on biologically determinist arguments: Motherhood made housewives into specialized experts on specific topics such as peace. Domesticity generally made these women less politically threatening and so better able to enact their agendas. While these housewife activists certainly grew and benefitted from their participation in these groups, the main purpose of their work was never to aid housewives exclusively. Beginning in the mid-1970s, women finally capitalized on the authority of the housewife image to improve the lives of homemakers. The efforts of housewife groups in the 1970s and early 1980s who opposed and supported the proposed Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the U.S. Constitution underscores the flexible definition of "housewife." While they initially organized to lend the authority of the housewife name to a particular cause, these groups ultimately became political organizations that represented and mobilized housewives as a constituency. Despite many differences, traditionalists and feminists could find common ground in recognizing the problems homemakers faced. Both were troubled by the realities of second shifts in which women juggled wage-earning and family obligations. They were concerned by the feminization of poverty, especially among older women. Whereas many traditionalists advocated a performed femininity meant to produce starkly gendered male protector-breadwinner and female dependent-homemaker roles, feminists looked to legislative and social equality solutions to provide both men and women the opportunity to succeed at home and at work. Yet some traditionalists united with feminists to critique the vulnerabilities of displaced homemakers - women who had engaged in years of unwaged homemaking only to be displaced from their vocations by widowhood or divorce. These women drew on previous experience in maternalist, racial equality, and anti-poverty movements. They sought solutions that included transferring the skills of homemaking into well-paid jobs in traditionally-male fields. They accomplished this by simultaneously praising the work of homemaking even as they criticized homemaking as a vocation that put women in a vulnerable economic position. The formation of a movement by and for homemakers crystallized, however, at the same time as the erosion of housewife as a crucial identity for women. Finally, I analyze the extent to which gender is caught up in the potentials and limitations of the housewife role by tracing the ways that Americans have envisioned the housewife as male. So long as the male homemaker was cast as exotic, role models and new precedents could be transformed into freak shows and warnings. Men who made the unusual choice to take on the role of family homemaker were further marginalized. Despite a sometimes overt emphasis on men's domesticity as a means of achieving social equality, the real efforts and the imagined experiences of the male housewife often ran counter to feminist goals. Varying from farcical to feminist, the successes and failures of these visions of male homemaking demonstrate the extent to which domesticity, economic dependency, and gender have been entangled in the American imagination. My dissertation underscores how women (and some men) adopted flexible definitions of homemaking to create complicated and sometimes fleeting alliances through which housewives organized. My research complicates the dichotomous stereotypes of the feminist and the antifeminist by exploring how both progressive and traditionalist women organized as housewives. Although my project considers media and pop culture, I rely primarily on archival research and published primary sources to examine the way that women claiming to be homemakers and mothers actively manipulated cultural understandings of those roles. The definitions they employed demonstrate how perceptions of homemaking are laden with multiple and complex meanings about sex, gender, class, race, citizenship, labor, religion, and identity.

The purpose of this research was to explore the perceptions of employers, teachers and graduates of the Oregon Carl Perkins Single Parent/Displaced Homemaker Programs regarding non-technical employment qualities. The Luft "Non-Technical Employment Qualities Survey Instrument" and open-ended questions were used to elicit personal responses from members of each group for the purpose of comparing the results. The research questions addressed the perceived rankings of non-technical employment qualities, the extent to which programs were perceived to have addressed these nontechnical employment qualities, the extent to which graduates were perceived to possess these non-technical employment qualities, the extent to which graduates were perceived to seek and receive feedback regarding these non-technical employment qualities, the specific non-technical employment qualities that were perceived as essential prior to entering the workforce, the perceptions as to why employees were terminated and the perceived reasons why graduates left employment. The findings concluded that the respondent populations were in general agreement as to their perceptions. Employers and teachers agreed more frequently regarding their perceptions as to the extent graduates possessed these non-technical employment qualities and the extent to which graduates sought and received feedback. Graduates agreed more frequently with the employers as to their rankings of the qualities needed, but there was great disagreement between graduates, and their employers as to the number of qualities possessed and the amount of feedback sought. Employers and teachers disagreed more frequently in their rankings as to which qualities were the most important. The principle implication of this research for education with regard to these populations is that a close relationship between employers and the instructors preparing graduates for employment is imperative. The principle research recommendation entails further inquiry into the specific behaviors that demonstrate the possession of these skills and that would prevent employment termination. / Graduation date: 1996

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 120-125).

"Since FHA is now an integral part of each home economics class in Florida, the home economics teacher serves an important role by co-ordinating the FHA activities with the learnings of the subject being taught. It is the purpose of this research study to survey the attitudes and opinions home economics teachers have toward this new innovation in the program and to FHA in general. Ways in which teachers are integrating FHA into the total home economics program will also be identified"--Introduction. / "August, 1976." / Typescript. / "Submitted to the Department of Home Economics Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science." / Advisor: Violet Moore, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 51-52).

There were two primary purposes of this study. The first purpose was to describe and compare the sex role identical and vocational interests of enrollees in traditional and nontraditional displaced homemaker proqrams. The second purpose was to deteraine if sex ro1e identity and vocational interests changed from the beginning to the end of the program cycle. The secondary purposes of this study included (a) a description of the sex role identity of instructors in displaced homemaker programs and a determination of change of sex role identity from the beginning to the end of the program cycle, as well as (b) the establishment of demographic profiles of enrollees and instructors. The sample consisted of 35 enrollees and 10 instructors in four displaced homemaker programs in Virginia. The instruments used in this study were the BEM Inventory and Self-Directed Search. Program information and demographic information on enrollees and instructors was also collected. Descriptive analysis was used for the study. It can be concluded that there was a significant difference in the sex role identity of enrollees in traditional and nontraditional displaced homemaker programs both before and after program activities. Therefore, sex role identity was a significant variable for these selected displaced homemaker programs enrollees. However, due to the small sample, generalizability to the population of displaced homemakers is only speculative. In addition, the data suggested that while most enrollees did not change in their sex role identity from the beginning to the end of the program cycle, those enrollees who did change were enrolled in nontraditional programs and tended to move toward more sex-type roles. As indicated in the literature, strongly sex-typed attitudes may impair the enrollees’ ability to perform in nontraditional occupational settings where flexibility is desirable if not necessary. No significant difference was found in the sex role identity of instructors in traditional and nontraditional programs at either the pre- or posttest stage. Therefore, sex role identity was not a variable determining instructor involvement with a traditional or nontraditional displaced homemaker program. Sex role identity of 40 percent of the instructors moved toward less sex-typed roles form the beginning to the end of the program cycle suggesting an increased flexibility in role. The androgynous role of these instructors could provide a role model which may encourage enrollees to consider a wider range of behavioral and career options. The data suggested that a significant difference in vocational interests existed only at the posttest stage. Thus, it may be concluded that program enrollment may not be contingent upon vocational interest but rather may be dependent upon program availability. In addition, the data suggested that while most enrollees did not change in their vocational interests from the beginning to the end of the program cycle, those enrollees who did change were in traditional displaced homemaker programs. Change in category of vocational interests remained within those occupational areas typically considered feminine. Data on all enrollees indicated a wider distribution of vocational interests at the posttest stage. The career exploration component included in all programs may have attributed to the increased range of vocational interests expressed by enrollees. / Ed. D.

It is the purpose of this study to determine whether the use of sound films alone, shown to homemakers in adult homemaking classes, is effective in improving attitudes relative to family and social relationships, civic responsibility, and the use of leisure time.

This study compared the goals of middle-aged student and non-student homemakers. Achieved, current and future goals were investigated. The student sample was composed of twenty-five married , female, full-time students between the ages of thirty and fifty enrolled at Utah State University and was matched with a non-student sample as closely as possible. At least one full year of college had been attained by all subjects before marriage. Data were collected through interviews conducted by the researcher during fall quarter, 1973. A non-directional t test was used to analyze the differences be tween the number of goals identified by both samples. Three hypotheses were tested. Analysis of the results failed to prove their validity, therefore, they could not be accepted. When the goals of the two groups of women were compared, few differences were found. Family goals were unanimously ranked as most important by both samples for all areas studied. Throughout this study the non-student sample seemed to have more goals, although not a significant difference, and to hold more conventional attitudes regarding the goals and roles of women than the student sample.

Information on the Future Homemakers of America at the national, state, and local level was studied and compiled, such as publications, scrapbooks, personal material, and other records. It was found that the Utah organization of the Future Homemakers of America has followed the nationally outlined program for projects, activities, and meetings. The projects worked on within the state seem to have supported the eight stated purposes of the Future Homemakers. It was shown that Future Home makers representing Utah have attended all of the national meetings for the past twenty-five years. Utah has contributed only five nationa l officers . Student officers have planned and conducted the meetings and conventions of the Future Homemakers of America in Utah.

This thesis is the first major attempt to document the accomplishments of Saskatchewan Women's Institutes - Saskatchewan's largest and longest surviving adult education movement for rural women which was known as the Association of Homemakers' Clubs of Saskatchewan prior to 1971. The purpose of the study ls threefold. The primary purpose is to make up for the lack of scholarly work on Saskatchewan Women's Institutes by documenting the organization's history as an adult education movement. A secondary purpose is to critically examine the relationship between SWI and the University which organized Homemakers' Clubs as a vehicle to provide extension services for rural women. The third purpose is to provide insight into the role rural women played in Saskatchewan's development. The study increases understanding about this important movement by documenting its growth and decline and its educational and other accomplishments from its establishment in 1911 to its 75th Anniversary in 1986. The University connection was crucial to the rise and transformation of the Rural Women's University, as the Association of Homemakers' Clubs of Saskatchewan was known, because of its close relationship to the University. Four distinct phases were identified. During the first two phases the number of clubs grew rapidly because the University employed staff to organize clubs and provide direction. Rural women were anxious to join these clubs because they provided much needed social contact and educational opportunities. Membership peaked during the third phase, but began to decline after 1941 because the University cutback the delivery of educational programs through the Clubs, and because it no longer employed staff to mobilize clubs. The fourth phase was characterized by continued cutbacks in University support and funding. This, combined with rural depopulation, improved transportation and communications networks, and other educational opportunities for rural women contributed to the gradual, but steady decline of members and clubs. An examination of club activities dispels the myth that SWI was merely a social club. Through Homemakers' Clubs rural women learned how to cope with their harsh environment and broadened their interests beyond the home. Homemakers' established libraries, community centres and health clinics which provided a foundation for governments to build on in later years. The University had a significant impact on the organization's activities, particularly its focus on education and the avoidance of political and controversial issues. It appears that the era of the "Rural Women's University" has come to an end in Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan Women's Institutes 75th Anniversary was celebrated in a serious state of deterioration. The majority of members were over 60 years of age, and prospects for attracting new members were not good. University support and direction in the early years encouraged SWI to become dependent and discouraged the development of strong leadership amongst members. The withdrawal of University support prevented SWI from developing and delivering quality educational programs that could have attracted young rural women. With a declining membership base, withdrawal of University support and uncertain core funding from the provincial Department of Agriculture it is unlikely that SWI will continue for much longer. Although there is still a need for a rural women's organization it appears that Saskatchewan Women's Institutes does not have the financial or human resources necessary to revitalize itself to meet the need.