No description available.

The purpose of this study was to compare working women, career women, and homemakers on the variable of self-concept, locus of control, and attitudes toward women; to determine the relationship between group membership and age, marital status, education, income level, number of children, age of youngest child, maternal education, maternal training, and maternal work history; and to predict self-concept from a linear combination of locus of control, attitudes toward women, group membership, and all the other variables.

The purpose of this study was to define the messages related to food preparation that are conveyed by women's magazines to homemakers as consumers during the post-World War II period, and to analyze any changes of those messages over time. A content analysis of food related articles and advertisements in representative issues of Ladies' Home Journal and Good Housekeeping magazines from 1947 to 1986 was conducted. Both manifest and latent content were coded and agreement between the two measures was analyzed. Of eighteen messages defined, five were found to account for 78.9 percent of the messages conveyed,. The five messages, listed in descending order, were (1) taste and visual appeal, (2) convenience and versatility, (3) nutrition, (4) quality, and (5) expertise in homemaking and hostessing skills. Using a test of chi-square, no significant difference in the distribution of the messages conveyed from year to year was found. Nevertheless, changes in presentation of the messages were found. Changes were geared to changing technological orientations, economic conditions, and gender roles.

No description available.

Widowhood is an experience that typically brings about many changes in the lives of surviving spouses, and the resources available for coping may be limited, particularly for elderly persons. Specific variables which influence the ability of men and women to cope with the changes brought about by widowhood have not been identified completely. No one has examined the extent to which widowed persons are able to manage resources so they can continue performing personal and household functions. It is reasonable to assume that this type of continuity is a necessary foundation for overall adjustment to widowhood. Empirical data used in this study are from a larger project entitled "Continuity of Household Task Performance During Widowhood", supported by the AARP-Andrus Foundation. The Household Task Performance model was applied to examine gender differences in household task performance before and during widowhood and variables associated with strategy choice for maintenance of continuity of household task performance during widowhood. Respondents to the personal interviews were 173 household heads (38 males and 135 females), aged 60 to 91 years, who had been widowed 5 years or less and lived in Southwest Virginia. Respondents were located using public records and personal referrals. Widowers received more help than widows. Widowers widowed for longer time periods assumed personal responsibility for fewer tasks than their more recently widowed counterparts. Women widowed for shorter periods performed more of their own tasks than women widowed for a longer time. Both widows and widowers were maintaining continuity despite the generally lower skill level in household tasks for males Two strategies for maintaining this continuity were identified: (1) use and/or development of the widowed person's own resources, and (2) substitution of the labor of others for the performance of household tasks. Multiple regression analysis identified 5 predictors of household task performance strategy choice: health status, household task performance resources and resource demands, household task performance skills and knowledge, normative expectations for gender role, and initial adjustment difficulty. / Ph. D.

The purpose of this study was to determine if educational intervention could cause a decrease in distress, and if so would this change last up to a year. The sample consisted of displaced homemakers from three Northern Utah counties enrolled in a seminar (educational intervention) to prepare for the development of employment skills. Pre-test, post-test and follow-up tests were given to measure the change in stress. The three measures used to determine the psychological preparation (a reduction in distress level) were assertiveness, self-esteem and well-being. It was concluded that the educational intervention did reduce the distress level and that the change did last over a period of one year. The only exception was in the case of low-Income displaced homemakers.

No description available.

There is no abstract available for this thesis. / Department of Home Economics

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent of nutrition knowledge of older women and compare their nutrition knowledge score with regards to nutritional risk level, age, and level of education attained. This study examined relationships between nutritional risk level and age subgroups of participants in regards to nutrition knowledge scores. Members of the Indiana Extension Homemakers Association (IEHA) of Shelby County (n=92) were given the DETERMINE Checklist with demographic survey and a nutrition knowledge questionnaire. Results: nutrition knowledge scores were inversely associated with nutritional risk level and significantly different between levels of education attained; there was significant correlation between nutritional risk level and level of education. No significant interactions with nutrition knowledge scores and all variables combined (nutritional risk level, age, and level of education attained) were noted. This study contributes to the limited amount of research done with Extension Homemakers and will help identify future program needs and nutrition education topics. / Department of Family and Consumer Sciences

On January 31, 1911, the Homemakers' Clubs of Saskatchewan became an official organisation under the direction of the University of Saskatchewan. Established to provide isolated rural women with companionship, access to education, and the opportunity to carry out community service, Homemakers' Clubs appealed to thousands of farm women because they provided the means by which they could improve themselves, their farm homes, and their communities. Its appeal also lay in the fact that the organisation remained non-political and non-sectarian, focusing instead on women's primary responsibilities to their homes and their families. To that end, Homemakers' Clubs embraced a domestic ideology that institionalised notions of gender and celebrated women's roles in the home. Given that the nature of farm women's work was not restricted to the household, however, Homemakers' Clubs allowed rural women to redefine an urban domesticity to include their farming responsibilities. Moreover, in a setting where gender lines were often blurred and the division of labour was not always strictly defined, membership in an organisation that reinforced gender roles, promoted family and community life, and embraced a traditional mandate provided farm women with a level of respectability and femininity that was often lost in a farming setting. Finally, the domestic ideology under which the Homemakers' Clubs operated allowed its members to find recognition and validation in their work, and, in their goals to elevate home life, to legitimise their work, and to adjust domestic ideology to include their farming responsibilities, the organisation became a space in which its members discussed, debated, explored, and, in some cases, challenged common perceptions of women; they subtly challenged the status quo and demanded validation and recognition for their work in and contributions to their farms and communities. As such, an organisation that may outwardly appear to be a traditional women's organisation devoted strictly to the exchange of recipes and household advice, was, in actuality, quietly political and provided farm women with a sense of identity that enabled them to contribute fundamentally to their rural homes, families, and communities.