Family and Consumer Sciences Curriculum

Through the years, the central focus of the family and consumer sciences profession (previously known as home economics) has changed from skills needed to operate an efficient home to knowledge required to become a professional in a specialized field. The home economics and family and consumer sciences curriculum evolved from training for work in the home to the study of the family and its internal and external relationships. Curriculum planners used current job market demand to develop curriculum in career-oriented specializations.

The formal home economics movement (later known as the field of family and consumer sciences) began in the mid-19th century as an ideal curriculum for women's study. It included the practical application of art and science to skills needed to properly maintain a home. Women taught the subject in a variety of venues such as women's clubs and schools at all levels. It carried such names as domestic science, domestic art, and domestic economy. Then, from 1899 to 1909, participants at the 10 Lake Placid Conferences established the field and developed cohesive curriculum for home economics. The field of home economics with integrated, focused curriculum designed to imbue arts and sciences into home-making grew rapidly through the middle 20th century. Federal legislation and funding influenced the curriculum development of homemaking programs in secondary schools and cooperative extension programs in adult education. In the second half of the 20th century, as more women began to demand careers outside the home, the traditional home economics curriculum lost relevancy, forcing home economics curriculum leaders to change from integrated to more specialized, vocational-prone programs. One manifestation of the upheaval is the 1993 changing of the name of the field from home economics to family and consumer sciences. The history of the home economics and family and consumer sciences curriculum is relevant to the field of curriculum studies because classic curriculum dilemmas and changes emerged over the course of the 100-year history of home economics and family and consumer sciences.

The number of women working full-time increased steadily in the second half of the 20th century. This phenomenon caused a profound effect on the family including changes in dietary habits, child raising, and family patterns. As the family evolved, home economics and family and consumer sciences experienced difficulty keeping its mission central. Throughout the 1960s, professionals in the field of home economics struggled with the conflicting focus of preparing homemakers and career women, and college curricula reflected this conflict. Women traditionally had chosen either a career or marriage, but few women selected both options. The curriculum reflected society's ambivalence about women's domestic and career roles through the continued offering of a general major for young women who intended to become full-time homemakers along with the [Page 366]development of management courses that encouraged women to plan their time so that they could perform both roles well. However, some curriculum planners began to recognize that the time had come to develop programs for students who wanted a career in a specific profession rather than as a homemaker.

By the end of the 1960s and 1970s, more and more home economics graduates sought lifelong careers outside the home, and higher education curricula became increasingly specialized. Home economics moved farther away from its original vision as an integrative field. The profession continued to respond to market demands by developing curricula that would educate graduates for the jobs available. The focus shifted away from the development of skills needed to manage a home and toward the development of knowledge and skills needed for a career in a specialized field. Relentlessly, curricula transformed from general to specific.

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