are "homemaking" courses at colleges good… or evil?
Yesterday, CNN kept running a story about a Baptist university in Texas that has starting offering its students — correction: its FEMALE students — a homemaking concentration. As it says in this Reuters story, the thinking behind these courses is to make the students better wives, and it includes classes in clothing design and financial management (to balance your family’s budget). Naturally, this is stirring some controversy. There’s a smart essay at HuffPo called Jane Smith, MRS: You Mean I Can Finally Earn My Degree in Homemaking? which sums up my intitial reaction. Why go to college to learn how to not enter the work force? But then I started thinking about it in a broader sense… If you put aside that this is an ultra-conservative, religious college that has a decidedly ultra-right wing bent to it, the idea of homemaking courses (perhaps called something else?) is not a bad one. After all, many magazine editors, wedding planners, set decorators, caterers, childcare providers, etc, use “homemaking” skills in their desirable professions every day. I have often thought that basic life skills — changing a tire, hemming trousers, cooking — are not being taught as they used to in schools, and the result is a whole bunch of people (like me) who spend their adult lives figuring out how to take care of the basics. (But, hey, it’s a great fodder for a blog.). What if RISD started offering “homemaking” classes — that were open to BOTH sexes, of course — would that be as controversial? How do you feel about home-ec — and shop classes, for that matter — being taught in high schools? How did you learn the skills you need to make your house a home? I’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject. Please weigh in! — Angela M.
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head — it’s the fact that they’re called “homemaking courses” offered ONLY to women that makes it insulting. Had they offered “lifestyle” courses, merely as an elective (not toward any degree plan), and opened it to both sexes, I don’t think anyone would’ve batted an eye — in fact, possibly even heralded it as “forward thinking.”
But then, that’s Texas for ya.
If it was open AND marketed to both genders, I’d have no issue with it. So many kids are coddled by their parents that a “life skills” class may be helpful. Since it’s only being offered to FEMALES…it makes me want to kick them in the nuts.
Definitely needs to be open to men and women, but I think these are great courses for the careers you mention. There is a huge industry out there in home decorating & improvement, crafts, and cooking, not to mention knowing these things is great liberal arts educational material. If you should know about world history, religion, and great books, why shouldn’t you know home finance, cooking, and sewing?
I went to the University of Texas — decidedly not right-wing, ultraconservative — where there was a homemaking department. I think it was called “Family and Consumer Sciences” or something. Anyway, I took my most useful class in that department — Financial Planning. Also, my sister got her Interior Design degree from another university in Texas in the “Consumer Sciences” department.
When I was a student at the University of Maryland (1985-1989), there was a home-ec department, though it had another name that I can’t now remember. I took an elective about textiles, and one called “The Consumer and the Law”. Also, my great-grandmother got her degree in home-ec from the College of Notre Dame in Baltimore. This isn’t really anything new. I don’t think it makes sense to major (or minor or take a concentration) in homemaking, but I don’t see the harm in offering courses as long as they’re available to both genders. With that said, if that college is as ultra-conservative as described, I’m sure they have other policies that are likely to get the folks at HuffingtonPost riled up, too.
Yeah, I agree that this program should be open to both sexes, then I would not have a problem with it. Seriously my boyfriend says he would stay home with the (future) kids because I make more money.
I believe that they should have a lifestyle class in high school. In my high school we took a semester of driver’s ed; so why shouldn’t we have a semester of other important life skills. It should teach things like how to change your oil and a tire, how to do your taxes, how to grocery shop, how to keep a house clean and organized, and maybe some basic cooking skills. In reality, this stuff should be taught by parents, but I know I didn’t learn this stuff before going out into the world and had to learn from my mistakes.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with “life skills” courses per se, and financial planning in particular should probably be a required course in every high school and university. The problem here is that, in this case, these courses are completely invested in maintaining–actually reinforcing–gender roles that are designed to keep women completely in check. What’s the point of getting a B.A. in anything if you must always defer to your husband?
I looked at Brigham Young University’s website, and it appears that they already offer a similar degree (“Home & Family Living”). Maybe Leslie Goldman, who wrote the snide essay over at HuffPo, didn’t do her research.
ITA with some of the above commenters – I think it can be super-useful, for both genders. The problem is the stereotyping! How many women do you know that would LOVE LOVE LOVE a man who could cook an amazing dinner? I know plenty of guys who would love a cooking class or two to impress a girl, or even so they wouldn’t have to subsist on ramen noodles and takeout during college (women, too, who hate to admit that their cupboards are full of canned goods and cereal…). And I can’t even tell you how many people I know who would pay money to go back to college if someone could teach them about investments the stock market, and basic tax info.
One of the best classes (elective) I took while I was at MIT was “Kitchen Chemistry.” It was mostly a cooking class, but took the approach of explaining reasons why, for example, guacamole turns browns after a day or so….or why cake mixes call for different things at higher altitudes…and the difference between baking powder and baking soda. We learned some great information about substituting ingredients (and sometimes when you shouldn’t!).
High schools are fast-tracking kids and ensuring that they’re “college-ready” while forgetting that practical and life skills can be just as, if not more, important, as other classes.
I’m so thankful for my mom! She taught me how to sew, cook, maintain a car, my financial accounts… all while raising two other kids on her own and holding down at least 1 full and 1 part-time job. I guess I got lucky! :)
I went to Bryn Mawr and I can state that while all of my friends there were very very smart women, few of them could do their own laundry or cook a proper meal. I’m sure a homemaking course would not have been welcomed by everyone there, but that doesn’t make it any less needed. Lawyers need to know how to iron too- at least for a while.
Really the only objection I have is to the concept that only women can be homemakers- thus take the major, as there are several stay-at-home dads in my family. These men could certainly use a course in homemaking as well. Trust me.
Furthermore, while my high school was blessed with a very strong belief that they should include laundry, sewing, ironing, applying for credit, balancing checkbooks, and making a household budget in their curriculum, a lot of schools cannot afford to lose key curriculum time.
Additionally, few people force their kids to do chores anymore, which leads to adults who don’t know how to keep a shower clean or remember to do the dishes or pay their car tabs.
If high schools and parents won’t or can’t teach people to take proper care of themselves, surely college is the last remaining option.
I had no problem taking “Home Economics” in my junior high school. It was useful to learn a few things about cooking, etc.
What really angered me was the fact that boys weren’t required to also take it.
And, in addition, I wasn’t allowed to take shop class… which featured some very handy skills to know. I really wanted to, but no, no, no… no girls allowed.
I also wasn’t allowed to play drums in music class because, “Drums and trumpets are for boys. Girls can study flute or clarinet.” Gosh, thanks, sexist pig music teacher.
Personally I think the whole thing is crap. It’s one thing to have classes in textiles in a Fashion Merchandising major (I also went to UT and was very impressed that a major in Human Ecology – textiles, nutrition, etc. – is in the Colleges of Natural Sciences, a College with a very difficult required degree plan). It’s quite another to take classes geared toward making a woman a better wife. These are practical skills. If a person can’t learn them on their own, through trial and error or family, there should be a technical college to teach these skills, not an academic institution. There are many technical colleges and schools out there to teach refrigerator repair, plumbing, auto mechanics, etc. Home ec skills are in this category for me. An academic institution has no business offering a degree like this to women only. It’s insulting to all women and it’s incredibly insulting to the college itself (and the academic world at large). They should be ashamed of themselves.
I think it’s totally fine to offer these courses and “homemaking” for lack of a better word on the college level – but I agree, it should be open to men. I think it’s stereotyping to say that a woman who wishes to focus on these skills is being held down or has given up her power. Homemakers have great power – and great skills. Look what Martha Stewart has done with them – not that she was a true “home”maker. I also think that there should be Home Ec and Shop class offered in Jr. High (no time these days in H.S. for these types of electives). I was in one of the first wave of classes in the 70s that allowed girls to take shop and boys to take Home Ec. I loved shop and hated Home Ec. I already knew how to sew (thanks to my mother) and didn’t care about cooking. But I loved the power tools and the smell of sawdust. And lots of boys loved the cooking. I would add theater as another career that these skills are important for (set design, decorating, costumes, sewing) and know several guys who know how to sew because of their theater backgrounds. One of my best friends’ husband made her wedding dress for her.
Also, I think it’s wrong to think that higher education is wasted on a woman who wishes to be a homemaker. Talk about holding someone down! You never know what will happen in life. You could marry your rich high school sweetheart and just as you’ve settled in with your 3.5 kids – he gets run over by a bus or has an affair – and then where will you be? Education in any form is never wasted and the point of feminism (since this is at the base of this conversation) is that women should be empowered to do as they wish – regardless of what men, and other women, think about it.
These courses sound like something more appropriate to high school or junior high than college. And they should be open to everyone and optional. Frankly, I’d be rather irritated to pay for a course like this. We were required to take home ec, choir or shop in junior high. I took home ec, but it was such a joke.
Human Ecology! Yes, that’s what it was called when I was at Maryland. Thanks for reminding me, Tina!
my happiest school moments were in home ec in middle school, art throughout all grades and in yearbook in highschool. I wish I had been smart enough to take shop! Creative people are happiest doing creative things. These are creative classes in the midst of more cerebral courses. Who says a college course can’t be about life skills and creating a more successful family and home? A lot of the women who CHOOSE to attend a bible college leave school with a degree AND a husband who, most likely, is going into the ministry–pastor, missionary, social work, etc… Not big money-making careers. Part of that lifestyle includes hospitality and home/church management that many of the young wives struggle with, socially and financially. Why would you judge them for wanting to be better prepared for the life choices that they have made? Leave them alone with their handmade curtains, their knitting, their balanced checkbook, their well-balanced meals with homemade brownies on the side, their beautifully- decorated-on-a-shoestring homes. Sounds like all the stuff that SHELTERRIFIC promotes, doesn’t it? HMMMMMMMM?
In general, I think that most people aren’t being taught life skills by their parents these days. I certainly never learned to cook or sew or do financial planning from my mother growing up. She was too busy working…and actually….so was I. I took a class in high school that taught me financial planning, and although I laughed at it at the time…it was kind of helpful.
I dislike that these home-ec classes are being taught specifically to women, but I like the spirit of the classes overall. It seems that people don’t know how to function as adults these days. Many of my friends (both female and male) are in the same boat not knowing how to handle their finances, cook, or clean their house.
While we’re on the subject, I think we could take it a bit further and require that kids learn life skills such as “how to act in public”, “how to treat others”, “credit card responsibility”, and most importantly….”how to raise children.” It shouldn’t be a college major, but it would be a nice requirement.
Heck, my college has physical ed classes to teach good exercise habits and leadership courses to teach basic interpersonal skills. I think colleges shouldn’t put too much money into such things, but given the way Americans live now, maybe they do need to pick up the slack. Maybe they could be more advanced and cater to student’s curricula so as not to be froo froo. Currently they are offered at my school for management students as a “restaurant” practicum. Chemistry students can also take a food science class that involves cooking. A wine tasting course in the horticulture department that involves studying soil science and plants has become very popular. There are already food related writing, economics, anthropology, and law classes…maybe integrate those with some kitchen demos.
College students currently eat crap…and we are building habits that will persist for a long time.
I agree with others who say that this type of class ought to be taught to both genders in high school. And I have to say I’m grateful for my public middle school, which (despite being located in Texas and thus heavily populated by Baptists with conservative “family values”) required all students to take one semester of shop and one semester of home ec.
I see no problem offering courses in homemaking, but I don’t think it should be offered as a degree. I actually think they woulld be good for both genders; shocking as this comes from a “right- wing and religious” woman (what’s up with the labels?). My “ultra conservative” husband is even proud that he took a home ec class in jr high. My high school offered home ec (and shop), and to my mom’s chagrin I didn’t sign up because I was too busy on my AP/ honors classes. Such classes were offered to both genders. I learned how to cook when I left my parents’ home for college. I learned to budget my money earned from a part- time job as an undergrad. My mom also managed to teach me life skills growing up, including hemming. I think I was motivated to learn basic life skills, and my parents set a good example.
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I think it is a great idea! I would have LOVED to have a major like this!!! For those who desire to take this life path, I say go for it!!! We have plenty of colleges which offer all types of classes & majors open to men AND women…. it doesn’t hurt anyone to let ONE college offer a major which caters to it’s student population… DIVERSITY should work BOTH ways!!! live let live I say…
In my junior high (Iowa in the late 80s) we all had to take a section of home ec (cooking, sewing, ironing), a section of shop (you could choose wood or metal) and typing. I think that was a really great requirement.
The standard student meal for us was always spaghetti bolognese, wish i was better in the kitchen!