Family and consumer science
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Family and consumer sciences, or home economics, is an academic discipline which combines aspects of consumer science, nutrition, cooking, parenting and human development, interior decoration, textiles, family economics and resource management as well as other related subjects.
Family and consumer sciences combines social science, including its emphasis on the well-being of families, individuals, and communities, and natural science with its emphasis on nutrition and textile science.
The field as it is today originated from home economics; in the U.S. the discipline developed at Kansas State University in 1882 and spread quickly to other land grant universities after women appealed to have their own niche while the men studied subjects such as agriculture or shop.
For many years it was traditional for school girls in higher grades to study "Home Ec" (primarily cooking and sewing) while boys took "Shop" (carpentry, auto repair, etc.). Students of either gender were strongly discouraged or outright banned from taking each other's subjects.
See also
External links
- [American Association of Family and Consumer Science]
- [National Extension Association of Family and Consumer Sciences]
- ["What Was Home Economics?" web pages at the Cornell University library on the history and influence of home economics]
- [International Federation of Home Economics]
- [Home Economics Institute of Australia]
- [Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences at University of Florida/IFAS]
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