Campus News

Book looks at history of home economics

Remaking Home Economics: Resourcefulness and Innovation in Changing Times
Edited by Sharon Y. Nickols and Gwen Kay
University of Georgia Press
Paperback and eBook: $34.95

An interdisciplinary effort of scholars from history, women’s studies and family and consumer sciences, Remaking Home Economics covers the field’s history of opening career opportunities for women and responding to domestic and social issues.

Calls to “bring back home economics” miss the point that it never went away, said editors Sharon Y. Nickols, former dean of UGA’s College of Family and Consumer Sciences and professor emerita, and Gwen Kay, associate professor of history at Oswego State University of New York. Home economics has been remaking itself, in study and practice, for more than a century. These essays take both current and historical perspectives on defining issues including home economics philosophy, social responsibility and public outreach; food and clothing; gender and race in career settings; and challenges to the field’s identity and continuity.