Professionalisation of home economists in Britain from the 1950s to the 1980s: mediating small domestic electrical appliances

ABSTRACTThis article explores the role of home economists from the 1950s until the 1980s in relation to small domestic electrical appliances when home economists promoted these small electrical products and began to have a role in their development and evaluation. It is argued that education for home economists and their professional role developed during this period as they became mediators between producers and consumers. It captures the changing role of women in the electricity and appliance industry during the period up to the late 1980s, when the role of the home economist in these areas began to decline. Further and higher education syllabuses were developed and refined in response to the growth of employment opportunities, particularly for home economists in the electricity and appliance industry. This article therefore draws upon both a case study of the Polytechnic of North London home economics syllabuses and an oral history of Jenny Webb, a leading home economist in the electricity industry.KEYWORDS: Home economicselectricity industryelectrical applianceshigher educationconsumerism Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Jenny Webb and Matt Cresswell, A Jenny Job—My Life Electric (UK: Independently published, 2021).2 Eleanor Peters, ‘“On the Fringe of the Technical World”: Female Electrical Appliance Demonstrators in Interwar Scotland’, Women's History Review 31, no. 2 (2022) looked at this area and Carroll Pursell, ‘Domesticating Modernity: The Electrical Association for Women, 1924–86’, The British Journal for the History of Science 32, no. 1 (1999) covered the whole period of its existence.3 Megan J. Elias, ‘No Place Like Home: A Survey of American Home Economics History’, History Compass 9, No. 1 (2011).4 See the following for food processors, cookers and microwave ovens: Danielle Chabaud-Rychter, ‘La mise en forme des pratiques domestiques dans le travail de conception d'appareils électroménagers’, Sociétés contemporaines 17, (1994); Elizabeth B. Silva, ‘The Cook, the Cooker and the Gendering of the Kitchen’, The Sociological Review 48, no. 4 (2000); Judy Wajcman, ‘Feminist Theories of Technology’, Cambridge Journal of Economics 34, no. 1 (2010).5 Cynthia Cockburn and Susan Ormrod, Gender and Technology in the Making (London: SAGE Publications Ltd, 1993). Their work is commented on by Judy Wajcman, ‘Reflections on Gender and Technology Studies: In What State Is the Art?’, Social Studies of Science 30, no. 3 (2000).6 Cynthia Cockburn, ‘Domestic Technologies: Cinderella and the Engineers’, Women's Studies International Forum 20, no. 3 (1997).7 Cockburn, ‘Domestic Technologies: Cinderella and the Engineers’.8 Carolyn M. Goldstein, Mediating Consumption: Home Economics and American Consumers, 1900–1940 (PhD thesis, University of Delaware, 1994).9 Amy Sue Bix, ‘Equipped for Life: Gendered Technical Training and Consumerism in Home Economics, 1920–1980’, Technology and Culture 43, no. 4 (2002).10 Katie Carpenter, ‘The Scientific Housewife: Gender, Material Culture and the Middle-class Kitchen in England, c. 1870–1914’ (PhD thesis, Royal Holloway, University of London, 2019); Annmarie Turnbull, ‘An Isolated Missionary: The Domestic Subjects Teacher in England, 1870–1914’, Women's History Review 3, no. 1 (1994). Peters, ‘On the Fringe of the Technical World’.11 Chris Buck, ‘HISTORY OF THE ELECTRICITY COUNCIL Part 1’, Histelec Supplements – Historical Research and Topics (March 2009).12 Cheryl Farthing, ‘All Mod Cons’, in Just Switch On, ed. Nicola Gooch (1997); Julie Fish, Careers in Home Economics, 3rd ed., Careers series (London: Kogan Page, 1990).13 Helen McCarthy, ‘Women, Marriage and Paid Work in Post-war Britain’, Womens History Review 26, no. 1 (2017). However, Dolly Smith Wilson, ‘New Look at the Affluent Worker: The Good Working Mother in Post-War Britain’, Twentieth Century British History 17 (2006), suggests these figures are 21%, 45.4% and 51.3% respectively, based on census data. Caitríona Beaumont, ‘What Do Women Want? Housewives’ Associations, Activism and Changing Representations of Women in the 1950s’, Women's History Review 26, no. 1 (2017), also considers the area of female employment.14 Gillian Murray, ‘Taking Work Home: The Private Secretary and Domestic Identities in the long 1950s’, Women's History Review 26, no. 1 (2017).15 Grace Lees-Maffei, ‘Accommodating “Mrs. Three-in-One”: Homemaking, Home Entertaining and Domestic Advice Literature in Post-war Britain’, Women's History Review 16, no. 5 (2007), looks at this area, debates about time and labour saving are covered by Ruth Schwartz Cowan, More Work for Mother: The Ironies of Household Technology from the Open Hearth to the Microwave (London: Free Association, 1989) and Susan Strasser, Never Done: A History of American Housework (New York: Pantheon Books, 1982). The ownership of small domestic electrical appliances is considered by BRMB, TGI 1969–1993 Category Trends—Household Appliances and Durables (London: BMRB, 1993), and is also provided by Jenny Webb, ‘Electric Expert’, interview by author, 01/09/2021, 2021.16 Brian Sinclair Wolfe, ‘The Development of the UK Domestic Electrical Appliance Industry over the period 1963 to 1990’ (MPhil thesis, The Open University, 1996).17 Vanessa Jane Taylor, ‘Gender and Agency in the Anthropocene: Energy, Women, and the Home in Twentieth-Century Britain’, RCC Perspectives: Transformations in Environment and Society 2020, no. 1 (2020).18 Vanessa Taylor, ‘Anthropocene Women: Energy, Agency, and the Home in Twentieth-Century Britain’, In a New Light: Histories of Women and Energy (2021).19 Wolfe, ‘The Development of the UK Domestic Electrical Appliance Industry Over the Period 1963 to 1990’. Post privatisation the number of electricity board shops selling electrical appliances declined significantly.20 Yvonne Dewhurst and Donna Pendergast, ‘Home Economics in the 21st Century: A Cross Cultural Comparative Study’, International Journal of Home Economics 1, no. 1 (2008) historically suggested the terms ‘domestic science, domestic economy, and housewifery’ as the original ones used in the study of the scientific housewife and A. Tull, ‘Why Teach (young) People How to Cook? A Critical Analysis of Education and Policy in Transition’ (City University London, 2015). in her thesis updates this to include ‘ … Housecraft, Home Economics (HE), Food Technology (FT)’. Susan Bailey, ‘The Development of Consumer Sciences and Consumer Studies at Degree Level in Higher Education in the United Kingdom’ (PhD thesis London Metropolitan University, 2008), adds ‘consumer science or consumer studies’ as terms used particularly in higher education since the late nineteen-eighties. Joanne Hollows, ‘Science and Spells: Cooking, Lifestyle and Domestic Femininities in British Good Housekeeping in the Inter-war Period’, in Historicizing Lifestyle (London: Routledge, 2016), also reviews this area.21 Kathryn McSweeney, ‘Assessment Practices and Their Impact on Home Economics Education in Ireland’ (PhD theis, University of Stirling, 2014).22 Amy Harden, Scott Hall, and Deanna Pucciarelli, ‘US FCS Professionals’ Perceptions of the Current and Future Direction of Family and Consumer Sciences as a Discipline’, International Journal of Home Economics 11, no. 1 (2018).23 Women's Employment Federation, A New Look at Careers in Home Economics, (1969).24 Polytechnic of North London, The Business Technician Education Council Higher National Diploma in Home Economics—Course Content, 1983—amended September 1987, Author archive and ‘Polytechnic of North London—University of North London (1971–1992; 1992–2002) London Metropolitan University Special Collections’, 1971–2002.25 London, The Business Technician Education Council Higher National Diploma in Home Economics—Course Content.26 Bailey, ‘The Development of Consumer Sciences and Consumer Studies at Degree Level in Higher Education in the United Kingdom’. Both of these degrees provided a scientific approach but feminists were not happy at their focus or what was perceived to be the trivialisation and dilution of ‘pure’ science, although the courses were remarkably popular according to Tom Begg, The Excellent Women: The Origins and History of Queen Margaret College (Edinburgh: John Donald Publishers, 1994). Nancy Lynn Blakestad, ‘King's College of Household and Social Science and the Household Science Movement in English Higher Education, c. 1908–1939’ (PhD thesis, University of Oxford, 1994), reviewed the history of household science in this period.27 Peters, ‘On the Fringe of the Technical World’, looked at this area and Pursell, ‘Domesticating Modernity: The Electrical Association for Women, 1924–86’, covered the whole period of its existence.28 Elizabeth Sprenger and Pauline Webb, ‘Persuading the Housewife to Use Electricity? An Interpretation of Material in the Electricity Council Archives’, The British Journal for the History of Science 26, no. 1 (1993). Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester hold detailed syllabus material for these courses.29 Gillian Murphy, ‘The Fall and Rise of Home Economics Education’, International Journal of Consumer Studies 35 (2011).30 Sprenger and Webb, ‘Persuading the Housewife to Use Electricity? An Interpretation of Material in the Electricity Council Archives’.31 Association of Home Economists of Great Britain, ‘Memorandum of Training’, 1958, Personal archive material from Polytechnic of North London.32 Britain, ‘Memorandum of Training’.33 Various, Letters from Mrs Gibbons and replies relating to creation of Northern Polytecnic Diploma in Home Economics, ‘Correspondence’, 1954-1965, Personal collection.34 Aileen Harper, Background to Home Economics—Polytechnic of North London, ‘Letter detailing background to Sue Bailey,personal collection’, No date. Students were awarded both diplomas until the Polytechnic diploma was discontinued in September 1970.35 Federation, A New Look at Careers in Home Economics. The WEF was founded in 1933, the parent organisation was the London and National Society for Women's Service, now the Fawcett Society.36 Julie Fish, Careers in Home Economics, 1st ed., Careers series (London: Kogan Page, 1983).37 Buck, ‘HISTORY OF THE ELECTRICITY COUNCIL Part 1’.38 Farthing, ‘All Mod Cons’.39 Forbes Handbook of Home Economics and Consumer Education, ed. Barbara Morrison (London: Forbes Publications, 1982).40 Simon Field, ‘The Missing Middle: Higher Technical Education in England’, London: The Gatsby Charitable Foundation (2018); Cedefop (European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training), Vocational Education and Training at Higher Qualification Levels (Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2011), https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/files/5515_en.pdf.41 Rita Johnston, ‘The University of the Future: Boyer Revisited’, Higher Education 36, no. 3 (1998).42 Sue Bailey, ‘Developing a Contemporary Conceptualization for Consumer Sciences in Higher Education in the UK’, International Journal of Consumer Studies 34, no. 2 (2010); Bailey, ‘The Development of Consumer Sciences and Consumer Studies at Degree Level in Higher Education in the United Kingdom’.43 Brenda M. Pratt, ‘Home Economics Subject Development in the Context of Secondary Education’ (PhD thesis, University of Surrey, 1990).44 Kathleen Hastrop, ‘Bridging the Gap—the Role of the Professional Home Economist’, Journal of Consumer Studies & Home Economics 1, no. 2 (1977).45 Wendy Matthews and Linda Golightly, ‘The Core of Knowledge Necessary to the Developing Role of the Home Economist’, The Home Economist 1 (1981).46 Northern Polytechnic, Prospectus and correspondence, 1968, Author collection, London.47 ‘Polytechnic of North London—University of North London (1971–1992; 1992–2002) London Metropolitan University Special Collections’ and National Council for Home Economics Education, NCHEE Diploma in Home Economics Course Syllabus, 1973, Personal collection, The Polytechnic of North London.48 London, ‘The Business Technician Education Council Higher National Diploma in Home Economics—Course Content’.49 ‘Jenny Webb: Appliance Historian’, 2010, accessed 20/09/2023, https://www.youtube.com/@ApplianceHistorian (The TV and radio work of National Home Economist and UK microwave pioneer Jenny Webb.).50 Webb, ‘Electric Expert’.51 Webb, ‘Electric Expert’.52 Farthing, ‘All Mod Cons’.53 Farthing, ‘All Mod Cons’.54 Webb and Cresswell, A Jenny Job—My Life Electric.55 Ibid.56 Ibid.57 Brenda M. Pratt, ‘Home Economics Subject Development in the Context of Secondary Education’ (Unpublished PhD thesis University of Surrey, 1990), https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.253315.58 Cockburn, ‘Domestic Technologies: Cinderella and the Engineers’.59 Bix, ‘Equipped for Life: Gendered Technical Training and Consumerism in Home Economics, 1920–1980’.Additional informationNotes on contributorsSusan BaileySue Bailey is the past course director for BTEC HND Home Economics, BSc Food and Consumer Studies and MSc Food Science. Currently, she is an independent researcher and associate senior lecturer at London Metropolitan University.