History of the School of Human Ecology

A UW graduate teaches home economics at Wisconsin High School, c. 1925

With their inclusion of courses on the teaching of home economics in the earliest curriculum, Caroline Hunt and Abby Marlatt both designed their programs for women planning to teach at the secondary level. After the curriculum was redesigned in 1913, the “General course in Home Economics,” included a required “Teachers’ course” in the senior year. Passage of the Smith-Hughes Act in 1917 provided federal funds for training vocational education teachers, increasing the attention given to this component of the School. The initial two-year training certificate program was soon replaced with a four-year degree program which enrolled many students.

Ruth Henderson teaching home economics at Wisconsin High School, c. 1949

Teacher training remained a popular track for home economics students. In fact, the first home economics Ph.D. was in the area of home economics education: Julia Frank Nofsker in 1932 for her thesis A Study of Home Economics Education in the Public High Schools of Wisconsin. This pedagogic focus and the large number of students studying to become teachers did not, however, lead quickly to the creation of a Home Economics Education Department. Rather, students combined their home economics courses with selected courses in the School of Education. The principal faculty member in the area from the 1920s through the 1950s was Ruth Henderson, who held a joint position in the Department of Home Economics and the School of Education, as well as at Wisconsin High School. Many of the home economics education students did their student teaching at Wisconsin High under her supervision.

A household budget management class in home economics education, c. 1962

In 1955, the Department of Home Economics Education was established, with Julia Dalrymple as its chair. Until 1974 it included the major in Home Economics Communications. Over its history, the Department has worked jointly with several other units of campus: Home Economics Extension, the Department of Continuing and Vocational Education, and the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Today, it is known as Family and Consumer Education and is housed in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies in Human Ecology.