Appliance company Home Economists???

[norgeway]

I wonder if anyone here ever knew or knows what happened to the various Home Economists employed by appliance companys in the good old days,.Westinghouse had in the early days, Pearl Gray, then Julia Kiene, Hotpoint had Virginia Francis,Sears had Jean Shaw, and the list goes on and on, did anyone here have a connection with any of them.??

 

[mattl]

Even the local gas/electric company had them.  I vaguely recall one of them coming out when my mom bought her '59 Frigidaire CI range.

 

[tomturbomatic]

My friend, the Head of the Home Economics dept. at my high school knew Mrs. Julia Kiene so I know that she was a real person, unlike Betty Crocker. As to what happened to them, I guess they all died like everyone else. Funny, I don't remember KitchenAid ever having a home economist. I checked some manuals and it was always the Hobart Corporation.

The only time I saw a name in a Frigidaire manual was in the manual for the WO-65. In the first page, there are pictures of two ladies, Verna L. Miller and Eleanor A. Ahern. Above their pictures, part of the text reads,

"To make doubly certain of making this the best book possible, Frigidaire retained the services of Eleanor A. Ahern, nationally recognized Home Laundry authority and consultant, who personally supervised the preparation of this book."

"All of the suggestions contained herein have been written in cooperation with the Frigidaire Home Economics staff under the direction of Verna L. Miller, and can be relied upon to give you consistently good results."

I have a Tappan Electric range manual from 1959 signed by Betty Brown, the director of Home Services who urged the owner to write the Home Service Department for assistance.

Every GE manual says the retailer can help with any questions you might have and is signed by the Consumers Institute, but one range manual from the late 50s is signed by Betty B. Olson.

Hamilton dryer manuals do not give a name of a home economist.

Linda Marshall ran the Home Service Department at Maytag, according to the introductory notes in the manuals.

I would like to note here something we discussed in the distant past, that for women to sign their names like this with their first and last names was most unusual for the period, if they were married. At the time, this was not considered either proper form or their legal name, if married and perhaps was done to establish a link of friendship with the women who were reading these manuals.

 

[westie2]

My sister (Carleene Flowers) was Home Economics teacker for Micro Waves in Orlando for Litton.  Mid 70's to mid 80's.  Then worked as instructor for MW cookiing and upholstery for Orange County Fla.  She retired from there.  Most of her students in upholstery went to work for Disney.

 

[kenmore71]

In the late 70s through the early 80s Jan Cooper was credited as the Home Economist that wrote articles that ran in the monthly "Let's Talk Service" from Mayatg.

 

[appliguy]

and don't can forget

Helen N. Tangen...she was the Home Economist for Hamilton....PAT COFFEY

 

[launderess]

Home Economy

Was a sad reflection on the times that many very smart women attended some prestigious colleges or universities and were steered into "Home Ec" degrees, which were basically worthless.

Armed with such degrees these graduates were usually employed as noted above often for not very much compensation. The other route was to become high school or college home eco teachers, and again often for not very good money. Yet many took their jobs seriously publishing and or consulting on authoritative books on subjects ranging from laundry to cooking.

As to what happened to many, am willing to bet they followed the well worn path that lead to the main socially acceptable career for a woman; marriage. Thus many afterwards even in death would be listed under their husband's names.

 

[kenmore71]

I will have to say that my jr. high home ec teachers in the mid-1980s were wonderful people who taught me much in our 9-week quarter length class. I hope they were being paid on par with other other teachers with commensurate levels of education. Judy Baumann and Darla Kimmes will always be heroes of mine!

 

[launderess]

Public School Teachers

There is no bigger minefield than compensation for public school teachers/administrators especially when funded by local tax dollars.

Yes,one assumes home ec teachers in such settings made as much as others but who knows. Much probably could depend upon union contracts and where such educators stood on the totem pole of a school's budget. Historically science, math and not surprising sports (especially boys)teachers were highly paid.Then again it is all relative.

Long ago many public school educators took perhaps slightly lower wage scales for the benefit of potential tenure and a decent secure pension. In a profession often dominated by women it wouldn't be wise to overlook the draw of the latter.

 

[frigilux]

I'd forgotten about Jean Shaw. She was featured on the intro page to Kenmore owner's manuals in the 1950s and 1960s. I recall her feature in the manuals for our 1960 Model 80 washer and dryer.

 

[alr2903]

I remember cooking shows by Home Economists they often followed the noon news in the 1970's. Of course not "celebrity" Home Economists like the previous posts. Product placement was evident mostly local groceries and dairies that sponsored the 30 min. segments. alr

 

[arbilab]

Says here, a home freezer can pay for itself.

Good. When it's done paying for itself have it give us a call and we'll come get it.

[I Love Lucy]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0609355/

 

[rp2813]

I wonder if Tupperware dynamo Brownie Wise had any influence over the use of first and last names for these women. 

 

You can still find a few "lifers" using the old school title of "Mrs." in the dwindling number of AT&T business office call centers that are located in the U.S.

 

[jamiel]

I'd guess that these ladies were graduates of the local land grant universities for each of the companies who had some connection to the larger company...through a father or family member...may have started working under their maiden name but got married soon after and worked until they had their first child.

Upthread someone mentioned Tupperware...there is a PBS documentary on Brownie which is absolutely fascinating. It makes you understand two things: how utterly subversive she and Tupperware were, and the basis of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique.

 

[firedome]

In Junior High circa early '60s

boys were not even allowed to take any of the Home Ec classes, at least in Baltimore... luckily metal and wood shop proved to be fun and useful as well.

 

[iheartmaytag]

Times change

When I began school, cooking and Home ec. were "girls only" classes and only boys were not allowed to even try to enroll. Actually so was typing for that matter. Likewise girls were not allowed in shop, or building trades.

By my Freshman year each could enroll if they wished, but highly stigmatized for doing so. By senior year, yes just three short years, shop was open, but optional, however Home ec or now food services and management was mandatory for all, 9 weeks of the senior year.

Food services came up with some of the most interesting things too. There was the Euell Gibbons chapter when we made edible things that wouldn't normally eat. Dandelion salad is very good by the way. Fried earthworms, chocolate covered crickets (I think Euell always carried a can of chocolate with him).

 

[tomturbomatic]

Mom said that after she graduated from the U of Minnesota with a major in foods, many Home Ec majors looked at working for Pillsbury, but they did not pay anything. She managed part of the graveyard shift in the cafeteria of the big defense plant outside of Minneapolis, riding the bus out there to begin work at 11 PM and riding the bus back after her shift ended at 7AM. At the 2001 WASH-IN, Robert, Jon and I went to see where she lived. She was there and was walking down the sidewalk on the afternoon when a lady called out to her to come listen to the radio reports about FDR's death. Because she minored in English, she taught achool for awhile back in Hibbing. Most of this while Daddy was away in Europe in the Army. When he was still here and was transfered from Camp Stewart, Georgia to California, mom worked as a dietician in a hospital in Riverside, CA. One of the nurses there had a Bendix Automatic Home Laundry. The last she worked outside of the home was at Carnation doing infant nutrition work before I was born.

 

[alr2903]

@ Iheartmaytag. Public schools understood the meaning of "sex bias and stereotyping" not to comply meant the loss of $. I could see no reason why and thank goodness it was ended. males went to FFA, females to FHA. This went on until the 1980's in rural areas. alr

 

[iheartmaytag]

al2093
1980's was it, I hate to admit.
They also realized that boys and girls would grow up and be women and men and would now always have mommy to cook for them.

Food services taught boys to learn a survivable way around the kitchen.

Three years after that I taught at a county rehab facility where seniors (60+) were recently widowed and taught the daily living skills that they were traditionally shut out of. Women learned the financial aspects,even how to maintain the car, and home. Men learned the shopping and cooking, cleaning, how to run a washing machine and yes there are men that have never seen the inside of a dishwasher; let alone an oven.

We had several of those little darlings hook up and quit training as they now had a new partner to handle those parts of their lives.

 

[retromania]

Hans,

When my grandparents built their retirement home in 1946, it was outfitted with all Hotpoint appliances. Since my grandmother's orientation was with an oil stove and a wood stove and since she had never used an automatic dishwasher, a home economist from Duke Energy (Duke Power then!) came out to the house to give her demonstration.

 

[norgeway]

Oil and wood!!!

Can't you see these girls today cooking on kerosene or wood!!!LOL! The fire departments sure would be busy..

 

[iheartmaytag]

My mother was one of 17 kids, old Missouri Hillbillies. She learned to cook on Kerosene and wood stoves. Then in school Home ec class they had electric which she says to this day electric cooks much like wood, you just don't have to stoke it.

Mom said when they moved to the city in 1950, a lady from Western Auto came out to show her how to pack her new deep freeze to get the most savings. Deep freezers were the new post war rage at that time. Home economist were in big demand as demonstrators at department stores to show how to get the most from their modern conveniences.

 

[joelippard]

Hahaha, Oil and Wood

No way would these young girls do the things my Grandmothers and Great Grandmother used to do in order to run the house.  It used to be a woman's thrill to get a new Hoover for Christmas, even my mother felt this way.  Now it's grounds for divorce.  Let's don't even get started on what they would do if they had to mess with wood or kerosene!

 

[westingman123]

Wood and kerosene

Grandma cooked on wood and kerosene right up to the time she came to live with us in her late 70's. Mama learned at her side, and so did I. I never minded the wood stove, but that damn kerosene iron--the FUMES!

I still think some things cooked better that way--gravy comes to mind--although it took so much longer.

Simpler times, but harder work. It did stiffen our spines, I think.

 

[retromania]

Hans,

LOLL- Sirens squawking all over town!!!

 

[retromania]

Talking about a deep freezer...

We eventually moved into our grandparents house after they passed away. The freezer on the back porch was the stand-up kind, a Hotpoint left over from my grandparents. My mother eventually replaced everything with Frigidaire. I had friends that had the deep freeze or chest style freezer. I guess you always want what you don't have, but anyway one of my friends, his parents had a chest freezer on their back porch that was the size of a coffin. I'm not kidding. It had a little rust growing on it and it was creepy looking. It was a little bit rounded on top like a coffin. They had some property on the outskirts of town that they farmed. Their freezer was always slammed with fresh frozen produce and they would always send me home with a bag of squash or something. Always wondered why they didn't can like other people around. My mother never canned because she was afraid of pressure cookers so she blanched and froze everything.

 

[neptunebob]

I would like to comment on the women using their maiden names. In the Tupperware special, the narrator mentioned that Brownie Wise had men with her because "Bankers did not talk to women". One thing I have noticed all 3 of my sisters is that once women get married or even engaged the husband because the most important person in their life and the rest of the world can go to hell. I used to be able to talk to my oldest sister until she married Jupy (the doctor who talks real loud and smells) and now all she does is complain about him. How does a woman relate to her coworkers, clients and customers - half of whom may be male if the husband is "always in the way"? No wonder businesses don't take women seriously, everything has to go through hubby!

Oh, and I remember an article about Jane Cricks, the home economist for Duquesne Light. She said that she "saw the writing on the wall" in 1984 when DL was planning to move to a new building that did not have a home ec lab. Shortly after the move, she retired.

 

[retromania]

A Good Example

I saw that ETV special about Tupperware. Poor Brownie Wise. Too bad she didn't own a little piece of the company, but that is a good example of a woman in a man's world and especially back then. I wonder if she was a home economist. No, I believe she had a business sort of background if I remember correctly. I would love to have been a home economist. A dream job for me!!!

 

[neptunebob]

I would love to have been a home economist. A dream job for

Did you ever tell that to your guidance counselor? They might have told you to go major in business administration instead.

Brownie Wise was more of a saleslady starting with Stanley Home Products - Be Wise, Stanleyise. Of course, back then someone could be in sales and not have the college degree that so many people have now.

IHeartmaytag, something like that happened at a hospital I worked at. There was a story in the newsletter about a cafeteria worker was awarded for helping a visitor who could not figure out how to make toast or pour coffee. It turned out that his wife was in the hospital and she did everything for him and he was even lost in a hospital cafeteria. I'm glad he was helped but how could someone be so unindependent?

 

[retromania]

Actually....

I did major in business administration and minored in accounting. That's how I got my job at DSS that I have been at for 25 years. I started the year before the state computerized and I was hired because I could do a spread sheet. We had to manually rebudget all our cases each month. 200 cases per month per worker. And that was just for our county which is considered one of the larger ones.