Home Economics, “Handicapped Homemakers,” and Postwar America

Abstract

In the two decades following World War II, a loose network of home economists at colleges and universities across the United States turned their attention to homemaking methods for women with physical disabilities. Often in consultation with physically disabled homemakers, these home economists researched and designed assistive devices, adaptive equipment, and work simplification techniques for use in the home. Their efforts signaled a new field of study, “homemaker rehabilitation,” which helped to enlarge the broader vocational rehabilitation system beyond its historic focus on male veterans and wage earners while also expanding the boundaries of home economics itself. Home economists’ work with disabled homemakers both bolstered and challenged postwar domesticity, middle-class gender roles, and able-bodied normalcy. Calling attention to these contradictions reveals much about how home economists engaged with and understood disability and how their work intersected with burgeoning movements for disability rights.