Family and consumer science - Definition and Overview

Family and consumer sciences, or home economics, is an academic discipline concerning consumer science, nutrition, cooking, parenting, interior decoration, textiles, gardening, and other subjects related to home management.

Family and Consumer Sciences combines social science, including its emphasis on the well-being of families, individuals, and communities, and natural science with its emphasis on nutrition and textile science.

The field as it is today originated from Home Economics; in the U. S. it began at land grant universities after women appealed to have their own niche while the men studied things like agriculture.

Ironically, many of the people most skilled in home management have never studied Family and Consumer Sciences formally. Many learn these skills in the home, and in the past some have developed their skills at a finishing school.

See also: Domestic technology

External links

• American Association of Family and Consumer Science (http://www.aafcs.org/)
• "What Was Home Economics?" web pages at the Cornell University library on the history and influence of home economics (http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/homeEc/masterlabel.html)