Cooking Class: Women, Domestic Science, and Higher Education since the Progressive Era

My paper looks at women in higher education since the turn of the century.  My interest in this topic stems from my being grabbed by turn of the century photographs of African-American women in “cooking class” or “laundry class” at various higher education institutions. Immediately struck, I questioned the necessity of women, one and a half generations removed from the institution of slavery, taking courses in quotidien domestic labor tasks.  The photos of African-American women dressed in starched white, Victorian inspired dresses neatly posed in a modern, well-appointed kitchen or cooking laboratory communicated a set of educational visions established for African-American women. But what are the ways in which African-American women are making meaning of their relation to domestic science education? The paper seeks to answer that question and raise others about the contested nature of higher education for African American women. Since the post emancipation era, African American women have been haunted by the legacy of antebellum mythology in general, but the mammy stereotype, in particular. While on the surface it appears that domestic science training would reinforce this negative imagery, I am interested in the ways that African American women’s participation in these programs is a subversive act. African-American women’s experience in higher education have received a short shrift by historians of higher education, and this study seeks to redress that omission.