About this episode

Lisa Woodruff shares the backstory of her research on home management and the evolution of household roles over time.

I want to take a moment to provide the backstory to how I got to where I am today. And where we are with studying the American Home. You'll see why now is the time to start new research that will apply to all compositions of families, for the extent of their lives, to help household managers in their CEO roles. Evolution of Study As far back as the 30's and 40's, the psychologist Lillian Gilbreth studied the efficiencies of the home. We have her to thank for the kitchen triangle and so much more. Then came the book the Secret History of Home Economics. Home economics focused on the science of the home. And then my favorite which was manufactured entity of the stay at home mom. The war was over and marketing turned its aim to women at home; how they should look and what they should be doing. Finally, our most up to date research is from the 70's-80's! Shocked? I was too! This is the time the gender shift was identified. Basically women began to do less housework because some women were starting to work outside the home, the man started doing more work, and overall as a household unit less needed to be done. All of these studies were completed with couples with children under the…

People in this episode

Host: Lisa Woodruff

Topics covered

• home management
• research
• family dynamics
• household efficiency
• gender roles

Keywords

• home CEO
• household management
• American Home
• family studies
• gender shift
• home economics
• Lillian Gilbreth

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Secret History of Home Economics

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