National Vocational Act was passed in the United States of America in 1917. In
that Act, commonly called the Smith-Hughes Bill, the term “Home Economics” was
used to designate education for the home, and therefore, the official legal name
adopted by the American Home Economics Association - and the Federal Government
of the United States of America is now widely used throughout the Caribbean and
some other parts of the world.
In the mid-nineteenth century the term “domestic economy” was used by
Catherine Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe in their books and lectures on home
problems. At that time “Domestic“ implied “Household” while “Economy” meant
“Management”; hence “Domestic Economy” meant “Household Management”.
The term “Domestic Science” displaced that of “Domestic Economy” after the
Civil War when boys were required to work as farm hands and girls who were
assigned in the kitchen to cook, serve meals, clean and do laundry work, were not
knowledgeable in these areas and so had to be trained in agricultural schools renamed
“Science” schools. These new activities in domestic pursuits justified the name
“Domestic Science”. It is interesting to note that the terms “Housecraft” and
“Domestic Science” are still being used in colleges in Great Britain.
Other terms used synonymously are “Homemaking Education”, “Housecraft”,
“Home Science”, Family Life Education and “Human Ecology”. In a technical
vocational school in one of the territories the term “Household Management” is still
being used instead of “Home Economics”, in most other territories “Domestic Science”
has been phased out in favour of “Home Economics”. Whatever the terminology, it
remains a fact that home and family life concerns all families and that training in
this field in order to cope with changes is an imperative of our times