History of the School of Human Ecology

The Wisconsin Idea has long encouraged members of the university community to reach out to the citizens of the state. Such a goal is reflected in the often-repeated phrase, “the boundaries of the campus are the boundaries of the state.”

Women's short course, c. 1915

Home economics extension has played an important role since shortly after the creation of the Home Economics Department in 1903. In 1905, Caroline Hunt offered a Housekeepers' Conference to bring the latest information about home economics to farm women from around the state. Extension activities dramatically expanded after 1914, when the Smith-Lever Act made federal funds available for extension.

World War I poster advertising lecture on food conservation by Gladys Stillman

Beginning in the late 1910s and early 1920s, home economics extension specialists in four areas (clothing; food; home management; and the milk campaign) traveled around the state in order to bring knowledge from the university to the state’s citizens. Before a specialist arrived at a locale, the county agent for that area would gather a group of interested women, and after learning about the chosen subject, those community representatives would return to their communities to teach their friends and neighbors. It was an arrangement that allowed the specialist to reach more people than she or he otherwise would have, and provided leadership opportunities for homemakers around the state.

Community members usually welcomed the knowledge brought to them, which might help them plan nutritious but inexpensive meals, improve the health of their families, or renovate their homes. During emergencies such as the Depression and the Second World War, the lessons focused on food conservation, home gardening, canning, and meat curing. The renovation of old clothing was also a popular subject.

In later years, additional subjects were added, including child development and parent education. Beginning after the Second World War, consumer education became an important area within home economics extension in response to Wisconsin residents' new questions about consumer issues, credit, and financial planning. Topics in recent decades have included energy conservation and health insurance.

Homemakers Program, with Aline Hazard on the far right talking to five guests

Extension personnel have employed new technologies to reach their audiences. Beginning in 1929, the Homemakers Program, hosted from 1933 until 1965 by Aline Hazard, provided one means for communicating information to citizens. Later it was renamed Accent on Living, with host Norma Simpson. The 1960s and 1970s featured the introduction of several new technologies. In 1965, the Educational Telephone Network was established to facilitate conferences and training; other means of communication used included dial access telephone programs and commercial television and radio. Home economics extension was renamed during these years; in 1967 it became the Center for Women’s and Family Living Education, which was later shortened to Family Living Education.

Family living education has undergone countless transformations over the century in response to changes in the structure of the School and of the university and to fluctuating funding levels. Such changes have resulted in a constant shifting of the relationship between extension faculty and resident faculty. In 1951, specialists were made faculty of resident departments within the newly formed School of Home Economics. Fourteen years later, the Cooperative Extension Service and University Extension Division were merged into a new division (University of Wisconsin-Extension) that was treated as a parallel but separate campus from UW-Madison. The relationship between extension and resident faculty changed once again in the mid 1980s, when extension was reintegrated into the School.