STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

blubirde · Chanel

Homemaking degree? For women only?

Suasoria · Chanel

I hear ya. This is completely intended to produce good little wives and nothing more. I didn't even notice any mention of child development classes!

In the old days a home ec degree was relevant for someone who was looking for a job at a woman's magazine or the home section of a newspaper, food science, restaurant work, or of course teaching home ec, etc.

pollyjean23 · Marc Jacobs

Miserable. It is a slap in the face.

FashionPrincess · Hermes

blubirde wrote:

Why bother paying all the money to go to college if you're not going to get educated and be useful to society?

I'm assuming you didn't mean this the way it sounded, just because someone goes to college and doesn't get a career doesn't make them unuseful to society.

Kelly · Hermes

I'm not sure that I really see a problem with it. I could see it as being very useful and outside of any religious views, I think that perhaps it really could help families. Everyone primes women now to go to college and have a career and stay at home moms are sometimes looked down upon, which I think is sad. I think it's very respectable and admirable to be a stay at home mom, and I like that someone is out there telling them that it is a perfectly acceptable way to spend their lives, and acknowledging how hard it can be. The only problem I have with this is that it is in a traditional university, which is primarily seen as a center for erudite and career pursuits. So the fact that these classes exist don't anger me. I just see it as out of place in a traditional university.

ETA: The only insulting thing I see about it is that it's only offered to women. It seems that, as much as they praise homemakers, they're really saying that men are too good for this major - I certainly don't see it as the other way around.

-- Edited by ttara123 at 16:16, 2007-08-24

pollyjean23 · Marc Jacobs

The program should be offered to everyone--not just women. Dr. Paige is blowing smoke, saying that this curriculum was put into place to cure society's ills (family abuuse and such). Many people who need basic homemaking skills are not going to pursue a 4-year degree in Humanities with a Concentration in Homemaking. It's a bachelor's degree--not a United Way sponsored outreach program. $200.00 per credit hour (if you are Southern Baptist).

If you want to help society, major in social work, human services, child development, education. If you want to cook, clean, manage budgets, supplies, and people, major in hospitality managment or business. If you want to serve your god, look into theology, religious counseling, religious music, etc. The majors are already there.

needsfashionadvice · Kate Spade

I really don't see a problem with this either, I would have actually liked it if sewing and cooking classes could have been part of my college curriculum. I really don't understand why they're offering it as a degree though because if you don't have a need for a resume (because you plan on being a homemaker) why do you need a degree. Offering the classes would be fine, I just don't understand the degree part.

There aren't many girls though that can enter into college knowing that they're going to be a homemaker for the rest of their lives, most aren't even married when they choose their major so why would they choose a degree path that wouldn't lead to a career? What happens when they graduate college and are still unmarried and have no career path to follow?

kenzie · Chanel

The only reason I find this insulting is that it's for women only. That's the entire issue with it. It's discriminatory, first, by assuming that only a woman can or should be a homemaker and second, by assuming that men can't or shouldn't, thereby excluding them from the program. Hell, I think I know more men that would benefit from this kind of program than women!

It would be just as bad if it were say, an engineering degree that was only for men because that's a field that is largely male dominated. Same thing. I can't believe that they're getting away with this.

-- Edited by kenzie at 17:31, 2007-08-24

itsapinkthing · Coach

FashionPrincess wrote:

blubirde wrote:

Why bother paying all the money to go to college if you're not going to get educated and be useful to society?

I'm assuming you didn't mean this the way it sounded, just because someone goes to college and doesn't get a career doesn't make them unuseful to society.

I thought this too, after all raising smart, compasionate, well rounded children must contribute to society, no?...As well as being the support system for a family with values, if that allows one member of the family to contribute to "society" with a career.

Bastet · Kate Spade

I think that homemaking courses are useful if a woman plans to stay at home and support her family. However, I take issue with the Baptist church's stance on the role of women in a marriage, and in society in general. Many of them believe that the wife is subordinate to the husband, that he is the head of the family, and that she must be obedient to him. Some churches even voted to reduce the role of women in the church because they are supposed to be subordinate to men. I truly hope that while that school is teaching women homemaking skills, it is not also teaching them subservience.

Telling women that they are unequal to their husbands is a giant step backwards and goes against everything women have worked for all these decades. My mom was a SAHM, but she had equal say to my dad in our family. Our household had two heads and they shared "power" and responsibility equally.

I don't think that offering a degree program in homemakeing a step backwards, it's a choice that we're all free to make. I do think that the program should be open to male students, because otherwise I think it sends the wrong message: telling women that this choice is available to them but not men. What if a man wants to be a SAH dad? What if a man is a single dad? Why shouldn't men be offered the same choice that women are?

AllieGurl · Marc Jacobs

Actually I think it is a nice that homemaking is recognized as something that requires hard work. I DONT agree however that it is only for women, thats crap!

I think more Stay at home parents should get credit though for the job they do, in today's world it seems like such an under appreciated profession. Raising children to be contributing , well rounded memebers of society isnt an easy thing to do!

kittenheels · Coach

What an interesting article. It concerns me that it is not extended to male students as well. As many men want to be more involved with their families, it seems it would promote more "family" values if male students were allowed to participate too!

Things like this do make me worried - would these homemaking classes adequately prepare homemakers to return to the workforce in the event of a spouse's death, serious injury or divorce? There are a lot of people out there who need to return to work because of family financial difficulties, not because they regect the idea of one parent caring for children. It doesn't seem as though this degree would have trained individuals to face the workplace. (Although, I'm an English/French major, and I was woefully unprepared for the workplace too!)

XtinaStyles · Marc Jacobs

I agree its a worthwhile course, I would have taken it if it were offered in my school and yet I have no intentions of being a "stay at home mom". To me, the whole idea sounds like a merketing ploy geared towards attracting women who don't NEED an education to work (like as a lawyer) to attend college.

Jahni · Dooney & Bourke

I think it's important to keep in mind that this is being offered by a Seminary. A school that student's choose to attend in order to prepare themselves for ministry or missions. And it's a Southern Baptist Seminary at that, therefore, it should be assumed that the persons who choose to attend this school are of the more conservative/traditional Southern Baptist mindframe. I would think that this degree would be very helpful to any woman who chooses to go into the ministry or the mission field, especially foreign missions (which is what it seems to be geared toward), beause it most likely will help the students relate to women in other countries who know no other life outside of the home.
It really doesn't even bother me that it's not open to men, because, once again, look where it's being offered....a Seminary. Boys don't go to Seminary to be homemakers, I doubt there would be much interest in it from men (at that school) anyway.

-- Edited by Jahni at 14:58, 2007-08-28

blubirde · Chanel

FashionPrincess wrote:

blubirde wrote:

Why bother paying all the money to go to college if you're not going to get educated and be useful to society?

I'm assuming you didn't mean this the way it sounded, just because someone goes to college and doesn't get a career doesn't make them unuseful to society.

Oh, of course not! I was referring to the fact that a degree in homemaking is limiting one's "education" to household tasks, not education as a whole. Does that make sense at all? I'm not saying not having a career makes one unuseful to society but rather attending an academic institution and proceeding to surround oneself with homemaking only classes limits a person's contribution to those things beyond the household scope. I think the beauty of educated, SAHMs (or Dads) is that they parlay their experiences and knowledge to their children, their community, and potentially a workforce. Having no knowledge other than homemaking is a waste of a college experience, imo.

That said, lots of colleges offer classes that would fit in the above-described degree plan. Knowledge of such things (textiles, nutrition, finances, etc.) can only be good things. But it's hard to justify a degree in homemaking, again, imo.

Hope I didn't offend any SAHMs. Nothing but respect here. I know for a fact it's a hard job and I'm pretty certain I couldn't do it.

FashionPrincess · Hermes

blubirde wrote:

Hope I didn't offend any SAHMs. Nothing but respect here. I know for a fact it's a hard job and I'm pretty certain I couldn't do it.

No offense taken. I figured that is what you meant, just wanted to clarify aww