American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences
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American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences (AAFCS) is an American professional association that networks professionals in the area of family and consumer science. It was founded in 1908 as the American Home Economics Association by Ellen H. Richards. In 1994 it changed its name to the current one.[1]
The association started with about 800 members[2] and grew to over 50,000 by the mid-1960s.[2] In the early 20th century, the association did not often mention Black universities in its journal and it also practiced segregation. It encouraged African American home economics leaders to form their own groups. Many already had formed such groups, which included the National Association of Teachers in Colored Schools.[3] By the mid-1990s membership had fallen below 25,000 and by 2001, it was just over 13,000.[1] Membership continued to decline, and by 2008 was just over 7,000,[4] and where by early 2012, the numbers fell to approximately 5,000 members.[5]
The association currently acts as a professional network primarily for professors and teachers of home economics and related courses, but also includes large numbers from government, business and non-profit organizations.
AAFCS is one of the five organizations that form the Consortium of Family Organizations.[6] While not having its own political action committee, it recommends the "Vocational Political Action Committee"; and in 1985, the AAFCS joined the Home Economics Public Policy Council (HEPPC), which does engage in legislative action.[6]
The field originated from home economics to what it is today. Family and Consumer Sciences is an interdisciplinary field that combines social sciences (emphasizing on the well-being of individuals, families, and communities) and natural sciences (emphasizing on nutrition, development, and textile science). Aspects included: nutrition, cooking, parenting and human development, interior design, textiles, economics, housing, apparel merchandising, resource management, ad other related specialties.
Awards
National Family and Consumer Sciences Teacher of the Year Award, annually for outstanding educational programs
Borden Award, annually for research in nutrition
Ruth O'Brien Project Grants, periodically for development of research in family and consumer science
AAFCS fellowships awarded to graduate students in family and consumer science
Atwater International fellowship to non-American graduate students in family and consumer science, established in 1947 and named after Helen W. Atwater[7]
Publications
Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences, a quarterly refereed professional publication,[1] formerly the Journal of Home Economics renamed in 1994[8]ISSN1082-1651
AAFCS Action, a five times per year newsletter detailing association and member activities,[1] established in 1974[6] discontinued as a paper publication in 2002
Yearbook (American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences. Education and Technology Division) from 1981 to 2001 the Education and Technology Division of AAFCS published a yearbook for home economics teachers. Beginning in 2002 it was available only in CD-ROM format. This yearbook provided valuable information to prospective housewives.
Notable members
Anna Barrows, cooking lecturer, early 20th century
Agnes Ellen Harris, pioneer in women's education programs, charter member
Una B. Herrick, Dean of College of Household and Industrial Arts and later the first Dean of Women, Montana State College, from 1911 to 1932. In 1926 Montana State College built Herrick Hall to house the Home Economics Department; the building was named after Dean Herrick.[10]
1 2 3 4 5 Ballard, Patricia Tsune (ed.) (2001) "Home Economics, *10956*, American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences" Encyclopedia of Associations (37th ed.) Gale, Detroit, vol. 1, pt. 2, p. 1272, ISBN0-7876-4817-5
1 2 Frey, Colleen (1995) "American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences (AAFCS)" pp. 16-20 in Slavin, Sarah (1995) U.S. Women's Interest Groups: Institutional Profiles Greenwood, p. 18
↑ Dreilinger, Danielle (2021). The Secret History of Home Economics. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. p.95. ISBN9781324004493.
1 2 3 Frey, Colleen (1995) "American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences (AAFCS)" pp. 16-20 in Slavin, Sarah (1995) U.S. Women's Interest Groups: Institutional Profiles Greenwood, p. 20
↑ O'Neill, Lois Decker (1979) The Women's Book of World Records and Achievements Doubleday, New York, p. 473, ISBN0-385-12732-4
"Journal of home economics". Cornell University. American Home Economics Association. September 19, 1993. Archive of entire run of journal. Renamed Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences in 1993.
"Journal of family and consumer sciences". Cornell University. American Home Economics Association. Archive of journal from 1994 to 1997. Originally named Journal of home economics from 1909 to 1993.
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Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards was an American industrial and safety engineer, environmental chemist, and university faculty member in the United States during the 19th century. Her pioneering work in sanitary engineering, and experimental research in domestic science, laid a foundation for the new science of home economics. She was the founder of the home economics movement characterized by the application of science to the home, and the first to apply chemistry to the study of nutrition.
Wilbur Olin Atwater was an American chemist known for his studies of human nutrition and metabolism, and is considered the father of modern nutrition research and education. He is credited with developing the Atwater system, which laid the groundwork for nutrition science in the United States and inspired modern Olympic nutrition.
The North Carolina Home Economics Association (NCHEA) was founded in 1917, and achieved formal status in 1919 through the adoption of a constitution and its official name. The association was affiliated with the American Home Economics Association in 1922, a group that was renamed the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences (AAFCS) in 1994<.
Helen Woodard Atwater was an American writer, home economics specialist and the first full-time editor of the Journal of Home Economics.
Abby Lindsey Marlatt, Ph.D. was a social justice activist and a teacher scholar committed to civic engagement. While a professor at the University of Kentucky (UK) in Lexington, Kentucky, she became the center of controversy at UK in the mid-1960s over anti-war protests and whether the university could censor her in her role as a public intellectual. She was honored for her work by many academic, professional and community organizations including the National Conference for Community and Justice, and she was inducted into the Kentucky Civil Rights Hall of Fame in 2001.
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Mary E. Sweeney was a home economics professional who was head of the home economics section of the United States Food Administration during World War I. Sweeney was President of American Home Economics Association.
Isabel Bevier was one of the pioneers in the development of the scientific study of women’s labor in the home, today known as "home economics". In 1900 she began developing the “household science” program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
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Mary Abel (1850–1938) is an American writer known for her work in home economics and nutrition which mainly revolved around the publication of pamphlets and her book, Successful Family Life on the Moderate Income.
Agnes Ellen Harris was an American educator. She worked in education in Georgia, Florida, Texas, Washington, D.C., and Alabama, establishing Home Economics programs throughout the area. She was instrumental in founding "Tomato Clubs" in Florida, which were the precursor to the 4-H Youth Programs. She was one of the earliest practitioners of the field of Domestic Science and taught nutrition and health to women for fifty years. She was a charter member of the American Home Economics Association and served as a national officer in the 1920s. She was inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame in 1972.
Virginia Farrer Cutler was an American academic. She was the head of the Home Economics Department at the University of Utah and dean of the College of Family Living at Brigham Young University (BYU). She also worked for the United States Point Four Program in Southeast Asia, established a home science degree at the University of Ghana, and served on the White House Consumer Committee under President Richard Nixon.
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Emma Conley was an American consumer educator. She taught at the University of Wisconsin and at Cornell University, and wrote two home economics textbooks, Nutrition and Diet (1913) and Principles of Cooking (1914).
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