The Household Service Demonstration Project (HSDP) was a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project designed to train women for domestic employment. [1]
The Household Service Demonstration Project (HSDP) was a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project designed to train women for domestic employment. [1]
The project was an offshoot of the Household Workers’ Training Program. The WPA announced the project in March 1937. [2] It got under way around July 1937 [3] and ended it in January 1942. [4] The project was formally authorized by United States Congress in 1938. It offered training and employment in WPA training centers [5] giving demonstrations of housework. [6] The WPA designed it to promote the employment of women certified as qualified for private household employment and to promote the techniques of household service. [7]
The project trained 30,000 women. [8] Middle-aged women were preferred due to the perceived unreliability and increased risk of marriage of younger women. [9] The project employed 1,700 women to give two- and three-month courses in cooking and serving food, house and child care, washing, ironing, and marketing. [10] Other skills taught included table setting, [9] home management, budgeting and knitting. [9]
In Washington, during the course of their training, trainees were paid $46 a month. After passing written and oral exams, diplomas were awarded to graduates. [11] After completing training, a graduate could make $60 a month as a domestic. [9]
Demonstration sites were located at 400 South Capitol Street in Washington, DC, [12] and at 217 E Boone Ave in Spokane, Washington.
The HSDP was called Eleanor Roosevelt’s favorite project. [13] It was part of the WPA’s traditional emphasis. [14] The assistant state supervisor of seven household service projects in Pennsylvania was reported as saying, "There is something so obvious about a woman working in a home that I wonder why a project such as this wasn't begun many years ago."
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