In this Book

  • Selling Mrs. Consumer: Christine Frederick and the Rise of Household Efficiency
  • Book
  • Janice Williams Rutherford
  • 2003
  • Published by: University of Georgia Press
    • Viewed
    • View Citation
summary
This first book-length treatment of the life and work of Christine Frederick (1883-1970) reveals an important dilemma that faced educated women of the early twentieth century. Contrary to her professional role as home efficiency expert, advertising consultant, and consumer advocate, Christine Frederick espoused the nineteenth-century ideal of preserving the virtuous home--and a woman's place in it. In an effort to reconcile her desire to succeed in the public sphere of modernization and consumerism with the knowledge that most middle-class Americans still held traditional beliefs about gender roles, Frederick fashioned a career for herself that encouraged other women to remain at home.

With the rise of home economics and scientific management, Frederick--college-educated but confined to the drudgery of housework--devised a plan for bringing the public sphere into the domestic. Her home would become her factory. She learned how to standardize tasks by observing labor-saving devices in industry and then applied this knowledge to housework. She standardized dishwashing, for example, by breaking the job into three separate operations: scraping and stacking, washing, and drying and putting away. Determined to train women to become proficient homemakers and efficient managers, Frederick secured a job writing articles for the Ladies' Home Journal. A professional career as home efficiency expert later expanded to include advertising consultant and consumer advocate. Frederick assured male advertisers that she knew women well and promised to help them sell to "Mrs. Consumer."

While Frederick sought the power and influence available only to men, she promoted a division of labor by gender and therefore served the fall of the early-twentieth-century wave of feminism. Rutherford's engaging account of Christine Frederick's life reflects a dilemma that continues to affect women today--whether to seek professional gratification or adhere to traditional family values.

Table of Contents

restricted access Download Full Book
  1. Cover
  2. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Frontmatter
  2. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Contents
  2. p. vii
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Preface
  2. pp. ix-xi
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Prologue
  2. pp. xiii-xx
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Introduction
  2. pp. 1-7
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 1. "Only a Girl"
  2. pp. 8-24
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 2. "Drudgifying Housework"
  2. pp. 25-35
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 3. The Rise of Home Economics and Scientific Management
  2. pp. 36-45
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 4. Conceiving a Career
  2. pp. 46-58
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 5. Promoting Industry to Save the Home
  2. pp. 59-71
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 6. Expounding the Business Ethic
  2. pp. 72-85
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 7. Accommodating Progressivism
  2. pp. 86-95
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 8. "A World Wide Lecturer"
  2. pp. 96-107
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 9. Reframing Women's Role in the Twenties
  2. pp. 108-120
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 10. Becoming Mrs. Consumer
  2. pp. 121-135
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 11. Private Life
  2. pp. 136-145
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 12. Selling Out Mrs. Consumer
  2. pp. 146-156
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 13. The Twilight of a Career
  2. pp. 157-171
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 14. Re-creation and Legacy
  2. pp. 172-183
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Epilogue
  2. pp. 184-192
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Appendix: Chronology of Christine Frederick's Life
  2. pp. 193-196
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Notes
  2. pp. 197-252
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Bibliography
  2. pp. 253-270
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Index
  2. pp. 271-283
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
Back To Top