ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Plural Worlds, Domestic Sciences: Cold War Home-Economics Links between Iowa, USA and Baroda, India

• In Event: Plural Worlds of Science and Shifting Perspectives on Home Economics, 1870-1990

English Abstract

Twentieth-century domestic-science specialists developed a network of international connections, embedded in the political, social, and cultural context of knowledge exchanges. Between 1960 and 1970, Iowa State University home-economists worked under a $1.5 million Ford Foundation grant to establish Western-style professional research structures within University of Baroda departments. Iowa faculty helped establish India’s first full program of master’s and doctoral training across multiple home-economics specialties, a pipeline for new generations to earn advanced degrees without travelling to America or Europe. They worked to build American-influenced systems of scientific investigation, while adapting topics to meet India’s needs.

This paper details this Cold War-era case study of how home-economics expertise crossed worlds, aimed at modernizing India’s village life and deflecting potential Communist influence. During these decades, strategic development programs sent scientists in multiple specialties, mostly men, to Asia, Africa, and South America. Well-known stories of Green Revolution agricultural consultants are paralleled by a less-familiar history of female specialists exporting American-grown perspectives overseas, reflecting Rossiter’s concept of “women’s work in science.”

To date, studies have assessed some components of domestic-science history in Africa, Japan, and India. Other histories assess the Green Revolution, foundation funding, and Cold War science. This paper underscores the importance of delving deeper by bringing together key themes: the role of science in Cold War power-jockeying, the history of domestic science as female-led expertise, and international stories of professionalization and knowledge exchange.

Author

• Amy S Bix, Iowa State University