Date of Award

12-30-2013

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Rhetoric and Writing

First Advisor

Barbara L'Eplattenier

Abstract

In its attempt to retain the nation's farmers and farm families on the land during the early twentieth century, the U. S. Department of Agriculture found that the situation in the South was particularly problematic as it included dilapidated farm homes, malnutrition, and "poverty of spirit." In order to combat these deficiencies, the home demonstration program taught farm women improved methods for accomplishing their household responsibilities. It also encouraged the women to better their families' living conditions through home improvements and labor-saving devices. This study explores how Arkansas's early home demonstration club members accepted, within their own limitations and spheres of interest, the home improvement program laid out by governmental reformers. It also focuses on the impact the women made as they took their newly improved skills--particularly those in food production and preservation-- and reached out to their communities.

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