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History China

Keeping the Nation's House

Domestic Management and the Making of Modern China

by (author) Helen M. Schneider

Publisher
UBC Press
Initial publish date
Feb 2011
Category
China, History, Social History, Women's Studies, Gender Studies
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780774819978
    Publish Date
    Feb 2011
    List Price
    $95.00
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780774819985
    Publish Date
    Mar 2012
    List Price
    $34.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780774819992
    Publish Date
    Mar 2011
    List Price
    $125.00

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Description

The term home economics often conjures images of sterile classrooms where girls learn to cook dinner and swaddle dolls, far removed from the seats of power. Helen Schneider unsettles this assumption by revealing how Chinese women helped to build a nation, one family at a time. From the 1920s to the early 1950s, home economists transformed the most fundamental of political spaces – the home – by teaching women to nurture ideal families and manage projects of social reform. Although their discipline came undone after 1949, it created a legacy of gendered professionalism and reinforced the idea that leaders should shape domestic rituals of the people.

About the author

Helen M. Schneider is an assistant professor at Virginia Tech and a research associate at the University of Oxford.

Helen M. Schneider's profile page