What we would see nowadays as a somewhat problematic and sexist program for women to be enrolled in was actually seen as the opposite at the time. Mary Matthews was very passionate about the work done by women in the home and created the home economics department to benefit these women as they live their lives as homemakers. Before programs like this one existed, many women would just marry and be thrown into the work of a housewife without any prior knowledge of how to run a home. Mary saw the home economics program as an opportunity for women to get an education that would teach them what they needed to know to be a wife and mother. It was said that because of the education women received through home economics, tasks in the home became lighter and easier and life has been made richer fuller and more enjoyable. Not only did a home economics education benefit the wife, but also their husbands and children as these women were educated on what needed to be done to maintain a household and the most efficient way to do so [2]. Today, we may view this type of home economics program as demeaning towards women. It seems as if the only education a woman should obtain was one that would benefit her husband later in life. Although women were receiving a college education in higher numbers, their opportunities were still limited. It is interesting though to realize the thought process of Mary Matthews as she created this school. Mary did not see this as a way to limit the education women could receive, but to bring light to the amount of work women do in the home. Mary was very passionate that the work done in the home should have as much value as the work done by the husband. In creating the school of home economics, she was able to educate people on the amount of work it takes to run a home. Being a housewife was now seen as a career rather than an obligation women had in life. Until Mary Matthews became an educator, work done in the home was overlooked. It was her goal to show people that homemaking is an art and a science not a sort of meaningless work. Without a school of home economics, women were on their own. There were no resources available to ease the stress of learning the ways of running the home. At the time, home economics was an amazing opportunity for women to receive an education to prepare them for their occupation just as a man would for his occupation. Women were given the opportunity to have hands on experiences working in the university nursery as well as the practice house where they would complete tasks like cooking a meal [2]. Just because a woman worked in the home, her work was not any less valuable than the work done by her husband. As Mary Matthews once said, “In families where the housekeeper does the housework herself, this unpaid labor of hers is always equal in money value to the income contributed by those employed outside the home, a fact often not taken into consideration. The husband and wife should therefore consider the maintaining of a home as a partnership business which each should share equally,” [1].