Women on Campus: Memories of Purdue’s Campus & Classrooms in the Seventies
by Anna Brown “Being sensitive of institutional inequality was not on my radar screen, everyone was treated fairly. It became clearer and clearer that was not the case.” (1) Betty Nelson joined Purdue University staff in the mid-1960s with this mindset as many female students did. As the decade closed and the seventies began, the wall of inequality began to break down for many women on Purdue University’s campus as… Read More
Training for Domesticity
by Grant Barnett “The most important industry in America is the management of American homes.” – President Calvin Coolidge What is a practice house and what where they used for? Did Purdue have any and what were they like? A practice house was a facet of many major university home economics programs, starting in Illinois in 1909. Practice houses were a place for young women, often aspiring homemakers, to put… Read More