Repository: UIHistories Project: Dedication - Home Economics - Challenge of Home Economics [PAGE 8]

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About this same time there was a Dr. Gregory who wrote a popular book called Advice to my Daughters. One of his most interesting bits of counsel was, "If you have any learning keep it a profound secret, especially from men, who look with a jealous and malignant eye upon women of great parts and understanding." The great women doctors fought a battle with community prejudice which seems almost incredible. The distinguished Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, when it was first established met with actual physical opposition. The girls had done their work so well that they were invited to cooperate in the clinic of the Philadelphia General Hospital. As they left the college to go to the clinic the young men of the medical profession, incited by their elders, actually threw rocks at the women. The uphill fight has now been won and in Philadelphia last year I heard representatives of practically every important medical association in the state rise and give public tribute to the magnificent work in cancer research done by Dr. Katherine MacFarlane. And today the fight for a professional attitude toward the domestic arts has been so far won that the more forward looking states add to their schools other professional skills beside those of cooking and care of the individual home. They study the chemistry of foods, the management of hotels and restaurants, and the preparation of meals on a large and professional scale. All of this means that the importance of the home economics department of a great state university is recognized by lawmakers and the public alike. But this beautiful building will fail of its purpose without the larger courses which must inspire its use — the leadership of those who teach, the serious and responsible attitude of those who study, and the consciousness on both sides of the dignity of the task which they approach. And, indeed, approaching the task from its more traditional aspects, it is one worthy of every student's mettle. In the days of the great westward movement across the plains, they tell us that all along the road the way was marked by objects that had been discarded in the difficult passage. Here and there were pieces of furniture, rocking-chairs, and chests of drawers. Articles which had been conserved with affection from generation to generation were abandoned in crossing steep and perilous passes over the mountains in order that the covered wagon with its human freight might not be overbalanced and crash down to the rocks below. We are now passing over steep and perilous roads, and we are confronted with the question as to what we shall discard and what we

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