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Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1996 "Only a Girl": Christine Frederick, Efficiency, Consumerism, and Women's Sphere. Janice Williams Rutherford Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Rutherford, Janice Williams, ""Only a Girl": Christine Frederick, Efficiency, Consumerism, and Women's Sphere." (1996). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 6279. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/6279 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. 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Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6” x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zeeb Road. Ann Arbor. Ml 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. "ONLY A GIRL": CHRISTINE FREDERICK, EFFICIENCY, CONSUMERISM, AND WOMAN'S SPHERE VOLUME I A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of History by Janice Williams Rutherford B.A., University of Oregon, 1963 M.A., Portland State University, 1981 August, 1996 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 97063 62 Copyright 1996 by Rutherford, Janice Williams All rights reserved. UMI Microform 9706362 Copyright 1996, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ®Copyright 1996 Janice Williams Rutherford All rights reserved ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. To Franklin John Steffes iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My first thanks go to loved ones: to my husband, Frank, without whose support this dissertation wouid never have been completed; to my daughter, Melissa Rutherford, and my son, Wayne Rutherford, who never doubted that their mom could do this; and to my mother, Margaret M. Williams, who taught me that to be happy, one must love one's work. Next I want to thank my committee whose members were enormously helpful in the development of my manuscript. Under their direction, it was transformed into a dissertation. My major professor, Burl L. Noggle, allowed me the freedom to explore possibilities and offered me calm assurance as I felt my way through new territory. Robert A. Becker's excellent editorial skills saved me from an embarrassing tendency to be verbose, and his flawless logic kept my arguments from going too far afield. Gaines M. Foster alerted me to important interpretive questions and suggested new perspectives from which to view my material. Emily Toth gave the manuscript a biographer's close reading and offered suggestions that improved my narrative. I thank Charles J. Shindo for agreeing to read the nearly completed dissertation during the last stages of writing. Despite the gentle criticism of these good people, this work may still contain errors, omissions, and indiscretions; these are mine and mine alone. I also wish to thank Anne C. Loveland, chair of the History Department at Louisiana State University, who gave me personal support when I needed it. I am grateful iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. to the late Sally Hunter Graham for encouraging me to pursue women's history. Many informants, some of whom opened their homes and their hearts to me, shared their memories of Christine Frederick and her family. They are all listed in my bibliography, but I must express my special thanks to Jean Joyce, Christine's only surviving child, without whose impeccable memory and tolerance for probing questions, this work would lack the humanity her stories give it. I wish to thank the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America for a grant to help me complete my research in their collections. Louise Dougher and the volunteers at the Greenlawn- Centerport Historical Association went to great lengths to help me locate deed records. Professor Natalie A. Naylor of Hofstra University guided me to sources she has uncovered in her work on Long Island women. And I owe special thanks to Kathryn K. Conoly who handles interlibrary borrowing at Atlanta-Fulton Public Library. Through the long months of research, she provided access to many of the primary sources upon which I built my work. All of these lovely people have contributed to my success in completing what has been at times a lonely pursuit. And all of them have my undying gratitude. v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION..............................................................................................................iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...................................................................................... iv ABSTRACT ...............................................................................................................vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................1 2 PROLOGUE ....................................................................................... 12 3 "ONLY A GIRL" ............................................................................... 36 4 CONCEIVING A CAREER: SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT . 91 5 APPLECROFT: PRESERVING THE H O M E ..................................150 6 ACCOMMODATING PROGRESSIVISM .....................................198 VOLUME II 7 BECOMING MRS. CONSUMER ..................................................251 8 SELLING OUT MRS. CONSUMER............................................... 306 9 THE TWILIGHT OF A CAREER: FROM APPLECROFT TO L A G U N A ............................................355 10 EPILOGUE ....................................................................................... 414 SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY...................................................................................... 432 APPENDIX: CHRONOLOGY OF CHRISTINE FREDERICK'S L IF E ................ 456 VITA ......................................................................................................................... 460 vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT Christine Frederick was a home efficiency expert who worked out of her home experiment station, Appiscroft, in Greenlawn, New York, from 1910 to 1939. She advocated the application of scientific management, technology, and consumer awareness to homemaking. Frederick came of age during a time when feminism was opening a window of opportunity for middle-class, educated, white women. By the time she graduated from Northwestern University, the nineteenth-century doctrine of separate spheres was being challenged. Charlotte Perkins Gilman's critique of the single-family home had been published, the woman suffrage campaign would gain new momentum within the next few years, and women were entering professions heretofore closed to them. Although she took full advantage of these developments, Frederick recognized that most middle- class Americans still held traditional beliefs about gender roles. Fashioning a career upon the premise that woman's place was in the home, she was able to fulfill her need to succeed in the public sphere. She capitalized on trends such as

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