‘Why not be honest and happy? Live within your income and make it cover the truest kind of living.’
What is the household and for what purpose is it created? How should one create an effective household within one’s means? Ellen H. S. Richards, the founder of the home economics movement, took these questions very seriously. For her, the household is not merely a place for people to live, but a foundation for personal health and societal improvement. In The Cost of Shelter, Richards laid out the methods for creating a sustainable household and the ways to contribute to social improvement through better living.
Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards was America’s first female professional chemist and the founder of the home economics movement. She also pioneered the field of sanitary engineering and was the first woman to be admitted into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.