This book focuses on the domestic economy movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which intended to transform agrarian society and improve rural life through the education of rural women. The movement considered women to be partners in business with their farmer husbands and pursued the goal of making rural women more able managers and larger economic contributors. One of the basic attitudes domestic economy advocates wished to convey, and one to which women responded, was that a woman's place in agriculture was multifaceted and important. The first chapter describes the farm scene during this period. Scientific farming methods and mechanization were changing rural America, and the role of rural women was evolving, too. The second chapter describes the domestic economy movement as an organized movement directed at women that could coexist with the scientific farming campaign. It focused on home utensils, mechanized appliances, and an improved work environment in the home. Farmers' institutes, the early forum for the domestic economy movement, gave way to courses at agricultural colleges, and the third chapter describes how home extension education grew out of this. The fourth chapter examines health care and nutrition programs, which aimed to improve child health and to lower rates of malnutrition, infant mortality, and maternal death in childbirth. Chapter five describes rural school reforms intended to stem increasing rural-to-urban migration, particularly by young women. Chapter six presents the 4-H club movement. Aimed at keeping youth on the farm, it offered social and recreational, as well as educational, opportunities. Contains references in endnotes, a bibliographical essay, photographs, and an index. (TD)