Household Service Demonstration Project
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Image:Works Progress Administration maid poster.jpg
The Household Service Demonstration Project (HSDP) was a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project designed to train women for domestic employment.{{cite book|last=Abramovitz|first=Mimi|title=Regulating the Lives of Women: Social Welfare Policy from Colonial Times to the Present|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a5I-yK2SltIC&pg=PA283|accessdate=August 4, 2013|date=January 1996|publisher=South End Press|isbn=978-0-89608-551-0|page=283}}
History
The project was an offshoot of the Household Workers’ Training Program. The WPA announced the project in March 1937.{{cite web|url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/baltsun/access/1795211092.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Mar+21,+1937&author=&pub=The+Sun+(1837-1985)&desc=WPA+TO+CONTINUE+DOMESTIC+TRAINING&pqatl=google |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104163401/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/baltsun/access/1795211092.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Mar+21,+1937&author=&pub=The+Sun+(1837-1985)&desc=WPA+TO+CONTINUE+DOMESTIC+TRAINING&pqatl=google |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 4, 2012 |title=Wpa To Continue Domestic Training |publisher=Pqasb.pqarchiver.com |date=March 21, 1937 |accessdate=January 31, 2011}} It got under way around July 1937{{cite book|title=The Personnel and Guidance Journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tdWgAAAAMAAJ|accessdate=August 4, 2013|year=1938|publisher=American Association for Counseling and Development}} and ended it in January 1942.{{cite book|title=Final Report on the WPA Program, 1935-43|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P3TaAAAAMAAJ|accessdate=August 4, 2013|year=1947|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office}} The project was formally authorized by United States Congress in 1938. It offered training and employment in WPA training centers{{cite book|title=Monthly labor review|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tg4XAQAAIAAJ|accessdate=August 4, 2013|year=1940}} giving demonstrations of housework.{{cite book|title=The Journal of Home Economics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FbtOAAAAYAAJ|accessdate=August 4, 2013|year=1939|publisher=American Home Economics Association.}} The WPA designed it to promote the employment of women certified as qualified for private household employment and to promote the techniques of household service.{{cite book|title=Staff Study No.1-[19]|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0iIeAAAAMAAJ|accessdate=August 4, 2013|year=1939|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office}}
Accomplishments
The project trained 30,000 women.{{cite book|last=Costa|first=Mariarosa Dalla|title=Dinero, perlas y flores en la reproducción feminista|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N9VOkNuPMQ4C&pg=PA245|accessdate=August 4, 2013|date=October 30, 2009|publisher=Ediciones Akal|isbn=978-84-460-2716-4|page=245}} Middle-aged women were preferred due to the perceived unreliability and increased risk of marriage of younger women.{{cite web|url=http://content.wsulibs.wsu.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/clipping_II&CISOPTR=22300&CISOBOX=1&REC=7 |title=WSU Libraries : Item Viewer |publisher=Content.wsulibs.wsu.edu |date=August 8, 1937 |accessdate=January 31, 2011}} The project employed 1,700 women to give two- and three-month courses in cooking and serving food, house and child care, washing, ironing, and marketing.{{cite book|last=Kelley|first=Mary|title=Woman's Being, Woman's Place: Female Identity and Vocation in American History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xB4qAAAAYAAJ|accessdate=August 4, 2013|year=1979|publisher=Hall|isbn=978-0-8161-8324-1}} Other skills taught included table setting, home management, budgeting and knitting.
The Program
In Washington, during the course of their training, trainees were paid $46 a month.
After passing written and oral exams, diplomas were awarded to graduates.{{cite web|url=http://content.wsulibs.wsu.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/clipping_II&CISOPTR=22299&CISOBOX=1&REC=4 |title=WSU Libraries : Item Viewer |publisher=Content.wsulibs.wsu.edu |date=July 25, 1937 |accessdate=January 31, 2011}} After completing training, a graduate could make $60 a month as a domestic.
Locations
Demonstration sites were located at 400 South Capitol Street in Washington, DC,{{cite book|title=Hearings|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DroJAAAAIAAJ|accessdate=August 4, 2013|year=1939}} and at 217 E Boone Ave in Spokane, Washington.
Assessments
The HSDP was called Eleanor Roosevelt’s favorite project.{{cite web|url=http://content.wsulibs.wsu.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/clipping_II&CISOPTR=22305&CISOBOX=1&REC=17 |title=WSU Libraries : Item Viewer |publisher=Content.wsulibs.wsu.edu |date=August 25, 1937 |accessdate=January 31, 2011}} It was part of the WPA’s traditional emphasis.{{cite web |url=http://www.historycooperative.org/cgi-bin/justtop.cgi?act=justtop&url=http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jah/95.4/green.html |title=Table of Contents — March 2009, 95 (4) — Journal of American History |publisher=Historycooperative.org |date=March 1, 2009 |accessdate=January 31, 2011 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://archive.today/20120801125738/http://www.historycooperative.org/cgi-bin/justtop.cgi?act=justtop&url=http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jah/95.4/green.html |archivedate=August 1, 2012 |df=mdy-all }} The assistant state supervisor of seven household service projects in Pennsylvania was reported as saying, "There is something so obvious about a woman working in a home that I wonder why a project such as this wasn't begun many years ago."