ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses how home economics schooling was developed in Denmark in the 20th century. It traces the historical conditions for the development of home economics as a school subject and its contribution to the development of public health and the social position of women. Drawing on Foucault's concepts of biopower and governmentality, the analysis considers contradictions and what is privileged in relation to something else, in relation to power and welfare-state theories and in relation to the reproduction of gender. By taking ownership of the subject, its definition, practices, and unwritten rules and expectations, women in Denmark ensured that the school kitchens in implicit ways belonged to them. This domesticating of the public sphere was very much in line with the Nordic welfare-state idea of the state as the ‘home of the people’, which, despite numerous backlashes, meant that women entered the public sphere and gained more education.
