Betty Crocker's Homemakers Creed

Betty Friedan wasn't the only Betty who knew about "the problem without a name." In fact, long before The Feminine Mystique was published, women were writing to Betty Crocker expressing major domestic dystopia. Betty's solution? Create a club, the Betty Crocker American Home Legion, to celebrate homemaking. The Homemakers Creed (see above) was send to every member. Notice how the wording is genderless? If you want to know more about this topic, I write extensively about it in my book on Betty Crocker.

Betty Crocker Search for the American Homemaker of Tomorrow

I love your Betty Crocker scholarship stories. Keep 'em coming! Were you a Betty Crocker scholarship winner? At your high school? And did you make it to finals? Did you win the national scholarship? How did it impact your life?

Funny, I've heard from so many people that they won at the high school level, but were not interested in Home Economics. More often than not, I hear that the winner was just "good at taking tests."

I just have to share this photo with you. It was one the favorites in my private collection and was given to me by a former Crockette. (the one writing in the book) This is from the first Betty Crocker Kitchens in downtown Minneapolis. Don't you just love it? It's so overly posed that it's charming.

Betty Crocker Search for the American Homemaker of Tomorrow

I love hearing your Betty Crocker Search for the American Homemaker of Tomorrow Scholarship stories. Keep sending them my way!

I'm also still hoping to hear from a state or national winner. Recently, I paged through this test to see how I would fair. And I say without the least bit of modestly that I would have failed. This test is tough! I've heard over and over again from winners (at the high school level) that it was an easy test. I'm mystified. I think the winners are smarter than they realize.

But still, some questions are fairly easy. Here is a sample question:

A homemaker will enjoy her housekeeping task more if she:

A. has the right equipment.
B. has someone to talk to while working
C. does the task systematically and regularly.
D. has a working plan suitable to herself and her family.


I'm guessing the answer is "D". I say this because I don't have the answer key - just the questions. This was a timed test, so the participants could not spend too much time on one question.

Do any of you remember the questions from the test? Do you remember your answers?

Betty Crocker Search for the American Homemaker of Tomorrow Scholarship

The Betty Crocker scholarship program was an unbelievably interesting scholarship program. General Mills awarded millions of dollars to high school senior girls (and later on boys). And they didn't even have to major in home economics.

I wasn't able to include anything about the scholarship in my book because ten years ago I couldn't locate any national or state Betty Crocker scholarship winners to interview. Now, don't get my wrong, I've spoken with many winners from individual high schools. Any many have shown up to my book events wearing their Betty Crocker Homemaker pins and all of them claim they knew nothing about home economics, they were just good test takers.

One woman told me that she just took the test in 1968 just to get out of class and wound up with the highest score. She was honored at an all-school assembly. She was no Betty Crocker and her friends haven't let her live it down to this day.

If you are a former recipient of a Betty Crocker Scholarship, I would love to hear your story. Also I would love to see some photos!

****2016 Update****
Keep those stories coming! And if you have related-photos I would love to see them. And if you just stumbled upon my blog for the first time, take the time to check out all the comments on this post. These histories are fantastic.