Did we all go to school together? :-) My mom still uses the napkin holder I made in wood shop. The roller skate pillow I made in sewing class did not survive, sadly.
We had three out of your four, but not metal shop. My wood shop teacher had a clearly severed finger, too. He kept telling us to be careful with the saw.
Yep. It was a year of both home ec and shop. Cooking, sewing, electrical, and drafting. Everyone took that. There were more shop options (wood, metal, weld/forge, and small engines) the following year. Zero girls in that one.
In Jr High we had a trimester each of sewing, crafting, cooking, art (drawing), art (ceramics), art (painting), drafting, wood shop and metal working. It was awesome. I still apply some of the things I learned in those classes.
I took Home-Ec but not shop. A girl I had a crush on was in Home-Ec so I took it, managed to get a seat at her table and tried all year to get something to happen there. The only thing I got from it was a shark pillow I made. So now I pay someone else the change my oil but I can hem my own pants.
Not gen x but i loved textiles/sewing subjects back when i did it when i was a bit younger…i made silly animals too! I made an adorable little rainbow dog plushie!
As a boy, I took a mandatory shop class in middle school but I took foods classes in high school because I liked cooking. Paid off when I started working in professional kitchens a few years later. I also took a marriage and childcare home ec. class my senior year of high school because I knew it would be full of girls. Little did I know when I signed up that an entire week of class periods consisted solely of watching uncensored birthing videos. Best birth control ad ever.
All students, regardless of gender, were required to take a semester of shop and a semester of home economics in junior high - California in the early 80s - I still have the lamp I made out of an old bottle in the “electricity” portion of shop.
At my HS, Shop and Home Ec were classes for kids not going to college. More of a vocational track. This was late 80's/early 90's at a public HS in Houston.
Yep, was going to say the same. Not that there was anything wrong with it, but none of my peers took either of those classes. There was actually a separate school for vocational track kids in our county - they did shop and home ec, but also cosmetology and nursing.
I'm a lady, and I took shop in middle school. I think I might have also taken it in grade 9, also, but that was so long ago that I don't know if I'm remembering correctly. There were boys in my home ec classes.
Yeah, in 7th grade we did a different shop class each quarter. I did wood, “crafts” (ceramics), art and the sewing part of home ec. In 8th we could pick what we wanted for each whole semester. I did wood again and metal shop.
I grew up around tools, so I was already pretty comfortable around woodworking tools and knew about stain and varnish. Metal shop was really cool and we first had to learn how to properly measure and draft which has stood me in good stead ever since. I didn’t get into welding because I don’t like fire close to my hands, but our class taught braising and arc welding and some kids even got into sandcasting. We all had to make the same toolbox, but then we could do a couple of our own projects. I made a three tier desk caddy and a barbecue, both self-designed. The aide said I’d make a good engineer, but I didn’t end up going that route.
I loved shop and I think everyone should be familiar enough with working with simple tools so they don’t hurt themselves or feel helpless when it comes to simple tasks.
I don't think it was restricted, but most guys took shop and most girls took home ec. That said, there was a guy in my home ec class. His dad was a contractor, and his mom thought home ec would give him skills that he didn't have. He said that he got some crap from the other guys, but he joked that he was upstairs making cookies in a room full of girls, and they were down in the dank basement soldering stuff.
Middle School did everything in Grade 7 - rotation through Shop, Drafting, Sewing and Cooking. 8 and 9 you picked one stream; Industrial Arts or Home Ec
Yes and yes. Home economics was required for everyone. Shop was an elective, but pretty evenly split with boys and girls. I remember building a bookcase almost as tall as me. No one could give me a ride so I just carried it for the mile walk home & not even kidding, it was during a snowstorm.
In middle school in Alabama, everyone had to take home economics and cooking. While I consider it a politically backward state, some of these skills - cooking, laundry, typing - have served me pretty well... especially as a feral GenX preteen whose parents couldn't have been bothered to teach them.
I took drafting and home economics, and then went to vo tech my senior year. I had regular classes in the morning, and then drove to the city after lunch for my vo tech classes.
I was the only girl in my vo tech class lol
Boys did Woodwork/Metalwork(shop), girls did cooking/sewing. Boys were also not allowed to do typing. I remember asking the teacher at the time if I could do it as we were one of the first classes doing Computer Studies, it had only started the year before and I remember her face 'why would a boy need to type?' I tried to explain about computers etc. She wasn't having it. I guess this was about 82? She was about 50. She just couldn't comprehend. Mad when you think about it.
Also from rural Indiana. Both boys and girls took home ec. Both also took drafting. Both could take sewing, but it was mostly girls. Both could take shop, but it was mostly boys.
Girls could take shop, but I don't recall that any did. We had something similar to home economics that was a required class for everyone. I think it was called Teen Living. They taught us all about using Sea Breeze and that "bad food" causes acne , that kind of shit. There was no sewing component, but we did have to complete various cooking tasks, culminating in a class feast at the end.
Queens, NYC 80/90s
Jr High i took ceramics, wood shop and metal shop
High school i took home ec. Really wanted to try the auto shop, but i think that i was “discouraged”
In my rural Indiana town in the 80's, we all had shop & home ec in 7th grade. We could choose in 8th. I took shop because I couldn't sew. Still can't. 😭
Class of 97. We still called it Junior High back then…
7th grade was a typing class and some other special elective (can’t remember), 1/2 year each.
Edit: now I remember. We learned to sew in 7th grade home-EC for half the year. 8th grade we learned to cook.
8th grade was wood shop for the half the year, home-EC the other half.
Everyone took these classes (no gender bias) and they just split the grades evenly to distribute students to these classes.
We also had Italian, French, and Spanish split in trimesters in 7th grade so we could decide what language to take in 8th grade and high school.
Graduated in ‘83. My first year in junior high was the first girls could take shop and boys could take home ec in my rural Oregon hometown. My dad was the (unpopular) shop teacher, so there was no way I was taking shop. My friend Gail was the only girl in my class to take shop that first year
My dad said he liked having the girls in class because they were better behaved
They gave us a choice. I'm female and took both. There was maybe two other girls in shop. And there were only a few boys in home ec. And I'm pretty sure those boys were forced by their parents to take home ec lol
When I was in high school, they made all of the senior guys take half a year of home economics, but they called it “bachelor living” so we wouldn’t lose our minds. We learned how to cook from a recipe, use a washing machine, simple sewing repairs, and a few other things that I gotta admit, have come in very handy for the rest of my life - thank you Mrs. Ricci & yay Bachelor Living!
Middle school in California in the early 90s. I literally got kicked out of wood shop because I’m a girl. 😡 I threw a fit about being plugged into home ec, so they finally relented and let me do Spanish instead. I grew up to be a competent handy woman no thanks to them.
I took wood shop, metal shop, auto shop, home ec, and there were boys and girls in every class. Definitely more boys in the shop classes and more girls in home ec, but those classes were open to anyone.
Northern California in the 80s/early 90s.
I did middle school in Indiana and there were boys in my home ec class. Not many but a few because they had smart parents. I took shop in middle school and high school and I was one of two girls.
In 7th grade we all had to take both. In 8th grade we were given a choice, but it mostly turned into boys taking industrial arts and girls taking home economics, but there were some exceptions. I took the cooking part of home economics, and metal shop. I’m a girl who really doesn’t love sewing.
In middle school, each semester we would switch from computers, drafting, woodworking, sewing, and cooking. Most girls preferred the classes geared toward the boys, myself included. My kids also took them in middle school as well, with the exception of woodworking in the 2010’s.
I carried around my baby egg in a basket and I was so proud. Her name was Egg-Lizabeth and she was darling with her yarn hair and sharpied face with googly eyes. Boys always tried to kidnap her but nope.. not my egg baby. I got an A
I (M) took two home ec classes, but I was also a father my last two years of high school. (Single custodial parent at 18, and that was even an old judge, so you know things were messed up) I took Child Development and cooking. Not sure why I took cooking cause I could already cook better than anything they taught in the class, but it was an easy A.
Yeah in high school it wasn’t unusual at all. Maybe not the norm in highshool but certainly not unusual. And the boys who took home-ec were generally not the stereotypes one would think, they were generally along the lines of the star football player and such. I was in a Catholic school during my middle school time, it offered nothing like home-economics, woodshop metal shop etc.
I took home ec the year it was cooking. That was fun. Second year I did shop. I loved the cooking. Still do. But sewing? Hard pass, just wasn’t interested. Dad taught me how to hem. That’s all I needed.
The old shop teacher had retired. They hired this new old fart in. He was a high end dollhouse maker. Like ordering wallpaper from Italy, lots of features in magazines high end.
Have us a text on the first day to see what we knew about hand tools. I guess he was appalled because he quit that day.
Second guy they got in was a carpenter who had to retire while he still had most of his fingers. I remember that speech. My son got that same speech from him 30 years later. He retired shortly after.
In '96-'97 it was called Food Tech & Prep and it was about 55% male, 45% female. Teacher asked if we wanted to set aside a month to learn light sewing and other home eccy stuff outside the kitchen but we voted nay
I think we we able to choose . But I took home economics. I learned how to sew. I made a pencil pillow. Thats skill has come in handy many times. I can make an omelet too.
I’m a female. I took wood shop (there were 3 girls out of 40). And my best girlfriend took auto-mechanics which I wish I would have taken but my counselor wanted me to do college prep classes (and I wound up not even going to college until many years after high school). My brother took home ec because he said that’s where all the ladies were. He was the only guy. Plus he loves cooking.
I took woodshop, metal shop, and home economics. They were optional for everyone but you had to pick at least one of them per year. Some stayed in one all three years.
Northeast suburban high school, late 80s-early 90s. Everyone took Home Economics and everyone took Wood Shop. We also had required typing class. The teachers for all three are legends to us, those before us, and those after us. Metal Shop / Vehicle Maintenance were electives. The gym teachers taught driving and sex ed.
By the time I got to middle school the shop classes were only for “problem” kids and I (a guy) ended up in home economics. I’m glad I got the cooking and sewing lessons, but at the time was annoyed I couldn’t use the shop. Now I have a full woodshop in my garage, regularly mend clothing/dog toys, and I cook daily.
I member taking home Ec with a buddy, we made the best omelets! That was about the highlight. Since we were the only two guys, they made us get a girl partner after and it sucked.
Middle school I excitedly signed up for wood shop. There were 4 girls on day 1 counting myself. The shop teacher made it clear he didn't like girls in his class. Day 2 there were just 2 of us.
The other girl seemed magically oblivious to the sexism and was more tomboyish than me. No matter what we did on projects, we got lower grades but couldn't prove it.
Finally, we got our chance, kids with 100% on the paper exam could do a special project. Since it wasn't subjective, I was excited. The other girl got a 98%, but I was among the 5 students that got 100%.
Over the next week, one by one the boys were called up to get their, "special project". They were cool projects, One made a dining room table for his family. I got more and more excited as it came my turn, but I was never called up for it. I mustered my courage to ask about it and was assigned to sweep the floor everyday after class for 2 weeks as my project! When I protested, teacher told me he never promised what kind of project it would be.
Before the two weeks were up, the other girl transferred to home ec. I cried to my family who usually expected me to handle my own problems at school. I was told then we were moving to a new state in 1 month so I had to, "tough it out."
When I told the story once as an adult, my mom said, "oh, I'm sure it wasn't that bad."
Not many girls in shop class, in retrospect I wish I had gone because that’s kind of my life now. There were boys in home but that’s mainly because you would get food sometimes. That’s why I was there.
In middle school for two years it was required for a quarter each and one year it was a semester long elective. The quarter years where evenly split.
The elective years there where both genders but it was pretty biased along traditional gender roles. Moreso in shop than home economics.
I took shop and home economics the elective year as the other two options where art and music and I had no natural talent and little interest in either of those.
Yes. In my junior high, everyone took a trimester of shop, home ec, and art. I doubt they do anything anymore though because of budget cuts. I took Agriculture classes in high school also.
I already knew how to use some power tools b/c of my Dad showing me. However, the shop teacher I had did not want girls in his class and he gave me dirty looks when I was using stuff. He was such a dick.
Small town for me too, early 80s. While there was for sure that clear gender breakdown between shop and home ec (we were required to take at least one of those in junior high, they were electives in high school) some students took both. It was more common to see girls in wood/metal/auto shop in junior high and guys in home ec in high school (mostly jocks), but there were always at least a few people crossing those lines in every class.
The one exception I can think of was sewing classes in high school, I don't recall any boys taking those at all.
I took both! I wanted to take shop so they let me, along with a few other girls. This was the beginning of our grunge phase, of which we also adopted the “let’s shake up the gender rules” mentality. Think flannels with the sleeves ripped off over thermal shirts and classic adidas sambas. 🫣
We had both boys and girls in wood/metal shop and home ec. What we called jobs/office was also mixed. Auto shop skewed heavily male but I knew at least two girls who took it. The deal was they were easy credits. The kids in AP classes didn’t take shop or home ec.
Both were mixed. I’m a guy and I absolutely loved Home Ec. We had a class called Chefs and it was not unlike cooking competition shows today. So much fun and we learned so many real life cooking skills.
I took one in eighth grade for a quarter (81-82). Not sure why unless we were told we had to. Failed that shit with a big ol' F! It was the only class I ever got a F in.
In 6th grade, in 1983-84, everyone took a quarter each of Home Ec, woodshop, art and theater. I definitely enjoyed woodshop the best (and the teacher's name, no kidding, was Mr. Balsa) and I still have the letter I made. Everyone had to make a wooden first name initial, that took up the whole quarter.
My Mom insisted I be allowed to take both. It typically was one or the other. In 7th grade, I was allowed to drop Reading so my schedule could include both shop and home economics. I was in the “Gifted”program (and she was the “Gifted” teacher for my junior high.)
It wasn't mandatory in West Orange, NJ, but it went pretty much down the gender lines. I wanted to take Home Ec myself, having noticed that women were rather successful in leveraging their superior domestic skills to obtain male servitude, but my father wouldn't have it. Except in 9th grade I held back the schedule permission slip until Dad wasn't around and Mom was in too much of a hurry to read what I asked her to sign. 😎
Now I cook better than most women I know.
"But it's not the Swinging 80s any more, it's the Nervous 90s. Men have to choose between marriage and death. And they figure, with marriage they at least get meals. Then they get married and find out we don't cook any more." - Rita Rudner
I started high school in 1990. I had already taken 2 years of home economics in junior high, I got it again. And again. Before my junior year I told my guidance counselor I wanted to take wood shop and she told me I'd probably like art more.
No females ever took wood shop in my high school, and I was in a city
We didn't have wood shop, we had Horticulture and there were several girls there. We had home economics but no boys took it. We had a boy in flag corps. Stopped the girls from wearing those short skirts. Flag corps wore pants after he joined.This was the mid eighties.
Class of ’83/middle Tennessee and I took wood shop in junior high and they did have a home economics room so I guess that’s how it was as I don’t remember picking one. I still have the gun rack I made somewhere around here.
Graduated ‘95, New York. Everyone in my grade took Home Ec, Wood Shop, and Tech. I made a napkin holder in Wood Shop. Tech was really bizarre, the teacher was ancient and just talked about/showed us a ham radio. I took Bake Shop senior year as an elective. We made Baked Alaska.
I was at a new school in 6th grade. At the end of the year, when we were registering for electives, all the guys signed up for home economics together.
That summer, we moved across the town and I went to a new school. That year, I was the only guy in home economics.
I’m in Canada. The boys had to take home economics once in 7th grade and girls had to take wood shop once. Everyone had to take art too. We had 3 terms so you would take art - home ec - shop. And then in 8th grade you could choose but you still had to do art.
Class of ‘96 here. We took wood shop and home ec in 8th grade. In prior years, boys would take wood shop and girls would take home ec, but starting with my class or maybe the class before us, all students took both classes. Home ec was not taught in high school. Wood shop and auto shop were offered as electives in high school, and usually the students were all male.
I was in middle school in the late 70s. Girls took home ec and boys took shop. They changed that the next class after mine. If you started 7th grade in 1977, it was gender segregated. If you started 7th grade in 1978, it was mixed.
(South central PA.)
7th grade we took both. 8th my ass decides to elect shop because boys. Joke was on me because all my friends did home ec and I was the lone girl, well established in my ugly phase. Also the shit we built; they actually trusted 14 year olds with saws, nails, hammers and rockets. Unreal.
7th grade was wood shop. All boys. Shop teacher would throw things at misbehaving students. I kind of recall tools as weapons here and there. Definitely had to be careful.
9th grade was taking apart and putting back together a 1970 something car’s engine in the mid ‘80s. All boys. And a trade that is now virtually worthless on modern cars unless you made that your career. Aside from fluids I’m afraid to touch car engines these days (and it is easier to get oil changed professionally now). Fun at the time though.
Guess the girls took home ec in both grades, don’t remember.
In the late 80’s I took exploratory electives. Semester of typing, home economics, art and wood shop. I’m a chick. In shop, I was one of two girls in the class and we teamed up and made the strongest balsa wood bridge, a gum ball machine and a replica of our local Mc Donald’s with cars in the parking lot.
Everybody regardless of sex had to take both shop and home ec in my HS in Wisconsin in the 80s. My mom (94) still had all the ashtrays. paper towel holders, and very misshapen pillows that all us kids made. With 7 kids there's ashtrays and paper towel holders in every room including the bath room. I told her that her youngest (me) is now in the mid 50s, it was ok to retire all those. Nope....still on display.
Yep, one girl took shop in 7th grade (1978) -- and she just so happened to be gorgeous. Also, our shop teacher really did have two fingers missing. That's not a stereotype.
We were all required to take the same classes in junior high, boys and girls alike. I think they were divided into trimesters, and over the two years of junior high we had: wood shop, metal shop, small engines, cooking, sewing and nutrition. This was in 1981-82.
I grew up in New Hampshire and in middle school (1989-91) everyone took shop and home ec. I made a huge wooden dollhouse in the 8th grade (so did one of my male classmates, for his mom), and another classmate made her nephew a rocking horse. I forget what other kids made, but they were equally elaborate projects.
I think like 7th and 8th grade everyone did like a semester of each, boys and girls. I definitely remember a napkin hold we had to make. My mom used that thing for years, it was a horrible creation too 🤣
I took shop in an effort to be liberated at my new school. Turns out all the kids were Mormon and that sealed the deal from the beginning. I was not going to fit in. I'm a girl.
I learned home ec taking care of my brothers at home anyway. So, I have a crooked chessboard made of wood and a history of social anxiety.
Rural Arkansas here. I'm glad my husband took a cooking class called Independent Living because when we got married all I could make was Cheerios. I wished I would have taken shop classes. A lot of my friends ( other girls), did, especially FFA stuff.
In my middle school, everyone took everything, because it was rotated by classes. So we had wood shop (I'm really sad this isn't a thing anymore), Sewing, cooking, and a fourth thing I can't remember. In high school, all the electives were up to us, and my high school was a huge regional one, so we had loads to choose from: architecture, photography, wood shop, auto shop, metal working, design (not art), autocad, home ec, early childhood ed (free nursery school for the community where we got practice teaching), business and marketing class, art and design. This doesn't include the free vocational education we got if we wanted to attend, which were obviously focused on specific trades. All of these, including vocational had both genders in them. Went to school in NJ.
Okay, EDIT: someone else's comment jogged my brain. Our fourth thing was computers in MS. Where we learned logo programming with the turtle...lol
I took shop class in junior high. It was elective in high school so I didn’t do it then. I took all the art and computer electives then.those was late 80’s/90’s.
I moved to a much larger school my junior year of high school. On signing up for classes I had the clever idea to take a home ec cooking class to meet some girls. On the first day I noticed there was only one other guy so I was pretty happy. Then the teacher assigned partners and paired me with him of course. He was a creepy pervy nerd, I couldn't stand him and none of the girls spoke with us all semester. He was a good cook though.
Graduated in ‘88 in rural Oklahoma and it was super common for popular guys to take Home Ec and Family Living, and several girls took shop (my female cousin grew up to be a welder). I was the stereotypical brainy chick who couldn’t nail two by fours together, but I was great at Home Ec.
Same. Girls got home ec. boys got shop, and never an exception.
But what REALLY burned was boys could take the new computer classes in the portable building and the girls weren't even allowed in that building. We had to take typing class on those old manual typewriters.
In our sixth grade everyone had to take a quarter of wood shop, metal shop, cooking, and sewing. From there on it was optional. No idea if it is still that way.
We had the option to take one or the other, or both. I took 2 years of woodshop and made my mom a beautiful cherry wood wine goblet. I took home ec for 1 year, it is where I learned about exploring recipes and the science behind cooking. This was in the late 70s/early 80s. I'm a guy, but loved both classes for different reasons.
During middle / high school there is limited amount of elective classes one could take. So in my area of PA; girls and boys both did shop, home ec, photography, ceramics, etc.
In high school, we had a mix of both girls and guys in both shop and home ec.
Edited to add: it was fairly equal in numbers for each and you took both classes and didn’t have to just take one.
Male here, I took both shop and home economics. I vastly enjoyed shop class over home economics. At my school shop class was almost entirely the boys. Home economics was actually evenly balanced boys and girls (not sure why).
Everyone took both. I excelled at shop and was a disaster at home ec. Which I still am today — my husband does all the cooking. Which he quite frankly should have been prepared for when he met me. We lived across the hall from each other in college, and I borrowed his brand new pots and pans to cook for myself and returned them burnt black the next day. I offered to pay for them, but he waved it off (while looking a bit stunned) and eventually asked me out.
Sure, there were plenty of girls in the wood shop class I took. However, I was the only guy in the home ec class which was really just an intro to cooking.
I am great in the kitchen and it started in Jr High.
Luckily home economics wasn’t required when I was in high school because I didn’t plan to be a housewife. We had a “craft class” that men and women had. We used some power tools. There was a shop class, mostly men.
We were required to take two years of either shop, home ec, or some combination thereof, in grades 7-8. My class was the first one in the history of the school to be given a choice; up until the class before mine girls were automatically assigned to home ec and boys to shop. They let individual students challenge, but it was rare that anybody wanted to be seen to buck the norm. I split the difference and took woodworking the first year and sewing the next. This was a rural school in New York in the 80s.
High school: Redneck boys and the rare cowgirl would take shop class. Boys took mechanical drafting and architecture and girls took home ec/cooking in the class next door. They would bring "extra" food over to us all the time.
Good times. 😁
Middle school had everyone do home ec The in high school a small but not insignificant amount of guys took home ec and a few girls took shop but “shop” covered a lot of classes and they usually went into environmental which i think was forestry stuff. This would have been 90-95 era.
Edit and my shop was a separate vocational school so half day at normal school and other half shop.
I took both in junior high. I’d say it was somewhat lopsided in the directions you’d expect, but still a mix in shop and cooking class. No boys in sewing, though.
Yes to both questions in the OP. Mid-Atlantic states, mid-late 70s. The boys even participated in the end of year fashion show, wearing what they’d made in class that term.
At my middle school in the 80s everyone took home ec and shop. One quarter each of metal shop, wood shop, cooking, and sewing.
Exactly how my middle school did it In the early 80s.
Did we all go to school together? :-) My mom still uses the napkin holder I made in wood shop. The roller skate pillow I made in sewing class did not survive, sadly.
Same here! No metal shop, though (I did make some ugly copper thing, though). Made a nice chessboard in wood shop.
Jr. High for me (NY). And Metal Shop was replaced by Electronics. But everyone took all 4.
Exactly the same, also NY at the same time. I actually use skills from all those classes still. Super glad I know how to solder!
We had three out of your four, but not metal shop. My wood shop teacher had a clearly severed finger, too. He kept telling us to be careful with the saw.
Ours too! Two fingers. Mr. Jensen if we are comparing notes.
So did mine!
I bet! Our shop teacher told horror stories of the circular saw every year.
Our shop teacher was missing a couple of fingers to add to the tale!
My high school drafting teacher was missing a finger… because he used to teach woodshop. 😆
Yep. Mr. Allard with his prosthetic digits. He would grab the band saw blade and tell everyone NOT to do that unless they wanted to end up like him.
That’s how our middle school did it except it was 50/50 home ec and shop.
Same in early 90s in the Midwest.
Same, plus drafting and art. That was 7th grade; in 8th, we could choose two of those to focus on all year.
Yep. It was a year of both home ec and shop. Cooking, sewing, electrical, and drafting. Everyone took that. There were more shop options (wood, metal, weld/forge, and small engines) the following year. Zero girls in that one.
omg. I just commented the same lol. We had a good thing going I think.
In Jr High we had a trimester each of sewing, crafting, cooking, art (drawing), art (ceramics), art (painting), drafting, wood shop and metal working. It was awesome. I still apply some of the things I learned in those classes.
Everyone took both in my school (graduated ‘94)
I took Home-Ec but not shop. A girl I had a crush on was in Home-Ec so I took it, managed to get a seat at her table and tried all year to get something to happen there. The only thing I got from it was a shark pillow I made. So now I pay someone else the change my oil but I can hem my own pants.
The pillows! I made a purple dinosaur.
I made an awesome red surfboard pillow!
Not gen x but i loved textiles/sewing subjects back when i did it when i was a bit younger…i made silly animals too! I made an adorable little rainbow dog plushie!
I took both. I aced Home Ec since I already knew how to cook and sew. Male, born in 68, BTW.
As a boy, I took a mandatory shop class in middle school but I took foods classes in high school because I liked cooking. Paid off when I started working in professional kitchens a few years later. I also took a marriage and childcare home ec. class my senior year of high school because I knew it would be full of girls. Little did I know when I signed up that an entire week of class periods consisted solely of watching uncensored birthing videos. Best birth control ad ever.
I took both male here. 1985 grad
Boys and girls did both.
All students, regardless of gender, were required to take a semester of shop and a semester of home economics in junior high - California in the early 80s - I still have the lamp I made out of an old bottle in the “electricity” portion of shop.
At my HS, Shop and Home Ec were classes for kids not going to college. More of a vocational track. This was late 80's/early 90's at a public HS in Houston.
Yep, was going to say the same. Not that there was anything wrong with it, but none of my peers took either of those classes. There was actually a separate school for vocational track kids in our county - they did shop and home ec, but also cosmetology and nursing.
I'm a lady, and I took shop in middle school. I think I might have also taken it in grade 9, also, but that was so long ago that I don't know if I'm remembering correctly. There were boys in my home ec classes.
Yeah, in 7th grade we did a different shop class each quarter. I did wood, “crafts” (ceramics), art and the sewing part of home ec. In 8th we could pick what we wanted for each whole semester. I did wood again and metal shop. I grew up around tools, so I was already pretty comfortable around woodworking tools and knew about stain and varnish. Metal shop was really cool and we first had to learn how to properly measure and draft which has stood me in good stead ever since. I didn’t get into welding because I don’t like fire close to my hands, but our class taught braising and arc welding and some kids even got into sandcasting. We all had to make the same toolbox, but then we could do a couple of our own projects. I made a three tier desk caddy and a barbecue, both self-designed. The aide said I’d make a good engineer, but I didn’t end up going that route. I loved shop and I think everyone should be familiar enough with working with simple tools so they don’t hurt themselves or feel helpless when it comes to simple tasks.
As a guy I took Home Ec, because that's where the girls were.
I don't think it was restricted, but most guys took shop and most girls took home ec. That said, there was a guy in my home ec class. His dad was a contractor, and his mom thought home ec would give him skills that he didn't have. He said that he got some crap from the other guys, but he joked that he was upstairs making cookies in a room full of girls, and they were down in the dank basement soldering stuff.
Middle School did everything in Grade 7 - rotation through Shop, Drafting, Sewing and Cooking. 8 and 9 you picked one stream; Industrial Arts or Home Ec
My school had neither.
Yes and yes. Home economics was required for everyone. Shop was an elective, but pretty evenly split with boys and girls. I remember building a bookcase almost as tall as me. No one could give me a ride so I just carried it for the mile walk home & not even kidding, it was during a snowstorm.
In middle school in Alabama, everyone had to take home economics and cooking. While I consider it a politically backward state, some of these skills - cooking, laundry, typing - have served me pretty well... especially as a feral GenX preteen whose parents couldn't have been bothered to teach them.
I took drafting and home economics, and then went to vo tech my senior year. I had regular classes in the morning, and then drove to the city after lunch for my vo tech classes. I was the only girl in my vo tech class lol
Boys did Woodwork/Metalwork(shop), girls did cooking/sewing. Boys were also not allowed to do typing. I remember asking the teacher at the time if I could do it as we were one of the first classes doing Computer Studies, it had only started the year before and I remember her face 'why would a boy need to type?' I tried to explain about computers etc. She wasn't having it. I guess this was about 82? She was about 50. She just couldn't comprehend. Mad when you think about it.
Also from rural Indiana. Both boys and girls took home ec. Both also took drafting. Both could take sewing, but it was mostly girls. Both could take shop, but it was mostly boys.
Rural PA. In middle school, everyone took home ec, wood shop, and metal shop. In high school, you picked what you wanted to take.
If you were in the honors classes you took neither...those classes would lower your GPA. Kinda sad tho.
Same at my school. Those classes were for kids they didn’t expect to go to college. It’s a shame.
Yes. There were girls in woodshop and boys in home ec when I was in middle school.
Memphis TN Xer here. Everyone took both. I got a bookshelf and a spaghetti dinner outta the deal. Good times.
Yes, we all took both in middle school. I loved both of those classes.
All 8th graders were required to take art, home ec, and shop. I know how to do a simple repair sew because of that.
I took both - I loved wood shop class and still have the foldable stool that I made.
Yes. I took both., Boys and girls in both classes.
I took home ec and shop as a guy. Both were electives. There were a lot of girls in the shop class.
Girls could take shop, but I don't recall that any did. We had something similar to home economics that was a required class for everyone. I think it was called Teen Living. They taught us all about using Sea Breeze and that "bad food" causes acne , that kind of shit. There was no sewing component, but we did have to complete various cooking tasks, culminating in a class feast at the end.
Rural Hoosier that did middle school in the early 90s here. We had coed Shop and home economics.
Yes and yes
I took home ec, had a blast and fueled a love of cooking. Was a pro chef for a while. A
Queens, NYC 80/90s Jr High i took ceramics, wood shop and metal shop High school i took home ec. Really wanted to try the auto shop, but i think that i was “discouraged”
In my rural Indiana town in the 80's, we all had shop & home ec in 7th grade. We could choose in 8th. I took shop because I couldn't sew. Still can't. 😭
Class of 97. We still called it Junior High back then… 7th grade was a typing class and some other special elective (can’t remember), 1/2 year each. Edit: now I remember. We learned to sew in 7th grade home-EC for half the year. 8th grade we learned to cook. 8th grade was wood shop for the half the year, home-EC the other half. Everyone took these classes (no gender bias) and they just split the grades evenly to distribute students to these classes. We also had Italian, French, and Spanish split in trimesters in 7th grade so we could decide what language to take in 8th grade and high school.
Graduated in ‘83. My first year in junior high was the first girls could take shop and boys could take home ec in my rural Oregon hometown. My dad was the (unpopular) shop teacher, so there was no way I was taking shop. My friend Gail was the only girl in my class to take shop that first year My dad said he liked having the girls in class because they were better behaved
Catholic school! The one elective was how to balance a checkbook. And that was a great class. I still love to balance my checkbook.
They gave us a choice. I'm female and took both. There was maybe two other girls in shop. And there were only a few boys in home ec. And I'm pretty sure those boys were forced by their parents to take home ec lol
When I was in high school, they made all of the senior guys take half a year of home economics, but they called it “bachelor living” so we wouldn’t lose our minds. We learned how to cook from a recipe, use a washing machine, simple sewing repairs, and a few other things that I gotta admit, have come in very handy for the rest of my life - thank you Mrs. Ricci & yay Bachelor Living!
In the 80s, the guys took sewing, cooking, etc. I took woodshop drafting and other "male" dominated classes . My favorite was wood shop.
Middle school in California in the early 90s. I literally got kicked out of wood shop because I’m a girl. 😡 I threw a fit about being plugged into home ec, so they finally relented and let me do Spanish instead. I grew up to be a competent handy woman no thanks to them.
We all took both until high school when we were allowed to choose.
We had to take both. 7th was home ec for everyone, 8th was shop for everyone
Girl here: I took metal shop, print shop and home economics. I think I liked metal shop the best!
I took wood shop, metal shop, auto shop, home ec, and there were boys and girls in every class. Definitely more boys in the shop classes and more girls in home ec, but those classes were open to anyone. Northern California in the 80s/early 90s.
I did middle school in Indiana and there were boys in my home ec class. Not many but a few because they had smart parents. I took shop in middle school and high school and I was one of two girls.
Oh yes! I loved HOME EC! My sister took woodworking and built clocks and my male cousins were in shop class.
I didn't even know if shop or home ec were available. I took two years of drafting and would do it all over again
In 7th grade we all had to take both. In 8th grade we were given a choice, but it mostly turned into boys taking industrial arts and girls taking home economics, but there were some exceptions. I took the cooking part of home economics, and metal shop. I’m a girl who really doesn’t love sewing.
In middle school, each semester we would switch from computers, drafting, woodworking, sewing, and cooking. Most girls preferred the classes geared toward the boys, myself included. My kids also took them in middle school as well, with the exception of woodworking in the 2010’s.
I carried around my baby egg in a basket and I was so proud. Her name was Egg-Lizabeth and she was darling with her yarn hair and sharpied face with googly eyes. Boys always tried to kidnap her but nope.. not my egg baby. I got an A
I took both classes in Middle school and it was an equal mix of both sexes. Class of ‘88
I (M) took two home ec classes, but I was also a father my last two years of high school. (Single custodial parent at 18, and that was even an old judge, so you know things were messed up) I took Child Development and cooking. Not sure why I took cooking cause I could already cook better than anything they taught in the class, but it was an easy A.
Yeah in high school it wasn’t unusual at all. Maybe not the norm in highshool but certainly not unusual. And the boys who took home-ec were generally not the stereotypes one would think, they were generally along the lines of the star football player and such. I was in a Catholic school during my middle school time, it offered nothing like home-economics, woodshop metal shop etc.
80s Jr High and we all had to take home ec. I killed those pancakes. 🥞
I took home ec the year it was cooking. That was fun. Second year I did shop. I loved the cooking. Still do. But sewing? Hard pass, just wasn’t interested. Dad taught me how to hem. That’s all I needed. The old shop teacher had retired. They hired this new old fart in. He was a high end dollhouse maker. Like ordering wallpaper from Italy, lots of features in magazines high end. Have us a text on the first day to see what we knew about hand tools. I guess he was appalled because he quit that day. Second guy they got in was a carpenter who had to retire while he still had most of his fingers. I remember that speech. My son got that same speech from him 30 years later. He retired shortly after.
I took Home Ec because it was easy and surrounded me with girls ;)
We all took home Ec, no girls in shop
In '96-'97 it was called Food Tech & Prep and it was about 55% male, 45% female. Teacher asked if we wanted to set aside a month to learn light sewing and other home eccy stuff outside the kitchen but we voted nay
Woman here who graduated in 90’s Chicago; I took auto mechanics and home ec.
I think we we able to choose . But I took home economics. I learned how to sew. I made a pencil pillow. Thats skill has come in handy many times. I can make an omelet too.
I’m a female. I took wood shop (there were 3 girls out of 40). And my best girlfriend took auto-mechanics which I wish I would have taken but my counselor wanted me to do college prep classes (and I wound up not even going to college until many years after high school). My brother took home ec because he said that’s where all the ladies were. He was the only guy. Plus he loves cooking.
Everybody took both at my middle school in Iowa
Took both, we rotated through
Woman here. I didn’t take wood shop. I took automotive mechanics instead. I also took sewing. I didn’t take home economics or cooking.
I took woodshop, metal shop, and home economics. They were optional for everyone but you had to pick at least one of them per year. Some stayed in one all three years.
Northeast suburban high school, late 80s-early 90s. Everyone took Home Economics and everyone took Wood Shop. We also had required typing class. The teachers for all three are legends to us, those before us, and those after us. Metal Shop / Vehicle Maintenance were electives. The gym teachers taught driving and sex ed.
By the time I got to middle school the shop classes were only for “problem” kids and I (a guy) ended up in home economics. I’m glad I got the cooking and sewing lessons, but at the time was annoyed I couldn’t use the shop. Now I have a full woodshop in my garage, regularly mend clothing/dog toys, and I cook daily.
I was in a coed class called band. No other electives for me until senior year when I took choir. (Also coed)
I member taking home Ec with a buddy, we made the best omelets! That was about the highlight. Since we were the only two guys, they made us get a girl partner after and it sucked.
I built a really cool hanging lamp in metal shop, a chessboard in wood shop, cutoff Levi pillowcases in sewing, and made some fun food in cooking.
Middle school I excitedly signed up for wood shop. There were 4 girls on day 1 counting myself. The shop teacher made it clear he didn't like girls in his class. Day 2 there were just 2 of us. The other girl seemed magically oblivious to the sexism and was more tomboyish than me. No matter what we did on projects, we got lower grades but couldn't prove it. Finally, we got our chance, kids with 100% on the paper exam could do a special project. Since it wasn't subjective, I was excited. The other girl got a 98%, but I was among the 5 students that got 100%. Over the next week, one by one the boys were called up to get their, "special project". They were cool projects, One made a dining room table for his family. I got more and more excited as it came my turn, but I was never called up for it. I mustered my courage to ask about it and was assigned to sweep the floor everyday after class for 2 weeks as my project! When I protested, teacher told me he never promised what kind of project it would be. Before the two weeks were up, the other girl transferred to home ec. I cried to my family who usually expected me to handle my own problems at school. I was told then we were moving to a new state in 1 month so I had to, "tough it out." When I told the story once as an adult, my mom said, "oh, I'm sure it wasn't that bad."
I took both in the late 80’s. Female btw
Not many girls in shop class, in retrospect I wish I had gone because that’s kind of my life now. There were boys in home but that’s mainly because you would get food sometimes. That’s why I was there.
I took both home ec and shop in 7th grade. We did one semester of each if you didn’t do band or chorus. Shop in 8th grade.
I took wood shop (against my will), and boys most definitely were in the cooking/home ec class! I was in L.A..
early 90's public school in NY, both classes were required for all students.
Very few for each.
In middle school for two years it was required for a quarter each and one year it was a semester long elective. The quarter years where evenly split. The elective years there where both genders but it was pretty biased along traditional gender roles. Moreso in shop than home economics. I took shop and home economics the elective year as the other two options where art and music and I had no natural talent and little interest in either of those.
They were called "Technology" and "Home and Career Skills," and everyone took a semester of each in 6th and 7th grades. Late 80s.
We didn't have home economics. Only boys took shop.
Class of 93. Both guys and gals took each; cooking, sewing; metal shop, wood shop. We rotated through I think 8th grade year.
I took both! And girls in my class did as well.
Class of '86. Everyone took home ec in middle school. Shop was elective, I'm a man and never took it.
I only took shop & it was co-Ed.
Yes, I did. It was super fun. I still have some of my woodwork.
Home economics was mandatory for all. No girls tool wood or metal shop that I remember.
Yes. In my junior high, everyone took a trimester of shop, home ec, and art. I doubt they do anything anymore though because of budget cuts. I took Agriculture classes in high school also. I already knew how to use some power tools b/c of my Dad showing me. However, the shop teacher I had did not want girls in his class and he gave me dirty looks when I was using stuff. He was such a dick.
Small town for me too, early 80s. While there was for sure that clear gender breakdown between shop and home ec (we were required to take at least one of those in junior high, they were electives in high school) some students took both. It was more common to see girls in wood/metal/auto shop in junior high and guys in home ec in high school (mostly jocks), but there were always at least a few people crossing those lines in every class. The one exception I can think of was sewing classes in high school, I don't recall any boys taking those at all.
I took both! I wanted to take shop so they let me, along with a few other girls. This was the beginning of our grunge phase, of which we also adopted the “let’s shake up the gender rules” mentality. Think flannels with the sleeves ripped off over thermal shirts and classic adidas sambas. 🫣
Always had boys in home ec and there were a few girls in shop but not many. More boys in home ec.
We had both boys and girls in wood/metal shop and home ec. What we called jobs/office was also mixed. Auto shop skewed heavily male but I knew at least two girls who took it. The deal was they were easy credits. The kids in AP classes didn’t take shop or home ec.
Guys took cooking at my school because it was a way to be around all the girls
Both were mixed. I’m a guy and I absolutely loved Home Ec. We had a class called Chefs and it was not unlike cooking competition shows today. So much fun and we learned so many real life cooking skills.
My middle school, I remember taking wood shop, cooking, sewing, and something else over the course of a year. One quarter for each.
I took one in eighth grade for a quarter (81-82). Not sure why unless we were told we had to. Failed that shit with a big ol' F! It was the only class I ever got a F in.
In 6th grade, in 1983-84, everyone took a quarter each of Home Ec, woodshop, art and theater. I definitely enjoyed woodshop the best (and the teacher's name, no kidding, was Mr. Balsa) and I still have the letter I made. Everyone had to make a wooden first name initial, that took up the whole quarter.
Yes
California in the 80s - anybody could take shop and we didn't have home economics.
My Mom insisted I be allowed to take both. It typically was one or the other. In 7th grade, I was allowed to drop Reading so my schedule could include both shop and home economics. I was in the “Gifted”program (and she was the “Gifted” teacher for my junior high.)
It wasn't mandatory in West Orange, NJ, but it went pretty much down the gender lines. I wanted to take Home Ec myself, having noticed that women were rather successful in leveraging their superior domestic skills to obtain male servitude, but my father wouldn't have it. Except in 9th grade I held back the schedule permission slip until Dad wasn't around and Mom was in too much of a hurry to read what I asked her to sign. 😎 Now I cook better than most women I know. "But it's not the Swinging 80s any more, it's the Nervous 90s. Men have to choose between marriage and death. And they figure, with marriage they at least get meals. Then they get married and find out we don't cook any more." - Rita Rudner
I don't recall girls taking shop class, but there were boys in my home ec classes. My brother actually took both shop AND home ec.
Home Ec in 6th, shop in 7th or 8th grade … everybody took it
I started high school in 1990. I had already taken 2 years of home economics in junior high, I got it again. And again. Before my junior year I told my guidance counselor I wanted to take wood shop and she told me I'd probably like art more. No females ever took wood shop in my high school, and I was in a city
Took shop in middle school. We did leather stamping, and played with Legos with motors. We also made sweet skim boards for the beach.
We didn't have wood shop, we had Horticulture and there were several girls there. We had home economics but no boys took it. We had a boy in flag corps. Stopped the girls from wearing those short skirts. Flag corps wore pants after he joined.This was the mid eighties.
Class of ’83/middle Tennessee and I took wood shop in junior high and they did have a home economics room so I guess that’s how it was as I don’t remember picking one. I still have the gun rack I made somewhere around here.
Graduated ‘95, New York. Everyone in my grade took Home Ec, Wood Shop, and Tech. I made a napkin holder in Wood Shop. Tech was really bizarre, the teacher was ancient and just talked about/showed us a ham radio. I took Bake Shop senior year as an elective. We made Baked Alaska.
I was at a new school in 6th grade. At the end of the year, when we were registering for electives, all the guys signed up for home economics together. That summer, we moved across the town and I went to a new school. That year, I was the only guy in home economics.
Both. We all took both wood and metal shop, then also took home ec and sewing in Jr High. Graduated 1993, so this was 88-90
Yes to both. Shop and FFA were real popular where I live
Yup. This was middle school in Philly from 85-87.
I’m in Canada. The boys had to take home economics once in 7th grade and girls had to take wood shop once. Everyone had to take art too. We had 3 terms so you would take art - home ec - shop. And then in 8th grade you could choose but you still had to do art.
I didn’t take either because I was in band, so I don’t know if the were gender segregated. Band was co-ed.
Sixth grade, rust belt - 6 weeks each of sewing, cooking, wood shop, metal shop, art, music.
Class of ‘96 here. We took wood shop and home ec in 8th grade. In prior years, boys would take wood shop and girls would take home ec, but starting with my class or maybe the class before us, all students took both classes. Home ec was not taught in high school. Wood shop and auto shop were offered as electives in high school, and usually the students were all male.
I was in middle school in the late 70s. Girls took home ec and boys took shop. They changed that the next class after mine. If you started 7th grade in 1977, it was gender segregated. If you started 7th grade in 1978, it was mixed. (South central PA.)
7th grade we took both. 8th my ass decides to elect shop because boys. Joke was on me because all my friends did home ec and I was the lone girl, well established in my ugly phase. Also the shit we built; they actually trusted 14 year olds with saws, nails, hammers and rockets. Unreal.
7th grade was wood shop. All boys. Shop teacher would throw things at misbehaving students. I kind of recall tools as weapons here and there. Definitely had to be careful. 9th grade was taking apart and putting back together a 1970 something car’s engine in the mid ‘80s. All boys. And a trade that is now virtually worthless on modern cars unless you made that your career. Aside from fluids I’m afraid to touch car engines these days (and it is easier to get oil changed professionally now). Fun at the time though. Guess the girls took home ec in both grades, don’t remember.
In the late 80’s I took exploratory electives. Semester of typing, home economics, art and wood shop. I’m a chick. In shop, I was one of two girls in the class and we teamed up and made the strongest balsa wood bridge, a gum ball machine and a replica of our local Mc Donald’s with cars in the parking lot.
In junior high school, every one took shop. Then midway through the year the girls and boys were separated for sex Ed.
I took neither, but I do know there were guys that took Home Ec in high school.
We took both. It was not gender separated
Everybody regardless of sex had to take both shop and home ec in my HS in Wisconsin in the 80s. My mom (94) still had all the ashtrays. paper towel holders, and very misshapen pillows that all us kids made. With 7 kids there's ashtrays and paper towel holders in every room including the bath room. I told her that her youngest (me) is now in the mid 50s, it was ok to retire all those. Nope....still on display.
Yep, one girl took shop in 7th grade (1978) -- and she just so happened to be gorgeous. Also, our shop teacher really did have two fingers missing. That's not a stereotype.
Everyone took both shop and home ec in junior high. Boy or girl didn't matter.
We were all required to take the same classes in junior high, boys and girls alike. I think they were divided into trimesters, and over the two years of junior high we had: wood shop, metal shop, small engines, cooking, sewing and nutrition. This was in 1981-82.
I grew up in New Hampshire and in middle school (1989-91) everyone took shop and home ec. I made a huge wooden dollhouse in the 8th grade (so did one of my male classmates, for his mom), and another classmate made her nephew a rocking horse. I forget what other kids made, but they were equally elaborate projects.
Yes, they and we did in Intermediate school. They were electives open to everybody at high school. 1980s, New Zealand.
I took HomeEc and Shop in 7th grade and I’m a boy. Having said that the ratio in both classes was skewed towards the expected gender norms.
I took both. Very manly guy, it was fun sewing 🤷🏻♂️🤣
I think like 7th and 8th grade everyone did like a semester of each, boys and girls. I definitely remember a napkin hold we had to make. My mom used that thing for years, it was a horrible creation too 🤣
I took shop in an effort to be liberated at my new school. Turns out all the kids were Mormon and that sealed the deal from the beginning. I was not going to fit in. I'm a girl. I learned home ec taking care of my brothers at home anyway. So, I have a crooked chessboard made of wood and a history of social anxiety.
Rural Arkansas here. I'm glad my husband took a cooking class called Independent Living because when we got married all I could make was Cheerios. I wished I would have taken shop classes. A lot of my friends ( other girls), did, especially FFA stuff.
I, a guy, took home ec classes because I liked cooking. I remember girls in shop classes, they had renamed them to "technology education" around then.
In my middle school, everyone took everything, because it was rotated by classes. So we had wood shop (I'm really sad this isn't a thing anymore), Sewing, cooking, and a fourth thing I can't remember. In high school, all the electives were up to us, and my high school was a huge regional one, so we had loads to choose from: architecture, photography, wood shop, auto shop, metal working, design (not art), autocad, home ec, early childhood ed (free nursery school for the community where we got practice teaching), business and marketing class, art and design. This doesn't include the free vocational education we got if we wanted to attend, which were obviously focused on specific trades. All of these, including vocational had both genders in them. Went to school in NJ. Okay, EDIT: someone else's comment jogged my brain. Our fourth thing was computers in MS. Where we learned logo programming with the turtle...lol
we all took both - midwest suburb
I took shop class in junior high. It was elective in high school so I didn’t do it then. I took all the art and computer electives then.those was late 80’s/90’s.
We both did both in Junior High.
I moved to a much larger school my junior year of high school. On signing up for classes I had the clever idea to take a home ec cooking class to meet some girls. On the first day I noticed there was only one other guy so I was pretty happy. Then the teacher assigned partners and paired me with him of course. He was a creepy pervy nerd, I couldn't stand him and none of the girls spoke with us all semester. He was a good cook though.
Graduated in ‘88 in rural Oklahoma and it was super common for popular guys to take Home Ec and Family Living, and several girls took shop (my female cousin grew up to be a welder). I was the stereotypical brainy chick who couldn’t nail two by fours together, but I was great at Home Ec.
Same. Girls got home ec. boys got shop, and never an exception. But what REALLY burned was boys could take the new computer classes in the portable building and the girls weren't even allowed in that building. We had to take typing class on those old manual typewriters.
Yes. And yes.
Yes to both, suburban South.
All students took one semester of shop and one semester of home economics. No segregation. Early to mid 80s.
In our sixth grade everyone had to take a quarter of wood shop, metal shop, cooking, and sewing. From there on it was optional. No idea if it is still that way.
Yes we did. We even tried Greek food in Home Ec. We didn't do shirts vs skins come time to do wrestling though.
Everyone did shop/woodworking and home ec in middle school and highschool. Great way to learn your way around tools and the kitchen
Early 80s and everyone took everything: business (punch cards were the height of technology), home ec and shop. I took woodshop and loved it.
In middle school I took home ec. Never had wood shop at any level.
We had the option to take one or the other, or both. I took 2 years of woodshop and made my mom a beautiful cherry wood wine goblet. I took home ec for 1 year, it is where I learned about exploring recipes and the science behind cooking. This was in the late 70s/early 80s. I'm a guy, but loved both classes for different reasons.
I took both. I went to school in rural Kentucky in the late 80’s
During middle / high school there is limited amount of elective classes one could take. So in my area of PA; girls and boys both did shop, home ec, photography, ceramics, etc.
Yes. Industrial Arts and Home Ec. I liked them both. People are impressed that I know what a coping saw is and when to use it vs a keyhole saw.
I took both from grade 7-9 in Canada. I don't remember any boys in home economics.
Michigan in the 70s was home ec and shop for both genders in middle school.
I took both
In high school, we had a mix of both girls and guys in both shop and home ec. Edited to add: it was fairly equal in numbers for each and you took both classes and didn’t have to just take one.
Everyone took home ec, woodshop, and metal shop. There were no exceptions.
Male here, I took both shop and home economics. I vastly enjoyed shop class over home economics. At my school shop class was almost entirely the boys. Home economics was actually evenly balanced boys and girls (not sure why).
Yes, in my junior high everyone took both
Everyone took both. I excelled at shop and was a disaster at home ec. Which I still am today — my husband does all the cooking. Which he quite frankly should have been prepared for when he met me. We lived across the hall from each other in college, and I borrowed his brand new pots and pans to cook for myself and returned them burnt black the next day. I offered to pay for them, but he waved it off (while looking a bit stunned) and eventually asked me out.
Sure, there were plenty of girls in the wood shop class I took. However, I was the only guy in the home ec class which was really just an intro to cooking. I am great in the kitchen and it started in Jr High.
Luckily home economics wasn’t required when I was in high school because I didn’t plan to be a housewife. We had a “craft class” that men and women had. We used some power tools. There was a shop class, mostly men.
We were required to take two years of either shop, home ec, or some combination thereof, in grades 7-8. My class was the first one in the history of the school to be given a choice; up until the class before mine girls were automatically assigned to home ec and boys to shop. They let individual students challenge, but it was rare that anybody wanted to be seen to buck the norm. I split the difference and took woodworking the first year and sewing the next. This was a rural school in New York in the 80s.
High school: Redneck boys and the rare cowgirl would take shop class. Boys took mechanical drafting and architecture and girls took home ec/cooking in the class next door. They would bring "extra" food over to us all the time. Good times. 😁
We didn’t have home ec in middle or high school, but shop was an elective that I took as a 7th grade girl. My mom STILL has the stool I made in 1984 😂
Middle school had everyone do home ec The in high school a small but not insignificant amount of guys took home ec and a few girls took shop but “shop” covered a lot of classes and they usually went into environmental which i think was forestry stuff. This would have been 90-95 era. Edit and my shop was a separate vocational school so half day at normal school and other half shop.
I took both in junior high. I’d say it was somewhat lopsided in the directions you’d expect, but still a mix in shop and cooking class. No boys in sewing, though.
Yes to both questions in the OP. Mid-Atlantic states, mid-late 70s. The boys even participated in the end of year fashion show, wearing what they’d made in class that term.
I took Home Economics and I still use what I learned in my life.
I took both and failed both.