Constellation Similarity Assertions

The National Extension Homemakers Council (NEHC), now the National Association for Family and Community Education (NAFCE), was established in 1936 to nationally organize homemakers clubs and cooperative extension work. Cooperative extension work began under the Morril Acts of 1862 and 1890, which provided funding for the establishment of land-grant universities. These universities were created with the aim of educating the state's population in the areas of agriculture and mechanics, as well as the humanities and liberal arts. In 1914, the Smith-Lever Act was created to establish a cooperative service between the US Department of Agriculture and these land grant colleges to provide demonstrations and education to rural populations not able to attend land-grant universities.

Home demonstration in the field of home economics was brought to rural women across America through the cooperative extension service. Specialists and state home demonstration agents would visit local homemakers clubs to teach women about homemaking, with the goal of making household chores less time and energy consuming. Before home demonstration work, knowledge of homemakeing was passed down through generations of women with new technologies and methods slowly integrating into communities. Travel and communication between rural communities was often limited, as was socialization. Local homemakers clubs developed around the purpose of home demonstration work, but these clubs also provided much needed socialization and relaxation for rural women. After a period of time the cooperative extension service started to develop community leaders who would receive more in-depth training that they could bring back to their local clubs, thus further disseminating knowledge. As more local homemakers clubs were established, county, district, and state councils were formed to provide leadership and communication.

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