Hildegarde Kneeland (July 10, 1889 – September 15, 1994) was an American

home economist Home economics, also called domestic science or family and consumer sciences, is a subject concerning human development, personal and family finances, consumer issues, housing and interior design, nutrition and food preparation, as well as texti ...

and social statistician, known for her

time-use research Time-use research is an interdisciplinary field of study dedicated to learning how people allocate their time during an average day. Work intensity is the umbrella topic that incorporates time use, specifically time poverty. The comprehensive ap ...

Education and early career

Kneeland was born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, studied at the

Packer Collegiate Institute The Packer Collegiate Institute is an independent college preparatory school for students from pre-kindergarten through grade 12. Formerly the Brooklyn Female Academy, Packer has been located at 170 Joralemon Street in the historic district of Br ...

, and graduated from

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...

in 1911. After graduate study at

Teachers College, Columbia University Teachers College, Columbia University (TC), is the graduate school of education, health, and psychology of Columbia University, a private research university in New York City. Founded in 1887, it has served as one of the official faculties and ...

, she taught nutrition at the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Universit ...

beginning in 1914. In 1917 she returned to graduate study at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

, working there with

Hazel Kyrk Hazel Kyrk (1886–1957) was an American economist and pioneer of consumer economics. Early life and education Hazel Kyrk was born in 1886 in Ashley, Ohio and was the only child of Elmer Kyrk, a drayman, and Jane Kyrk, a homemaker. Before ente ...

. She taught at

Barnard College Barnard College of Columbia University is a private women's liberal arts college in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a group of women led by young student activist Annie Nathan Meyer, who petitioned Columbia ...

from 1918 to 1919, and at

Kansas State Agricultural College Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant college in 1863 and was the first public instit ...

from 1919 to 1922. At Kansas State, she headed the department of household economics. After beginning her government work, she completed a doctorate in 1930 at the Robert Brookings Graduate School of Economics and Government at

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

Government work

The US Bureau of Home Economics was founded in 1923 as part of the

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, ...

, and Kneeland joined the bureau in 1924. There, she headed its division of economics. Her work there involved analysing household work, expenditures, and consumption, and comparing rural households with the urban middle class. Through

, she showed that homemakers were overworked, and that then-modern home appliances had not significantly reduced the amount of time they spent on housework. She also pushed back against the idea that the scientific management principles of industrial factories were an appropriate way to reduce the inefficiencies of housework. In 1934 she became implicated in a political scandal when Indiana educator William Wirt attacked the

New Deal The New Deal was a series of programs, public work projects, financial reforms, and regulations enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1939. Major federal programs agencies included the Civilian Cons ...

policies of

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

in a story published by the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

''. Wirt claimed that insiders within Roosevelt's circle had admitted that the New Deal was designed to fail in order to provide a pretext to crack down on Roosevelt's political enemies and overthrow the government in collusion with the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, then led by

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...

. In Congressional hearings, held in response to these accusations, Wirt stated that he had heard these things from Kneeland at a dinner party. However, Kneeland denied that she had spoken to Wirt on the subject, other witnesses corroborated her story, and the investigating committee concluded that Wirt's claims were "untrue in every sense". After 1935, she worked for the

United States House Committee on Natural Resources The U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources or Natural Resources Committee (often referred to as simply Resources) is a Congressional committee of the United States House of Representatives. Originally called the Committee on Interior and In ...

. She moved to

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish language, Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree kno ...

in 1960, where she lived in her retirement.

Recognition

In 1949 Kneeland was elected as a

Fellow of the American Statistical Association Like many other academic professional societies, the American Statistical Association (ASA) uses the title of Fellow of the American Statistical Association as its highest honorary grade of membership. The number of new fellows per year is limited ...

for being an "outstanding worker in the field of statistics of income distribution".

Personal life

Kneeland never married; in 1938, ''

Time Magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Mar ...

'' described her as "a small, hard-working spinster". Alison Laurie argues that Kneeland participated in a trans-Pacific romance with New Zealander Elsie Andrews, whom she met in 1934 at the conference of the Pan-Pacific Women's Association in Honolulu. However, they did not meet again, and although Andrews' later writings attest to a continued attraction to Kneeland, there is little evidence for the same from Kneeland.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kneeland, Hildegarde 1889 births 1994 deaths American economists American sociologists American statisticians American women economists American women sociologists Women statisticians Vassar College alumni Teachers College, Columbia University alumni Washington University in St. Louis alumni University of Missouri faculty Barnard College faculty Kansas State University faculty Fellows of the American Statistical Association