Home Economist

In high school, home economics was supposed to be an easy “A.” If you took it, you spent sixth period learning to sew pillows and bake quiches while your friends spent it down the hall solving quadratic equations and memorizing the periodic table of elements. If you’re a Home Economist, however, you know now what you didn’t know then: Running a successful home is like running a serious business, and the homemaker is CEO of Home Inc.

As a Home Economist, therefore, you’re a lot more than a professional homemaker. You’re a Management Analyst who helps businesses run more efficiently and effectively. Except that those businesses are homes and families.

A Scientist who studies everyday living, you typically have one of several functions: If you’re a Sociologist, for instance, you conduct academic research on home and family dynamics for universities and government agencies. If you’re a Teacher, you work for a school or nonprofit, teaching homemaking skills to young people, or to parents and consumers out in the community. If you’re a Product Developer, you help design new products for the home. And if you’re a Marketing Analyst, you help companies develop advertisements, programs, and promotions that help them sell those household products.

No matter what your official job title is, what qualifies you as a Home Economist is your expertise in all things “home management,” including: food, nutrition, and health; textiles and clothing; shelter and housing; childhood development and family relations; and personal finance, with an emphasis on household budgeting and spending.

Basically, you’re like a Personal Trainer for American families: It’s your job to make them as fit as possible by exercising their homemaking muscles!