Abstract (eng)
This Diploma thesis explores the role of (middle-class) feminist movement for the establishment of nutritional and domestic sciences as a scientific disciplin. The reframing of care and cooking food in the household as a scientific field of study is discussed in the context of efforts of rationalising housework. The latter was not possible without women, and in fact strongly promoted by the women’s movement: to educate women into this new way of thinking, a new socialization and self-control, protagonists of the movement used popular science literature, ecucation institutions and, since the 1920s, also popular journals of the movement, such as „Die Österreicherin“ and „Die Frau und ihre Interessen“.
Using critical discourse analysis of articles in these journals, this thesis describes the reframing of care and cooking as a scientific field along three main strategies of emancipation of the (middle-class) feminist movement around 1930: rationalisation, professionalisation, and consumption. The hope to gain societal regognition for women’s work by making it a scientific discipline is discussed in historical context. The thesis ends with a critical discussion of the later appropriation of the idea of nutritional and domestic sciences by fascist movements who tried to use it to push women back into studying women’s matters („Frauenschaffen“).