In “The Proof Is in the Dough,” Kathryn L. Beasley explores how women from rural areas in Alabama and Florida utilized the Cooperative Extension Service’s home demonstration programs from 1914 to 1929 to enhance their living standards.

This publication showcases how these rural American women engaged with home demonstrations to leverage their abilities for additional earnings, a dimension of rural women’s history that has not received adequate scrutiny. Beasley follows how this supplemental income enabled these women to influence their own practices of production and consumption.

During the Progressive Era and the 1920s, most home demonstration programs concentrated on strategies for saving money. Nevertheless, women in Alabama and Florida employed different techniques to augment their income and attain a degree of economic autonomy. They demonstrated their determination and creativity by devising ways to financially support themselves through food, tangible goods, handicrafts, small enterprises, and more to their benefit.

Although there were commonalities in the methods these rural women used to generate revenue, their locations contributed to variations in agricultural techniques. Florida presented a broader range of growing seasons and environmental conditions, alongside a greater diversity of crops. Through a comparative lens, Beasley highlights the distinctive and inventive approaches that Southern rural women applied to elevate their own lives and those of their families. She also uncovers how available income fostered notions of empowerment and financial self-sufficiency.

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