May Louise Cowles

Who was May Louise Cowles?

May Louise Cowles was an American economist, researcher, author, and advocate of Home Economics. She was a member of the faculty at the University of Wisconsin–Madison from 1915–1958. She had many submissions published in the Journal of Home Economics, the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, and Rural Sociology. She also produced several widely read pamphlets including Meeting Housing Needs of Older People in Rural Areas and spoke at a string of national seminars to encourage the addition of family economics to home economics instruction across the United States.

Cowles "created some of the first family economics courses in the nation" at the collegiate level.