Many creative and passionate people have spearheaded innovation on college campuses across the world, adding new courses and curriculums to teach to students. Leah Dunford Widtsoe was one of these innovators, implementing home economics courses in schools all across the country.

Weber State University held a lecture on Widtsoe as a part of their Historical Society Lecture series on Sept. 12. The lecture was given by WSU history professor Kathryn MacKay.

“Women are involved in all kinds of things,” MacKay said, opening her lecture on women’s involvement in the progressive era of history. “They’re involved in garbage collecting, they’re involved in encouraging police academies … they invent social sciences to study ordinary people.”

Widtsoe herself was a part of the women who led the development of domestic science, also known as home economics, labeling it as a science and not just simple teachings of the home.

However, as colleges developed and began to admit female students, their teachings were still restricted to lessons of home economics, cooking and sewing. Meanwhile, male students were allowed a wider variety of courses and more masculine classes.

Leah Widtsoe attended University of Utah studying chemistry, physics and other things. From there, she attended the Pratt Institute, which focused on developing domestic sciences. Widtsoe completed a two-year program in less than one year.

After the Pratt Institute, Widtsoe took up a leading position of a newly-developed home economics department at Brigham Young University.

MacKay’s lecture ended with questions from the audience concerning feminist ideas, and MacKay’s connected history with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Historical Society has two more lectures listed for the year, the next being a lecture from archeologist and WSU professor David Yoder about how studying artifacts reveals the history of ancient peoples. This lecture will be held on Oct. 10 at 7 p.m.

The final lecture will be given on Nov. 14 at 7 p.m. by Leah Murray and will discuss recent midterm elections and related issues or outcomes.

Both lectures will be held at Dumke Legacy Hall inside the Hurst Center for Lifelong Learning.