Jessica Peixotto, a home economist not thrilled by the thrift culture

The values of thrift have shaped the cultural and economic history of the United States. This morality advocates the practice of industry, frugality, self-sacrifice, and the accumulation of savings as a means of enriching the individual and society. From the 19th century to the early 20th century, American political economists preached these virtues. Jessica Peixotto (1864-1941), the first woman professor of economics at Berkeley, conducted a study of the cost of living of a group of university professors in 1927. She considered them an extremely thrifty but relatively poor social group. The purpose of this article is to explain this contradiction put forward by Peixotto. I examine how, in the early 20th century, the thrift culture took a practical turn with the Home Economics movement founded by Ellen H. Richards to educate women. Peixotto’s study shows that professors’ wives apply the precepts of thrift very well, making exemplary management of household resources. Thus, the problem lies in the low level of faculty salary. I argue that Peixotto shows an original point of view, linking thrift to poverty and thinking about the consequences of a thrifty ethos on the negotiation skills of university professors.