In the belief that a study of the practices and problems of rural homemakers would yield information from which some of their educational needs could be inferred, a project was designed at the Iowa Agricultural and Home Economics Experiment Station to investigate the homemaking practices of rural homemakers in Iowa. Of special concern in the study were the practices and problems of women in the low socio-economic group who often are not served by adult education agencies. 1 If their practices and problems differ widely from those of the middle and high socioeconomic group, part of the explanation for their less frequent involvement in adult education programs might be that these programs are not adjusted to the unique educational needs of the lower group.

A low socio-economic group might have been identified and studied by itself. However, it seemed better logic to take a cross-section of rural homemakers and compare the low, middle and high groups within this cross-section to be sure that practices were peculiar to the low socioeconomic group rather than practices common to rural Iowa. In setting up the design for the study, therefore, a cluster sampling design was prepared to provide a sample of rural families regardless of their socio-economic status.