In the early 20th century, collegiate home economics programs in the U.S. served as a gateway to science for American women. Using a collection of historical course catalogs, we first document that these programs featured a curriculum heavily emphasizing science courses, particularly in biology and chemistry. We then estimate that a 10 percentage point increase in the share of women in home economics led to a 1.8-3.1 percentage point increase in the share of women majoring in science, using rich cross sectional data from the 1910 Commissioner of Education report and panel data from historical college yearbooks. We argue this correlation is likely causal and provide evidence consistent with the corre- lation being driven by exposure to scientific content in the home economics curriculum. Furthermore, we show that these historical curriculum decisions have a persistent effect, continuing to shape the modern-day gender gap in STEM.