Changes in a Home Economics curriculum at Lehman College of the City University of New York from 1979-1988 are examined, and a line of inquiry first reported in 1983 is continued. A secondary, feminist analysis of the earlier data, combined with the current data, discloses the extent to which the patriarchal academy will go to attack the "mental world" of academic women. The feminist analysis suggests that all knowledge is gendered, and that power relations in academe are most acutely experienced by women in "low status" all-female departments such as Home Economics. A history of postsecondary education for women is provided with a focus on pertinent literature. It is noted that Home Economics has its own "space" among the academic disciplines, and that space is gendered female. Only recently has Home Economics been examined as a discipline influenced by the gender division of labor and distinguished by the cultural norms of femaleness. Home Economics (as an academic discipline) is in a unique position to illustrate gender and power issues in higher education and the way they influence perceptions of woman's "proper place" in the academy. It is concluded from research at Lehman College that the issue of gender influenced the power and status of the Department of Family and Consumer Studies, the University treated an all-woman's department differently, and the Home Economics department was not allowed to participate in the decisions that determined its academic destiny. Tables are included. Contains 33 references. (Author/SM)