Working Mothers and the Child Care Dilemma: A History of British Columbia's Social Policy

During the twentieth century, child care policy in British Columbia matured in the shadow of a political uneasiness with working motherhood. Working Mothers and the Child Care Dilemma examines how ideas about motherhood, paid work, and social welfare influenced universal child care discussions and consistently pushed access to child care to the margins of BC's social policy agenda. Charting the growth of the child care movement in this province, Lisa Pasolli examines the arrival of Vancouver's first crèche in 1912, the teetering steps forward during the debates of the interwar years, the development of provincial child care policy, the rebellious advancements of second-wave feminists in the 1960s and 1970s, and the maturation of provincial and national child care politics since the mid-70s. In addition to revealing much about historical attitudes toward women's roles, Working Mothers and the Child Care Dilemma celebrates the efforts of mothers and advocates who, for decades, have lobbied for child care as a central part of women's rights as workers, parents, and citizens.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1 "A proper independent spirit": The Vancouver City Crèche, 1909–20 2 "Self help is to be encouraged to the fullest extent": Working Mothers and the State in the Interwar Years 3 "It takes real mothers and real homes to make real children": Child Care Debates during and after the Second World War 4 "The working mother is here to stay": The Making of Provincial Child Care Policy in the 1960s 5 "Talkin' Day Care Blues": Feminist Child Care Battles in the 1960s and 1970s 6 "The feeling lingers that day care just isn't nice": Provincial and National Child Care Politics since the Mid-1970s Conclusion Notes; Bibliography; Index

About the Author :
Lisa Pasolli is a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at the Frost Centre for Canadian Studies and Indigenous Studies at Trent University. She researches the history of child care, social welfare, and women and gender in twentieth-century Canada. Her work has been published in BC Studies and Acadiensis.

Review :
Reading Pasolli's extensively documented book is a sobering exploration of twentieth and twenty-first century policies guided by familiar rhetoric about why mothers partnered with male breadwinners should not work and why mothers without breadwinners should work (in low-wage jobs) to redeem themselves … In the end, Pasolli's history of childcare policy in British Columbia tells us that out-of-home childcare is a radical claim that requires a paradigmatic shift in thinking about working mothers and the ''contested nature of social citizenship.'' - Rachel Langford, Ryerson University (Pacific Historical Review) Much more than connecting the chronological dots (which is itself an important achievement), Pasolli provides an analytical explanation for the rather discouraging continuities that shaped decades of public debate and marginalized the childcare and employment needs of women and families … A smart book on an issue we continue to wrestle with, and the sole monograph on the topic from a historian's perspective, it will find its way on to many bookshelves. - Esyllt W. Jones, University of Manitoba (BC Studies) To assemble this impeccable book, Lisa Pasolli has formulated impressive questions … Readers … will be interested to discover how contemporary debates over the importance of early education, and over the educational disadvantages of parents and workers who bore the consequences of the deficiencies of child care, became part and parcel of The Child Care Dilemma. - Dominique Marshall, Carleton University (Historical Studies in Education)