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Timeline of Unpaid Caregiving

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TIMELINE OF CAREGIVING

 

Socrates – 470-399BC – spoke of educating children under age 6

 

Aristotle 384-322 BC – believed in educating the young and noticing individual differences

 

1000 – Anglo Saxon laws gave women independent status in marriage. There were precise economic values of child-bearing and child-rearing – Susan Atkins- Women and the Law 1984)

 

1200- men had power and were the ones allowed to hold land and inherit. Women were important only for the provision of legitimate heirs.

 

Middle Ages – children were quickly absorbed into adult world, apprenticed between ages 7 and 12 to learn a trade

 

1388- Statute of  Labourers – Britain- men got paid more than women regardless of degree of skill.  Women earned money from home industry to augment farm salaries of married men

 

Martin Luther  1483-1546 – Martin Luther in Germany believed girls should be allowed to go to school

 

1628 – John Comenius wrote “School of Infancy” in Czechoslovakia, suggesting that children at the ‘school of the mother’s knee’ learn the foundations of all knowledge

 

1600s – little prestige was given to child-rearing. Rich women often used wet nurses to breast-feed their children.

 

1665 – British economist Sir William Petty defined income as annual worth of labor plus wealth (services not just goods)

 

1680s – boarding schools were set up in France emphasizing a child’s moral training. Childhood was recognized as a separate stage of life not a small version of adulthood

 

1693 – John Locke in England wrote “Some Thoughts Concerning Education” emphasizing natural methods of education, not harsh discipline

 

1700s- a current of thinking argues that children are inherently bad

 

1762 – Jean Jacques Rousseau in France wrote “Emile” about a child educated a new way, apart from other children. He suggested that children are inherently good and have inside themselves abilities to enhance their own learning.    Pestalozzi in Switzerland applies these principles .

 

Friedrich Wilhelm Froebel  (1782-1852) in Germany believed that play was the germinal centre of all later life and that early education was crucial to success

 

1776 – Adam Smith in “Wealth of Nations’ defines productive labor as labor that adds value to the subject.  He considered services unproductive saying ‘the labour of a menial servants ..adds to the value of nothing’ (viewing household work as unproductive)

 

1789- Olympe de Gouges publishes the Declaration of the Rights of Woman during the French Revolution to protest exclusion of women in the Declaration of the Rights of Man

 

1792 – Mary Wollstonecraft in “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman- says women are equal to men and should not be subservient. She says girls should go to schools with boys and should not be emotionally or financially dependent on them.

 

1801 – In Canada women could make wills in which to dispose of their assets as they wished, whether married or not.

 

1830 – Speenhamland system – married men got increased wages if they had family to support

 

1840s- In Britain women were often paid in kind rather than in salary A major part of the wage was board and lodging.

 

1842 – Mines and Colleries Act – Britain – women and children were no  longer allowed to do underground mining

 

1844 – Factory Act – Britain – regulated hours of women’s work in factories. A Factory

Bill of 1847 notes the dangers to young babies of mothers doing factory work

during pregnancy

 

1842 – William Beveridge says that women are doing vital unpaid service in the home when they care for the sick and elderly

 

1848 – Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott open the first Women’s Rights Convention in the US

 

G Stanley Hall (1844-1924) to understand human development studies children’s play

 

1850 – the tradition of the ‘family wage’ exists on the theory that money for the man supports the family, increases commitment to the employer and increases purchasing power

 

1850 Barbara Welter – proposes the idea of True Womanhood vaunting child-rearing as important to society

 

1851 – the first daycares open in Montreal and Toronto

 

1859 – Darwin  in the “Origin of the Species” writes that there are innate differences between the sexes. Darwin says that babies inherit characteristics for behaviors such as throwing toys

 

1851 – Elizabeth Oakes Smith recognizes the dilemma of household finances saying “I even know of one woman who proposed to do the labor of one of her servants provided her husband would pay her, the wife, the price of service”

 

1859 – John Dewey advocates against authoritarian education and in favor of humanistic teaching of kids, along with active experimentation so kids can learn.  He believed in early education having some self-direction, an emphasis on science. However he did not believe in unbridled permissiveness as was later believed. He says in “New Education” that children should not just rote memorize.

 

1860- Blanche Glassman Hersh in “The True Woman and the New Woman in Nineteenth-Century America” tries to relate new freedoms and rights to old roles saying that woman’s highest and most sacred duty is to the home and that woman are the moral guardians of the nation. Some feminists suggest that once the parenting job is done however women should be free to enter public affairs or any other endeavour

Antifeminists argue against women having equal rights because that might make them fall from True Womanhood

 

1861 – a woman teacher in Toronto is paid 41% of the salary of a male counterpart

 

1869 – Virginia Penny in “Think and Act” says that wives by their labor and economy in domestic matters earn on an average as much as their husbands (this is an early idea of interdependence not dependence, and of income splitting)

 

1867 – BNA Act – (Constitution Act) in Canada – federal government gets jurisdiction over marriage and divorce  Women are ‘not persons in matters of rights and privileges”

 

1870- in France a married man is paid more if he supports a family.

 

1870 – Britain – Married Women’s Property Acts – married women could retain and acquire assets separately and need not automatically depend on husbands financially

 

1870 – US Census notes that 68% of women are homemakers but does not call this an occupational category. They are considered not gainfully employed because their labor produces no wage or product

 

1871 – 50% of the paid workforce in light manufacturing was made up of women and children

 

 

1878 – Association for the Advancement of Women in the US notes that the 1870 census there erred because to neglect the home economy assumes that women’s work has no effect on the causes or increase of wealth

 

1872 – Married Women’s Property Act – women for the first time had the right to their own money

 

1881 – Susan B. Anthony argues that woman has been the great unpaid laborer of the world. She is frustrated by the ignorance and indifference of the majority of women about their status and rights..

 

1884 – in Ontario a married woman could now own property and sell it without consulting her husband.

 

1888  - in the US the Society for the Study of Child Nature was formed. It was believed that raising children is not just a matter of supervision or of instinct but skills are required.

 

1883- Lillie Blake suggests that women who rise early, cook, wash, clean, mend, do housework still face struggles when their husbands talk of supporting the wives.

 

1882 – Toronto Labour Council supports equal pay for equal work

 

1884 – Ontario Factory Act – a maximum 60 hour work week is established for women and children

 

1885- Dominion Franchise Act – No women could vote. Eligible voters had to be male and property owners. Later unmarried female property holders won the right to vote. Married women with property did not get this right until 1888 (married women are a historically disadvantaged group even among women)

 

1893- New Zealand granted women the right to vote.

 

1893 – The National Council of Women forms in Canada (NCWC) as a nonpartisan organization ultimately arguing for fairer taxes and in 1990 for housework to be included in the census

 

1893 – Domestic science was a public school course in 32 Canadian cities.  McGill University offered a degree of Bachelor of Household Science in 1918 (homemaking was viewed as a skill)

 

1895 – Amelia Bloomer in “On Housekeeping- Woman’s Burdens” argues that the coking, washing and sewing be done cooperatively to relive mothers of these burdens and to ‘give them time for self-improvement and the care and culture of their children”

 

1895 – Toronto school board refuses to hire women over 30 or married women.

 

1896 – Harriet Beecher Stowe in “The Minister’s Wooing” argues that woman is the spiritual overseer of the family and she should be selfless

 

1896- Dr. Holt in “The Care and Feeding of Infants’ says that raising children requires training and that instinct is not enough.

 

1897 – in the US the National Congress of Mothers forms- mothers learn from experts how to parent. Mrs. Theodore Birney, president says that intelligent parenthood is vital for the race and that’ to attain it is as well worth our effort and attention as the study of Greek, Latin, higher mathematics, medicine, law or any other professions”

 

1897 – in the US the National Congress of Parents and Teachers formed to improve education about parenting

 

1897 – Adelaide Hoodless of the Women’s Institute, Canada argues that girls need an education in order to be good homemakers

 

1897 – in Ontario a married woman for the first time can sign contracts whether or not she owns property

 

1898 – Charlotte Perkins Gilman writes “Woman and Economy”.   noting that the labor of women i the home enables men to produce more wealth She feels that women are economic factors in society.    Others however treat housewives as only consumers of goods, parasitic on society.

 

1898 – Elizabeth Cady Stanton in “Eighty Years and More’ says that mother hood is the most important of all professions but not enough attention is given to training women for it.

 

Karl Marx – argued that women should be out of the home earning wages. He wanted mundane household chores to be socialized.  When the birth rate dropped among the poor workers however, he added in 1900 an allowance for those who had children in order to give them maternity leave)

 

1900-05 – in Canada SC vs Mabel French- the court ruled that Ms. French could not become a barrister because as a woman she was not a person

 

 

1900 – In Canada unmarried women may vote for school trustees in some provinces. (married women remained a historically disadvantaged group)

 

1900 – Married Women’s Property Act – the wife is seen as jointly responsible with the husband for the support of children  (the term ‘support’ may include services and child-rearing)

 

1901 – 70% of the paid workforce in teaching, dressmaking, housekeeping, millinery and nursing is made up of women

 

1902 – Australia gives women the vote

 

1905 – In England – Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenney were arrested for  unfurling a ‘Votes for Women ‘banner and causing a disturbance. They accepted a prison sentence rather than paying a fine. Emmeline Pankhurst mother of Christabel, joined with her daughter to form the Women’s Political and Social Union

 

1906 – Finland gave women the vote

 

1907- Julia Ward Howe argued that women deserve higher education and roles in public life and that women are especially gifted in helping others. She said that raising children expands a woman’s potential for happiness

 

1907 – The Senate and the House of Commons in Canada debate whether to allow women to participate in the national pension plan and Sir Richard Cartwright argues for inclusion but does not win.

 

1907- Maria Montessori in Rome organizes a small school for children who have been left unsupervised in a tenement.  She designs material to develop the senses, language, reading, writing.

 

1908- first pension legislation in Canada – for families of soldiers injured or killed.

 

1910 – the first woman’s pilot’s license is given out – to French Baroness de Laruche

 

1911 – Marion Crane in  “Women in Canada” argues that domesticity is work and that women who do not get decent working conditions should have the right to leave and men or husband.

 

1911 – in the US a Mother’s Pension was instituted for widowed women so they could still be home with their children.  (Illinois recommends that children of parents of worthy character, suffering from temporary misfortune and children of reasonable efficient and deserving mothers who are without support of the normal breadwinner..should be kept with their parents, such aid being given as may be necessary to maintain suitable homes for the rearing of children ( the state pays so mom can be home. In 2002 the state takes care of the kids and mom has to leave the home to earn money)

 

1911 – Alberta’s Dower Act requires that on the death of her husband, a woman gets one third of his estate

 

1913 – violent clashes in Britain between suffragettes and the law result in the death from a horse trampling of Emily Davison. Members of the Women’s Social and Political Union in Britain shout, chain themselves to railings, smash windows of government buildings and stage noisy protests. Some refuse to pay taxes or recognize court authority.

 

 

1913 – H. M. Swanwick in “The Future of the Women’s Movement” says that women’s equality involves equal opportunities to do the things women want to do and includes in this ‘their peculiarly feminine work, the work which men cannot do’. For such work she argues for more help, more training and more expenditure of public money.

 

1913 – Rural Municipalities in Canada allow women to vote but only men can hold office

 

1914 – organized labor groups in Canada argue for equal pay for men and women because of the disturbing trend of some employers to not hire men because women are cheaper

 

1914 – President Wilson of the US proclaims the first Mother’s Day to honor the work done by all mothers. Anna Jarvis has argued for such a recognition to bring families together after the Civil War.

 

1914 – Ellen Key in “The Renaissance of Motherhood” says a professional paid caregiver is not as good as the natural mother who is more attentive to the child’s development and who provides greater emotional support

 

1915- Nellie McClung in “In Times Like These” argues that no home can e happy when the poor mother is too tired to smile. She argues for help with chores so women can have the time and strength to raise their children. She notes’ We hear too much about the burden of motherhood and too little of its benefits” (she addresses the distinction between housework and child-rearing responsibilities). McClung also notes that many women are too self-effacing and do not claim their rights, saying “Women who set a low value on themselves make life hard for all women”  McClung argues for old age pensions, mothers’ allowances and public health nursing with free medical and dental treatment in schools.

 

1915 – Theodora Youmans of the Woman’s Suffrage Association of the US notes with anger government claims that women in the home don’t work, saying ‘The assumption that women however hard they work in the household do not support themselves but are supported by their husbands, that they earn nothing and own nothing – that assumption upon which all our property laws are based is so abominable that I cannot find words to express my opinion of it”

 

1916- Manitoba passes the Mothers’ Allowance Act – If a father is absent due to jail term, death, disability or insanity, the state provides funding so the mother can still be home to raise the children. Saskatchewan, Alberta, BC and Ontario soon after pass similar legislation

 

1916 – Marjory MacMurchy in “The Woman Bless Her” says that in Canada also homemaking and raising children have economic and social value. She notes “Although note yet recognized as occupations by the Census, the two most important women employments are homemaking and the care of children’

 

1916 – Singe mothers are given a small allowance in some Canadian provinces

as long as they were at one time married and have more than one child

 

1917- a minimum wage law was established for women in Alberta

 

1917 – In Saskatchewan women with property could hold public office (rights to women were originally based on property, age, character  and marital status. These conditions were only gradually withdrawn)

 

1917 – By the Wartime Elections Act in Canada the vote was given to women who had close relatives in the armed services

 

1918 – Canada – an income tax deduction is created for employees with dependent spouses (this is a shift from the assumption employers offer a family wage. It also is gender neutral. However the term’ dependent’ suggests the unpaid spouse is not contributing anything, even services)

 

1918 – British women win the vote is they are over 30 and own property.  8 ½ million British women are thereby eligible to vote, but few take advantage of the right at first.

 

1918 – Marie Stopes  in Britain writes “Wise Parenthood” advocating birth control. Marie Sanger in “Family Limitation” advocating birth control was charged with disseminating obscene literature.

 

1918 – women in Canada (except in Quebec) get the right to vote

 

1918 –30 Many employers in Canada paid an allowance to married but not single employees, instead of a general wage allowance. This fund helped pay for family-related expenses. Later employers were required to pay into a fund that was used to help pay birth bonuses, nursing allowances and family allowance.

 

1918- Canada – by the Child Tax Exemption some costs of child-rearing were recognized, as was the social value of parenting

 

1919 – the British National Bureau of Economic Research defines income in the market economy as requiring money to change hands but it does include the value of the food produced in the home. (omission of unpaid labor . The principle that money must change hands continues in 2002 in Canada where child care also is not valued unless money changes hands)

 

1919 – Britain – by the Sex Disqualification(Removal) Act – women could now enter professions formerly for men only

 

1920 – in Canada a mother’s allowance is established in many provinces but only for mothers in distress.

 

1920 – in the US by the 19th Amendment, women got the right to vote

 

1920 – Dr. Augusta Stowe Gullen in “Should Husbands Pay Their Wives Salaries?” writes that the homemaking work of a wife increases a man’s earning capacity and that she is in effect his ‘business partner’. She lobbies government to declare a wife an equal partner in a marriage, with a definite income. The National Council of Canada debates the issue.

 

1920 – in Alberta under the Infants Act – for the first time mothers as well as fathers become joint and equal guardians of their children. In Saskatchewan mothers are automatic guardians of children under age 14 and fathers are guardians of children over age 14)

 

1920 – Eleanor Raylor warns that women’s movements that ignore mothers’ rights invite failure.

 

1921 – in BC- maternity leave is granted, for 6 weeks.

 

1922- Alberta’s Married Women’s Act for the first time gives a woman absolute independence in her own financial and legal dealings (this may have been for unmarried women only)

 

1923 – Arnold Gesell in “The Preschool Child” emphasizes early childhood as a pivotal time for education

 

1923 – By Canada’s Bank Law the amount of money a married woman could deposit was raised to a maximum of $2,000.

 

1923 – UN passes a 5 part Declaration on the Rights of the Child

 

1923 – an amendment to the constitution to give ‘equality of rights’ to women, the Equal Rights Amendment, is introduced but not passed. It has been introduced in nearly every session of congress since, but by 2002 has still  not passed.

 

1925- Agnes MacPhail, Canadian Member of Parliament states that women must be given economic freedom within the home.  (the mechanism of such recognition varies. Some argue for salaries for wives)

 

1926 – Jean Piaget in “The Language and Thought of the Child” tracks development of intelligence through four main stages from zero to 15 years

 

1926-30 New Zealadn has a minimum salary to cover expenses of the earner supporting a family with two children. Extra bonuses are given for more than two children.

 

1927- Canada passes a pension act to assist provinces to give a pension to the elderly at  age 70.

 

1928 – Dr. John Watson in “Psychological Care of Infant and Child” argued that mothers may not be the best ones to raise their own children. He questioned whether children should even know their parents and advocated instead a ‘scientific’ way of raising children, “programming” the young to fit into the culture. He argued that parents should not hug or kiss their chidren.

 

1929 – Five Canadian Women (Emily Murphy, Louise McKinney, Nellie McClung, Irene Parlby and Henriette Muir Edwards) refuse to accept the Supreme Court ruling against them and take their plea to the Privy Council in England which rules that women are persons and can take roles in public life including in the Senate.  The recognition of women as legal  ‘persons’ became known as the Persons Case. (Edwards v. A. G. Canada)

 

 

1929 – Hildegard Kneeland observed that letting women enter the paid professions with men did not solve the dilemma back home of assuming homemakers were financially dependent,

 

1929 – in Canada a committee is set up to study having a national Family Allowance

 

1930 – in France a wage allowance is paid to encourage mothers to remain at home to care for their children. It is to recognize ‘la mere au foyer”

 

1930 – in Canada married women were for the first time allowed the right to control their own wages and not have to consult with their husbands

 

1930 – New Brunswick allowed women to hold elected office.

 

1930- in the US the Social Security Act Aid to Dependent Children provided a mother’s pension of sorts so war widows could still be with their children

 

1938- the League of Nations tallies numbers who are gainfully employed and ignores housework

 

1935 – the US passes a Social Security Act to help families with dependent children

 

1933 –45 – in the US nurseries are funded to encourage women to enter the paid work force during the depression

 

1938- public assistance to the poor is given not in cash but in food and clothing and is provided on an emergency basis only, usually by private charities and local municipalities.

 

1939- In three days in Britain nearly a million children were moved from British towns and cities to safer rural locations. Some went with mothers and others went alone. Those who provided accommodation for such children were paid an allowance per child. (rights for women, when granted were also granted piecemeal- right to vote, to hold public office, to own property, to manage one’s own money, to be legal guardians of children)

 

1939 – Child care centers were set up to encourage women to join the paid labor force during the war. In the US women were encouraged to work in defense plants. In Canada in 1942 the federal government passes an order in council to have cost sharing with the provinces to establish such daycares.

 

1940’s Betty Friedan observed that it was suddenly common to blame a mother’s influence for ‘every case history of the troubled child, alcoholic , suicidal, schizophrenic, psychopathic, neurotic adult, impotent, homosexual male, frigid promiscuous female”

 

1940- John Bowly, British psychiatrist argues that each child should have a warm and continuous relationship with a parent or parent-substitute in order to have mental health

 

1940 – Harriot Stanton Blatch in “Challenging Years” argues that motherhood but be given an endowment “Setting her free will repay the world”

 

1940 – Unemployment Insurance act in Canada keeps benefits at 50% of the lowest paying job  in order to encourage recipients to re-enter paid work soon. This proves however to be a hazard to health of recipients who are in long-term need. (the amount is raised in 1971 to 2/3 of wage)

 

1940 – Unemployment Insurance Act clarifies division of powers so that the provinces are responsible for the unemployed who can not be expected to find paid jobs, the ‘deserving poor’ such as seniors, single parents, the disabled – while the federal government has responsibility for the employable community. In 1956 federal government shares 50% of costs of administering unemployment benefits

 

 

1943- Dr. David Levy suggests that bad parenting can consist of extremes of overprotectiveness or overpermissiveness.  He suggested that people likely to look inside baby carriages of others are likely to be overprotective parents.

 

1943 – the Marsh Report in Canada suggests that children deserve social security

 

1944 – Family allowance was started in Canada as an alternative to raising the general level of wages and to ease the transition from war to peace in terms of a family’s purchasing power.   The Earl of Athlone, Governor General says it is ‘to aid in ensuring a minimum of well-being to the children of the nation and to help gain for them a closer approach to equality of opportunity in the battle of life”.   The allowance was given to families with incomes under $1200 per year and amounted to $5 per child per month under age 6 and $8 per month for older children to age 16 (the family allowance existed in Canada until the mid 1990s. It has been replaced by a child benefits package which is quite different- non universal, clawed back for those on welfare, of decreasing size not increasing as the child gets older, and based not on the number of children but on total household income regardless in some cases of number of children ) In Quebec the cheque originally was sent to fathers until pressure from Therese Casgrain forced the premier to change this so mothers got the cheque.

 

 

1916 – Marjory MacMurchy in “The Woman Bless Her” says that in Canada also homemaking and raising children have economic and social value. She notes “Although note yet recognized as occupations by the Census, the two most important women employments are homemaking and the care of children’

 

1916 – Singe mothers are given a small allowance in some Canadian provinces

as long as they were at one time married and have more than one child

 

1917- a minimum wage law was established for women in Alberta

 

1917 – In Saskatchewan women with property could hold public office (rights to women were originally based on property, age, character  and marital status. These conditions were only gradually withdrawn)

 

1917 – By the Wartime Elections Act in Canada the vote was given to women who had close relatives in the armed services

 

1918 – Canada – an income tax deduction is created for employees with dependent spouses (this is a shift from the assumption employers offer a family wage. It also is gender neutral. However the term’ dependent’ suggests the unpaid spouse is not contributing anything, even services)

 

1918 – British women win the vote is they are over 30 and own property.  8 ½ million British women are thereby eligible to vote, but few take advantage of the right at first.

 

1918 – Marie Stopes  in Britain writes “Wise Parenthood” advocating birth control. Marie Sanger in “Family Limitation” advocating birth control was charged with disseminating obscene literature.

 

1918 – women in Canada (except in Quebec) get the right to vote

 

1918 –30 Many employers in Canada paid an allowance to married but not single employees, instead of a general wage allowance. This fund helped pay for family-related expenses. Later employers were required to pay into a fund that was used to help pay birth bonuses, nursing allowances and family allowance.

 

1918- Canada – by the Child Tax Exemption some costs of child-rearing were recognized, as was the social value of parenting

 

1919 – the British National Bureau of Economic Research defines income in the market economy as requiring money to change hands but it does include the value of the food produced in the home. (omission of unpaid labor . The principle that money must change hands continues in 2002 in Canada where child care also is not valued unless money changes hands)

 

1919 – Britain – by the Sex Disqualification(Removal) Act – women could now enter professions formerly for men only

 

1920 – in Canada a mother’s allowance is established in many provinces but only for mothers in distress.

 

1920 – in the US by the 19th Amendment, women got the right to vote

 

1920 – Dr. Augusta Stowe Gullen in “Should Husbands Pay Their Wives Salaries?” writes that the homemaking work of a wife increases a man’s earning capacity and that she is in effect his ‘business partner’. She lobbies government to declare a wife an equal partner in a marriage, with a definite income. The National Council of Canada debates the issue.

 

1920 – in Alberta under the Infants Act – for the first time mothers as well as fathers become joint and equal guardians of their children. In Saskatchewan mothers are automatic guardians of children under age 14 and fathers are guardians of children over age 14)

 

1920 – Eleanor Raylor warns that women’s movements that ignore mothers’ rights invite failure.

 

1921 – in BC- maternity leave is granted, for 6 weeks.

 

1922- Alberta’s Married Women’s Act for the first time gives a woman absolute independence in her own financial and legal dealings (this may have been for unmarried women only)

 

1923 – Arnold Gesell in “The Preschool Child” emphasizes early childhood as a pivotal time for education

 

1923 – By Canada’s Bank Law the amount of money a married woman could deposit was raised to a maximum of $2,000.

 

1923 – UN passes a 5 part Declaration on the Rights of the Child

 

1923 – an amendment to the constitution to give ‘equality of rights’ to women, the Equal Rights Amendment, is introduced but not passed. It has been introduced in nearly every session of congress since, but by 2002 has still  not passed.

 

1925- Agnes MacPhail, Canadian Member of Parliament states that women must be given economic freedom within the home.  (the mechanism of such recognition varies. Some argue for salaries for wives)

 

1926 – Jean Piaget in “The Language and Thought of the Child” tracks development of intelligence through four main stages from zero to 15 years

 

1926-30 New Zealadn has a minimum salary to cover expenses of the earner supporting a family with two children. Extra bonuses are given for more than two children.

 

1927- Canada passes a pension act to assist provinces to give a pension to the elderly at  age 70.

 

1928 – Dr. John Watson in “Psychological Care of Infant and Child” argued that mothers may not be the best ones to raise their own children. He questioned whether children should even know their parents and advocated instead a ‘scientific’ way of raising children, “programming” the young to fit into the culture. He argued that parents should not hug or kiss their chidren.

 

1929 – Five Canadian Women (Emily Murphy, Louise McKinney, Nellie McClung, Irene Parlby and Henriette Muir Edwards) refuse to accept the Supreme Court ruling against them and take their plea to the Privy Council in England which rules that women are persons and can take roles in public life including in the Senate.  The recognition of women as legal  ‘persons’ became known as the Persons Case. (Edwards v. A. G. Canada)

 

 

1929 – Hildegard Kneeland observed that letting women enter the paid professions with men did not solve the dilemma back home of assuming homemakers were financially dependent,

 

1929 – in Canada a committee is set up to study having a national Family Allowance

 

1930 – in France a wage allowance is paid to encourage mothers to remain at home to care for their children. It is to recognize ‘la mere au foyer”

 

1930 – in Canada married women were for the first time allowed the right to control their own wages and not have to consult with their husbands

 

1930 – New Brunswick allowed women to hold elected office.

 

1930- in the US the Social Security Act Aid to Dependent Children provided a mother’s pension of sorts so war widows could still be with their children

 

1938- the League of Nations tallies numbers who are gainfully employed and ignores housework

 

1935 – the US passes a Social Security Act to help families with dependent children

 

1933 –45 – in the US nurseries are funded to encourage women to enter the paid work force during the depression

 

1938- public assistance to the poor is given not in cash but in food and clothing and is provided on an emergency basis only, usually by private charities and local municipalities.

 

1939- In three days in Britain nearly a million children were moved from British towns and cities to safer rural locations. Some went with mothers and others went alone. Those who provided accommodation for such children were paid an allowance per child. (rights for women, when granted were also granted piecemeal- right to vote, to hold public office, to own property, to manage one’s own money, to be legal guardians of children)

 

1939 – Child care centers were set up to encourage women to join the paid labor force during the war. In the US women were encouraged to work in defense plants. In Canada in 1942 the federal government passes an order in council to have cost sharing with the provinces to establish such daycares.

 

1940’s Betty Friedan observed that it was suddenly common to blame a mother’s influence for ‘every case history of the troubled child, alcoholic , suicidal, schizophrenic, psychopathic, neurotic adult, impotent, homosexual male, frigid promiscuous female”

 

1940- John Bowly, British psychiatrist argues that each child should have a warm and continuous relationship with a parent or parent-substitute in order to have mental health

 

1940 – Harriot Stanton Blatch in “Challenging Years” argues that motherhood but be given an endowment “Setting her free will repay the world”

 

1940 – Unemployment Insurance act in Canada keeps benefits at 50% of the lowest paying job  in order to encourage recipients to re-enter paid work soon. This proves however to be a hazard to health of recipients who are in long-term need. (the amount is raised in 1971 to 2/3 of wage)

 

1940 – Unemployment Insurance Act clarifies division of powers so that the provinces are responsible for the unemployed who can not be expected to find paid jobs, the ‘deserving poor’ such as seniors, single parents, the disabled – while the federal government has responsibility for the employable community. In 1956 federal government shares 50% of costs of administering unemployment benefits

 

 

1943- Dr. David Levy suggests that bad parenting can consist of extremes of overprotectiveness or overpermissiveness.  He suggested that people likely to look inside baby carriages of others are likely to be overprotective parents.

 

1943 – the Marsh Report in Canada suggests that children deserve social security

 

1944 – Family allowance was started in Canada as an alternative to raising the general level of wages and to ease the transition from war to peace in terms of a family’s purchasing power.   The Earl of Athlone, Governor General says it is ‘to aid in ensuring a minimum of well-being to the children of the nation and to help gain for them a closer approach to equality of opportunity in the battle of life”.   The allowance was given to families with incomes under $1200 per year and amounted to $5 per child per month under age 6 and $8 per month for older children to age 16 (the family allowance existed in Canada until the mid 1990s. It has been replaced by a child benefits package which is quite different- non universal, clawed back for those on welfare, of decreasing size not increasing as the child gets older, and based not on the number of children but on total household income regardless in some cases of number of children ) In Quebec the cheque originally was sent to fathers until pressure from Therese Casgrain forced the premier to change this so mothers got the cheque.

 

1993- in the Supreme Court Moge v Moge – it is ruled that spousal support must take into consideration the economic contribution of the unpaid caregiver in raising the children during the marriage. The requirement for divorced parties to make a clean break and become economically self-sufficient quickly is rejected.

 

1993 – Canada ends its universal family allowance program

 

1993 – Women’s groups in Canada join to focus on unpaid work as work, in their “Work is work is Work ‘ campaign to get unpaid work included in the census. They are Mothers are Women, BC Voice of Women, Women to Women Global Strategies and the Canadian Alliance of Home Managers and they are joined later by others including Kids First.

 

1993 –Federal Liberals issue a Red Book promise to expand daycare by cost-sharing with the provinces and to invest in it $720 more million in the next 3 years. No parallel promises are made for children not in daycare.

 

1994 – authors focus on the number of women opting to not have a powerful career but to be home with their kids. Elena Newman writes “More Moms are Homeward Bound” and Julia Lawlor writes “Executive Exodus”

 

1993 – Peter v. Beblow –the Supreme Court rules that common law wives also have the right to an equal share of assets upon ending the relationships, and that child-care and household services are worth recognition.

 

1993- MP Guy St-Julien enters one of several private members’ bills he will offer over the next several years suggesting a salary for homemakers.

 

1993 – a Calgary couple challenges the Income Tax Act by having a man pay his spouse to be home to raise their children.  The Income Tax Court of Canada disallows this action but admits that parents in the home are victims of a discrimination. (Kids First who helped fund the challenge has inadequate funds to launch an appeal)

 

1995 – in Thibaudeau v Canada the court admits that there are hidden costs in the custody of children and rules that a woman need not pay tax on child support payments. (previously the ex-spouse could deduct these payments from his taxable income, but the recipient had to pay tax on them)

 

1994 – Statistics Canada’s fourth study of The Value of Household Work in Canada’ finds that unpaid labor now has a value between $210 billion (opportunity cost) and $318 billion (replacement cost) amounting to 31-46% of the GDP

 

1994 – the Conference Board of Canada surveys 7000 employees and finds that 6% provide care to an elderly, disabled or infirm family member.

 

1994 – the National Council of Women, others are Women, AFEAS and the Canadian Home Economics Association hold a “Women as Family Caregivers’ symposium and recommend that homemaker/home manager/ caregiver be designated as an occupation in the standard occupational classification dictionaries.

 

1995 – the UN Human Development Report announced that women’s unpaid work is worth $11 trillion annually and notes that though ¾ of men’s work around the world is paid, only 1/3 of women’s work is.  Dr. Mahbub ul Huq notes “there is an unwritten conspiracy on a global scale to undervalue women’s work and contributions to society”

 

1995 – Monica Townson reports to the Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women that middle-aged women who were home to raise children often face poverty in old age because of lack of financial recognition for their work in the home.

 

1995 – the Canada Health and Social Transfer reduces transfers to provinces by 33%

 

1995 – The UN holds a Conference on Women in Beijing  and 181 member states including Canada sign the Platform for Action to begin determining the value of unpaid work  A report from Denmark notes that a universal daycare program there has not been successful and that the government there is now considering paying an allowance to mothers who raise children at home

 

1995- Barbara Brandt in “Whole Life Economics: Revaluing Daily Life” suggests that a woman who cleans and cooks is doing work valuable to the GDP

 

1995- The BC Supreme Court rules that the tragic death of a mother entitles the family to a compensation of about a million dollars for loss of her unpaid contribution and her parenting

 

1995 – The Supreme Court in M. V H rules that lifestyle choices predicated upon personal beliefs are protected under the Charter. (the issue in question is gay rights but the choice of how and where to raise one’s children is also a personal lifestyle choice and may be analogous)  The court also redefines family to recognize interdependence and economic partnerships which are in the public interest. (the recognition of sharing, not of dependency heralds a new status for unpaid caregivers)

 

1996 – Sociologist Tom Langford of the University of Calgary observes that the US pro-family movement continues to be linked to anti-gay, anti-abortion, pro-Christian, anti-feminist strategies, under people such as Jerry Fallwell, Dan Quayle and Pat Buchanan but that the Canadian pro-family movement has a more centrist position, without religious or political affiliation and is post-feminist. He singles the views of Beverley Smith as ones more academic, focusing on secular social science.

 

1996 – The first Canadian census to mention and tally unpaid work is distributed

 

1996 Marilyn Waring in “ Three Masquerades” continues her study of unpaid work internationally and observes “When I see a woman holding her child, I know I am watching a woman at work”

 

1996 – the Canadian Council on Social Development notes in “The Progress of Canada’s Children” that contrary to stereotype, not all parents want daycare and not all using at home care are wealthy. It finds “many parents go to extraordinary lengths so that one can be at home when the children are young, often living below the poverty line to do so”

 

1996 – MP Paul Szabo  enters a private member’s bill to have a universal child-tax credit.

 

1996 – Cindy Ramming in “All Mothers Work” notes that those who work in the home save the family money by doing their work unpaid (others argue that only those with paid income work and that they have huge costs to earn, such as daycare, so only t hey deserve tax breaks.  There is even a suggestion that families be taxed on the unpaid labor they benefit from if one parent is at home)

 

1997 – Canadian homemaker makes a formal complaint at the United Nations that Canada’s tax, divorce and child-care laws discriminate against parents in the home. She is supported by 3 Canadian women’s groups as well as groups in England, Italy, France and Australia to confirm this trend internationally. The Canadian government replies to the complaint denying any problem.  The UN in 1999 responding to this complaint expresses concern over violations of economic rights, legal systems discriminating, and women and children being victims of poverty and it notes the absence of women in decision-making

 

1997 – the Parti Quebecois government in Quebec eliminates the baby bonus program and directs most of its funding to a universal daycare support, benefiting daycare users but ignoring all other styles of parenting. The birth rate of 1.6 quickly drops back to under 1.5

 

1997 – the Child Care Expense Deduction which was for children to age 7 and in the amount of $1,000 in 1976 has increased to $4,000 in 1984, to $5,000 in 1998, and to $7,000 in 2000. It is extended in 1997 to children to age 14 and by 2000 to children to age 16. There are no parallel increases in funding for parents  not using daycare. In fact such parents get a maximum of $207 for the entire year, and only for children 7 and under.  The CCED  it cannot be claimed by parents providing care themselves, relative-based care, or for care expenses if the family is not a dual income family. Most parents therefore are unable to claim the benefit.

 

1997 More feminist writers observe a need to value the home side of the career-family balance.  Elizabeth Perle McKenna writes “When Work Doesn’t Work Anymore”. Iris Krasnow writes “Surrendering to Motherhood” and Katie Roiphe writes “Fruitful: Living the Contradictions”

 

1997 – the Fraser Institute reports that on some household incomes the single-income family pays 150% of the tax of the dual-income family. The issue of tax discrimination against the single-income family becomes an area of national press focus culminating in spring 1999 in a close but defeated vote in the House of Commons to eliminate the discrimination.

 

1998 – The federal budget introduces a tax credit of $400 per year for caregivers. However it is extended only to those who care for the elderly or disabled, not to those who care for the young.

 

1998 – Isabella Bakker of York University publishes “Unpaid Work and Macroeconomics” She raises public attention to the existence of the third level of the economy, the unpaid sector, which is often taken for granted as she puts it, as a well that is never expected to run dry.

 

1998  - Betty Friedan in “Beyond Gender: The New Politics of Work and Family” suggest that women’s liberation should not be won at the expense of men and that feminism made a mistake when it ignored motherhood.

 

1996 – parents of young children are lumped together with unemployed singles under the Employment Insurance plan and are expected in several provinces (Quebec, New Brunswick, Alberta and eventually Ontario) to do community service 17 hours a week in order to qualify for welfare benefits. The ‘workfare ‘program does not recognize obligations for caring for children and does not teach new skills or provide child-care.

 

1998 – the value of civic and volunteer work in Nova Scotia is tallied by GPI Atlantic at $2 billion annually or 10% of the GDP. 

 

1998 a tax subcommittee under MP Paul Szabo recommends a universal child tax deduction of $2,000 per year or a nontaxable caregiver benefit.

 

1998 MP Paul Szabo introduces a private member’s bill to pay mother at home $2600 a year

 

1998 – a Southam News Compass poll finds that 86% of Canadians favor changing tax law to allow a parent to be home with a child

 

1999- GPI Atlantic reports that volunteer work has declined 7.2% since 1987 and suggest this is evidence that the volunteer sector cannot compensate for pubic sector budget cuts (the argument that the paid economy requires the unpaid in order to function is strengthened noticing that when the unpaid sector is \discouraged, the paid sector suffers)

 

1999 – Mothers Are Women publishes a research document of unpaid work ‘When Women Count”

 

1999 – the typical salary of a daycare worker in Canada is $18,000 a year, roughly equivalent to that of a parking attendant.

 

1999 – The Canadian Policy Research Network finds that a majority of parents want economic supports for parents during the first 3 years of life so parents can choose to be home with their children

 

1999- the Subcommittee on Children and Youth at Risk notes that Canada is now the only G7 country to lack a universal recognition of costs of rearing children

 

2000 – Canadian government signs an Early Childhood Development accord with the provinces and territories, promising massive funding for healthy pregnancy, and parenting and family supports, but all flowing to organizations, none to families directly

 

2000 – Canadian Policy Research Network finds that provinces vary widely in income supplements for the poor and suggests instead a universal tax credit for raising children

 

2000 – Dr. Shelley Phipps of Dalhousie University  studying family poicy in Euroe notes that in most countries there, maternity and parental benefits are not thought of as in Canada, as linked to labor market programs but are funded as a social benefit

 

2001- The European Observatory on Family Matters notes that Norway now provides a cash subsidy to parents at home, and that Belgium allows parents to deduct some expenses not incurred at daycares.

 

2001 – the Child Tax Benefit  which was $595 per child in 1991 was reduced to $162 per month  and also is decreased in value based not on income of the caregiver but on entire household income. By 2002 the first level of family income to reduce benefits is reduced from $26,330 to $23,500.

 

2002 –Hamburg Germany creates a KIA card voucher to let parents use whatever type of child care they prefer, including care in the home.  Austria adopts a similar program with benefits flowing with the child. The movements are a response to the doping birth rate and to survey results that parents want choices in child-rearing

 

2002 – Chartered Accountant Heather Gore-Hickman of Calgary reveals that current tax policy still treats unequally households of identical income. She finds that on an income of $60,000, the household earning $30,000 and $30,000 pays $6276 federal tax, while the family earning $36,000 and $24,000  pays 6569 in federal tax and the family earning $60,000 and zero pays $8783 in federal tax, the last arrangement paying 42% more than the first, on identical household income.

 

2002 – Beverley Smith asks the federal government for a Supreme Court reference to see if current laws for unpaid caregivers are consistent with the Charter of Rights. The government denies her request for this review.

 

2002 The federal government extends maternity leave benefits under its Employment Insurance program to a full year. However these benefits are only eligible to new mothers with paid employment outside the home over 600 hours in the preceding year, thereby excluding new mothers with fewer than 600 paid hours, employers, the self-employed and new mothers who were not employed outside the home the preceding year.

 

2002 The Action Democratique de Quebec party wins 51% of popular support in a June popularity survey. It proposes a voucher system so parents can choose how to raise their children in or out of daycare.

 

2003 – Statistics Canada reveals that provincial governments now spend 17% of their budgets on health but only 15% on education.

 

2003 Yvonnne Coupal of Quebec gets national attention for her class action lawsuit claiming Quebec government discrimination in funding only daycare children and not those outside daycare.

 

2004 – The Population Reference Bureau of the US notes that though the 2002 birth rates in the 3rd world were 3.3-3.8 births per second, those in the developed nations were well below replacement level, at 0.4 births per second.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

bevgsmith@alumni.ucalgary.ca