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 These conditions were only gradually withdrawn)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.