Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Preface to the Revised Edition
- Introduction: Women, the State and the Politics of Caring for Children
- 1 The Kindergarten Movement and Urban Social Reform
- 2 For the Sake of the Nation
- 3 A Mother's Place …?
- 4 Hitching Child Care to the Commonwealth Star
- 5 Playing Beneath the Sword of Damocles
- 6 For Love and Money
- 7 Child Care – an Industrial Issue
- 8 New Players, New Rules
- 9 Equity and Economics
- 10 The Market Rules … OK?
- References
- Index
2 - For the Sake of the Nation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations
- Preface to the Revised Edition
- Introduction: Women, the State and the Politics of Caring for Children
- 1 The Kindergarten Movement and Urban Social Reform
- 2 For the Sake of the Nation
- 3 A Mother's Place …?
- 4 Hitching Child Care to the Commonwealth Star
- 5 Playing Beneath the Sword of Damocles
- 6 For Love and Money
- 7 Child Care – an Industrial Issue
- 8 New Players, New Rules
- 9 Equity and Economics
- 10 The Market Rules … OK?
- References
- Index
Summary
It is the Nation's responsibility to turn out men and women who are A1, not C3. Men and women who are fit to live a full life … for the service of the Nation.
Ada M. a‧Beckett, First President of the Australian Association for Pre-School Child Development, 1939While these wartime Children's Centres cater for the children of mothers who are already engaged from economic necessity on war work, they deserve some financial assistance from the Commonwealth. If, however, they are to be used as a means of encouraging mothers to avoid their responsibilities to their children, the Commonwealth should not render any aid.
J. Brophy, Acting Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, 1943The provision of pre-schools and day nurseries remained within the sphere of voluntary activity, supplemented by small grants from the state governments, until the late 1930s. Before this, in keeping with the prevailing view that ‘welfare’ matters were most appropriately dealt with by the states and philanthropic organisations, no consideration appears to have been given to the potential role of the commonwealth government in children's services. In the brief period from the late 1930s to the mid-1940s, however, several developments took place which challenged the assumption that there was no role for the commonwealth in this field.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Politics of Australian Child CarePhilanthropy to Feminism and Beyond, pp. 32 - 51Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998
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