The Social Origins of the Welfare State

Dominique Marshall, Nicola Doone Danby

Description

The Social Origins of the Welfare State traces the evolution of the first universal laws for Québec families, passed during the Second World War. In this translation of her award-winning Aux origines sociales de l´État-providence, Dominique Marshall examines the connections between political initiatives and Québécois families, in particular the way family allowances and compulsory schooling primarily benefited teenage boys who worked on family farms and girls who stayed home to help with domestic labour. She demonstrates that, while the promises of a minimum of welfare and education for all were by no means completely fulfilled, the laws helped to uncover the existence of deep family poverty. Further, by exposing the problem of unequal access of children of different classes to schooling, these programs paved the way for education and funding reforms of the next generation. Another consequence was that in their equal treatment of both genders, the laws fostered the more egalitarian language of the war, which faded from other sectors of society, possibly laying groundwork for feminist claims of future decades.

The way in which the poorest families influenced the creation of public, educational, and welfare institutions is a dimension of the welfare state unexamined until this book. At a time when the very idea of a universal welfare state is questioned, The Social Origins of the Welfare State considers the fundamental reasons behind its creation and brings to light new perspectives on its future.

Informations

• Publié par: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
• Date de parution: 07 avril 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781554586646
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

The Social Origins of the Welfare State
Studies in Childhood and Family in Canada
Studies in Childhood and Family in Canada is a multidisciplinary series devoted to new perspectives on these subjects as they evolve. The series features studies that focus on the intersections of age, class, race, gender, and region as they contribute to a Canadian understanding of childhood and family, both historically and currently.
Series Editor Cynthia Comacchio Department of History Wilfrid Laurier University
Manuscripts to be sent to Brian Henderson, Director Wilfrid Laurier University Press 75 University Avenue West Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, N2L 3C5
The Social Origins of the Welfare State
Qu bec Families, Compulsory Education, and Family Allowances, 1940-1955
Dominique Marshall
Translated by Nicola Doone Danby
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program for our publishing activities.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Marshall, Dominique, 1961-
The social origins of the welfare state : Qu bec families, compulsory education, and family allowances, 1940-1955 / Dominique Marshall; translated by Nicola Doone Danby.
(Studies in childhood and family in Canada)
Translation of: Aux origines sociales de l tat-providence. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-88920-452-2 ISBN-10: 0-88920-452-7
1. Welfare state. 2. Family policy-Qu bec (Province). 3. Family-Qu bec (Province)-History-20th century. 4. Education, Compulsory-Qu bec (Province)-History-20th century. 5. Family allowances-Qu bec (Province)-History-20th century. 6. Child labor-Qu bec (Province)-History-20th century. I. Danby, Nicola Doone, 1974- . II. Title. III. Series.
HV109.Q84M3713 2006 361.6 50971409044 C2006-903991-7
2006 Wilfrid Laurier University Press Waterloo, Ontario, Canada www.wlupress.wlu.ca
Cover design by P.J. Woodland. Front cover photograph-originally from the National Film Board-from the National Archives of Canada, Official Publications, National Library of Canada negative NL15302, Department of National Health and Welfare, Allocations familiales: Charte de l enfance (Ottawa: King s Printer, 1945-1946), published in La Presse , 25 February 1944. Reproduced with the permission of La Presse and the Department of Public Works and Government Services Canada. Author photo by Graphics, Oxford-Brookes University. Text design by Catharine Bonas-Taylor.

This book is printed on Ancient Forest Friendly paper (100% post-consumer recycled).
Printed in Canada
Every reasonable effort has been made to acquire permission for copyright material used in this text, and to acknowledge all such indebtedness accurately. Any errors and omissions called to the publisher s attention will be corrected in future printings.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher or a licence from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For an Access Copyright licence, visit www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to 1-800-893-5777.
To my husband, Andrew, with all my gratitude
Contents
Introduction
Abbreviations
Chapter 1 The Drafting of Laws: Social Movements and Legislation
Ad lard Godbout and the Provincial Compulsory School Attendance Act of 1943: Liberal Reformism, Managerial Reformism, and Clerical Agriculturalism
The Failure of the 1943 Provincial Family Allowances Act
Mackenzie King and the 1945 Federal Family Allowances Act
Maurice Duplessis, Provincial Autonomy, and Social Policies
The Industrial and Commercial Establishments Act
Chapter 2 Implementing the New Laws: Institutionalization of New Rights
The Consolidation of the Department of Public Instruction: Statistics and Centralization
School Boards, the Department of Labour Inspectors, and the Montr al Juvenile Court
The Institution of Family Allowances and the Federal Government s Administrative Revenge
Chapter 3 The Significance of Children s Universal Rights: Official Views on Poverty and the Family
Poverty and Collective Responsibility
The Question of Children s Autonomy
The Autonomy of Poor Parents
Chapter 4 The Evolution of the Status of Children: Between the New Official Norms, Market Changes, and the Cultural World of Parents
The Progress of Schooling
The Decline of Juvenile Labour in Industry and Commerce
The Decline of Labour for Farmers Sons
The Change in Parents Responsibilities and Prerogatives
The Increase in Children s Autonomy
Chapter 5 Forgotten by Education and Welfare: The New Faces of Poverty and Juvenile Labour
The Failure of Government Advice and the Discarding of Abnormal Families
The Survival of Juvenile Labour: Market Insufficiencies and the Persistent Needs of Families
The Development and Tolerance of Exceptions to Universal Rights: Sons of Self-Sufficient Farmers, Girls of Disadvantaged Homes, and Ghettos of Paid Juvenile Labour
The Rigidity of the School Structure, Children s Persistent Needs, and the New Conceptions of Abnormal Childhood
Chapter 6 The Transformation of the Political Culture of Families
The Maintenance and Dissipation of the War Consensus
Traditional Means of Defending Parents Rights and the New Struggles for Democracy
School Boards and the Struggle against the Centralizing of Social Institutions
Social Policy and the Constitution
The Quiet Revolution, State Formation, Nationalism, and Family Values
Notes
Index
Introduction
During the Second World War, the federal and provincial governments made generous promises to Qu bec s poor children. In 1943, the prime minister of Qu bec, Liberal Ad lard Godbout, recognized their right to a minimum level of education. Four years of power had allowed him to put an end to the half-century of quarrelling between the province s Catholic clergy and Liberal reformists over the State s role in education. Radio and newspapers informed parents, children, teachers, and school commissioners that, beginning in September 1943, school would be both free and compulsory until the age of fourteen or until grade seven, inclusively. This policy earned Godbout and his ministers the reputation of having been the precursors to the Quiet Revolution. With the aim of modernizing the province s economy, they effectively strove to extend the social grip over public institutions, a task that would be taken up by the quipe du tonnerre of another Liberal, Jean Lesage, in 1960.
In 1944, a year after Qu bec s adoption of this law on compulsory education, Canadian prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King announced that all children aged sixteen and under would have the right to a minimum of welfare and, to this end, monthly family allowances in the amount of four to nine dollars would be disbursed to all mothers. The necessities of war production and the approaching general elections led Mackenzie King to establish the country s first universal social program, one of the foundations of the Canadian Welfare State.
The two laws dictated that parents were responsible for their children s physical security at least until the age of fourteen, permitting these youths to acquire a minimum of intellectual development. It became illegal for children to work instead of attend school, and the State committed itself to guaranteeing that none of them shoulder the material obligation to achieve this objective. This policy was not altogether new; previously, children aged sixteen and under who wished to work for a manufacturer or distributor needed to obtain a permit from the Qu bec Department of Labour (QDL), a measure that prevented them from compromising their education too seriously. Without this permit they risked putting their employers in an illegal position, which was all the more likely since the war had breathed new zeal into the labour inspectors. In addition to this permit system, the Catholic parish priests observed a custom of waiting for children to reach grade seven before admitting them to solemn communion. In certain cities in the 1920s-Montr al in particular-parents and children were already dealing with truancy officers and the school boards enumerators. And finally, starting in 1936, the poor mothers who could help local authorities to recognize the honesty of their situation received a modest Needy Mothers Assistance from the provincial government, which occasionally allowed them to keep a child in school. Later, to facilitate military recruitment, the federal government undertook to pay out a relatively generous Soldiers Dependants Allowance for children under sixteen years of age.
Notes to introduction start on p. 195 .
What was new in the war years was that the social safety net the two States had woven together affected all children. Family historians agree that the State s increased intervention in the domains of education and welfare was a major change in twentieth-century Western households. The system for educating children multiplied relationships between families and State representatives. At the same time, precise models of childhood and family life were attached to the institutional structure, becoming omnipresent in subsequent decades. What is less clear is how, in which direction, and to what degree these changes influenced the lives of poor families. It is possible to examine in closer detail the documents where politicians and officials left traces of their projects, of