1 option
The social origins of the welfare state : Québec families, compulsory education, and family allowances, 1940-1955 / Dominique Marshall ; translated by Nicola Doone Danby.
LIBRA HV109.Q84 M3713 2006
Available from offsite location
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Marshall, Dominique, 1961-
- Series:
- Studies in childhood and family in Canada
- Language:
- English
- French
- Subjects (All):
- Welfare state.
- Family policy--Québec (Province).
- Family policy.
- Families--Québec (Province)--History--20th century.
- Families.
- Education, Compulsory--Québec (Province)--History--20th century.
- Education, Compulsory.
- Family allowances--Québec (Province)--History--20th century.
- Family allowances.
- Child labor--Québec (Province)--History--20th century.
- Child labor.
- Famille--Québec (Province)--Histoire--20e siècle.
- Famille.
- History.
- Physical Description:
- xx, 277 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.
- Place of Publication:
- Waterloo, Ont. : Wilfred Laurier University Press, [2006]
- Summary:
- 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.
- 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 origins socials 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, possibly laying groundwork for feminist claims of future decades.
- In 1999, Aux origins sociales de l'État-providence received honourable mention for the Sir John A. Macdonald Prize for best book in Canadian history and won the 1998-99 Prix Jean-Charles-Falardeau for the best French-language book in the social sciences.
- Contents:
- Chapter 1 The Drafting of Laws: Social Movements and Legislation 1
- Adélard Godbout and the Provincial Compulsory School Attendance Act of 1943: Liberal Reformism, "Managerial Reformism," and Clerical Agriculturalism 2
- The Failure of the 1943 Provincial Family Allowances Act 14
- Mackenzie King and the 1945 Federal Family Allowances Act 19
- Maurice Duplessis, Provincial Autonomy, and Social Policies 27
- The Industrial and Commercial Establishments Act 34
- Chapter 2 Implementing the New Laws: Institutionalization of New Rights 39
- The Consolidation of the Department of Public Instruction: Statistics and Centralization 39
- School Boards, the Department of Labour Inspectors, and the Montréal Juvenile Court 49
- The Institution of Family Allowances and the Federal Government's "Administrative Revenge" 61
- Chapter 3 The Significance of Children's Universal Rights: Official Views on Poverty and the Family 71
- Poverty and Collective Responsibility 71
- The Question of Children's Autonomy 78
- The Autonomy of Poor Parents 82
- Chapter 4 The Evolution of the Status of Children: Between the New Official Norms, Market Changes, and the Cultural World of Parents 95
- The Progress of Schooling 96
- The Decline of Juvenile Labour in Industry and Commerce 99
- The Decline of Labour for Farmers' Sons 104
- The Change in Parents' Responsibilities and Prerogatives 107
- The Increase in Children's Autonomy 113
- Chapter 5 Forgotten by Education and Welfare: The New Faces of Poverty and Juvenile Labour 119
- The Failure of Government Advice and the Discarding of Abnormal Families 119
- The Survival of Juvenile Labour: Market Insufficiencies and the Persistent Needs of Families 125
- The Development and Tolerance of Exceptions to Universal Rights: Sons of Self-Sufficient Farmers, Girls of Disadvantaged Homes, and Ghettos of Paid Juvenile Labour 131
- The Rigidity of the School Structure, Children's Persistent Needs, and the New Conceptions of Abnormal Childhood 155
- Chapter 6 The Transformation of the Political Culture of Families 161
- The Maintenance and Dissipation of the War Consensus 161
- Traditional Means of Defending Parents' Rights and the New Struggles for Democracy 173
- School Boards and the Struggle against the Centralizing of Social Institutions 181
- Social Policy and the Constitution 184
- The Quiet Revolution, State Formation, Nationalism, and Family Values 189.
- Notes:
- Translation of: Aux origines sociales de l'État-providence.
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- ISBN:
- 0889204527
- OCLC:
- 70777703
- Publisher Number:
- 9780889204522
The Penn Libraries is committed to describing library materials using current, accurate, and responsible language. If you discover outdated or inaccurate language, please fill out this feedback form to report it and suggest alternative language.