Engendering The State
Family, Work, and Welfare in Canada
- Publisher
- University of Toronto Press
- Initial publish date
- Jun 2000
- Category
- General, Social Services & Welfare, Marriage & Family
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9780802083210
- Publish Date
- Jun 2000
- List Price
- $53.00
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9780802047687
- Publish Date
- Jun 2000
- List Price
- $107.00
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9781442674479
- Publish Date
- May 2000
- List Price
- $105.00
Add it to your shelf
Where to buy it
Description
In the early part of this century the mother was the educator and moral centre of the Canadian household. Between the onset of the First World War and the development of the modern social security state in the 1940s, however, an ideological shift took place. While Canada endured the effects of two world wars, industrialization, and economic and political crises, welfare entitlements based on family reproduction were replaced by state policies that promoted paid labour in the workplace. To a nation gripped with new and great anxieties, the mother no longer appeared capable of functioning as its vitally adhesive force.
The necessity of stabilizing the paternal position of the father as breadwinner in order to sustain the family and support economic progress became the progressively dominant view. Although this thinking effectively helped a portion of the population achieve economic autonomy, its damaging effects were wide reaching. Women, unskilled labourers, and the chronically indigent had been left resourceless.
The author's explanation of gender's role in the conception of modern Canadian welfare policy takes current scholarship into novel territory. Her analyses of the perspectives of maternal feminists, clergymen, organized labour, businessmen, university social scientists, welfare administrators, social workers, and government policy makers are fascinating to read and contribute greatly to our understanding of the current debates in welfare policy making.
About the author
Nancy Christie is professor, history, Trent University and the author of several prize-winning books, including A Full-Orbed Christianity: The Protestant Churches and Social Welfare in Canada, 1900-1940, and Engendering The State: Family, Work, and Welfare in Canada.
Awards
- Winner, Sir John A. Macdonald Prize, Canadian Historical Association
Editorial Reviews
'This well-researched study is rich in detailed description, filled with interesting case studies that illustrate the impact of patriarchal ideology and gender inequality. Christie makes a major contribution to the fields of gender and family studies, public policy, labour history, and political sociology.'
Choice
Other titles by
The Formal and Informal Politics of British Rule In Post-Conquest Quebec, 1760-1837
A Northern Bastille
History of Canada, Volume 1
Transatlantic Peoplings, 1663-1885
History of Canada, Volume 2
Making Citizens Modern, 1885-1982
The Sixties and Beyond
Dechristianization in North America and Western Europe, 1945-2000
Christian Churches and Their Peoples, 1840-1965
A Social History of Religion in Canada
Christian Churches and Their Peoples, 1840-1965
A Social History of Religion in Canada
Transatlantic Subjects
Ideas, Institutions, and Social Experience in Post-Revolutionary British North America
Mapping the Margins
The Family and Social Discipline in Canada, 1700-1975
Mapping the Margins
The Family and Social Discipline in Canada, 1700-1975
