Mom or Dad is at work all day or never home at all. Spouses stay home to care for the kids but need to get out for work or school. There’s just one big obstacle: daycare. In Alaska and across the country, quality daycare is hard to find and expensive.
“We Can Do It!” by J. Howard Miller, also known as “Rosie the Riveter,” after the iconic figure of a strong female war production worker. (Image from the U.S. Emergency Management Agency) Imagine problem solved: quality day care is widely available and incredibly inexpensive, costing about $8 to $10 per child per day. Day care includes snacks and a hot lunch. There is a 1:10 staff-to-child ratio. Basic medical care is also included.
Daycare facilities may be new buildings purpose-built as fully-equipped, modern daycare centers or they may be part of a local school building. They are open from early morning until late at night to accommodate flexible work schedules. Some daycare facilities are open 24 hours a day, six days a week. At the end of the day, some daycare centers deliver dinner to your home for parents and children.
An impossible but attractive fantasy? No, it’s not just a fantasy. It’s part of American history. Parents demanded it. Politicians wanted it. And it happened. For just a few years, the United States had well-funded day care programs across the country.
In the early 1940s, the United States was at war with the Axis powers. Men were fighting and leaving the country. Graphics of Rosie the Riveter were everywhere, encouraging women to replace men in the vital munitions industry. Maybe Rosie didn’t have kids, or maybe she had a caring mother who looked after them while she riveted. But millions of women were home alone with their kids. How could you work full-time in the munitions industry and be a full-time mother at the same time? As The New York Times reported in 2019:
“The main source of funding to improve this situation was the Lanham Act of 1940, which implemented many social welfare programs during the war. Beginning in 1942, the Lanham Act provided funds to the federal Public Works Administration to implement group child care in war-affected areas. But far from instantly putting a bright child care center on every block, the act created a complex patchwork of public and private agencies, in some cases maintaining existing centers and in other cases allowing communities to establish new ones.”
According to a Congressional Research Service report, even at the beginning of the program, “the demand for child care centers was estimated to be far greater than the services provided.” Still, it was a remarkable success.
“The wartime child care program was planned locally. As many as 635 communities across the country were provided with funds to operate one or more centers. Projects included programs for preschool and school-age children. At the height of the wartime child care program in July 1944, there were 52,440 preschool children and 76,917 school-age children enrolled.”
[1945年半ばまでに、連合軍が戦争に勝利したことは明らかでした。男性の間では、ロージー・ザ・リベッターと彼女の女性工場同僚は荷物をまとめて家に帰るべきだという意見が優勢でした。彼女たちは、キッチンでの「伝統的な」仕事に就き、工場の仕事を男性に返すよう促されました。そして、女性たちがそうするように、政治家たちはすぐに国立デイケアへの資金を削減し、このプログラムをすぐに廃止しました。反発が起こり、女性と子供たちは路上でデモを行いました。CRSレポートによると、署名運動も行われました。
「この発表から約1か月後、FWAは [Federal Works Agency] The department reported that it had received correspondence (1,155 letters, 318 telegrams, 794 postcards, and a petition signed by 3,647 people) from 26 states and the District of Columbia requesting the continuation of the program. The main reasons cited were the need for military wives to continue working until their husbands returned home, the continued need for mothers as the sole source of support for their children, and the inadequacy of other forms of care in the community.”
Still, sexism and discrimination were rife. Within a few years, most of the national day care program had disappeared. Remnants persisted, mainly in California, until the 1960s. Then the national day care program disappeared entirely.
So here we are today. Child care problems are legion. Today’s tax breaks and other marginal incentives are not enough to build a national child care program. But 80 years ago the Federal Public Works Administration did just that. The precedent and the need are there, but the visionary politicians are in short supply.
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