A Mother's Job

This new book traces the transformation of day care from a charity for poor single mothers in the early twentieth century to a socially accepted need of ordinary families by the 1950s. Using Philadelphia as a case study, Elizabeth Rose explores the history of day care from the perspective of the families who used it as well as the philanthropists and social workers who administered it. This study helps us understand the roots of our current dilemmas about day care in the context of debates on welfare, women's work, and "family values."