This was a very interesting historical review. I was struck by the fact that the care of children has primarily fallen under the auspices of women, even in 2020. And as the role of providing care was considered a female obligation, any career or profession in this field was subject to the same devaluation as women in general have received for centuries. And truthfully, it saddened me that our society appears to be slow in its evolution on its perspective regarding the value of women. Globally, women are still chattel. In the United States, voices shone a light on the abusive treatment of women through the Me Too Movement. And in Canada, the discrepancy between daycare affordability and daycare provider wages reflects the Canadian ideology of a women’s worth in the work force.
I do have anecdotal evidence regarding daycare, particularly as a single parent accessing the daycare subsidy arena. From the age of 18 to the present day, I have had to access the welfare social safety net on several different occasions. Although I have worked since the age of 13, several hurdles crossed my path and I had to reach out for governmental assistance. Throughout my life I have volunteered, been employed and improved upon my education and each of these endeavours needed the support of reliable daycare. At no time was I ever denied daycare subsidy. In fact, this social safety net was also available in the 1990’s for parents to attend 12-step recovery meetings. And in 1995, when I started losing my eyesight, my daycare subsidy continued even thought I was unable to work. I do not know if I am an anomaly or if the pendulum in the 1980’s and the 1990’s had landed on the progressive side of the post-modern theories…either way, I experienced a fully supportive system.
Like many of my classmates, I too got a chuckle out of the kid tied to the fence – and now I understand my mother’s comfort in using a dog harness on my son when he was a toddler… I did notice in the earlier clips that intelligent parts were on open-faced shelves offering easy accessibility for the children. I appreciated that the female voices speaking on behalf of childcare were based in objective, fact-based dialogues that continue to stand the test of time. The subjective, anecdotal housewife voices provided a glimpse into the beliefs and values embraced by the 1950’s culture and espoused by society. Have things changed? Of course. Human cognition is ever developing and change is inevitable. Has the evolution of our society been so inclusive of all its citizenry in the last century that we have reached Utopia? From the video and radio clips provided I am compelled to answer no; based on personal experience of successful access to daycare, I would have said pretty close. Now that i am a part of the early learning community, I am becoming more aware of the complex attitudes and issues that contribute to the discourse of developing effective solutions for our profession. As a “newbie” I’m just not sure where I fit in yet… just another “to be continued” journal entry I guess 🙂
