After World War II, women strived to gain better working conditions and provision for childcare. However not all women’s activism was for more opportunities. Indeed, some women found these movements to be ‘anti-American’ and a threat to society. They believed preserving the nuclear family unit and emphasizing individual rights.
In 1943, the Lanham Act gave federal grants to provide affordable childcare to women who were a critical asset in the wartime workforce. The Lanham Act was the first and only Federally funded affordable child care program in the United States. When World War II ended so did the funding. But affordable child care in California continued until the 1970s. California was the only state to continue an affordable child care program, due to the political activism and organization of women, educators, and labor organizers within the state. In many ways, the desire for affordable and appropriate childcare set the ‘groundwork’ for future progressive political activities and protests during the Civil Rights movement and today.
Photo: "Mrs. Arlene Corbin (right), a time checker in Richmond, California shipyard brings two-and-a-half-year-old Arlene to a nursery school every morning before going home to sleep. Mrs. Corbin works on the midnight to 7:30 a.m. shift and relies upon the school to keep her daughter busy and happy during the day." Courtesy of U.S. National Archives
Not all women acted towards empowerment or change. Indeed conservative activism was common in both the US and Southern California. Southern California’s development – and later dependence – on federal defense contracts and military spending in Orange and Los Angeles counties became ‘fertile’ soil for conservative activism.
1951 – Anti-communist activist Florence Fowler Lyons speaks out against UNESCO curricula in Los Angeles. She is largely supported by 'anti-communist' and conservative women’s groups:
American Public Relations Forum
Los Angeles' Women’s Breakfast Club
Keep America Committee
Women’s Republican Study
Minute Women of U.S.A., Inc.
Liberty Belles, Inc.
Although both advocacy groups used some forms of activism like writing to elected officials, organizing meetings, and attending hearings, there were differences in how they spread their message and gained political support.
Many of the activists were parents who directly benefited from affordable childcare. They along with advocates and established organizations like the California League of Women Voters (CALWV) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) focused on the beneficial aspects of affordable childcare. They emphasized how it provided education to children and how working women contributed to the economy and state funds. They also fought against the image that it was a "Welfare" or "out of pocket" cost that did not provide any benefits to society or the state.
Photo: "After WWII, parents organized demonstrations, like this one in New York on Sept. 21, 1947, calling for the continuing funding of the centers. The city’s welfare commissioner dismissed the protests as “hysterical.'" Courtesy of New York Times
A common theme in the messages spread by conservative activists were that American and familial ideology were under attack. However, the ideal that these groups advocated were for wealthy to middle class white communities and did not necessarily represent the American or regional majority. Furthermore their activism often led to the personal attacks on individuals who supported more progressive education as 'un-American' regardless of the validity of such attacks. Superintendents Willard Goslin (Pasadena 1951) and Alexander J. Stoddard (Los Angeles 1948 - 1954) are examples of such attacks.
Photo: Keep America Committee published this flyer circa 1955 to promote the belief that the Polio vaccination, fluoride in water, and "mental hygiene" were communist attacks on the United States. They were known as the "Unholy Three."
Pictures
Chippers in a Shipyard (Shipbuilding. Three Women Working), 1942. U.S. National Archives. Photograph, Digitally uploaded. The U.S. National Archives @ Flickr Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chippers_in_a_Shipyard_(Shipbuilding._Three_Women_Working),_1942_(3659978739).jpg
War Workers’ Nursery. Ann Rosener, U.S. Office of War Information. Photograph, Digitally uploaded. 498 × 367 pixels. This image is a work of an employee of the United States Farm Security Administration or Office of War Information domestic photographic units, taken as part of that person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain in the United States. See Copyright. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WWII_daycare_Richmond_CA.jpg
Miss Florence Fowler Lyons on Communist infiltration. Herald Examiner Collection. Photographic Prints. Images available for reproduction and use. Please see the Ordering & Use page at http://tessa. lapl.org/OrderingUse.htm.
Kiesling, Lydia. Digital image. "Paid Child Care for Working Mothers? All It Took Was a World War." New York Times. 2 October 2019. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/02/us/paid-childcare-working-mothers-wwii.html. Accessed on 08 May 2020.
"At the Sign of the UNHOLY THREE", a flier first issued in 1955 to promote mental hygiene as a communist goal to destroy the U.S.A. Keep America Committee. 16 May 1955. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Unholy_three.png. Accessed on 07 May 2020
Credits:
1. Fousekis, Natalie Marie. 2011. Demanding Child Care: Women's Activism and the Politics of Welfare, 1940-71. Urbana, Chicago and Springfield: University of Illinois Press. 2. Tuttle,William M.,,Jr. 1995. "Rosie the Riveter and Her Latchkey Children: What Americans can Learn about Child Day Care from the Second World War." Child Welfare 74 (1) (01): 92. https://search-proquest-com.lib-proxy.fullerton.edu/docview/213811342?accountid=9840. 3. "LANHAM ACT LIMITS CHILD CARE HERE: FUNDS NOT AVAILABLE UNLESS THE CITY IS DECLARED A LABOR-SHORTAGE AREA." 1943.New York Times (1923-Current File), Dec 11, 12. https://search-proquest-com.lib-proxy.fullerton.edu/docview/106706146?accountid=9840. 4. Nickerson, Michelle. "Women, Domesticity, and Postwar Conservatism." OAH Magazine of History 17, no. 2 (2003): 17-21. Accessed March 26, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/25163575. 5. Nickerson, Michelle M. 2012. Mothers of Conservatism : Women and the Postwar Right. Princeton: Princeton University Press. https://search-ebscohost-com.lib-proxy.fullerton.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=430162&site=ehost-live&scope=site. 6. Adams, Glen Warren. 1970. “The UNESCO Controversy in Los Angeles, 1951 – 1953: A Case Study of the Influence of Right-Wing Groups on Urban Affairs." Order No. 7025009, University of Southern California. https://search-proquest-com.lib-proxy.fullerton.edu/docview/302550260?accountid=9840. 7. Ghosal, Nilanjana. “Anticommunist Women’s Organizations.” Women in American History: A Social, Political, and Cultural Encyclopedia and Document Collection [4 Volumes]. Lamphier, Peg A., and Rosanne Welch. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2017. https://search-ebscohost-com.lib-proxy.fullerton.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1447096&site=ehost-live&scope=site. 8. Hart, Randle J. “The Greatest Subversive Plot in History? The American Radical Right and Anti-UNESCO Campaigning.” Sociology 48, no. 3 (June 2014): 554–72. doi:10.1177/0038038513500097. 9. McGirr, Lisa. Suburban Warriors: the Origins of the New American Right. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2001. https://hdl-handle-net.lib-proxy.fullerton.edu/2027/heb.02237. EPUB. Pictures 10. War Workers’ Nursery. Ann Rosener, U.S. Office of War Information. Photograph, Digitally uploaded. 498 × 367 pixels. This image is a work of an employee of the United States Farm Security Administration or Office of War Information domestic photographic units, taken as part of that person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain in the United States. See Copyright. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WWII_daycare_Richmond_CA.jpg 11. Miss Florence Fowler Lyons on Communist infiltration. Herald Examiner Collection. Photographic Prints. Images available for reproduction and use. Please see the Ordering & Use page at http://tessa. lapl.org/OrderingUse.htm. 12. Chippers in a Shipyard (Shipbuilding. Three Women Working), 1942. U.S. National Archives. Photograph, Digitally uploaded. The U.S. National Archives @ Flickr Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chippers_in_a_Shipyard_(Shipbuilding._Three_Women_Working),_1942_(3659978739).jpg