ABSTRACT

The model of separate private and public spheres firmly positioned women in the home as family carers while men were situated in the workplace as family providers. This chapter explores the difficulties involved in thinking about family carers as workers and the conflict that arose particularly in government circles, but also amongst women trade union leaders, when workers were discussed in terms that were different from the usual male worker. The consideration of childcare for women workers suggested that family carers could be part of the public sphere. The chapter argues that the debates about childcare during the 1960s demonstrate the way in which the apparatus of government itself was unable to come to terms with the idea that family carers could also be workers. The reluctance on the part of some women union leaders to connect childcare needs and family carers to the workers they represented was revealed in a debate at the 1961 Trades Union Congress Women’s Conference.