ABSTRACT
The use of non-parental childcare, or more accurately non-maternal care, became an issue in the United States and elsewhere as women/mothers began entering the paid workforce in large numbers in the 1970s. Even though this influx of women/mothers into the labor market happened more than 30 years after the Great Depression, the family values of that era still dominated American life, even as these values were inconsistent with the reality of the 1970s when more and more women/mothers began entering the paid workforce outside of the home. Because of these depression era values, women who worked outside the home were viewed as putting their families at risk. During the Great Depression, women were expected to turn down jobs that men could perform so that men could support their family (Anderson, 2001). In addition, it was thought that women who worked might jeopardize their bond with their children and the children might develop behavioral and other problems as a consequence. These traditional views of women in the larger culture of the United States clashed with the growing numbers of women who wanted or needed to work in the 1970s; and this clash created controversies about how society might address this change and about the effect on children’s development.
