1. Objectifs

Intentions :
- Review the diverse legislative policies and retrace the major social realities the authors of bills in Québec and Canada faced, and introduce the political groups who influenced these officials
- Explore the laws themselves where they were implemented in the offices of public servants and inspectors
- Examine the State’s intentions regarding children and parents
- Attempt to understand to what degree were the original objectives attained

Questions/Hypothèses :
« Who exactly contributed to the inauguration of this Welfare State and with whose interest in mind, in the name of which values and, ultimately, with what success? »

2. Méthode

Type de traitement des données :
Recension des écrits

3. Résumé

« The Social Origins of the Welfare State traces the evolution of the universal laws for Québec families, passed during the Second World War. In this translation of her award-winning Aux origines sociales de l’État-providence, Dominique Marshall examines the connections between political initiatives and Québécois families, in particular the way family allowances and compulsory schooling primarily benefited teenage boys who worked on family farms and girls who stayed home to help with domestic labour. She demonstrates that, while the promises of a minimum of welfare and education for all were by no means completely fulfilled, the laws helped to uncover the existence of deep family poverty. Further, by exposing the problem of unequal access of children of different classes to schooling, these programs paved the way for education and funding reforms of the next generation. Another consequence was that in their equal treatment of both genders, the laws fostered the more egalitarian language of the war, possibly laying groundwork for feminist claims of future decades. » (résumé du livre)