1950 Britain – During world war II British economists had an idea of add up resources for fighting the war and they decided to tally two things- the value of all goods and all services bought and sold each year. When the war ended, the UN chose that same tally tool to understand relative wealth of al nations in the world and called it the Gross Domestic Product. It was assumed to show the relative strength of a nation, since it showed changes in manufacture, production and sale of goods. It ignores some measures such as health, education, compassion, justice and has no category for family time or time to relax.
1950s – women get the right to vote in Barbados, Bolivia, Greece, Nicaragua, Indonesia, Egypt, Laos
1950- US – Mothers on welfare are expected to leave their children to get a paid job.
1950- US – Senator Richard L. Neuberger proposes family allowance and John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey support the initiative but it is not enacted.
1953 The UN produces its first System of National Accounts under the supervision of Richard Stone. He calculates GDP ignoring unpaid household labor. Activities in low income African countries such as grinding corn, fetching water, weaving mats, central to the well-being of the community are excluded. The UN System of National Accounts becomes the universal method of measuring a country’s economy and it ignores unpaid household and caregiving labor.
1955 – US – La Leche League forms in Chicago, to promote breast-feeding and research its emotional and immunological benefit to children
1958- Canada – a married man can deduct one third of his income of $3,000 to support his wife in the home -the value of spousal support progressively shrank and by 1998 is about 1/7 of a standard income
1959 – the UN passes the Declaration of the Rights of the Child giving children special protection and opportunities In 1989 these rights are made legally binding
1960 –US- it is found that families with many children often fall below the poverty level. the US launches what it calls its war on poverty since ¼ of American children live below the poverty level
1960 – US – Professor Milton Friedman proposes that for those with very low incomes there should be a negative income tax so the state would provide them with assistance
1960s – women get the right to vote in Paraguay, Sierra Leone, Monaco, congo, Iran, Sudan, Botswana
1960 – Canada – the Canadian Bill of Rights recognizes the right of individuals to equality before the law and protection of the law.
1963- US – Betty Friedan in ‘The Feminine Mystique’ admits details of her experience of motherhood were positive even though she understands the feminist movement to allow other roles. “Don’t get me wrong… I don’t think having a baby is absolutely necessary or even sufficient for any and every woman’s fulfillment. Chosen motherhood is the real liberation.” She observes a sense of dissatisfaction in some young mothers and urges women to say no to the housewife image. She claims it is not hard to combine paid work and motherhood.
1963- US – President Kennedy’s Task Force on Manpower Conservation finds that a third of the nations children are in families with four or more children. The comment is raised that American wage structure does not provide sufficient income for parents of large families
1964 – US- educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom in ‘Stability and Change in Human Characteristics’ says that the early years are crucial to character development and are a window for learning
1964 –US – the National Association for the Education of Young Children forms.
1965 – US – Government, rather than assisting the poor with money directly sets up programs of health, nutrition and education experiences. Project Head Start is begun and spreads for children aged 4 and 5. The services of Head Start eventually extend to grade 3
1966 – Canada –Carter Royal Commission on Taxation proposes using the family as a unit of taxation option to that of an unattached individual. It is never enacted.
1966 –US – National Organization for Women forms to eliminate discrimination on the basis of sex. In 1967 New York Radical Women is founded by Shulamith Finestone and it later demonstrates against the Miss America Beauty Pageant
1966 –Canada – Rianne Mahon in ‘Welfare Restructuring and Changing Gender Relations: The Politics of Family Policy in Sweden and Canada “observes that there are two approaches to caregiving. In Conservative welfare states male breadwinners are favored and housewives are seen as dependents. In social democratic states dual earner families are supported and unions ally with the women’s movement to encourage daycare use.
1966 – US – president endorses Father’s Day and in 1972 it becomes an official US holiday.
1966 – UN International Convention on Civil and Political Rights –ICPR- ensures that equal rights and responsibilities are recognized during marriage and at its dissolution and that in the case of dissolution provision must be made for the protection of children
1966 – International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights promotes equal pay for work of equal value -the application however is restricted to the paid labor force and does not address valuing unpaid work- It also ensures that the widest possible protection and assistance should be accorded to the family while it cares for and educates dependent children
1968 – 52 countries now have some system of family allowance, but the US does not. The US has an Aid to Families of Dependent Children, which is only for families without two parents.
1969 – Canada- women’s studies professor Margaret Benston observes that women’s work has internationally been ignored in the tally of the money economy. She says that devaluing the work women do is closely linked to the problem in the struggle for women’s equality. She says that when a wage earner is taxed, the state is actually getting the labor of two people, the spouse at home doing her work for free. In her book, ‘The Political Economy of Women’s Liberation’ she decries that fact that women’s unpaid work is not deemed real work.
1970s – women get the right to vote in Bahrain, Jordan, Mozambique, Switzerland
1970 – Canada – the Royal Commission on the Status of Women recommends that the family be the unit of taxation. It also recommends a substantial cash allowance of possibly $500, in monthly instalments for dependent children to age 16, taxed for wealthy families, but universal. No tax receipts would be required as evidence of child care expenses because the child care allowance would be paid to all mothers. The contribution made by mothers who stay home to care for children would be recognized and fewer mothers would be forced to work outside for financial reasons -it is never enacted. The Commission also notes that child development requires a stable relationships with an adult during the first three years. It quotes Benjamin Blooms study which found that 50% of an individuals intellectual development takes place before age 4.
1970 – US – the Children’s Bill of Rights includes the rights to nurturing by affectionate parents, the right to be educated to ones full potential, the right to be born healthy and wanted throughout childhood
1970- Canada – Child welfare legislation requires that children under age 12 be supervised by an adult
1970- US – Dr. Paul Adams in “The Infant, The Family and Society” suggests that children should not be put in institutions in their first year of life. He calls separation of mother from child in that interval maternal deprivation
1970- US- Daniel Patrick Moynihan in ‘The Politics of Guaranteed Income’ suggests that money be paid to mothers of small children not as welfare with all the stigma attached to that status but as a return to the policy of the mother’s pension – payment for the services these women perform. He writes that if American society recognized childrearing as productive work to be included in national economic accounts, the receipt of welfare would not imply dependency.
1970- US- the Homemakers Equal Rights Association aims to improve the legal status of its members, stating that the law that regards the wife as the property of her husband places the homemaker in a precarious position. The association argues for the betterment of the homemaker’s legal and social status in all areas. It supports the equal rights amendment. It says “We believe that laws should homemaker’s nonmonetary contribution to the family welfare as being of equal value to that of the wage earner and that the married woman should be recognized by law to be a full and equal partner to her husband.”
1970- Sweden – A Family Campaign petition garnered 70,000 names to protest favoritism of daycare over funding of at home care of children. It was ignored by government.
1970 – Canada – The Toronto Visiting Homemakers Association expresses concern about the low status which society accords to women within the home
1970 – US – Phyllis Schlafly starts a group called Eagle Forum to value women at home, but to oppose the equal rights amendment.
1971 – Canada introduces a child care expense deduction, for single parent families only. It is $2,000 per child till age 14 -it eventually extends to dual parent families but only if they are dual income, and its value increases to 4,000, 5,000 and in 2002 7,000 per child till age 7 and 4,000 per child till age 16. It cannot be claimed however by those using care arrangements other than daycare. The Income Tax Act in Canada permits a deduction for costs of childcare but only if they were receipted, provided by a nonfamily members, and incurred so the woman could earn money or study towards earning money. Most parents rearing children were therefore excluded from the benefit.
1971 – Canada – the Labor Code provides 17 weeks of pay while a woman is giving birth and taking care of a newborn. However the benefit is provided only to women in the paid labor force.
1971 –Canada – the National Action Committee on the Status of Women forms to press government to implement recommendations of the 1970 Royal Commission on the Status of Women. It goes from a grant of $50,000 in 1971 to a budget of nearly half a million dollars in 1985 but shrinks in the 1990s. It does not actively promote the 1970 recommendations to value caregivers in the home.
1971 –US Newman, Berkowitz and Owen in their book ‘How to Be Your Own Best Friend’ suggest that children are an obstacle to freedom and that it is wise not to have any.
1971 –Canada – Special Senate Committee on Poverty under Senator David Croll recommends a guaranteed annual income but is not enacted.
1971 – Canada – The Income Tax Act permits a deduction for costs of childcare only if they are receipted, provided by nonfamily members and incurred so the woman could earn money or study towards earning money. Most parents rearing children are excluded from the benefit since only 14,400 children are in full-time daycare.
1971 – US White House Conference on Youth declares rights for those aged 14-24 including the right to a preservation of their culture and ethnic heritage, the right to adequate food, clothing and a decent home. It does not provide funding to help parents meet those obligations
1971- Canada – a Statistics Canada report estimates that household work would represent 41% of the Gross Domestic Product though it is not officially included in the tally
1972 – US – Johnnie Tillmon in ‘Welfare is a Woman’s Issue’ writes that a woman should be able to choose whether to work outside her home or in it, to care for her own children all of the time or part-time.
1972 –UK – Selma James starts the Wages for Housework Campaign. It becomes an international movement. James claims that women’s work not only provides services but provides the future labor force. However it does not distinguish between housework and caregiving, a distinction some feel is crucial since housework is deemed for self but caregiving is for others
1973 – Canada – the Family Allowance Act changes family benefits so the coverage is no longer universal and is indexed to the consumer price index. The parent claiming it has to report it as income and by 1974 pay tax on it.
1973 -UK – Suzie Fleming in ‘Family Allowance: the Woman’s Money’ argues to have family allowance continued and increased. She says “We want to keep the family allowance as paid automatically- never mind whether the men are working or not working, on strike or supplementary benefits. It’s paid at all times, through sickness, unemployment, strikes or breakdown of marriage. This is the only money we can rely on.” She sees it as recognition of women’s work in the home independent of men’s paid work.
1973 UK- A TV show Crossroads features a storyline where a man became paralyzed in an accident and his mother provided his care. The show got positive feedback and the program creators, ATV began to look at disability issues and were able to donate funds to set up a pilot project to support caregiver families.
1973 – Carers UK was established in the 1960s to do research about carers’ life experiences and to influence government policy.
1973 –US- the National Organization for Nonparenthood forms with 2000 members saying that people do not deserve honor and respect simply for having a baby.
1973- Canada – Sociologist Maryee Stephenson in ‘Housewives in Women’s Liberation’ suggests that women should not be home full time because they became too intensely involved emotionally with their children. She promotes daycare.
1974 –US – the American Federation of Teachers proposes the federal government fund universal childcare -daycare
1974 UK- The Family Rights Group is established as a charity concerned about how families are treated when social services become involved with children. Lawyers, social workers and academics work with parents ‘at risk’ or ‘in need’ or ‘in the care system’ to offer free confidential advice by phone or online and to support kinship carers such as grandparents. The group advocates for parents whose children are subject to child protection inquiries or those at risk of being removed into care. Its goal is to help children who cannot live with parents to still be raised by a family member, They say “Our starting point is the child within the family”
1975 – Canada- Angry welfare mothers protest when their family allowance are deducted from their welfare cheques saying We would like to know how we are expected to do our jobs- the most important we believe- mothering- without the proper monies
1975 –Canada – a Gallup poll finds that 49% of Canadians favor a salary for housewives
1975 –US – Betsy Warrior and Lisa Leghorn in ‘Houseworkers’ Handbook’ suggest that women in the home get salary to eliminate their economic dependence on men and their insecurity.
1975- Sweden sets up early care programs for children to be universally available
at low cost. The programs are called early childhood education and care or daycare in some countries. In Sweden they are eventually named preschool.
At first the program is for 1- 6 years old but later the school system admits 6 years olds so the earlier care system is for 1-5 year olds. In these groups the
younger children are 1-3 and the ‘older children’ are 4-5.
The original intent is to widen choices for parents. However decades later
Caroline Hoglund of the Swedish National Association of Stay at Home
moms, notes that the plan changed and now strongly provides funding
preference to state run daycare, making care by a parent at home
both unfunded and social stigmatized.
1975 –UK – Suzie Fleming and Wendy Egmont in ‘All Work and No Pay: Women, Housework and the Wages Due’ argue that mothers in the home produce people and labour power. They claim the right to money of their won to recognize that their unpaid work keeps everyone functioning to do their paid work.
1975 – US – Children and Youth Bill of Rights names 12 rights of a child including the right to be part of a family
1975 – US – Tish Sommers coins the term ‘displaced homemaker’ to describe women who have been homemakers all of their lives, who upon divorce are forcibly exiled from their role and without income. They are ineligible for unemployment insurance because they had not made the contributions only paid workers can make, and they are ineligible for welfare if their children are 18 and not disabled. They have a hard time finding jobs because employers feel they are too old.
1975- US – Housewives for ERA forms and in 1979 changes its name to Homemakers Equal Rights Association. It strives to work for the betterment of the homemakers legal and social status in all areas
1975- the UN holds its first World Conference on Women, in Mexico City. One of the goals for the next decade was to recognize the economic value of women’s work in the home, in domestic food production and in voluntary activities that are not traditionally paid.
1975- US Department of Health in ‘The Economic Value of a Housewife’ evaluates cost of hiring someone to do the tasks a woman does at home as well as of the money foregone because her labor was not paid
1976 –US – Betty Friedan in ‘The Second Stage’ suggests that the new stage of the feminist movement should be to make it possible for mothers or fathers who want to stay home and take care of their children to do so with some economic compensation that might make the difference
1976- US – Journalist Arlene Rossen Cardozo in ‘Woman at Home’ says that women’s lib has now forced women to be out of the home and that this is a dangerous nonliberation.
1977 – Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women suggests that child care credits be made refundable to all mothers at home because it only when child care benefits are substantially increased and made available to homemakers that mothers of young children will have a true choice of working inside or outside the home. Her words go unheeded and her organization eventually is stripped of its federal funding
1977 – US- a Conference on Women passes a resolution that homemakers should be given dignity and what money they receive in transfer payments should be called a wage not welfare.
1977 –US – the president of the National Organization for Women is Eleanor Cutri, a full-time homemaker. A pro-homemakers organization The Martha Movement starts in the US arguing for wages for housework.
1978 – Canada –Margret Eichler writes ‘The Unpaid Work of Homemakers’ saying society has a responsibility to help with the costs of child-rearing and should give financial recognition to mothers who do this role. She suggests a salary be paid to all mothers to enable women to be free to decide whether or not to participate in the paid labor force.
1978 – US -John Kenneth Galbraith in ‘Almost Everyone’s Guide to Economics’ writes “Economists would get a very sudden increase in the GNP by discovering and including the unpaid labor of women”
1979 – International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women outlines the right to free choice of profession, the right to equal remuneration and equal treatment in respect of work of equal value, the right to social security in cases of retirement, unemployment , sickness, invalidity and old age. The convention says that maternity is a social function and considers the need to care for children as an incapacity to do paid work.
1979-US – Alan Roland and Barbara Harris in ‘Sociohistorical and Psychoanalytical Perspectives on Career and Motherhood’ observe study a growing concernthat the women’s movement has unwittingly identified with pro-dominant male values in denigrating the importance of child-rearing whether by women or men. They weigh merits of a movement to achieve a balance where child-rearing and career are each accorded full worth.
1979 – International Year of the Child
1979 – UK- Psychologist Penelope Leach writes ‘Who Cares? ‘noting that society in practice places very little value on childrearing despite a mask of sentimental rhetoric
1979 – International Assoc of School Psychologists – writes Declaration of the Psychological Rights of the child including right to love, personal identity, interpersonal relationships, play and recreation
1979 _ UN – Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women including the right to free choice of profession, the right to social security in cases of sickness, invalidity and old age
1979 -Canada -Wages for Housework applies to be a member of a Canadian women’s rights umbrella group and is rejected. Its objectives are to bring attention to the issues of unpaid work, to have the sate recognize unpaid work.
1980 – In the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Child children are entitled to have ‘ love and understanding and an atmosphere of affection and security in the care and under the responsibility of their parents whenever possible’
1980 – The UN calculates that women do 2/3 of the world’s work for 5-10% of the income and 1% of the assets.
1980 – The UN holds its Second Conference for Women in Copenhagen. It is proposed that women’s work in the home and on the farm be included in the GNP. and that the definition of worker be broadened to include women who do such work. This motion is not passed.
1981 – China – Chairman Mao’s communist government pressures women to be in the paid labor force. Nurseries are collectivized and women who are home with children have a lower social status and are designated ‘family women’.
1981 – Norway appoints its first Commissioner for Children
1981 –US – Rae Andre in ‘Homemakers: The Forgotten Workers’ notes the shift among feminists to now give attention too both sides of the career-family choice model.
1980s – women get the right to vote in Iraq, Kuwait, Central African Republic, Namibia
1981 – UN – Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women includes definition of maternity as a social function, and defines care of children as a justifiable incapacity to do paid work. It defends the right to family benefits form the state.
1983 – Italy- The Holy See in “The Charter of the Rights of the Family” recommends that the work of the mother in the home be recognized and that there be a family wage so women are not obliged to work outside the home
1983 – the European Federation of Women Working in the Home- FEFAF- is founded with the aim of informing women of their economic, legal, political and social rights and to create awareness of the needs of children. t aims at legal status, social security, pension entitlement and income tax benefits to permit economic freedom to choose the option to be home caring for a child or other family member
1983 – Canada- The United Church of Canada, BC conference urges government to ‘recognize parenting as a valuable contribution to society’.
1984 – Canada – Mothers Are Women, MAW, forms as a national nonprofit to advocate for mothers who are home taking care of children and to increase public and government recognition and support for motherwork. It ultimately joins NAC, the umbrella lobby group, in 1992, and does research on unpaid labor.
1984- Canada – the Canadian Labour Force Survey excludes housework or child-rearing as work
1985 – US – Selma James in ‘The Global Kitchen’ notes that women’s equality must include recognition of the value of unpaid work.
1985 – International Women Count Network is formed. It links 22 countries and has 2000 non-government organizations as members, to measure and value unwaged work.
1985 – the UN holds its third World Conference on Women in Nairobi asking that unwaged work in agriculture, food production, reproduction and household activities be included in the GDP of every nation
1986 – Canada – Havi Echenberg of the National Anti-Poverty Organization declares that parenting is a vital societal role independent of the household income or presence of another spouse in the home who earns money.
1986 – Canada – the Advisory Council on the Status of Women, head Sylvia Gold says the goal is to ensure that women s work is compensated and their contribution to society is recognized and valued whether they do their work in the home or in the paid labor force
1986 – The UN International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women discusses how to measure and include women’s unpaid work in the UN System of National Accounts
1986 – the German Democratic Republic and Czechoslovakia give monthly allowances for children, a year’s paid maternity leave and salaries up to $210 a month for mothers of children under two
1987 – Ireland- Margaretta D’Arcy of Galway, Ireland begins a pirate radio station to call for an Irish women’s strike and to advocate to recognize women’s unpaid contribution to society.
1987 – Ireland – The Carers Association of Ireland was formed to advocate for family caregiver rights. Care Alliance Ireland was established in 1995. It aims to have family caregiving recognized and valued by society
1987 – Canada- Kids First Parent Association of Canada forms to lobby government to recognize costs of raising children in or out of daycare.
1987- Canada- 59% of all paid childcare workers are self employed, meaning it is also a way for women to be entrepreneurs
1987- Canada – 57% of all paid childcare workers earn 30 or more hours per week. Childcare is seen as a career and job officially but only if paid
1988 – Canada – Ann Finlayson in ‘Whose Money is it Anyway?’ studies pension policy and lack of recognition of women’s roles
1988 – New Zealand -economist Marilyn Waring in ‘If Women Counted: A New Feminist Economics’ suggests that economists re-evaluate calculations in order to include unpaid contributions of household and volunteer work by women
1988 -Argentina- provides a retirement pension for homemakers
1989 –UN Convention on the Rights of the Child passes, supported by 196 countries. It includes the right to form an attachment to an adult, the right to time with an adult who can understand the child and respond to their signals, the right to appropriate language stimulation. It says that States shall render appropriate assistance to parents in the performance of their child-rearing responsibilities.
1989- UK – Mildred Gordon introduces a bill in the parliament to count unremunerated work.
1990- World Summit for Children- 71 governments state targets to reduce child
deaths and advance children’s rights Maternal health is seen as vital to the well-being of the child
1990- UN Millenium Development goals MDG -aimed at a target date of 2015 for universal primary education by 2015 and for gender equality in enrolment by 2005
1990- Israel- Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) was developed By 2019 it operates in 8 countries including Canada and has founded a Make Mother Matter Centre. It reaches out in particular to mothers who feel isolated, particularly immigrant, newcomer and aboriginal mothers. There are monthly support group meetings, and mothers gain confidence in their role as the child’s teacher. Mothers who used the program earlier are often trained to become home visitors to help out other new mothers, delivering weekly home activities.
1990- World Conference on Education for all – held in Thailand – with goal of
universal access to primary education by 2000
1990- Organization of African Unity adopts African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child – ratified by 47 of 55 African Union member states
1990- Commonwealth- ministers responsible for women’s affairs agree to fully recognize paid and unpaid contribution of women and to promote equitable sharing of the rewards and benefits.
1990- Europe – Stan Newens, from Britain calls on the European Parliament to measure the contribution of women’s unpaid work to the economy.
1990- UN – Commission on the Status of Women – in Vienna – says governments should take concrete steps to measure the economic value of women’s unpaid work and include it in national policies by 1995. Statistical Commission recommends that member countries prepare satellite GDP accounts estimating the value of unremunerated work.
1990 – Carers New Zealand is established in the early 1990s to support family care,
whanau (extended family) care and aiga (elderly) carers. It is a national registered charity that gives information and support for families with health and disability needs.
1990 – UN- Statistical Commission recommends that member countries prepare satellite GDP accounts estimating the value of unremunerated work
1991 – Commonwealth- heads government adopt the Ottawa Declaration on Women and Structural Adjustment saying that data must be collected on the economic activity of both women and men
1991 – France, Norway – unpaid work is included in satellite GNP estimates.
1991 – Carers Trust in the UK forms promoting those who care for a family member or friend who is ill, frail, disabled or has mental health or addiction problems. The organization supports carers in the home with information, advice, and replacement care. The Princess Royal Trust for Carers was founded in 1991 along with the Carers National Association. There was also a National Council for Carers of the Elderly set up.
1991- Canada – the proportion of women at paid jobs is high in some sectors with 96% workers at childcare centres being female and 97% of paid providers of home childcare
being female .
1991- Canada – 41% of paid childcare workers have some qualifications beyond high school which means that 59% do not.
1991- 19% of all paid workers in Canada are immigrants or non-permanent residents, and that proportion is 18% for those who are paid childcare providers.
1991 – The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women adopts recommendation s that member states should count unwaged labor in the GDP
1992 – Canada- A petition campaign is launched with over 52,00 names calling on Quebec to recognize unpaid work. The call is made for a childcare income tax credit to parents at home and advises that at-home caregivers be permitted to contribute to the Quebec Pension Plan
1992 – Canada – in Quebec AFEAS hosts a forum ‘Making Invisible Work Visible’ and presents a petition in 1993 to the Quebec government asking for an income tax credit for all children, whether at home or in daycare. They also ask that at-home caregivers be allowed to contribute to the Quebec Pension Plan.
1992 –US – Nancy Johnson Smith in ‘Women’s Work’ says “We can no longer expect women to be satisfied with less money and status just because they are dedicated to children”
.
1992 – The Independent Women’s Forum in the US and Real Women in Canada unite voices of the political right to endorse caregiving
1992- Canada- Statistics Canada estimates in its publication The Value of Household Work that 31.5% of the GDP is due to women’s unpaid work in the home. It notes the opportunity cost of how much income a woman sacrifices by working at home and the replacement cost which estimates how much it would cost to hire someone else do this work at home for her.
1992- Ireland- the Global Forum of Women in Dublin recommends that government measure unpaid work in the home
1992- US – An International Conference on Counting Women’s Work is held to change academic and public policy debates to include unpaid labor
1993 – UK- Margaret Neal writes ‘Balancing Work and Caregiving for Children, Adults and Elders’ recommending leave to care for newborns, universal health care coverage of mothers, and removal in the US of pension penalties for caregivers.
1993 – Canada – Women’s groups join to focus on unpaid work in their ‘Work is Work is Work ‘ campaign to get unpaid work included in the census. They are Mothers are Women, BC Voice of Women, Women to Women Global Strategies and the Canadian Alliance of Home Managers and they are joined later by others including Kids First.
1993 US- Theresa Funiciello of Caregiver Credit embarks on a Cab Tour after frustrations with government when she cared for her daughter while on welfare. She wrote ‘Tyranny of Kindness ‘exposing problems and organized a New York City advocacy group called Social Agenda. She urged more cash support for mothers and wanted this money refundable and universal for all mothers. To publicize this lobby she embarked on a 21 day tour of the country by Yellow Cab and had supporters send a postcard to the wife of the president.
1993- Canada – ends its two universal programs for children- the family allowance and the child dependent deduction.
1993- Canada- following a complaint from a homemaker that caregiving at home was not considered work in the census form, the Canadian Alliance of Home Managers, Mothers are Women, the BC Voice of Women and Women to Women: Global Strategies form a coalition to insist on counting unpaid labor in the national census.
1993- Canada- the Canadian Alliance of Home Managers hosts a national conference entitled Housework and Family Care: What if it Counted?
1993-Canada- the Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women urges politicians to ensure that unpaid work is counted in economic policy.
1994 – Canada – women’s rights group Mothers are Women encounters resistance among child-care advocates to the proposal that women at home are also child-care providers. MAW writes a study called Count Us In research the work of women at home.
1994 – Canada – 42% of children aged 5 and under are in some form of paid childcare . Statistics Canada calls this participation in ‘childcare’ and does not recognize care by parents as childcare.
1994 – Canada- a second conference is held on unpaid work. Hosts are Mothers are Women, the Canadian Alliance of Home Managers, the Quebec group AFEAS and the Work is work Coalition. Kids First adds its support . A symposium entitled Women as Family Caregivers is held to recommend that the homemaker- home manager –caregiver be designated an occupation in the standard occupation classification system of the government
1994 – Canada – Statistics Canada’s fourth study of The Value of Household Work in Canada finds that unpaid labor now has a value between $210 billion -opportunity cost- and $318 billion -replacement cost- amounting to 31-46% of the GDP
1994- Turkey- a Mothers Training Program teaches families how to stimulate language development and sends out videos
1994 – International Year of the Family recognizes the World Movement of Mothers
1995 – The UN holds a Conference on Women in Beijing and 181 member states including Canada sign the Platform for Action to begin determining the value of unpaid work A report from Denmark notes that a universal daycare program there has not been successful and that the government there is now considering paying an allowance to mothers who raise children at home. The World Conference on Women at Beijing creates a Platform for Action recommending measurement of unpaid work and its reflection in satellites accounts to the GDP and 191 nations promise to tally unpaid work.
1995 – the UN Human Development Report announces that women’s unpaid work is worth $11 trillion annually and notes that though ¾ of men’s work around the world is paid, only 1/3 of women’s work is. Dr. Mahbub ul Huq observes there is an unwritten
conspiracy on a global scale to undervalue women’s work and contributions to society
1995- Australia gives a parenting allowance to women at home.
1995- US – Barbara Brandt in ‘Whole Life Economics: Revaluing Daily Life’ suggests that the woman who cleans and cooks is doing work valuable to the GDP
1995- Denmark tries universal daycare and finds that divorce, suicide, sickness and stress rates go up. The state offers a years parental leave to be home with children under age 9.
1995 -Ireland- -Care Alliance Ireland is established. It aims to have family caregiving recognized and valued by society
1995- UNICEF at the World Summit for Social Development proposes addressing child poverty by suggesting wealthy nations give money to help children in poor nations. The symposium notes that in over 30 countries investment in children is under 15% of the budget
1995 – Taiwan -The Taiwan Association of Family Caregivers was established in 1996 as a public welfare association to establish rights of family caregivers in that country. It seeks to address the ‘long time ignorance and indifference’ of government to family caregivers.
1996 – women get the right to vote in Afghanistan and Kuwait, but it is later rescinded and only returned by 2005
1996 – Italy –homemakers get the right to a pension at age 57 if they paid 4 years of social security contributions but were home many years caring for others
1996 – US, Canada – Several US States and Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Alberta in Canada set up workfare programs to pressure women with small children and no income to leave the home and do volunteer work in order to qualify for welfare.
1996 – Hungary- a child care grant is given so women can be home with the child till age 3 or to help pay costs of state nurseries.
1996- New Zealand- Economist Marilyn Waring publishes ‘The Three Masquerades: Essays on Equality’ noting that women’s human rights are not defended unless their unpaid work is also valued. She continues her study of unpaid work internationally and observes “When I see a woman holding her child, I know I am watching a woman at work”
1996 – US – The National Alliance for Caregiving is established as a not for profit coalition to research and advocate for family caregiving
1997 – Canada- a symposium is held to link 70 women’s groups to discuss unpaid work and public policy
1997- Canada – the average pay of a childcare worker is $14.73 an hour. Parents and family who provide care get no financial recognition for their childcare role.
1997- Canada – the average tenure or number of consecutive months a paid childcare worker is at a job is about 44 months. Staff turnover is reported anecdotally as high
1997 – Canada- A Canadian homemaker makes a formal complaint at the United Nations that Canada’s tax, divorce and child-care laws discriminate against parents in the home. She is supported by 3 Canadian women’s groups as well as groups in England, Italy, France and Australia to confirm this trend internationally. The Canadian government replies to the complaint denying any problem. The UN in 1999 responding to this complaint expresses concern over violations of economic rights, legal systems discriminating, and women and children in poverty and notes the absence of women in decision-making
1997 – Europe launches the European Network of Offices for children. Many nations do not yet have ombudsmen for children
1997 – Europe -The Family Commission of the European Union of Women studies the value of women’s unremunerated work.
1997- Japan has a universal child benefit for children under age 3 years
1997- US -More feminist writers observe a need to value the home side of the career-family balance. Elizabeth Perle McKenna writes ‘When Work Doesn’t Work Anymore’. Iris Krasnow writes ‘Surrendering to Motherhood’ and Katie Roiphe writes ‘Fruitful: Living the Contradictions’
1998 – Ukraine- The Ukrainian Institute of Gerontology finds that most older adults rely on their spouses or other relatives to provide care. 10% had set up an agreement to get caregiving by relatives in exchange for inheritance of property when they died.
1998 – US -Betty Friedan in ‘Beyond Gender: The New Politics of Work and Family’ suggests that women’s liberation should not be won at the expense of men and that feminism made a mistake when it ignored motherhood.
1998 – Belgium- has as universal child benefit and permits income sharing
1998 – France- the state supports parents at home and parents who use daycare both.
1998- Algeria- Maternity leave is funded 100% by social security and is for 980 days
1998- Sweden- the name of institutional care of children was changed. It was no longer called childcare but ‘preschool’ even for babies. This created the image that children are getting an education at such locations that they are deprived of when at home, according to advocacy group HARO. Mothers at home are told their children are missing out on social training.
1998- Catherine Hakim of the London School of Economics surveys women and find that preferences were 20% to be home full time with the children, 60% wanted part time paid work and only 20% wanted full time paid work.
1998- Canada- GPI Atlantic established in The Economic Value of Household Work and Child care a new method of including unpaid work in the economy.
1998- Norway – a cash grant is given to families whose children are not in daycare . It amounts to $570 a month
1998- US – Family Friendly Tax Relief Act provides $500 per child tax credit more for children under age 5 if the parent is at home or uses kin-based care
1999 – Canada – Mothers Are Women publishes a research document of unpaid work When Women Count
1999- England- Wages for Housework and Irish representatives announce a Global Women’s Strike for 2000 to urge all nations to measure and pay women for traditional caregiving work. They note that women do 2/3 of the work of the world but only get 5% of the pay.
1999- The World Movement of Mothers at UNESCO surveys the social dynamics of a mothers’ unpaid work.
1999- Finland- funds children who are no tin daycare at the rate of $4300 per year. An additional funding is given to low income homes up to $7104 per year.
1999- France has universal child benefit and permits income sharing
1999- Ireland- has a universal child benefit and permits income splitting
1999- Switzerland- The Swiss Civil Codes says all persons are bound to contribute to the maintenance of relatives, ascendants and descendants in direct line as well as care of brothers and sisters where without such assistance they would be impoverished
1999- Convention on Child Labour – ratified by 184 member states, the most widely ratified ILO convention in history
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Equality and Caregiving 