"Services Rendered, Rearing Children
For The State": Mothers' Pensions in
British Columbia 1919-1931
MEGAN J. DA VIES

On

July 17th, 1920, an MLA penned a letter to the Superintendent
of Neglected Children: "There is a widow here with four young children who
is making a good fight and if anyone is deserving a pension, I think she should
be. " 1 The legislation to which the MLA was referring had been proclaimed
law just seventeen days previously. Mothers' pensions were to be made
available to women with more than one child under the age of sixteen whose
husbands were unable to support them.
The 1920 legislation followed a provincial Commission on Health
Insurance which took place from the fall of 1919 through to the following
spring. Hearings held by the Commission illustrate both the wide public
support for mothers' pensions in BC and the progressive milieux
characteristic of the era. The report submitted at the close of the hearings is a
general indication of government views towards disadvantaged mothers.
Eleven years later, the 1931 Public Service Commission Mothers' Pensions
Report called for a severe reduction in services, tighter regulations and
budgetary restraint. Thus, mothers' pensions underwent significant changes
in the years between 1919 and 1931; furthermore, a comparison of BC's
program with those implemented in other Canadian provinces, using these
two documents as primary pieces of evidence, is instructive.
Mothers' pensions can be seen in either of two ways. On the one hand, the
1920 Act can be perceived as a piece of pioneering social legislation. Now,
women were to be paid for their work as homemakers and mothers. Here was
a new role for the state; early social welfare programs like mothers' pensions
paved the way for greater participation by the state in the private domain of
home and family. On the other hand, mothers' pensions appear to have been a
means by which the middle-class and the state imposed their vision of familial
relations upon the working-class of British Columbia. To be a woman and in
need was not sufficient criteria for receiving state assistance. By awarding
Barbara K. Latham and Roberta J. Pazdro, Eds., Not Just Pin Money
Victoria: Camosun College, 1984

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Mothers' Pensions

pensions solely to needy mothers, the state implicitly reinforced the
traditional stereotype of woman as child-bearer and homemaker. For the
many women who fell outside this category, the state offered nothing.
BC's Mothers' Pensions Act fit well into the progressive era of the early
twentieth century. Across North America members of reform groups such as
the Women's Christian Temperance Union and, locally, the New Era League,
used their talents, time and financial resources in the drive to create a healthy
productive and morally pure society. In Canada, members of such groups
were characteristically middle-class, Anglo-Canadian, and associated with
the social gospel movement. Confident in their vision of a finer Canada,
members of the progressive movement provided the original impetus behind
the social legislation of the inter-war years. 2 Neil Sutherland has identified
three separate groups of reformers within the progressive movement:
Christians, middle-class reformers, and professionals involved in public
health. 3 The 1919 hearings, however, present a somewhat more complex
range of support for mothers' pensions.
Most numerous among the groups in favour of mothers' pensions in 1919
and 1920 were reform groups. Among those endorsing the proposed
legislation were the WCTU, the New Era League, and the Salvation Army. 4
Professional groups were also well represented at the hearings: in Vancouver,
the Teachers' Association, the Victorian Order of Nurses, and the Graduate
Nurses~Association of BC expressed their support for mothers' pensions. 5 The
Church, in comparison to the professionals and reformers present, was a
minor voice throughout the hearings. Nonetheless, the Ministerial
Association of Victoria passed a resolution in 1920 congratulating the
government for bringing forward the Mothers' Pensions bill. 6 Patriotic
organizations such as the Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire (IODE)
were vocal in their support of mothers' pensions throughout the hearings.
Mrs. J.C. Kemp, president of the Wives, Widows and Mothers of Great
Britain's War Heroes, indicated that her organization believed that the major
group of beneficiaries would be war widows; that mothers' pensions were, in
part, a tribute to British Columbians who had sacrificed their lives for the
Empire. 7
Organized labour also attended the public hearings to add its voice in
support of mothers' pensions. In Vancouver, the Trades and Labour Council
of the One Big Union (OBU) sent a representative and Exhibit Number Thirty
contained an endorsement from organized labour to Victoria. 8 Matters has
argued that, "Unions favoured th~pl<iP becau~~the._;!:he1IDvetHhat-Wages_were
depressed byJarge numbe!'&-of-womtH1-aruLaiildr~!t in the labour force. ''9
Certainly, post-war unemployment would have given labour ample reason to
support legislation designed to limit the labour pool, particularly women and
children who were a traditional source of cheap labour. However, labour may
have had more noble intentions; a glance at the Victoria delegates for the
hearings brings to light that both the Metal Trades Council and the
Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners had established Special
Committees on Social Welfare. 10
It is interesting to consider the part which women played in promoting
mothers' pensions during the 1919-1920 hearings. Female members of reform

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groups like the WCTU were generally maternal feminists; as such, these
women believed that pensions were important because they recognized the
value of a woman's role as mother and would allow more women to remain at
home with their children.
What is intriguing, however, is the apparent recognition by other
participants in the 1919-1920 hearings that mothers' pensions were the
particular concern of married women, albeit middle-class women. In
Princeton, when asked to comment on mothers' pensions, the Reverend
Robert He bison replied, "I think that women should speak on that subject. " 11
Organizations with both male and female membership, like the Trades and
Labour Council, often sent a married woman as their representative to the
hearings. 12 The Commission itself was chaired by four individuals, one of
whom was a married woman. 13 Amongst the support for mothers' pensions
during the hearings, women constituted a major voice. Significantly, the men
present believed women were justified in being this visible.
Early welfare programs in Canada were influenced, to a considerable
degree by programs and policies being implemented in the United States and
elsewhere: " ... foreign and particularly American models, examples and
statistics made up much of the literature of Canadian public health, welfare
and education, and trips abroad for observation and study were routine. " 14 In
fact, the 1920 Mothers' Pensions Act was rationalized, in part, as an example
of an international reform. A speech made by the Hon. J. Mc Lean, Provincial
Secretary cited mothers' pensions legislation that was in effect in thirty-nine
of the United States as well as in New Zealand and in parts of Australia. 15
The plan for change which reform groups advocated called for a
systematic approach to social injustice. Pensions for mothers reflected the
belief that preventative measures, administered by efficient personnel, were
the_ most ef~y_~__JlleaJ).Lfil-J:efQ!]!!ing__sQ_ciety. Accordingly, in mothers'
pensions legislation and in government policy toward women, stress was
placed on the importance of regulations and supervision, of classifying the
individual into a specific category. "During the period 1910 to 1920, the
piecemeal, voluntary approach to such services began to give way to a more
comprehensive, government-supported system. " 16 The Vancouver Children's
Aid Society, for example, received funding from both municipal and
provincial governments for the services it extended to orphans, abandoned
children and those children whose parents were unable or unfit to care for
them. 17 But, by 1919, institutions were no longer considered to be the best
place for disadvantaged children. With a pension, a mother could keep her
children at home with her. Mrs. J.A. Gillespie of the WCTU reflected a
prevailing attitude when she spoke in front of the Health Insurance
Commission, stating, "We feel the place of the mother is in the home with her
child ... " 18
Government policy toward disadvantaged mothers, as expressed in the
report written following the hearings, is best described as liberal paternalism.
Referring to the proposed legislation, the report stated, "The very fact,
however, that our health laws are being gradually extended is evidence that
our Governments are becoming more humanized, and by being humanized
they ,.are naturally reaching out to assist and protect the sick of the

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-<

community."19 Mothers' pensions corresponded well with some social
legislation passed in BC under John Oliver's Liberal regime. By 1924, Oliver's
government had, in addition to the Mothers' Pensions Act, introduced an
Adoption Act, a Deserted Wives' Maintenance Act, and extended the
Minimum Wage Legislation. 20 Yet, the provincial government's motivation
behind instigating mothers' pensions may well have gone beyond
paternalism. In political terms, mothers' pensions made good sense in 1920.
Oliver may well have been attempting to pacify both the socialist and the
working class. 21 Mothers' pensions may also have been perceived by Oliver as
an enticement to a new group of voters - women. t
The 1931 Public Service Commission Mothers' Pensions Report shows
how political and social alteration had resulted in a call for a more
conservative government policy toward disadvantaged mothers. In 1931, the
Conservative Party under Dr. Simon Fraser Tolmie was in power. Tolmie
had strong links with business and commerce; social legislation was not a
priority. The emphasis on budgetary restraint in the 1931 report may also be
an indication that, with the Depression, there simply was not as much money
available for the mothers' pensions program.
The biggest shift in government policy toward disadvantaged mothers
during the period under study was in the idea of how long aid should
continue. In 1920, no mention was made of the length of time mothers were
expected to receive pensions, the implication being that as long as women
continued to care for their children, they were entitled to a pension. In
contrast, the 1931 report clearly indicated that aid to needy mothers was to be
a temporary measure: " ... the whole plan .. .is the development of initiative and
self-reliance and independence at the earliest possible date, and to such degree
and strength as to avoid future dependency."22 The 1931 report also
advocated that the name of the program be changed from mothers' pensions
to mothers' allowances. 23 This name change reflected the new view of aid as
temporary. The word "pension" implied a long-term, perhaps even life-time
payment for a service done for the country. Conversely, an allowance was
most often a temporary measure: maybe just pin money.
The period from 1919 to 1931 also witnessed the rise of a new group of
professionals to administer and champion the fledgling social welfare
programs which were introduced during the time. Sutherland sees the shift
from amateur to professional control as characteristic both of child health
and welfare during the inter-war period. 24 Without doubt, the mothers'
pensions program in BC changed in the manner Sutherland described. Local
boards to administer mothers' pensions were made up of volunteers in 1920,
but they were composed of paid professionals by 1931. Similarly, the 1931
Public Service Commission Report argued that to be economically viable and
successful, the mothers' pension program had to be staffed by skilled
professionals. 25
The number of mothers receiving pensions increased considerably
during the decade under study. Table #1 shows that the total number of cases
more than doubled between 1920 and 1930. In September 1920, 656 women
were involved in the program compared to 1488, ten years later. With the

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exception of 1922, Table #1 shows a steady increase in aid given through
mothers' pensions.
TABLE 1
YEAR
April - March

Number of cases
on allowance - Sept.

Number of
children

1920 - 21
1921-22
1922 - 23
1923 - 24
1924 - 25
1925 - 26
1926 - 27
1927 - 28
1928 - 29
1929 - 30
1930 - 31

656
846
771
785
847
943
986
1100
1233
1370
1488

2068
1978
1990
2240
2348
2723
3050
2747
3028
3229

Distribution of
children/family
3.25
Not available
2.56
2.54
2.64
2.70
2.76
2.77
2.23
3.21
2.20

Source: 1931 Public Service Commission Mothers' Pensions Report

The average number of children per familial group throughout the
period ranged from a low figure of 2.23 in 1928 to a high of 3.25 during the
first year that the program was in operation. The number of one-child families
on mothers' pensions increased considerably during the period under study;
in 1921, 23.9% of assisted families had only one child, while in 1930 the total
had risen to 37.6%.
Changes occurred from 1920 to 1930 both in the marital status of women
the program supported and in the circumstances in which women turned to
mothers' pensions for help. Widows, meant to be the primary group of
beneficiaries, comprised 64.5% of those receiving pensions in 1921, a figure
that remained relatively constant until at least 1924. In the latter half of the
1920s, however, the percentage of widows in the total number of mothers'
pensions cases dropped. By 1930, only 48.5% of mothers participating in the
program were widows. 26 This alteration may simply reflect the fact that there
were fewer widows with young children in BC in 1930. Women who had been
widowed during World War I and the Spanish Flu Epidemic may have
remarried by 1930 or, with children now grown and self-supporting, become
ineligible for a mothers' pension.
How did BC mothers' pensions program compare to those implemented
in other provinces across Canada? Table# 2 shows that, when compared to
Saskatchewan, in 1931 the BC government gave pensions to a higher number
of families per capita. The Saskatchewan government's allowance to mothers
was at the bottom of the scale with a thirty dollar per month maximum. This
may simply indicate a lower cost of living in Sa~katchewan, but it is possible
that a lower allowance meant that the government was able to assist a greater
number of mothers and still remain within the budget. In British Columbia,

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Mothers' Pensions

by contrast, disadvantaged mothers received a monthly allowance of $57.50
which compared favourably with monthly allowances given in Alberta,
Manitoba and Nova Scotia. Thus, it is hardly surprising to find, in a
comparison of total expenses of each province, that BC's total of $835,095.71
for April 1930 through March 1931 was second only to Ontario's which, with
a significantly larger population, showed a much greater total expenditure for
the year. Other provinces whose populations approximated that of BC's,
spent considerably less on their mothers' pensions programs during the same
year. For example, Alberta with a population of 657,242 compared to BC's
597,000, spent a total of $446,835.76 -- almost one-half of BC's expenses.
TABLE 2
Allowances
Salaries
only

Total
expenses

No. of
cases

446,835.76
835,095.71
479,390.54
2,376,998.00
544,250.00
332,741.08

1270
1468
1051
6712
2659
913

Prov.

Population

Alta.
BC
Man.
Ont.
Sask.
NS

657,242
579,000
663,200
3,313,000
885,000
550,400

Prov.

No. of cases
per 100,000 pop.

No. of
children

Average
family size

Amount of
allowance

Alta.
BC
Man.
Ont.
Sask.
NS

193.3
245.9
158.5
202.6
255.2
165.9

3409
3229
3330
19620
6590

2.68
2.20
3.17
2.9
2.9

$60.00/mo.
57.50/mo.
65.63/mo.
40.00/mo.
30.00/mo.
60.00/mo.

816,262.24
465,739.02
2,292,881.27

18,833.47
31,651.52
84,116.73

310,303.31

22,437.77

Source: 1931 Public Service Commission Mothers' Pensions Report

The percentage of incapacitation cases (mothers receiving pensions
because their husbands were too ill to work) increased from 14.8% to 25. 7%
during the period under study. 27 The 1931 report maintained that this increase
reflected a growing tendency to use mothers' pensions as a temporary sickness
benefit, an explanation which seems plausible. 28 It is likely that more families
became aware that the pensions program could be used in this fashion.
The 1931 report cited the number of unmarried mothers receiving
pensions as the "highest relative increase", a point that appears rather
overstated in light of the figures. Among the total recipients in 1930, 4.97%
were not married, compared to less than l % in 1920. 29 This may have reflected
relaxed moral standards which are popularly considered characteristic of
North America during the 1920s. More likely, however, the increase was due
to a growing tendency to use the Act's discretionary clause to give aid to single
mothers.

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The number of divorced mothers receiving pensions also appeared to be
on the increase during the 1920s, although there are no early figures with
which to compare the 1930 figure of 4.97%. 30 The 1931 report also revealed
the use of mothers' pensions by the elderly and the unemployed, uses for
which it was not originally intended. The report pointed to "Scores of cases
which revealed a wide use of the allowance really as a form of unemployment
relief, in families where there might be several older children, married and
unmarried, the latter, and sometimes the former, living at home, and only orie
child under sixteen years of age."31 Mothers' allowances, the report stated,
were also being used by families in which the male wage earner was
"prematurely senile".
The BC government's more liberal attitude is also evident in a provincial
comparison of the regulations and conditions governing the disbursement of
mothers' pensions. All provinces were willing to give pensions to mothers
whose husbands were either ill or dead. While some of the regulations set out
by other provinces showed a degree of tolerance, BC appears to have been
more lenient more often. BC was willing to give aid to foster mothers 32 and
was the only province to permit divorced mothers to receive a pension. 33 Like
Saskatchewan, BC had a provision for women whose husbands were in jail
while only Ontario included deserted wives in their regulations for mothers'
pensions. 34
In an analysis of the Canadian social service structure, Howard
Buchbinder argues that a fundamental purpose of the system is the
maintenance of civil order through state control.3 5 The application of this
concept to mothers' pensions in BC raises a number of interesting possibilities.
Aid given in this fashion might well have created a more docile working class:
a group that regarded the state as a figure of benevolent paternalism. Children
raised in such an environment, one might assume, would have been more
ready to abide by regulations imposed without explanation, and would have
been more willing to accept unquestioningly the authority of a figure invested
with the power of the state -- be it a police constable or social worker.
Buchbinder also argues that social welfare programs "socialize the costs of
providing a fit work force and thereby subsidize the private sector at public
expense."36 By providing mothers' pensions to working class families
1
~ld throughout the 1920s, the BC government helped to bear the costs of raising a
-?;ff generation of future workers for provincial industry.
The mothers'pensions program set up a specific relationship between the
working class of British Columbia who received assistance and the state
distribution apparatus. Apparently, the provincial government perceived its
relationship with pensioned mothers as a sontr~£!Ual~: "It is a payment for
services to be rendered, of a certain quality, along certain lines and payable
only so long as the standard of service given is acceptable. "37 This contract,
however, was scarcely an agreement between two equal parties; the
government was now in the position of judging whether needy mothers were
fit to be entrusted with the care of their children. The state was beginning to
take a more direct role in the lives of young children within the home.
It is important to make clear the link between the middle-class and the
social legislation that was implemented in BC during the inter-war years:

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"Such supervision constituted an extension through the state apparatus, of
the middle-class' ability to control the behavior and development of
working-class Canadians. "38 With the exception of organized labour, a
relatively minor voice during the 1919-1920 hearings, the initial legislation
was formed by the middle-class. Both the Liberal Party, led by Oliver, and
the Conservative Party, in power throughout the decade, were fundamentally
of the middle or upper-class. Social workers and other professionals who
found employment in the new social services offered by the government
clearly represented these social milieux.
The 1920 Mothers' Pensions Act addressed a number of concerns which
had become increasingly important to reformers. World War I had brought
unprecedented destruction and loss of life; surely a better society should
be the result of such sacrifice. 39 The new Canada, built by the efforts of
middle-class reformers, was to be the antithesis of war; chaos, disease and
ruin would give way to a well-disciplined, healthy, and prosperous society.
Yet these reformers did not spend all their time looking at Canadian
society through rose-coloured spectacles; social legislation enacted
immediately following World War I was also the result of fears about the
stability of the province's society. Massive unemployment, created by the
influx of returning veterans, had not been remedied by the soldier settlements
situated in rural areas. 40 Working-class militancy appeared to be on the rise. 41
As well, the triumph of the Bolsheviks in Russia fostered, in the minds of
middle-class reformers and politicians, grim thoughts of proletarian
revolution. Measures such as mothers' pensions may well have been
considered a necessary expedient to pacify a potentially dangerous working
class.
Public health became an increasingly prominent issue to both voters and
government after World War I. The 1919 report, in presenting a case for
mothers'pensions, referred to the loss of human life through World War I and
the subsequent Spanish Flu Epidemic, stating, "At no time in the history of
this country has its man power been at a lower ebb."42 According to the
report, 6,000 BC males were killed during World War 1; 43 16,000 were
wounded, and a further 8,560 men were listed by the military in a substandard
medical category. 44 This report concluded on a more pragmatic note: "The
more we spend in the interest of public health, the less we will need to spend in
charities and correction. "45 Mothers' pensions were not only necessary; it
would seem they were also economical.
Services for children were a key aspect of public health policy
throughout the early twentieth century. By 1918, the Child Welfare
Association of BC had evolved from the earlier Vancouver Child Welfare
Association. In 1920, The Canadian Council on Child Welfare was
established. Mothers' pensions, because they focused on the needs of the
child, fell within this spectrum of public health. At the 1918 convention
amidst a variety of resolutions passed which related directly to children, was a
resolution calling for mothers' pensions in BC. 46
Social legislation, like mothers' pensions and the Deserted Wives
Maintenance Act, showed that British Columbians, in the period following

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World War I, were uneasy about the stability of working-class families.
Certainly, casualties inflicted by World War I and the subsequent Spanish
Flu epidemic may have given cause for concern. As well, the resource-based,
seasonal nature of BC's economy meant that working-class families often
lacked the opportunity to accumulate sufficient savings to survive an
economic crisis brought about by sickness, unemployment or death. As the
State Health Commission Report for 1919 and 1920 argued:"A very large
percentage of the workmen in this Province, even those in comparatively wellpaid occupations, must live with a narrow margin between their incomes and
the cost of living. The fact is that they have a "hand to mouth" existence, and
only about one in fourteen carries any form of Benefit Insurance at the
present time. Consequently, when the burden of sickness falls on the
workman or his family, he is ill-prepared and generally unable to bear it." 47
Desertion appears to have been another common problem among workingclassfamilies in BC. Often a husband would go to another part of the province
or even to the USA in search of work and simply disappear, leaving a destitute
family behind.48
The politicians, reformers and professionals who instigated mothers'.£_
pensions in BC saw the family as a crucial base for a stable society. 49 A stable-·home would produce upstanding, productive Canadians, argued the 1931
report, adding, "these children will thus become desirable citizens, and social
assets within the community. "50 Hence, mothers' pensions constituted an
investment in the future of Canada.
In the years following World War I, a new emphasis was placed on the
importance of the home environment in the raising of young children. As
Veronica Strong-Boag points out, this process focused attention on the
ability of the Canadian mother and made important the growing number of
professional childcare workers. "Experts' insistence on close attention to
early child development, the value of a pragmatic morality, and the
systematic regulation of mental, emotional, and physical processes was
preached in advice literature and nursery schools.''5 1 Mothers' pensions, it
was believed, would produce higher quality home care for children. Those
supporting mothers' pensions in 1919 and 1920 argued that poor home
environments produced criminals and communists, "The bolsheviks of today
are mainly the neglected children of yesterday."52
Mothers,. then, were pivotaLtoJhe d~_yt.lopment-Gf~fffiel'·br~Gf:fmure
Q<.1E~E~l!-1<i1i~s.. Mrs. w:'f.-Norton, representing the Pioneer Political
Equality League at the 1919 hearings, expressed a sentiment, that while rather
grandiose in tone, was nonetheless common to the proceedings: " ... by
recognizing the value of the mother and helping and encouraging young wives
to become mothers ... the time will come when all people will recognize the
bearing and rearing of children as the highest aim of the woman and of the
human race. "53 Disadvantaged mothers, therefore, were not to be kept from
their important task of child raising; mothers' pensions recognized that these
mothers were performing a valuable
service for the __,-.,,•-~
state .
.. __ ....~,--------~--- - - ·
Mothers' pensions clearly reflected the specific ideological place women
occupy within capitalist society. The home was perceived as a haven from the
harsh world of industry and commerce. Within the familial group were to
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exist the feelings of collectivity, love and long-term stability and security;
values that are replaced in the world of commerce by individualism,
alienation and the drive for profit. Women and children belonged within the
former sphere: men were to go forth to conquer the outside world.
Without a doubt, a tidy dichotomy like this does not really exist, yet it
was this vision, in part, which resulted in the implementation of mothers'
pensions in BC. A provincial police report of 1919, investigating a potential
candidate for a mothers' pension, outlined desirable feminine qualities, "This
woman seems very respectable and feels her position very keenly ... she is very
low in health, as she is giving all she can get to her small family, and doing
without herself. "54 Qualities of thrift, industry, self-sacrifice and a high sense
of morality, all fundamentally middle-class values, were praised. Liaisons
between a recipient and a man other than her husband were not tolerated; in
1927, a woman who dared to have a sexual relationship with her Italian
lodger, had state assistance immediately terminated. 55 By the time of the 1931
report, the state saw fit to ban male boarders entirely and questioned whether
divorced women were the kind of mothers that the public should support.
The case of unmarried mothers is an interesting and somewhat difficult
question amidst the morally upright proclamations of those who formulated
government policy toward disadvantaged mothers. Thel919-1920 hearings
elicited support for unwed mothers from a wide range of groups. The
chairman of the Commission appeared to favour pensions for unwed
mothers, if his questions were an indication of his personal bias: "Then why
not apply it to unmarried mothers -- why should her child be deprived of her
love and care ... ?''56 Those groups who articulated their support of the idea
(the Vancouver Women's Forum, the Trades and Labour Council of the
OBU, Organized Labour in Victoria, the Salvation Army, the New Era
League, the Graduate Nurses' Association of BC and the WCTU) would all
have been well aware of the plight of unmarried mothers at that time. Indeed,
the Salvation Army itself ran one of the two homes for unwed mothers in
Vancouver.57
No direct provision was made for unmarried mothers in BC when the
1920 Act was passed. Of the other Canadian provinces to pass mothers'
pensions legislation, Manitoba and Ontario were the only provinces to
include a common-law wife provision. The concern evident in BC during the
Health Commission hearings on the subject of unwed mothers may, however,
explain BC's inclusion of a discretionary clause within the mothers' pension
legislation. 58 Under this discretionary clause, unique to BC's legislation, any
mother whose case was deemed appropriate for assistance could receive a
pension, regardless of whether she fit the conditions set by the Act. According
to the 1931 report, this clause was frequently applied to single mothers.
An analysis of mothers' pensions in BC necessitates a discussion of the
specific productive roles fathers, mothers and children had been assigned
within the capitalist family. As Dorothy Smith argues, the family under
modern capitalism is structured around the earning power of the male, the
reproductive, house-keeping and childcare tasks performed by the female,
while the child, as a student, is a noncontributor. 59 Most significant in relation
to mothers' pensions is the inevitable economic dependence of mothers and

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children upon the male wage-earner. Economic dependence of women upon
men within a marriage means that when male wage-earners are no longer
contributing to the family income, women and children are left in a precarious
position: "The role of women in the family within capitalism is structured so
that the removal of male patronage leaves her exposed and terrified. "60 Thus,
a mother left without male support in BC during the 1920s, was limited both
by an economic structure which offered such women a limited number of lowpaying jobs and by a culture which perceived the employment of married
women outside the home as undesirable.
( What mothers' pensions did was replace the male wage-earner with the
state, thereby allowing the triangular family structure to survive, regardless of
the fact that it was missing one member. But, more importantly, mothers'
pensions perpetuated an image of disadvantaged mothers as victims.
However, the implication that comes through most strongly is that these
women were powerless victims who, lacking male support, needed the
government to step in as a benevolent figure of authority.
The image of the disadvantaged woman as victim, which the legislation
infers, is somewhat contradicted by an examination of fourteen case histories
found among the files of the Provincial Secretary. 61 What is significant about
these women is that they often appeared to have responded to their situation
in an assertive manner, making good use of the limited number of options
available. Few of the fourteen women were docile victims within their
domestic situation. If they were deserted, they appeared to be more than
willing to help government agencies track down their errant spouse. One
woman, when she was asked for information about her absent husband,
complied with the request on the condition that "she was not compelled to live
with him again. "62 Most of the women faced life without a male wage-earner
in a resourceful fashion. Requests for aid were frequently made following a
crisis in which the mother's slim means of support had been cut off. Six of the
women had been, or were, working part-time when they applied for a pension.
A widow or a woman whose husband was incapacitated might manage to
provide for her family by doing laundry for a few bachelors or cleaning the
local school house, only turning to the government when she could not find
employment. A mother who in turn became ill might also request a pension,
as did one of the cases among the fourteen. One mother asked for a pension
when the tent in which she and her children lived was destroyed by fire. She
had no need for supplies, she said, because she was presently working for her
board but needed enough lumber to build a small house for her family. 63
In conclusion, what was the legacy of the early mothers' pensions
program? Perhaps one should begin with a lesson learned. The case of
mothers' pensions in BC illustrates the uncertainty of freedom gained for
women through economic compensation for their traditional tasks as
mothers and homemakers. "Wages for housework" were revolutionary in the
sense that they offered disadvantaged women money that was their own, not
their husbands'. 64 Yet the impact of change was modified by the fact that,
ultimately, mothers' pensions were for children, not for mothers.6 5
Furthermore, a woman receiving a pension was also accepting that the state
had tlie right to judge her abilities as a mother and a homemaker, so there
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were negative implications in women obtaining payment from the state for
their work in the home.6 6
Elizabeth Janeway points out that the attitude of relief agencies toward
their beneficiaries is inevitably paternal; the basic assumption made is that the
recipients, "don't know what they want and couldn't meet their needs even if
they knew. ''6 7 In 1919, neither the reformers nor the politicians thought to ask
those women who were to receive assistance what they considered
appropriate for their needs. The same holds true today.
The main issue, however, relates to economics as well as to attitudes. The
most fundamental question - why are families who lack a male wage-earner
poor? - was never directly addressed by the mothers' pensions legislation.
Mothers' pensions in the 1920s attacked the symptoms rather than striking
directly at the cause of the problems.
By 1931, it appears that the government had chosen to deny the
economic insecurity of a mother forced to support her family alone, and to
ignore the fact that such women had little hope of achieving more than a
subsistence level ofliving. 68 Instead, government policy in 1931 Ul}realistically
expected mothers on pensions to become independent and self-reliant. 69
Grace McCarthy's words, articulating current government policy toward
female-headed families during the 1980s, are profoundly reminiscent of the
1931 report: "Our aim is to help employable people achieve independence
and avoid the sad cycle of welfare and dependency ... they can become
productive, contributing members of society. ''7°
During the 1920s the mothers' pensions program fostered the continued
placement of female-headed families at the very foot of the socio-economic
scale. By focusing on an idealized vision of what role the family was meant to
play in Canadian society, the state chose to sidestep, rather than confront, the
vulnerable economic position occupied by self-supporting women in
capitalist society. Ultimately, then, this legislation served to perpetuate,
rather than eradicate, the sex/ class bias within BC's social order.

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Footnotes
I would like to thank Dr. Chad Gaffield, Cheryl Coull, John Lutz, Brenda Davies
and Jim Boothroyd for their help with this essay.
l. P ABC, Provincial Secretary, Correspondence inward and outward and interdepartmental memos, Originals, 1918-1926, GR 344, p.123.
2. D.L. Matters, "The Development of Public Welfare Institutions in Vancouver,
1910-1920", Honours Essay, University of Victoria, 1973: 1.
3. Neil Sutherland, Children in English-Canadian Society:
Framing the
Twentieth-Century Consensus. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1976): 236:
4. PABC, Commission on Health Insurance, 1919-1921, GR 706, Book#l, pp. 706,
506, 520.
5. Ibid: 506.
6. PABC, Provincial Secretary, Correspondence inward and outward and interdepartmental memos, Originals, 1918-1926, GR 344, Box #1, File #2: 43.
7. PABC, Commission on Health Insurance, 1919-1921, GR 706, Book #1: 54.
8. Ibid: 640.
9. D.L. Matters, "Public Welfare Vancouver Style, 1910-1920", Journal of
Canadian Studies, Vol. 14, No. 1 (Spring, 1979): 9.
10. PABC, Commission on Health Insurance, 1919-1921, GR 706, Book #1: 642.
11. PABC, Commission on Health Insurance, 1919-1921, GR 706, Book #2: 2.
12. PABC, Commission on Health Insurance, 1919-1921, GR 706, Book #1: 506.
13. P ABC, Provincial Secretary, Correspondence inward and outward and interdepartmental memos, Originals, 1918-1926, GR 344, Box #1, File #2: 34.
14. Sutherland, Children in English-Canadian Society: 233.
15. P ABC, GR 344, Box #1, File #2: 35.
16. Matters, "Public Welfare Vancouver Style, 1910-1920": 3.
17. Ibid.: 10.
18. P ABC, GR 706, Book #1: 706.
19. PABC, GR 706, Book #1: 96.
20. Margaret Ormsby, British Columbia: A History (Toronto: Macmillan, 1958):
424.
21. Ibid.: 409.
22. P ABC, GR 100: 1.
23. PABC, GR 100: 49.
24. Sutherland, Children in English-Canadian Society: 231.
25. PABC, GR 100: 26.
26. Ibid.: 9.
27. Ibid.
28. Ibid.
29. Ibid.: 10.
30. Ibid.
31. Ibid.
32. Ibid.: 50.
33. Ibid.
34. Ibid.
35. Howard Buchbinder, "Inequality and the Social Services", in Allan Moscovitch
and Glenn Drover, eds., Inequality: Essays on the Political Economy of Social
Welfare (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1981): 355.
36. Ibid.: 354.
37. PABC, GR 100: 22.

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Mothers' Pensions

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38. Veronica Strong-Boag, ..Wages for Housework, Mothers' Allowances and the
Beginning of Social Security in Canada", in Linda Kealey, ed., A Not Unreasonable
Claim: Women and Reform in Canada, 1880s-1920s (Toronto: Women's Press,
1979): 28.
39. Sutherland, Children in English-Canadian Society: 229.
40. Ormsby, British Columbia: A History: 407. John Oliver established soldier
settlements at Merville on Vancouver Island and at Creston in the Kootenays in the
period following World War I.
41. Ibid.: 409.
42. PA.BC, GR 706, .Book #1: 47.
43. Ibid.: 44.
44. Ibid.: 47.
45. Ibid.: 97.
46. Sutherland, Children in English-Canadian Society: 237.
47. PA.BC, GR 100: 23.
48. Among the limited number of case records remaining (PA.BC, GR289, Boxes 13) are a total of fourteen cases of women who received mothers' pensions. Of the
fourteen, four husbands had died, four were ill, and six had deserted their families.
These cases range throughout the 1920s.
49. Sutherland, Children in English-Canadian Society: 237.
50. PA.BC, GR 100: 23.
Sl. Veronica Strong-Boag, "Intruders in the Nursery: Childcare Professionals
Reshape the Years One to Five, l 920-1940", in Joy Parr, ed., Childhood and Family in
Canadian History (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1982): 178.
52. PA.BC, GR 706, .Book #1: 94.
53. Ibid.: 529.
54. PA.BC, Provincial Secretary, Correspondence Pertaining to the Care of
Destitute Persons, 1910-1925, GR 150, .Box #3.
55. PABC, Provincial Secretary, Indigent Fund, 1914-1933, GR 289, .Box #2.
56. PABC, GR 706, .Book #1: 720.
57. Matters, "Public Welfare, Vancouver Style, 1910-1920", see Table 11: 7.
58. PA.BC, The Mothers' Pensions Act, Chapter 61, Statutes of BC, 1920, NW
348.711B8621920: 319-321.
59. Dorothy Smith, "Women's Inequality and the Family", in Allan Moscovitch and
Glenn Drover, eds., Inequality: Essays on the Political Economy of Social Welfare
(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1981): 180.
60. Sheila Rowbotham, Woman's Consciousness, Man's World, (Harmondsworth,
Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 1973): 57,
61. These women first came into contact with the government through the office of
the Provincial Secretary when they were given aid through the provincial indigent
fund. They were subsequently admitted to the Mothers' Pensions Program.
62. PA.BC, GR 150, Box #1.
63. PABC, GR 150, .Box #1.
64. Veronica Strong-Boag, "Wages for Housework, Mothers' Allowances and the
.Beginning of Social Security in Canada": 31.
65. Ibid.: 31.
66. For contemporary examples of support for wages for housework see: Lorenne
Clark, "The Wages for Housework Perspectives", in Status of Women News, Vol. 6,
#2 (Toronto, 1980), and Judith Ramirez, "Housework, For Love or Money", in
Canadian Women's Studies Journal, Vol. 1, #2, (Winter, 1978-79).

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67. Elizabeth Janeway, Powers of the Weak (New York: Morrow Quill Paperbacks,
1981): 56.
68. Advisory Council on the Status of Women, A Position Paper on the One- Parent
Family, cited in Megan J. Davies, "Single Mothers: an Honest Lullaby", The Martlet,
October 21, 1982: 11.
69. PABC, GR 100: I.
70. Grace McCarthy, cited in Megan J. Davies, "Single Mothers: an Honest
Lullaby": 11.

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