An American Experiment in Paid Motherhood: The Implementation of Mothers’ Pensions in early Twentieth-Century Chicago

Public policy issues for women in the early twentieth century were shaped by debates over the best way to resolve gender inequalities. Should policymakers view all women as potential mothers, industrial partners, or individuals with rights comparable to men?’ A wide range of politicized and organized women brought the specific problems of women and children to the public’s attention as they sought the aid of government to redress the inequitable treatment of women in the family and the workplace. Within this context, a specific policy for impoverished mothers developed. Progressive social workers and women’s organizations linked the problems of poverty in mother-only families to the dual role of homemaker and wage-earner which these women adopted out of necessity. Supporters advocated a policy which became known as mothers’ pensions or mothers’ aid and justified the new public expenditures with arguments as varied as ‘paid motherhood’, cost effective family rehabilitation, or a new program for social justice. In brief, the policy proposed to supplement the family income of mother-only families so that women might raise their children at home rather than disrupt the family by placing the children in state institutions. Illinois passed the first statewide legislation in 1911, but within ten years forty states had approved similar laws