Using Philadelphia as a case study, A Mother's Job explores the history of day care from the perspective of families who used it, tracing day care's transformation from a charity for poor single mothers in the early twentieth century to a legitimate and culturally accepted social need for ordinary families -- and a potential responsibility of government -- by the 1950s.

Introduction Part I: Establishing Day Care, 1890-1930 1: "Foster Mothers": Creating Day Nurseries 2: Using Day Nurseries 3: Deserving Mothers: Day Care as Welfare 4: Day Care as Education: The Emergence of the Nursery School Part II: Transforming Day Care, 1930-1960 5: Day Care and Depression 6: Battling for Mothers' Labor: Day Care During World War II 7: From Charity to Legitimate Need: The Postwar Years Conclusion

"One of the greatest strengths of this book is its use of case records from individual day care centers over the course of the 70 years examined by the work. These rich records allow Rose to show who actually used day care centers--and how that population changed over time; they allow her to get at the motives of day care parents for placing their children in a group care facility, parents' attitudes toward women's waged work, and their attitudes towards day care itself. Historians are often frustrated by their lack of access to the motives, ideas, and values of ordinary people, but here Rose joins the growing group of historians who are carefully interrogating case records produced by social workers to illuminate the world of clients. She does so with great skill and insight."--Robyn Muncy, University of Maryland at College Park "This is a mature work, well written, imaginatively researched, and plugged into the literature of reform, social welfare, [and] women's history, as well as the interdisciplinary literature of childcare. Perhaps the strongest and most innovative part of the book is its imaginative use of case records. For years, historians have been calling for the history of reform and social welfare as told from the point of view of the client. Few have found a way to do so, but Rose has accomplished this goal in fascinating ways."--Allen Davis, Temple University "...Rose demonstrates how vital the issue of day care is if we want to be known as a society that values families and children. Rose poses some thought-provoking questions: What is a good mother? What do children need? Who is responsible for child care?"--Associated Press Books "It's rare when a work of historical scholarship speaks to a contemporary social crisis as thoughtfully as does Elizabeth Rose's new book, A Mother's Job: The History of Day Care, 1890-1960."--Midland News "The story she gives us is in its own right a fascinating one....[T]his beautifully and movingly written book goes a long way toward helping us to understand how we have arrived at our current policies for meeting the needs of families and, more important, why it is so difficult to make these policies more rational, coherent, and consistent."--Swarthmore College Bulletin "Rose's work is a fine contribution to the growing literature on gender, the family, social policy and the state in industrial societies."--Labor History