The postwar U.S. government made this clear. There was no more state-sponsored child care. In a postwar, Cold War America, child care was viewed with suspicion, as the kind of thing communists used to raise their children collectively. The U.S. government began doing the opposite of its wartime recruiting; it made propaganda-type films telling women it was important to leave their jobs, return home, and tend their households. The films pointed out that it was unnatural for women to be breadwinners, taking jobs from men. Quitting one’s job became a matter of patriotism. And so, many of the
...more
