The United States was in a dilemma. The men had gone off to Europe to fight in World War II, but the country needed planes and guns. The ranks of childless women who could work in factories were running thin. As mothers were urged to go to work, however, the question arose: What to do with their children? As a lawmaker at the time warned, “[Y]ou cannot have a contented mother working in a war factory if she is worrying about her children, and you cannot have children running wild in the streets without a bad effect on the coming generation.”
So the government leapt into action, creating a nationwide network of child care centers under the wartime Lanham Act. But as they got underway, there was a crucial fight among government officials and agencies: Should these child care centers be offered only to the neediest cases who would have to prove their eligibility, with the presumption that women should avoid using them if they could? Or should they be available to all?
