Mothers' Pensions/Allowances

Recognition of Childcare Work and Cost

Mothers' allowances began in the 1920s and 1930s in some North American jurisdictions as payments to widows or other mothers who had been deserted by their breadwinning husbands. These allowances were subject to many restrictions, specifically requiring that the recipients be good and fit mothers. A good mother was one devoted to the care of her children who was responsible for raising future citizens. However, the level of support provided was very low, requiring the mother to be earning some other income, through her own employment or taking tenants into the home, or relying on children's wages to support her family. Unlike other benefits that were related to the work history of the men who received them, mothers' allowances were payments to the “undeserving poor.”

In some jurisdictions, what began as mothers' allowances later became family allowances that often flowed to the mother, but were paid to all mothers in recognition of the work and the cost of raising children. In Canada, these same family allowances, which were based upon the number of children in the family, eventually became the Canada Child Tax Benefit, a means-tested payment delivered through the tax system and available only to families who file tax returns. This remains the sole recognition of the monetary costs associated with raising children in the Canadian tax system.

In North America in the postwar period, mothers' allowances evolved into broad welfare systems such as the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program and eventually became temporary welfare/workfare benefits. These benefits are laden with stigma, as they are characterized as payments to people who are not willing to work, negatively referred to as “welfare moms” or “welfare queens.” Major welfare reforms in both countries in the 1990s led to significant cutbacks in amounts and eligibility, and often the receipt of benefits was contingent on moving into paid employment; this represented a shift to self-sufficiency and the responsibility to support oneself and one's children with paid work.

Most of these income supports were available to mothers on the basis of their impoverished position. In the later half of the 20th century, however, mothers moved into paid employment in greater and greater numbers. In Canada in the first decade of the 21st century, three-quarters of all mothers with children still at home are in the paid workforce, and women became eligible to participate in employers' pension plans as well as to contribute to public pensions such as U.S. Social Security or the Canada Pension Plan, as well as to their own retirement savings account.

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