Suchergebnisse

Explores the issue of the widow's pension & charity in interwar Australia, drawing on an analysis of the records of the Charity Organization Society in Victoria & the views of charity workers. That the survival of the family preoccupied the state rather than the plight of widows seems to be informed by the fantasy of finding the perfect mother with the pension designed to prevent further family fragmentation & keep the mother in the home. The expectation that children would provide for their families dated from the early 19th century & is also fueled by fantasies about motherhood, children, & the family that framed the attitudes of interwar charity workers who, along with the state, assumed an emotional bond between children & widows. The interwar period evidenced much resistance to this assumption on the part of children. The 1930s professionalization of social work ushered in a shift that led to more actual listening to women & attempted directing of their behavior rather than merely observing their economic situation. It is argued that professionalization did not transform the extant moralism, but lent a new language through which to frame poverty. Analysis of studies on the role of silence or denial in families as protection from stigma or legal condemnation underpins a discussion of the impact of gossip & rumor in deriving the assumptions about poor families; at issue is how silence, secrecy, & evasion were interpreted by charity workers who viewed such behavior as deceitful & deceptive. In this light, workers employed shame to obtain information from widows & exert their sociopolitical power. In terms of legislation & charity work, familial notions of the responsible mother & doting children were enforced. However, neither widows nor children conformed to these ideas, & actual family relations were rife with the kind of fragmentation the state sought to ameliorate via the widow's pension. J. Zendejas

Explores the issue of the widow's pension & charity in interwar Australia, drawing on an analysis of the records of the Charity Organization Society in Victoria & the views of charity workers. That the survival of the family preoccupied the state rather than the plight of widows seems to be informed by the fantasy of finding the perfect mother with the pension designed to prevent further family fragmentation & keep the mother in the home. The expectation that children would provide for their families dated from the early 19th century & is also fueled by fantasies about motherhood, children, & the family that framed the attitudes of interwar charity workers who, along with the state, assumed an emotional bond between children & widows. The interwar period evidenced much resistance to this assumption on the part of children. The 1930s professionalization of social work ushered in a shift that led to more actual listening to women & attempted directing of their behavior rather than merely observing their economic situation. It is argued that professionalization did not transform the extant moralism, but lent a new language through which to frame poverty. Analysis of studies on the role of silence or denial in families as protection from stigma or legal condemnation underpins a discussion of the impact of gossip & rumor in deriving the assumptions about poor families; at issue is how silence, secrecy, & evasion were interpreted by charity workers who viewed such behavior as deceitful & deceptive. In this light, workers employed shame to obtain information from widows & exert their sociopolitical power. In terms of legislation & charity work, familial notions of the responsible mother & doting children were enforced. However, neither widows nor children conformed to these ideas, & actual family relations were rife with the kind of fragmentation the state sought to ameliorate via the widow's pension. J. Zendejas