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The Legacy of Scientific Motherhood: Doctors and Child-Rearing Advice in the 1960s and 1970s in English Canada by Jessica Haynes, B.A. A thesis submitted to The Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research In partial fulfillment of The requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of History Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario March 13, 2007 © 2007 Jessica Haynes Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Library and Bibliotheque et Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-26945-9 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-26945-9 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce,Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve,sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet,distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans loan, distribute and sell theses le monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non­ sur support microforme, papier, electronique commercial purposes, in microform,et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. this thesis. Neither the thesis Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels de nor substantial extracts from it celle-ci ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement may be printed or otherwise reproduits sans son autorisation. reproduced without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne Privacy Act some supporting sur la protection de la vie privee, forms may have been removed quelques formulaires secondaires from this thesis. ont ete enleves de cette these. While these forms may be includedBien que ces formulaires in the document page count, aient inclus dans la pagination, their removal does not represent il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant. any loss of content from the thesis. i * i Canada Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The Department of History recommends to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research acceptance of the thesis The Legacy of Scientific Motherhood: Doctors and Child-Rearing Advice in the 1960s and 1970s in English Canada submitted by Jessica Haynes, B.A. (Hons) in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Dominique Marshall, Thesis Supervisor A.B. McKillop, Chair Department of History Carleton University 30 April 2007 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Abstract Medical proponents of scientific motherhood, a child-rearing strategy popular in the 1920s and 1930s, called for, amongst other things, early toilet training, restricted mother-baby interaction and rigid feeding schedules. After World War Two, child- rearing advice appeared to cast off most, if not all of, these ideas. Experts, influenced by the child-centric nature of postwar society, now urged parents to be responsive to the needs of the child. In addition, the counter-culture of the 1960s and the growth of psychology eroded medical authority. This thesis will seek to demonstrate how these and other societal developments were reflected in child-rearing advice, focussing on popular manuals and the magazine Chatelaine. I will also try to show that, despite radical changes in society, elements of scientific motherhood philosophy persisted in these sources throughout the 1960s and 1970s. n Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Acknowledgements I wish to express my deep thanks and appreciation to my supervisor, Dr. Dominique Marshall, who always encouraged me to ask questions and seek answers on a broad canvas. Her help and feedback enriched this project to no end. I would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Ontario government, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and Carleton University. Their generosity makes the work of so many young scholars in Canada possible. Within Carleton, I would like further to thank the Interlibrary loan staff for their patience and good humour as I ordered and re-ordered many of my key sources. Throughout this process, my family, most especially my mother, have been kind and supportive enough to listen to me both when I was enthusiastic about and discouraged by my thesis. Special thanks also go to my puppy Scout for providing much needed distraction and laughter throughout the writing process. Last, but by no means least, I wish to thank my husband for his sustaining faith in me and my work. I have lost count of the number of times he has listened to my concerns, provided constructive feedback and, perhaps most importantly, helped me laugh at myself. iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table of Contents Page Abstract ii Acknowledgements iii Table of Contents iv 1. Introduction 1 Methodology and Historiography 3 Nineteenth-Century Changes in the Western Family 15 British Scientific Motherhood 17 American Scientific Motherhood 25 History of Scientific Motherhood in English Canada 32 Scientific Motherhood in Other Regions of Canada 44 2. The Shifting Context of the “Family” and the “Expert” in the 1960s and 1970s 47 Postwar Retreat to Domesticity, Suburbs and the Postwar Family 47 The Growth of Counter-Culture in Canada 52 Feminism 56 La Leche League 60 Children’s Rights 64 Women, Work and Daycare 65 Experts-Medical 70 Dietetics and Nutrition 79 Experts-Psychology 81 Conclusion 87 3. Advice on Feeding in the 1960s and 1970s 89 Breast- versus Bottle-Feeding 89 Duration of Breast-Feeding and Weaning 107 Feeding on Demand 112 Solid Foods 124 Conclusion 137 4. Advice on Crying and Toilet Training in the 1960s and 1970s 140 Rejection of Early Philosophy on Infant Crying 140 The New Approach to Infant Crying and Sleeping 142 Rejection of Early Training 154 The New Approach 160 Specific Methods 164 Conclusion 167 5. Conclusion 169 iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Appendix 1 174 Bibliography 175 v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1 Chapter 1- Introduction The scientific motherhood movement was a product of the early twentieth century and reached its apogee during the 1930s in English Canada and elsewhere. Variations of the campaign, which will be discussed in this chapter, existed in French Canada, the United States and Britain. Developments within these two other countries in particular influenced events in Canada.1 American historian Rima Apple uses the term scientific motherhood to refer more broadly to the social emphasis placed on the “critical role of contemporary science and medicine in successful mothering.” I use the term more narrowly, as does Cynthia Comacchio in her book on the Ontario infant welfare movement during the years 1900 to 1940, to designate a body of advice generated by medical experts in the 1920s and 1930s.3 During these decades, proponents of scientific motherhood claimed that parents, especially mothers, were ill-equipped to raise their own children, and sought to replace mothers' everyday knowledge with the supposedly scientific expertise of the doctor. The pervasive ignorance of mothers was blamed for the high infant mortality rates of the time. The focus of the scientific motherhood movement, influenced strongly by both behavourism, a new branch of psychology, and scientific management, was on the careful upbringing of children through routine and repetition. Experts felt that an orderly household, reflected in strict conformity to schedules of eating, sleeping and toilet training, would best safeguard the physical and psychological 1 Cynthia Comacchio, Nations are Built of Babies: Saving Ontario’s Mothers and Children, 1900-1940 (Montreal-Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1993), 18. 2 Rima D. Apple, Perfect Motherhood: Science and Childrearing in America (London: Rutgers University Press, 2006), 6. 3 Comacchio, 1993,3-4. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 well-being of the next generation. The state upbringing provided to the Dionne quintuplets in the 1930s exemplified this approach.4 The ideology of scientific motherhood did change with the advent of World War Two. In the post-war period, the rigidity that preached strict habit training in eating, sleeping, elimination and bathing was much more relaxed.5 An emphasis on routine and consistency remained, but a focus on parental love and understanding was developed.6 Historian Mona Gleason argues that this shift in Canadian practices reflected, in part, a new medical, as well as popular, awareness and an acceptance of the psychological n principles elaborated earlier by American Dr. Benjamin Spock. The 1960s and 1970s have often been characterized by a much more permissive, individualistic and even rebellious social ethos in North America. Katherine Amup, in her 1994 study of Canadian child-rearing advice, asserts that this environment produced questioning in North America regarding previously accepted principles of child-rearing. She justifies the choice of her time period, 1920-1960, by stating that “Extending the period of analysis to 1960 enabled me to examine the dramatic shift in child-care advice from a rigid, health-oriented focus in the interwar years to the more relaxed, ‘permissive’ approach of the post-Second World War years.”9 Her statement implies that there was an absolute break between the teachings of scientific motherhood and the advice of the late 1950s.

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