Who Will Mind the Baby?

This text explores the regional variations in child care provision, contrasting the USA and Canada with Europe and Australia. It examines how working mothers are able to make their own child care arrangements when none are provided by the government.
Child care provision is geographically uneven in North America, reflecting the haphazard manner in which it has evolved. Neither the USA nor Canada has a national child care policy. As such they stand in stark contrast to European countries, where child care is a national concern. At the same time, in recent years there has been an explosion in the number of mothers in the work place and in paid employment generally, in the USA, Canada and the rest of the developed world. This text explores how working mothers in the USA and Canada negotiate their responsibilities given the difficulties posed by the variations in child care provision. Child care arrangements greatly influence the everyday geographies of working mothers. An examination of this factor constitutes the first main theme of the book. A series of case studies, drawn from national, regional, rural, metropolitan and local levels, illustrates the real impact of these arrangements on working mothers. The second area of investigation at stake is that of government child care policy and provision. The author contrasts the limited child care policies of the USA and Canada with the more advanced situation in Europe and Australia,