Historical Significance

In 1943, Portland Public Schools created this handbook that addressed how life would change for women who chose to work at the shipyards. This section covered the issue of how to find daycare. For the mother, the concern was how her absence affected the children's upbringing; at the same time, employers sometimes had to balance unpredicted absences with trying to meet their production levels. The county and state provided childcare centers, but many mothers hesitated to enroll their children because a stigma left over from the Depression that equated group childcare with poverty and welfare. To remedy the situation, Henry Kaiser built two childcare centers that operated around the clock and cared for up to 450 children a day.