Radical activism and accidental philanthropy: The impact of first wave feminist activism on the later construction of child care policies in Australia and the United States of America

SynopsisThe goal of this article is to present an historical re-assessment of the impact of women's activism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century on later constructions of child care policy in Australia and the United States of America. This re-assessment is drawn from a larger critical feminist study on the way child care policies shape the material lives of women in the USA and Australia. Centralising the experiences and activities of women, in this historical cross-national comparison, challenges the assumption that ‘first wave’ feminist activism was narrowly constructed and similar across western contexts, and highlights the importance, in historical and contemporary contexts, of radical feminist engagement with the state in achieving positive social policy outcomes for women.