In Quebec, between 1914 and 1939, women were portrayed as keepers of the hearth, roles established since the mid-19th century, and further reinforced in the early 20th century when the Western World was threatened with drops in population, high infant mortality and the general ill-health of society. French Canadian physicians were one of the self-proclaimed leaders and experts who maintained they possessed all the knowledge to cure society's ills. Their attention fell principally on the elimination of infant mortality on the one hand, and the promotion of multiple births on the other. To succeed, physicians maintained that while they held the knowledge, women and mothers were ultimately responsible for applying it. Training for motherhood began as early as childhood and would continue until maturity. Medical prescriptions for francophone mothers relied heavily on religion and patriotism to convince them that quality motherhood was necessary if the French Canadian "race" were to survive in an increasing changing landscape.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.28028 |
| Date | January 1996 |
| Creators | Taylor, Nadine. |
| Contributors | Levesque, Andree (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Department of History.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001672067, proquestno: MQ37299, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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