Marriage of Convenience: Business and Social Work in Toronto, 1918-1957

In this study Gale Wills explores questions of corporate control of, and resistance to, the welfare state, the role of the Community Chest as an agent of that control, and the gendered nature of social planning. Specifically, Wills analyses the conflicts between the social reform organizations in Toronto and the financial federations that provided their funds. These include the Child Welfare Council (1918-37), the Toronto Welfare Council (1937-57), the Federation for Community Service (1918-44), and the Community Chest (1944-57) – predecessors of the present-day Social Planning Council and United Way of Metropolitan Toronto. All of these early organizations were at the centre of collective action by the emerging profession of social work and of the philanthropic community. As collective organizations, they brought together a cross-section of social workers and businessmen, which drew attention to differences within the profession as well as between social work and business. The gendered nature of the relationships that evolved is rooted in the fact that the ranks of social work are overwhelmingly female, and the funding bodies and hierarchy of the profession are male. The eclipse of women in power politics, according to Wills, arose from a basic conflict of priorities within the welfare system. Women leaders concerned themselves with social reform, challenging the concerns for efficiency and enhancement of the system’s legitimacy. Following the Second World War, in a climate increasingly favourable to corporate values, men took up public positions in the community, primarily in planning and fund allocation. Women became confined to the domestic sphere of case work.