Lisa Pasolli is a historian of 20th century Canada, with specialties in the history of social policy, women and gender, and the politics of child care. Her book, Working Mothers and the Child Care Dilemma: A History of British Columbia鈥檚 Social Policy (2015) examines the long-standing struggle over public child care as a welfare and women鈥檚 rights issue, and was awarded the Canadian Historical Association鈥檚 BC Clio Prize. One of her current projects examines the national politics of child care since the Second World War and is situated in the history of motherhood, the welfare state, caring labour, and gendered social regulation in Canada. A second project, which is funded by a SSHRC Insight Development Grant (2019-2022), examines the relationship between tax expenditures and social policy in 20th century Canada. Dr. Pasolli is also part of a SSHRC Partnership Grant (2020-2027), 鈥淲hat is the Best Policy Mix for Diverse Canadian Families with Young Children? Re-imagining Family Policies,鈥 which brings together an international team of interdisciplinary researchers to study childcare, parental leave, employment policies.
Working Mothers and the Child Care Dilemma: A History of British Columbia's Social Policy
Journal Articles
- With Julia Smith, 鈥淭he Labor Relations of Love: Workers, Child Care, and the State in 1970s Vancouver, British Columbia,鈥 Labor: Studies in Working-Class History (14 no. 4, December 2017): 39-60.
- 鈥溾業 ask you, Mr. Mitchell, is the emergency over?鈥: Debating Day Nurseries in the Second World War,鈥 Canadian Historical Review 96, 1 (March 2015): 1-31.
- 鈥溾楢 Proper Independent Spirit鈥: Working Mothers and the Vancouver City Cr猫che, 1910-1920,鈥 BC Studies 173 (Spring 2012): 69-95.
- 鈥淏ureaucratizing the Atlantic Revolution: The 鈥淪askatchewan Mafia鈥 in the New Brunswick Civil Service, 1960-70,鈥 Acadiensis vol. XXXVIII, no. 1 (Winter/Spring 2009): 126-150.
Book Chapters
- 鈥淭he Birch Battles: Daycare and the Welfare State in 1970s Ontario,鈥 in Ontario Since Confederation: A Reader, 2nd edition, ed. Dimitry Anastakis and James Onusko, forthcoming.
- 鈥淐asualties of War: Children, Mothers, and Wartime Day Nurseries.鈥 Making the Best of It: Women and Girls of Canada and Newfoundland during the Second World War, edited by Sarah Glassford and Amy Shaw (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2020).
- With Julia Smith, 鈥淐hallenging Work: Feminist Scholarship on Women, Gender, and Work in Canadian History,鈥 in Reading Canadian Women鈥檚 and Gender History, eds. Nancy Janovicek and Carmen Nielsen (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2019).
- 鈥淐hild Care and Feminism in Canada,鈥 in Gender, Feminism, and Global Cross-Cultural Connections: International and Interdisciplinary Perspectives, ed. Glenda Bonifacio (Emerald Publishing, November 2017).
Edited Volumes
- With Julia Smith, Rethinking Feminist History and Theory: Reflections on Gender, Class, Labour, and Colonialism, University of Toronto Press, forthcoming.
Review Essays
- 鈥淩ecent Works in Twentieth-Century Women鈥檚, Gender, and 鈥淣ew Political鈥 History,鈥 The Canadian Historical Review 101, 3 (September 2020), 450-459.
- Canadian Historical Association, BC Clio Prize (for Working Mothers and the Child Care Dilemma)
- Canadian Historical Association Best Article Prize in Labour History (for 鈥淭he Labor Relations of Love鈥)
- Canadian Historical Association Political History Group Best Article Prize (for 鈥淚 ask you, Mr. Mitchell鈥)
- The Canadian Historical Review Best Paper Prize (for 鈥淚 ask you, Mr. Mitchell鈥)
I am welcoming students interested in a broad range of topics in 20th century Canadian social and political history.
