The women's liberation movement has resulted in increased participation by women in the labour force and increased demands for services which allow a woman to achieve her full potential as a contributing and equal member of society. One of the major conditions which would allow a woman to do this is the provision of those support services necessary to enable a freely- determined choice of how she will divide up the use of her time energy, skills and resources between her hornet her family, and her outside interests and/or employment. A major assumption is that women have a right to some of the rewards which a society has to offer its contributing members. One of the services deemed necessary for making such a free choice is the provision of substitute care for young children. While there' appear to be a number of means for meeting this condition the one most espoused by women's groups is the provision of more better and cheaper day care services which are both flexible and accessible. Justification for the funding to support such services is usually based on a complex argument derived from statistical data about working mothers; one-parent families; low-income families; the rate of formation dissolution and reformation of families; comparisons between welfare costs and day care costs; current day care arrangements; current and future demands for day care services; and so on. The arguments generally conclude:

• that it is economically cheaper to provide full day care subsidies to working mothers in financial need and to obtain income tax revenue from their earned income than to provide welfare assistance to non-working mothers in financial need; and

• that the lack of day care space and the costs do not appear to stop women who really want to work or who must work. They will make whatever day care arrangements they can manage within their resources However the quality of such arrangements is questionable and may frequently be damaging to the child.

Note that this particular trend of thinking makes the assumption that the day care services provide for the needs of the mother rather than for those of the family or the child. It is at this point that demands for increased day care services run into conflict with the value orientations of the general society. These values suggest that the needs of the family and the child are more important in societal terms than the needs of the mother. Therefore, in those cases where a woman must work to enhance the family, her need for day care services will be accepted as valid. The value orientation underpinning all of this is that the family is the societal unit which can most economically facilitate the production and training of future societal members and for meeting the survival, security and belongingness needs of the vast majority of societal members of all ages.

Statistical and research background

This section consists of a brief review of the more important trends in day care services through an examination of pertinent statistics and research documents. Each statistical table or research report is by a brief comment when appropriate and the source from which the data were taken. Figures are for Canada as a whole, except where specifically Information on day care services in educational institutions is very sparse. We have considerable information about the need for such services but very few statistics or descriptive data on existing services. One study was reviewed which surveyed day care services at Canadian universities. None could be found which examined such services at community colleges, public school facilities, occupational facilities, recreational or leisure programs, etc.

The writer of this report considers the information contained in this section to be of considerable importance in developing policy statements relating to day care services provided by educational facilities. We would encourage you to read each table carefully to digest its main points and to then consider all the potential implications which flow from such Where possible we have suggested some possibilities.