Child protection services in NSW during 1950s-80s?
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skin care 1950s
rainbowsty
Does anyone have any information on the child protection services in NSW, Australia during the 1950s-80s time period?
Eg what system did they have, was it effective? Did the Deparment of Community services (DOCs) exist back then?
Answer
I'm pretty sure DoCS didn't come into existence until the 1980s, as 'Family and Community Services'. Before then there was a child welfare department of some kind, but I'm not sure what its name was.
Regarding how 'effective' the services provided were, it would depend a lot on who was doing the telling.
Welfare services pre-1970s were mostly of the institutional model, with the 'poor' and 'needy' warehoused in huge institutions, often sleeping dormitary style, under the care of all powerful directors or appointed officials.
Recent years have seen a plethora of law suits related to abuse, neglect and mismanagment within such institutions, as the systems were tremendously open to corruption.
It seems very obvious nowadays that the worst types of people would seek to infiltrate such systems, and the fact is they very often did, with disastrous results.
Apart from institutional care, not much was available in the way of family support, certainly no pensions or benefits. If charity wasn't available for the poor, they did without, and if that meant their kids did without, well that was considered sad but inevitable.
Because the husband/father/male was considered to be the head of household, laws relating to women's and children's rights did not really exist. For example, parents were not permitted to kill their children, but child abuse was not a concept people understood at all. If a child was beaten, even very badly, it was thought the child was 'bad'.
Fathers particularly could be quite brutal without any fear, but the case was a little different for mothers.
Single women, especially if they were poor, were liable to have their children removed at any time for 'crimes' such as neglect, which could simply mean having unfinished washing up in the sink when 'the welfare' called around. The child would be shunted off to an institution and may not have ever been allowed to return home.
And for Aboriginal people, the case was even worse. Fair skinned Aboriginal children were regularly rounded up and removed from their parents and placed in institutional care or adopted out to white families. These children were often raised as servants in their 'adopted' homes, and if institutionalised were actually trained for this.
Many older people may remember those times as 'easier' or 'better' as regards child welfare services, but this was at least in part due to the way problems were kept out of sight and out of mind (institutionalising orphaned or abandoned children), simply not recognised (ignoring abuse) or were presented as solutions (such as stealing Aboriginal children).
The NSW State Library would have a lot of information and old records regarding this. I've put a couple of links for further reference.
Best wishes :-)
I'm pretty sure DoCS didn't come into existence until the 1980s, as 'Family and Community Services'. Before then there was a child welfare department of some kind, but I'm not sure what its name was.
Regarding how 'effective' the services provided were, it would depend a lot on who was doing the telling.
Welfare services pre-1970s were mostly of the institutional model, with the 'poor' and 'needy' warehoused in huge institutions, often sleeping dormitary style, under the care of all powerful directors or appointed officials.
Recent years have seen a plethora of law suits related to abuse, neglect and mismanagment within such institutions, as the systems were tremendously open to corruption.
It seems very obvious nowadays that the worst types of people would seek to infiltrate such systems, and the fact is they very often did, with disastrous results.
Apart from institutional care, not much was available in the way of family support, certainly no pensions or benefits. If charity wasn't available for the poor, they did without, and if that meant their kids did without, well that was considered sad but inevitable.
Because the husband/father/male was considered to be the head of household, laws relating to women's and children's rights did not really exist. For example, parents were not permitted to kill their children, but child abuse was not a concept people understood at all. If a child was beaten, even very badly, it was thought the child was 'bad'.
Fathers particularly could be quite brutal without any fear, but the case was a little different for mothers.
Single women, especially if they were poor, were liable to have their children removed at any time for 'crimes' such as neglect, which could simply mean having unfinished washing up in the sink when 'the welfare' called around. The child would be shunted off to an institution and may not have ever been allowed to return home.
And for Aboriginal people, the case was even worse. Fair skinned Aboriginal children were regularly rounded up and removed from their parents and placed in institutional care or adopted out to white families. These children were often raised as servants in their 'adopted' homes, and if institutionalised were actually trained for this.
Many older people may remember those times as 'easier' or 'better' as regards child welfare services, but this was at least in part due to the way problems were kept out of sight and out of mind (institutionalising orphaned or abandoned children), simply not recognised (ignoring abuse) or were presented as solutions (such as stealing Aboriginal children).
The NSW State Library would have a lot of information and old records regarding this. I've put a couple of links for further reference.
Best wishes :-)
How did classic hollywood stars get such smooth, clear skin?
Future Cel
I am just curious as to how they got to have such smooth, clear skin. I know that it was sort of before all of the touch up technology we have today. Yet, the cameras and pictures of the time got some major close ups, and they never seem to have a single blemish or imperfection. I am just wondering what exactly it was they used or did skin care wise, or was it just makeup. I'm talking about people from the old hollywood 1940s-1950s ish, like Katharine Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn, Ava Gardner, Lauren Bacall, Grace Kelly, etc. Thanks!
Answer
Max Factor, baby. The secret was pancake makeup.
Max Factor, baby. The secret was pancake makeup.
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