The following text is from "While Their Parents Build Planes," an article written by Frances Duncan and published in the March 1943 issue of Woman's Home Companion. The article makes daycare centers sound very desirable, but in the early 1940s most Americans viewed them as highly detrimental to child development. Most women frowned on mothers who left children behind in order to enter the workforce. Most working mothers preferred to leave their children with a nonworking relative.

The children have a wonderful time at this combination nursery and playground in Burbank, California, which two women, Nina Killgore and Frances Duncan, had the wit and gumption [willingness, drive] to start when they saw how badly it was needed.

With mother driving rivets instead of being home when a fellow comes in from school, it's a dislocated world for...