Future Citizens: Cultural and Political Conceptions of Children in Britain, 1930s-1950s

This article explores how children were positioned within political debates before, during and after the Second World War. It does thorough analysis of the ways in which children were conceptualized as future citizens, future workers, future leaders and future adults in mid-twentieth-century Britain, through research into newspapers and parliamentary debates. It argues that this thinking was important in debates about the state’s role and the construction of the welfare state. By focusing on children as the future, and conceptualizing them as an economic investment for a future return, greater spending on their welfare could be justified. This language was used by politicians from a variety of political parties and backgrounds, and this article charts the effects such a way of thinking about children had in policy debates about children’s physical health, education, the birth rate and family allowances. Overall, it argues that during this period, this language of children as the future helped provide political space for spending on measures to improve children’s welfare, and focusing on the future rather than the present facilitated consensus on this issue across political boundaries. Yet, behind this apparent consensus were clear ideological faultlines; understanding how children were positioned as the future helps us better understand the divisions and inequalities present from the welfare state's formation.