If you can't go to the factory help the neighbour who can
A photograph shows a woman in a coat waving as she leaves for a factory while a neighbour takes her children at the door. The title and the banner 'Caring for war workers' children is a national service' recast childminding as war service (identity fusion), with ordinary street neighbours as the model (plain folks).
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1939
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Ministry of Health; printed for H.M. Stationery Office by Lowe & Brydone Printers Ltd, London
- Region
- Western and Central Europe
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Churchill Government
- Leader
- Winston Churchill
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- Home front, Labor, Gender and suffrage
- Event
- World War II
- Leader
- Winston Churchill
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Foreign Posters, retrieved October 3, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (UK Crown copyright, 50 years from publication, expired before 1996; no URAA restoration)
Ministry of Health, printed by Lowe & Brydone Printers Ltd. NARA, World War II Foreign Posters, 44-PF-236.
Text on the object
If you can't go to the factory help the neighbour who can How you can help Arrange now with a neighbour to look after her children when she goes to her war-work—or give your name to CARING FOR WAR WORKERS' CHILDREN IS A NATIONAL SERVICE Issued by the Ministry of Health PRINTED FOR H.M. STATIONERY OFFICE BY LOWE & BRYDONE PRINTERS LTD., LONDON, N.W.10. 51-2206 MH 17
