Urban Middle Class Expand

With the growth of an urban middle class in Canada, there was a growing concern with bringing order to the urban industrial system. With this there were shifts from public grants to private charities then to public social services. Transition from private charities to public social services.

The bureaucratization of social welfare took place with the move from private charities to public social services. For instance, the Society for Organising Charitable Relief and Repressing Mendicity formed for the purpose of creating some principles to guide charitable organizations in London in 1870 (Woodroofe, 1962:27).

The idea of setting up organizations that would control charity so people would not become dependent spread. Development of women's movement.

The development of the women's movement influenced the development of social work including temperance, a movement that aimed to ban the use of alcohol, women's involvement in charity, and votes for women. Women were involved in temperance movements in the 1870s, church and missionary groups, the National Council of Women forming in 1897, the YWCA, and the settlement house movement. These gave women an opportunity to participate in public life, and influenced social work. One of the key reform organizations was the National Council of Women founded by Lady Aberdeen.