CANADIAN WOMEN IN WWI

HOW THE WAR AFFECTED THEIR POSITION IN CANADIAN SOCIETY

Adapted from www.scheuernet.com/mod/resource/view.php?

id=98

Women = too frail, emotional, should stay at home, support from the home front, be nurses + ambulance drivers.Aboriginal peoples, Chinese, Japanese, East Indian, Blacks = not real Canadians, racist attitudes,Yet did not prevent them from serving their nation!Enemy aliens = Germans, Italian, Austrian-Hungarians.

DO NOT ENTER

This did not prevent them from serving Canada.

WE WILL SERVE! ONE WAY OR ANOTHER!

Over 1,000 Canadian women were employed by the Royal Air Force (RAF) as truck drivers, mechanics and ambulance drivers.

Over 2,000 women enlisted in the Canadian Armed Forces as nurses.

CANADIAN WOMEN OVERSEAS

Canadian Women’s Participation

on the Home frontI

n 1915, with men fighting overseas, there was a shortage of labour/workers.

So 30,000 women gained employment in machine shops, metal factories, and shipyards.

• They worked in factories making guns, bullets, bombs uniforms, ships, tanks and planes; they were also employed as welders, fitters, machinists, riveters and numerous other jobs that, before the war, were considered men's jobs.

WE CAN DO IT!

Women working proved that they could indeed do a “man’s job.”

There was much opposition of women moving into the public sphere of work especially from the labour unions = they were against hiring women.

• If they did employ women they were paid 50% of a man’s wage.

On top of being involved in the world of paid employment, women also held positions in:

• Social work• Journalism• Public health

Women’s paid Involvement

There were many successes including:• The Alberta’s Married Women Relief Act (Emily Murphy) which permitted widows to a portion of her deceased husband’s estate.• Unions were organized to improve working conditions in the factories (Helena Gutteridge)

Women’s successes

The women who couldn't work in factories or other jobs spent much of their time knitting heavy scarves, balaclavas and socks to be sent to the soldiers who were fighting overseas.

They also made pillows, sheets, and flannel shirts for the soldiers.

TIME WELL SPENT

Women also volunteered for the Red Cross and organized committees to send food and letters overseas.

Thousands of Canadian women spent their time raising money for the war effort (concerts, tag days, teas, card parties, lectures, and bazaars).

TIME WELL SPENT

On September 20, 1917, women whose husbands, sons and brothers served in the war were given the right to vote = Military Service Act/War-time Elections Act.

All women in Canada, thanks to the Suffragists, received enfranchisement (the right to vote) federally in 1918.

THE VOTE!

Women on the home front were as valuable to the war

effort as soldiers because they kept the Canadian economy going and took over men's jobs so the men could enlist to fight.

INVALUABLE CONTRIBUTIONS