How would you come to your country’s aid if you were a Canadian woman in the midst of World War 2? This question was on the minds of many Canadian women. Canada entered World War Two on September 10th, 1939; at that time, the women stayed home to cook, sew, and nurture their children. This is the reason that from 1939 to 1940, the largest contribution made by Canadian women came from volunteer work. During World War Two, when there was a deficiency in the workforce, the Canadian women became actively involved in supporting the Canadian economy. August 13th, 1941 marked the formation of the Canadian Women’s Army Corps, through which Canadian women played an increasingly important role in all areas of the Canadian military. Canadian women made …show more content…
In the early stages of World War Two, the greatest contribution that women were allowed to make was to volunteer. These selfless women should be commended because they continued to volunteer knowing that they would not be recognized. Not until September 1942, did Ottawa step in and recognize the numerous volunteers by the name of Women’s Voluntary Services. Until then, these women continued to volunteer by visiting wounded soldiers, making care packages, and dressing the wounded through an organization known as the Nursing Sisters of Canada. Often times, the efforts of these women were not taken into account. Near the end of World War 2, there were over 4,480 women who had enlisted as nurses. The nurses also expanded into the Navy, Army, and Airforce. They travelled into other countries to assist wounded Canadian soldiers, wearing a different uniform required for each branch of the armed forces. A nurse is just an example of a possible job a Canadian woman could have, but it is nothing compared to the number of areas in which women volunteered and worked …show more content…
In addition, there were over 1.1 million Canadians who served in World War 2, causing an additional economic deficit due to the lack of workers. This is reason why Canadian women were required to step in to fill the vacant positions. Four hundred thousand Canadian women entered the workforce, taking over the retail, banking, and office jobs that were normally filled by men. In a survey conducted by the Ministry of Labour , the percentage of women in industrial jobs increased from 19.75 percent to 27 percent. During those years, Canadian women made countless accomplishments which benefit to the status of Canadian women during World War Two. The salary for women in the workforce was two thirds less than the pay for men, but in July 1943, there was an outcry led by the National Council of Women and the pay was raised by 80%. Another accomplishment was that there were working mothers in need of subsidized nursery care, which is why from 1942-46, the Dominion-Provincial Wartime Agreement allowed these Canadian women to do so. The Canadian women entered the workforce to support Canada in time of war but their initiative full action has completely changed the lives of Canadian women
During the Civil War, women helped soldiers by rolling bandages and creating care packages, as well as assisting in other small, though vital, tasks. World War I followed this pattern. But never had women’s aid included assisting with tasks traditionally accomplished by men, until World War II. Women had been told all through the Great Depression, “Let the men have the jobs! Stay at home!” and women, for the most part, had listened. Now, suddenly, the men were
Women in the armed forces and social welfare programs both brought advantages to non working civilians. World war 2 was the time that women were given new opportunities to help in the war. The Canadian Women Army corps was one of the women divisions, and had more than 50% of the 50000 women who had enlisted in the program were involved in this section. The women helped on foot with basic essential tasks, for instance, cooking and preparing meals as well as washing the laundry. Having the women take on these jobs gave the men more time to spend the majority of their time fighting at battle and less or the time spent having to take care of their minor needs. Eventually women started to take on more severe male jobs, they worked as mechanics and also had the task of driving around the ambulance cars and other important vehicles around the fields. Next to these women who both stayed in Canada and travelled overseas, there were also those who took part in the Canadian Women Airforce. The women in this sector had been trained for administrative and support roles, although on top of this women proceeded to work in other positions as the war continued. They were working as parachute riggers, lab assistants, and in all the mechanical and electrical areas. The wage for women increased due to their joining of the higher male jobs and aircraft business. The third area
The government and the general populace realized how hard the woman had worked for the sake of Canada, and this earned woman the respect that they had longed for from the general populace and the government. Furthermore, this very sense of respect was proved when the government under Prime Minister Borden approved the War measures act on September 20, 1917(“Woman’s right to vote in Canada”). This very act was a prime gesture from the Canadian government that illustrated how winning the respect of the people resulted in the destruction of the misogynistic sentiments of that era. Furthermore, many historians regard the “War Times Act” as a gesture that was carried out in order to acknowledge the efforts that women had done in order to aid in the war(“Suffrage in Canada”). As said previously, woman raised funds for war, they volunteered as nurses overseas, worked endless hours in factories in order to build munitions, and provided countless other services for the benefit of the economy and the government. Moreover, they simultaneously kept their families together,”while men went overseas”(“Woman get the vote”), and kept war efforts moving through funds raised by various non-profit organizations run by women. The government witnessed this and rewarded the services of such woman by granting them the right to vote. Furthermore, the fact the government wanted to integrate women into the Canadian political system reveals that the long arduous toiling that woman had done for the nation was finally beginning to reap rewards for their own battle for gender equality.. Although, the right to vote was only bestowed upon those who were related to soldiers fighting overseas, it nonetheless
During the course of the Second World War, Canada evolved into a powerful, resourceful nation that was needed by the Allies. Canada contributed significantly to the Allied war effort during World War II where they fought on land, water and air and assisted indirectly from the home front. On land, they fought in numerous battles and campaigns such as D-Day, Hong Kong, and the Italian campaign. However, they were also strong and resourceful when it came to air and naval forces in battle. But even outside of battle, Canada was still able to make a contribution through its civilians.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, many Canadians were still adjusting to its new ways and ideas. Then the Greatest War the world had ever seen transformed the map of Europe and changed the nations, and the people, who fought in it forever. In Canada, for example, during the war the government faced great challenges such as the conscription crisis when the Country was divided by politics. In addition Canada was accepting the new, untraditional, roles of women, who during the war were allowed to work for the first time in ‘men’s professions”; such as
The life at home during WWI was in a dire situation due to this being Canada’s first war. Canada used tactics such as censorship to hide what the war was really like, and kept on glorifying war. The economy was also in a dire situation with the massive amount of debt Canada kept on amassing. Canada used mass censorship from changing letters home, to controlling the media itself to not leak important war information. Canada was completely unaware of the situation in the war and was lead to believe going to war was some glorious feat and those who did not go where a disgrace to Canada.
What is that in the sky? A bird? A plane? Yes, it’s a Hurricane fighter plane that women of the homefront built. It was a hard time on the homefront of Canada during World War II(1939-1945), when the homefront’s most valuable resources, men, had grown sparse. Jobs in factories and stores had been deserted and the government needed a way to replace them fast, so they called upon what would become the second most or even as valuable resource to men- the women. Although it was the men who risked their lives to fight in the Second World War, it was the women of the homefront that made it possible to win the war. The women of the homefront dedicated their time
During the Second World War, both married and unmarried women worked in wartime industries and factories to take the place of men who joined the service. Although women didn’t play a significant role on the battlefields in Europe compared to males, it would be logical to conclude that women played an integral role in the participation and victory in WWII both at home and abroad. Yet when one considers their contribution, it is hard to imagine how much more they could have done given the conservative views of gender role at that time. In the context of traditional gender roles and boundaries, women conceivably maximized their wartime efforts by working in a variety of jobs including industry, volunteering, and serving as support staff for
Women had a huge role in the World War II that so many do not recognize. Women were involved in many different jobs that allowed them to step out of the ordinary norm as the “typical housewife”, and dive into fierce hardworking jobs that until then only a man could do. Women jumped into the factories and many different roles that contributed to World War II, because the need for more American workers was crucial.
Introduction The modern society is rapidly appreciating the women. Their status and stature has greatly increased in the last century as the world continues to empower women. In Canada, this tip in the scale received a boost from the emergence of the world war (Mark, 2007). Previously homebound women stepped out into the world and take up higher social, political and economics roles in the society as the men were out in the battlefields. Life had been previously primarily rural and women were subjected to homestead chores like spinning yam, sewing clothes, managing gardens and preserving vegetables.
for our army to use. They did this sort of work while the husbands, brothers and other
During World War II, thousands of women in various nations were deeply involved in volunteer work alongside men. Before World War II, the women’s role was simply to be a wife to her husband, a mother to her children, and a caretaker to the house (Barrow). As World War II raged on, women made enormous sacrifices for their family, and also learnt new jobs and new skills. Women were needed to fill many “male jobs”, while men went off to fight in the war. Women served with distinction in The Soviet Union, Britain, Japan, United States, and Germany and were urged to join armed forces, work in factories, hospitals, and also farms to support the soldiers fighting the war. During this time, women took on the dual
The last and biggest way woman helped Canada and the allied effort defeat Germany was through the Canadian Womans Army Corps (CWAC). The CWAC was a combat free branch in the army made for specifically the purpose of reliving men from their non-combat roles in order to get them fighting in the war and increase our man count. Some of the many jobs woman would do while enlisted in the CWAC included working at radar stations, cleaning jobs, cooking, secretarial, and even as mechanics. without the CWAC we we would have put less men into combat decreasing our man count. These brave women wanted to help there country in the fight and they did it with pride
After getting an education as well as knowing there worth in society women knew there were more than just a wife and mother. During WWII women demonstrated their power to think in a world without men as they were off fighting the war. Women began to understand that they had more to offer the world other than housekeeping and raising children. In addition, many women wanted to continue working after the war as they had held jobs with responsibilities as well as earning wages. Furthermore, women were the ones making financial decisions as well as working in positions with higher responsibilities. Many women as well as minorities were simply casted a side to make room for the returning solders. This created a silent discontent among women
By 1943, housewife workers outnumbered single workers for the first time in history.Throughout the war women went to work in shipyards, aircraft plants and other assembly lines. They also loaded shells, operated cranes, painted ships. Many of them became welders, bus drivers, train conductors, mechanics, bellhops, nurses and day-care providers. Women comprised a third of the workers in aircraft plants and about 10 percent of the workers at the shipyards and steel mills were women. Although most war work was in factories, many women found work elsewhere. Many became secretaries and clerks in Washington D.C. and more than 200,000 women entered the special branches of the military. Such branches include Women’s Army Corp (WAC), Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES), and Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS). These military positions allowed women to take over tasks for soldiers so they could be free to go to combat. Although women participated in jobs extremely similar to men, they were not treated equally. For the long hour’s women put in, their salaries averaged only 60 percent of men’s. However, the greatest struggle for American women throughout the war was not simply the issue of money.