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Homefront
It is important to remember that when war was declared women did not have
the vote in Canada. While many feminist and suffragette movements were vocally
anti-war prior to Canada's involvement in the conflict, once Canada entered the
fray most changed their stance to patriotic support. That didn't mean, however,
that the goal of gaining the vote and other rights for women was forgotten. In
fact, the shortage of male labour made it possible for women to demonstrate their
value and equality as never before.
Some did that overseas as nurses, as we've seen, but over a thousand women
were employed in Canada by the Royal Air Force in motor transport or went overseas
and worked as ambulance drivers, mechanics and in clerical positions. And as
the war machine demanded more and more shells, guns and parts, 30,000 women filled
the munitions factories from coast to coast. Thousands more took on jobs in the
civil service or replaced men in banks, offices and farms. It was mostly women,
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"farmerettes," who harvested Ontario's bumper
crops in 1917 and 1918.
Those who didn't work for pay spent countless hours knitting socks or scarves
(sometimes including personal notes), rolling bandages, putting together care
packages or fundraising for various war charities that sprang up. Many volunteered
in hospitals for returning soldiers like those set up by the Imperial Order Daughters
of the Empire (IODE). It was also up to the women, especially early in the war,
to encourage sons to enlist or to give written permission to allow their husbands
to join up and "do their bit." The social pressure of women's disapproval
was also brought to bear on other able-bodied young men not to be "shirkers" or "cowards."
And, in the home, it was primarily women who had to deal with the Meatless Mondays,
rationing, making "war bread" with 20 per cent flour substitutes and
other culinary cutbacks. It was also women who took the brunt of the grim telegrams
that came to the |
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Women in munitions
plant
Women worked on Howitzer shells at a Toronto factory. |
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