Balancing Equality for the Post-War Woman: Demobilising Canada's Women Workers After World War Two 1 (original) (raw)

Working Women and the State: the Case of Canada, 1889-1945

Atlantis: Critical Studies in Gender, Culture & Social Justice, 1981

Until recently women have figured only marginally at best in historians' accounts of Canada. In particular their participation in waged employment has gone almost without comment. In as much as any tradition with respect to the experience of female wageearners can be ascertained it is generally one of two types which for the purposes of this paper will be labelled 'liberal-progressive' and 'leftist.' The first, following the lead of early twentieth century reformers, distinguishes between professional employments such as teaching which could be viewed as an index of a society's advance toward greater democracy, and industrial jobs such as those in textile production which were condemned as especially exploitative and damaging to female physiology. Such admiration or condemnation, often implicit rather than explicit, is also rarely of any length, subordinated as accounts are to discussions of political and macroeconomic issues in which women rarely figure. These accounts give more prominence to the vote than *This paper was originally presented to the "Women and the

The Girl of the New Day: Canadian Working Women in the 1920s

Labour / Le Travail, 1979

Veronica Strong-Boag CANADIANS recovering from World War One hoped that the 1920s would at last usher in the century that was to be theirs. The modern world's new technologies and new methods of bureaucratic organization might be harnessed to guarantee a better life for all citizens. Liberal feminists also anticipated that much progress towards the liberation of women would come about directly through the invigorated pace of modernization during the decade. Nowhere was their faith in progress greater than in the world of work. A modernized capitalism that stressed employment and promotion based on merit would replace traditions which dictated occupations allocated on the basis of the ascribed and inferior status of women. Working women were thus to be beneficiaries of a reorganized and updated capitalist order. Yet as recent literature on the 1920s suggests, 1 the decade finally offered little to those who hoped for general liberalization. For women inequality in the workplace did not disappear, it merely modernized its forms. The failure to make great gains has sometimes been obscured by a fascination with women doctors, lawyers and other professionals. 2 Yet at best such

Human Rights Activists and the Question of Sex Discrimination in Postwar Ontario

Canadian Historical Review, 2012

This article examines the varied understandings of human rights in Ontario in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. The article compares the social origins and implementation of Ontario's Fair Employment Practices Act-which combatted racist and religious discrimination-with Ontario's Female Employees Fair Remuneration Act-which mandated equal pay for women who did the same work as men. Although a few feminists called for the Fair Employment Practices Act to prohibit sex discrimination as well, their pleas fell mainly on deaf ears in this period. Men and women who fought against racist injustice were frequently unaware of gender injustice, for they, like so many others, subscribed to the deeply embedded ideology of the family wage. Conversely, some of the most outspoken advocates of women's rights were unconscious of-or chose to ignoreracism. At the same time, some of the most committed advocates of equal pay for equal work actually reinforced certain conventional assumptions about men's gender privilege at work and at home. Moreover, while the enforcement of both acts was constrained by the conciliatory framework embedded within them, the government officials who were charged with applying both acts interpreted the equal pay act quite narrowly and were significantly more diligent in tackling racist and religious employment discrimination.

Women and the Canada Social Transfer: Securing the social union

2007

Good public policy depends on good policy research. In recognition of this, Status of Women Canada instituted the Policy Research Fund in 1996. It supports gender based policy research on public policy issues in need of gender-based analysis. Our objective is to enhance public debate on gender equality issues in order to enable individuals, organizations, policy makers and policy analysts to participate more effectively in the development of equitable policy. ABOUT THE AUTHORS Shelagh Day is a human rights expert, advocate and writer. Currently, she is Director of the Poverty and Human Rights Centre. Ms. Day has a distinguished history working with both government and non-governmental organizations to advance the equality of Canada's most disadvantaged groups. Dr. Gwen Brodsky practises, teaches and writes in the areas of human rights and constitutional law. She has acted as counsel in leading Charter equality rights cases. She has also taught in the Faculty of Law at the University of British Columbia and at the Akitsiraq Law School in Nunavut. She has an LL.M. from Harvard and a Ph.D. from Osgoode Hall. Shelagh Day and Gwen Brodsky have written extensively about equality rights theory, social and economic rights, and the Charter, both independently and as co-authors. This is a crucial moment for women. Currently, women face the prospect of further decentralization, no standards and more withdrawal by governments from the provision of social programs, particularly those that matter to the most disadvantaged women. Women must not permit further erosion of Canada's social programs, but rather urge governments to reinvigorate and redesign the system of federal transfers to ensure social programs reflect women's needs and satisfy Canada's commitments to women's human rights.

Women and Wage Labour in a Period of Transition: Montreal, 1861-1881

Histoire Sociale Social History, 1984

Distinctions of gender and age were reinforced in the period of early industrial capitalism in Montreal as more and more children were drawn into wage labour. Working-class males sought work for wages for most of their lives. For women such work was transitory, undertaken as girls, seldom as wives, but required if their husband died or deserted them. Domestic labour was the usual task of both girls and women within the family economy. Gender-based wage differentials made it practical for families to send sons rather than daughters into the workforce, hardening the identification of the home as women's place. The female's economic dependence on a male and his wages was highlighted in the plight of the widow. Les debuts du capitalisme industriel a Montrealfurent marques, au fur eta mesure de /'entree des enfants dans Ia main-d' reuvre salariee, par une accentuation des ecarts de remuneration bases sur des criteres de sexe et d'iige. S'il allait de soi pour les travailleurs miiles de rechercher, sur une base permanente, un salaire pendant Ia plus grande panie de leur vie, Ia situation etait, dans /'ensemble, differente pour les femmes : leur travail etait transitoire, entrepris a I' iige nubile, rarement en tant qu' epouses sauf, par necessite, suite a Ia mort ou a I' abandon de leur mari. En fait, les travaux domestiques restaient, avant et apres le mariage, I' occupation jeminine habitue lie a I' interieur de I' economie familiale. Les differences salariales en fonction du sexe incitaient logiquement les families a envoyer leurs fils-et non leurs filles-sur le marche du travail, renfor~ant ainsi I' image de Ia femme cantonnee tout naturellement au foyer. Cet etat de dependance economique des femmes par rapport aux hommes ressortait dans toute son etendue dans les situations de veuvage.