LETHBRIDGE – During the First and Second World War Canadian women rolled up their sleeves and helped define the true meaning of total wars.
PRE-WAR
Canadian women’s charitable spirit was steadfast long before the World Wars.
Dr. Amy Shaw, war history professor at the University of Lethbridge said that women’s organizations became indispensable over the Boer War.
The Patriotic Fund was started around the Boer War. It was an important organization that supported the families of soldiers. Before WW1, things now done by the government was viewed as voluntary.”
WW1
Altruism embodied by Canadian women who ensured that families of war had enough resources took on many forms over the First World War.
Dr. Shaw noted just how critical women’s organizations such as Daughters of the Imperial Empire were for raising morale and honouring the importance in traditional unpaid labour.
“Women would volunteer with their church, war charities, the YMCA and more, knitting socks, rolling bandages and sending off care packages to POW.”
While there was no female presence in the Canadian armed forces, 3,141 female nurses traveled abroad for support and withal experienced the atrocities and risks of war and on the home front.
SUFFRAGE
Canadian women’s active emergence into heightened responsibility and dedication domestically and socially did attract attention; although, historians debate the short term gains and the long-term impact on the postwar roles of women.
Women’s suffrage in Canada took flight over the First World War.
The right to vote in provincial elections was granted between 1916 and 1940
Provincial vote:
– Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta: 1916
– Ontario, British Columbia: 1917
– Nova Scotia, New Brunswick: 1918, 1919
– Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland: 1922, 1925
– Quebec: 1940
Women would go on to obtain the right to vote in federal elections in a piecemeal way.
Dr. Shaw explained that when Prime Minister Robert Borden’s Conservatives wanted to enact conscription, a highly contested action, the government attempted to bolster for push for a coalition government.
“Borden decided to put forward a union government of Liberals and Conservatives together. This was the first election that women were able to vote in. Just before they had the elections the Borden administration passed two acts, ‘The Military Voters Act’ which meant that anyone overseas could vote even if they were underage or a woman and ‘The Wartime Elections Act’ where women with a close relative fighting overseas could vote.”
Dr. Shaw highlighted that some women at the time challenged these acts and labeled the newfound right as the Borden’s attempt to bolster electoral support for a conscription-riddled agenda.
“When the government talked about it they spoke about how voting was a right of citizenship and that by giving the vote to women who were helping in wartime it was showing how they were are such good citizens.“
WW2
As Canadian women proved themselves on the homefront during WW1, when Canada declared war in 1939, many felt obligated to help on the battlefront.
Canadian women lobbied the government to form the very first women’s force. In 1941-42, the call to participate was answered and once again Canadian women helped contribute to the success of Canada’s war successes.
More than 50,000 women served in the armed forces during the Second World War. http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/history/historical-sheets/women
WOMEN IN FACTORIES
Over the Second World War Canadian women entered munitions factories en masse. Women worked diligently in factories, on transit lines, on airfields, and on farms.
This level of participation broke new grounds and illustrated the strength and skill set of the women who entered the public job sector and took over jobs traditionally dominated to men.
In order to avoid the unemployment situation that plagued returning WW1 soldiers, veterans from the Second World War were largely able to return to their previous day jobs.
“How much did the WW2 liberate women? Some historians say that while it showed that women could do different jobs. At the end of the war women were intended to go back into the home. It was thought about temporary and after there’s the 50’s image of the women in the home with pearls vacuuming,” Shaw said.
Throughout both World Wars, women sacrificed, contributed and lost love ones.
Dr. Shaw ended the interview with Lethbridge News Now urging Canadian’s to not only remember the celebratory aspects of Canadian’s role in both World Wars, but to also remember all of the grief and suffering from those women on the home front who lost loved ones to war and carried on when their family members did not return home.
On the days leading up to Remembrance Day on Nov. 11, Lethbridge News Now will deliver a “11 Days of Remembrance – Did You Know” feature segment discussing topics of interest which illustrates Lethbridge’s direct and indirect involvement in military pursuits.
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