At Home and Overseas Women at War Conscription (again!)

Women at Home and at War  At first, men didn’t want women working in the factories  Before long, women put their brains AND muscles to work  They turned raw materials into tanks, planes, and ships  14-year-olds built life rafts for the Navy (my Mom! )

What Changed in the Factories  1,000,000 women in factories by 1943  Daycare centres set up so moms could work  Workers DONATED time to build arms!  Men often outnumbered by women  WOMEN wolf-whistled at MEN!

Rosie the Riveter

Women in Uniform  Society had wanted to keep women out of factories – that didn’t work  Then they wanted to keep women out of the Armed Forces  Guess what?!?  That didn’t work either!

 By the end of the war, there were 45,000 Canadian service women  Served in a variety of non-combat roles: radar operators, truck and ambulance drivers, nurses, secretaries, mechanics  Often found themselves in battle anyway Women in Uniform

Women on Landing Craft

Air Craft Mechanics

Flyers

Results?  Women gained new respect and freedom  Knew the satisfaction of earning their own money  Knew the unfairness of getting paid less for doing the same work as men  Pants became fashionable due to the type of work they did

Department of Munitions message: “Please don’t stare at my pants. Would you like to know why I wear trousers like the men when I go about the streets? Because I’m doing a man’s job for my country’s sake. My coveralls are my working clothes. I wear them for my safety’s sake. They are less likely to become entangled in the machinery. I work in a munitions plant. Every piece of war material I help to produce helps to keep the enemy away from our shores.”

Conscription - Again  Should a person be forced to fight during war?

Conscription  In 1940, Parliament approved conscription for home defence only  Men who were drafted into this army were jeered at and called “zombies” by people who thought every young man should volunteer to fight

“Conscription if necessary… … but not necessarily conscription” - Prime Minister King  King used this slogan during a campaign for a vote on conscription in 1942  Ontario, Manitoba and BC voted 80% in favour of conscription  Quebec voted 72% AGAINST

King Votes

King’s Conscription Crisis

1944  Up until 1944, most Canadians had not seen much action in the war  Invasions of Italy and Normandy changed that – losses were high  King ordered 16,000 Home Defence soldiers to go overseas  There was an uproar but most Quebec leaders stood by King

End of War  Fortunately for everyone, the war ended soon afterwards  Only 2,500 conscripted soldiers fought Result  Canadian French/English unity was strained but not broken