How Did Women Contribute To World War 1
By: Jeff M. Lerio
History 30
Mrs. C. Lenz-Fabian
Nov.19,2012
A Canadian woman plays an important role and contributions on the home front during the war years. They supported our country’s war efforts not only in traditional roles, but also in unprecedented new ways. Women in this era are said to be the toughest one, they endure all pains and suffering just to be heard and express their thoughts. During World War 1, women roll up their sleeves and took a wide variety of civilian job that once is filled by men. Canada’s contributions during the war years would have been very different if it were not for the vital roles women played on the home front. All of this effort, pains and sufferings of the
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They were faced with the reality that they had to maintain the family farm themselves, as well as raise the children, while the husbands, sons and hired laborers were off at war. With their sons overseas, many farm women had to take on extra work. One Alberta mother of nine sons - all of them either in the army or away working in factories - drove the tractor, plowed the fields, put up hay, and hauled grain to elevators, along with tending her garden, raising chickens, pigs and turkeys, and canning hundreds of jars of fruits and vegetables. There was no uniform for the farmerettes, but the young women who volunteered their services learned to wear loose fitting dressings to accommodate the heavy labor involved in working the land and broad brimmed hats to protect against the sun. In 1918, 2,400 women served as farmerettes and assisted fruit farmers in the Niagara region.Many farm workers enlisted in the army, and if Canada was going to produce enough food, labourers had to be found. Farm work, promoted as a paying job, infact became a drain on the financial resources of many women the pay was usually $4 a week. Many men left their civilian jobs to fight for their country during the First World War. These jobs needed to be filled and women quickly stepped forward to meet the surging demand for workers in a greatly expanding Canadian wartime economy. Almost a million of women employed in different kind of jobs traditionally for male. Initially, there was a
The females worked as nurses and as manufacturers during the war they also had to work on farms to keep the crops going and take care of their families at the same time. When the men were in the trenches women had to keep the economy going that meant working the jobs men would have been doing. The motion after the war gave women more respect and started a new beginning for being a woman. During the war an “Income War Tax” was brought in to help with finances and debt, canadians were taxed on the income they made. Canadians whose income per year that was 6,000 or more were taxed between 2-25%.
World War II was a very important moment in Canada's history. There were a lot of causalities and also a lot of women and men that served in the armed services. There were about 42,000 casualties and about one million men and women that served in the armed services – add the statistics later in the essay. Overall, Canadians were known for their proud legacy and sacrifice. There were a lot of negatives and positives throughout WWII, but there were no turning points in Canada's attitude towards women.
Most importantly, during WWI, men would have to leave their homes to go into war while the women and children stayed home. Since most men left to go to war it had caused a problem revolving around the lack of workers for jobs. They decided to get women to do these jobs that men usually did. Some jobs the women of the Home front did were railway guards, ticket collectors, buses/train conductors, postal workers, police, firefighters, bank tellers, clerks, and especially munition factory workers. The women had responsibilities to do which gave them an opportunity to do things men usually did. After the Homefront it helped them to be treated as equals among the men because the woman showed that woman can do the jobs as good as men can. A woman named Vera Britain was a WWI woman on the Homefront who decided after the first year of WWI that her duty was serving for her country and then spent most of the war being a nurse in London. At the beginning of WWI, 570,000 women worked in Canada’s industry, after the years almost 1 million women were employed including many working in traditional male factory
In the years after the Second World War, people created uncountable numbers of historiographical research on various topics related to the war, such as military tactics in battles, individual groups of men during their time in service, and other such subjects. Not much surprise exists then, that women’s actions in World War II eventually would also gain interest and publication for the public, though it did not gain an undivided focus until the advent of women’s and social history grew momentum. Women, despite being half of the world’s population, doubtlessly had acted during the war years, although limited by social gender expectations of the period. As time passes from 1945, more interest in the lives of women and their effect on the war
How World War One Changed Canadian Women Women's contribution in World War I: why World War I changed the perspective on women. Many began to work when the men were sent off; they provided help from their own homes and supplies, women's suffrage, and their chance to be heard. All of these events contributed to a shift in society's perception of women in comparison to men in Canada. In 1914, women all over Canada began to join the workforce. Women had to step up and replace the men who were absent at war.
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
During World War 2, as the men were away and gone to fight the women in Canada were needed to support the war effort. Right after Canada's involvement in World War 2, the women took the initiative to start to work to help the fighters and their nation. Thousands of women were recruited in the armed forces, they were placed in support jobs they weren't allowed to work on the front lines. The women worked at a wide variety of jobs such as working in factories, on the airfield, and on farms.
This act granted the federal vote to the mothers, sisters, and wives of soldiers in the Armed Forces. By the end of the war, the right to vote in Federal Elections has been granted to almost all women in Canada over the age of 21. Due to the men fighting in the war, may jobs were open for women to fill. During this war, hundreds of women volunteered to work overseas as nurses or ambulance drivers. On the home front, the number of women employed in industry, in banks, and on police forces increased dramatically. Before 1914, these jobs would have been considered unsuitable for women. Without women, Canada’s war economy would have
Throughout this article the writer makes numerous references towards how the government of Canada attempted to do the right thing towards female workers during the war, but it also shows how the government’s heart wasn’t into it, thus just making offers to female workers just to appease their complaints for the time being until the war was over. The government was terrible on providing financial support to women whose husbands were away at war, offering only meager amounts of their pay each month, thus forcing more women into the workforce. The article goes on to further explain how during the war, women felt empowered by their circumstances and how once the war was over that women continued to fight towards equality and many refused to ‘go back to the kitchen’ after the war and further challenged the norms by continuing to work.
In the past, WWII and WWI, women were very dominant; they had to take care of their children, do all the chores and also had to cook the food. During WWII, women had to take place for the men (First world war.com). The war changed the life for all Canadian women. When men went to fight, women were called upon to fill their jobs, and this included many jobs that were previously thought of unsuitable for women. Women were called up for war work from March 1941(Women during World War II). The roles of the women were positively impacted by World War II, because they had the potential to re-enter the workforce, control the farms and join the military for the first time. Taking control of the military was tough, but women had shown that they could work together and handle the situation.
World War 1 lasted from August in 1914 until November 1918. By the end of the War there had been over a million deaths and the role of women in England had changed in many different ways. This essay will be evaluating to what extent WW1 was a turning point for women, through evaluating a variety of contributing sources for their usefulness and reliability. Traditionally, WW1 has been viewed as a positive turning point for women. This is because before WW1 women had mainly been resigned to the role of a housewife and were considered to be inferior. Women that did work were mainly working class, and worked in domestic service jobs. However, between 1914 and 1918 an estimated 2 million women replaced men in employment, which led to the passing of the People 's Registration Act in 1918. Which finally gave women the right to vote, something the suffragettes and suffragists had been campaigning for before the war, creating the impression that WW1 was a positive turning point. However, revisionist historians have been challenging this viewpoint. They argue that although women replaced men in the workplace, following the men 's return after the end of the war, 60,000 women had no choice but to return to their former jobs. Which suggests WW1 was not a positive turning point as this was a quarter of the female workforce.
Canadian women played important roles during World War II, both at home and in uniform, and not only gave their sons, husbands, brothers, and fathers to the war effort, but their time, energy, skills, and, for some, even their lives. The dramatically new role women assumed in the workforce forever changed gender roles in Canada. Women’s contribution to the workforce during World War Two, and their impact on both the war effort and the nation changed the roles of women both during the war and from then on. Women had a significant impact, filling jobs left empty by men who were overseas fighting for Europe’s freedom. The changes begun by these brave women continue today as women still strive for freedom and equality in a variety of roles and
It was uncertain to what extent did women’s participation in WWI changed the attitude and position of women in post-war Europe. One thing assured is that women’s wartime efforts were recognized in the years after WWI. In recognition of women’s support during the war, Canada, the United States, Britain, and a number of European countries extended suffrage to women. It seems that the turbulence and the despair of World War I had caused a re-examination of many of the treasured values in many western societies, including gender expectations.
The role of women in war has varied significantly throughout British History. During world War 1 womens role was constricted as many worked in the industry of textiles , knitting and munitions. This said they played a pivotal role in the war effort as 23.8 million in britain were all working. Voluntary and paid positions were taken up as unfamiliar roles to women, Nevertherless this was recquired in order to sustain the living of many families. World War 1 illustrated the capability of women in wokring across a variety of fields. However the effort from women was arguably taken out of context. Despite the rise in pay , women still earned less then men. They held the responisibility of working as a generation of men went to fight. This covered munitions, police patrols and even nursing.Women worked in horendous conditions and accidents were far too frequent in factories. A TNT plant killed 73 people and also leading to the destruction of nearby homes. Furthermore the collective effort was extraordinary , the workers of one factory in Gloucestershire within the four years filled over 17 million shells(BBC world war 1).Opportunities in civil service increased by 1,751 %.
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