Women in Post-WWII Canada Ch. 7 & 12 (p. 171, 181, 306-308)

Women After WWII

Women After WWII Women expected to give wartime jobs back to returning veterans Women encouraged to stay at home Working women thought of as bad mothers Some women couldn’t afford to stay home Made to feel guilty by society Paid less than men who did the same work

Women in the 1950s

Some progress: 1950s Between 1951 – 1959 the federal government, and a number of provinces, pass equal pay legislation. Society is not quick to follow, still in the mindset of the “nuclear family”

Betty Friedan (1921-2006) The Feminine Mystique (1963) “The Problem That Has No Name”: unhappiness despite gains of the women’s rights movement Argues that traditional gender roles stifle women’s development Treats gender roles as inherently dehumanizing

But on an April morning in 1959, I heard a mother of four, having coffee with four other mothers in a suburban development fifteen miles from New York, say in a tone of quiet desperation, "the problem." And the others knew, without words, that she was not talking about a problem with her husband, or her children, or her home. Suddenly they realized they all shared the same problem, the problem that has no name. They began, hesitantly, to talk about it. Later, after they had picked up their children at nursery school and taken them home to nap, two of the women cried, in sheer relief, just to know they were not alone. - The Feminine Mystique It is easy to see the concrete details that trap the suburban housewife, the continual demands on her time. But the chains that bind her in her trap are chains in her own mind and spirit. They are chains made up of mistaken ideas and misinterpreted facts, of incomplete truths and unreal choices. They are not easily seen and not easily shaken off. How can any woman see the whole truth within the bounds of her own life? How can she believe that voice inside herself, when it denies the conventional, accepted truths by which she has been living? And yet the women I have talked to, who are finally listening to that inner voice, seem in some incredible way to be groping through to a truth that has defied the experts.

The Women’s Movement

The Women’s Movement 1960s: emergence of feminism Belief that women should not be discriminated against based on gender, equal to men Many women frustrated by life as stay-at-home mothers or having to work in low-paying “women’s jobs” Waitresses, secretaries, sales clerks, etc. Feminists protest, lobby government for equality

The Women’s Movement

The Women’s Movement Royal Commission on the Status of Women (1967) To examine women’s status in Canadian society Recommendations: Women should have the right to choose to work outside of their homes Easier access to subsidized day care Paid maternity leave Government should help end discrimination against women

The Women’s Movement Women’s groups lobby government to act on Commission’s recommendations National Action Committee on the Status of Women (formed 1971) 1980s: more women able to succeed in politics, medicine, law, engineering, business (traditionally “male”) Still instances of discrimination, but much progress made

Rosemary Brown

Rosemary Brown Born in Jamaica, but later lived in Vancouver Held a provincial seat in the BC Legislature with the NDP Trailblazer for women and minority groups in Canada

Women in the Charter 1982: Women’s rights formalized in Charter of Rights and Freedoms Equality Rights (Section 15) forbids discrimination based on gender, etc. Allows for affirmative action programs Employers required to hire certain numbers of women and other groups traditionally discriminated against Some controversy and debate For: more women and minorities should be hired to make up for low numbers in the workplace until equality reached Against: reverse discrimination, taking place of more qualified applicants, inequality in professions will fade away over time