Bankers and bomb makers, gender ideology and women's paid work in banking and munitions during the First World War in Canada

by Street, Kori

During the First World War. some Canadian wornen found themselves in new and unfarniliar environments, doingjobs apparently unavaiiabie to hem before the war. Many of those women were successful in the new opportunities available to them. The focus of this study is twofold. First. it examines the scope and the nature of women's work in two industries, banking and munitions. dunng the war. This is an important step because we still know very little about women's experience of the war. Understanding how many women worked and in what capacity is essential to undeistanding the nuances of women's wartime experience. Women who worked in banking and munitions wen not a homogeneous group. The composition of the wartime workforce is also analysecl. The wu's impact on wage rates for women is also examined. Second. the study focuses on the nature of the impact of wartime participation on gender iricology. In pariicular, the study seeks to detemine if gender ideology was affected by women's expanded opportunities in masculine occupations during the wa.. Ofien, the historiography regarding women and war is characterised by a binary discourse that seeks to determine whether on not wars liberate women. Rather than engage in that debate, this study attempts to avoid it as much as possible. Women's experience of the war in these two industries was complex. The study Abstract List of Tables List of Figures