1. CANADIAN WOMEN IN
WWI
HOW THE WAR AFFECTED THEIR POSITION IN
CANADIAN SOCIETY
Adapted from www.scheuernet.com/mod/resource/view.php?id=98

2. DO NOT ENTER
Women = too frail, emotional, should stay at home, support from the
home front, be nurses + ambulance drivers.
Aboriginal peoples, Chinese, Japanese, East Indian, Blacks = not real
Canadians, racist attitudes, yet did not prevent them from serving their
nation!
Enemy aliens = Germans, Italian, Austrian-Hungarians.

3. W E W I L L S E RV E ! O N E WAY
O R A N OTH E R !
This did not prevent them from serving Canada.

4. C A N A D I A N WO M E N
OV E R S E A S
Over 1,000 Canadian women were employed by the
Royal Air Force (RAF) as truck drivers, mechanics
and ambulance drivers.
Over 2,000 women enlisted in the Canadian Armed
Forces as nurses.

5. C A N A D I A N WO M E N ’ S
PA R T I C I PA T I O N
ON THE HOME FRONT
In 1915, with men fighting overseas, there was a
shortage of labour/workers.
So 30,000 women gained employment in machine
shops, metal factories, and shipyards.
• They worked in factories making guns, bullets, bombs uniforms,
ships, tanks and planes; they were also employed as welders, fitters,
machinists, riveters and numerous other jobs that, before the war,
were considered men's jobs.

8. WE CAN DO IT!
Women working proved that they could indeed do a
“man’s job.”
There was much opposition of women moving into the
public sphere of work especially from the labour unions
= they were against hiring women.
• If they did employ women they were paid 50% of a man’s wage.

10. WO M E N ’ S PA I D
I N VO LV E M E N T
On top of being involved in the world of paid
employment, women also held positions in:
• Social work
• Journalism
• Public health

11. WOMEN’S SUCCESSES
There were many successes including:
• The Alberta’s Married Women Relief Act
(Emily Murphy) which permitted widows to a
portion of her deceased husband’s estate.
• Unions were organized to improve working
conditions in the factories (Helena Gutteridge)

13. TIME WELL SPENT
Women also volunteered for the Red Cross and
organized committees to send food and letters overseas.
Thousands of Canadian women spent their time
raising money for the war effort (concerts, tag
days, teas, card parties, lectures, and bazaars).

14. TIME WELL SPENT
The women who couldn't work in factories or other
jobs spent much of their time knitting heavy
scarves, balaclavas and socks to be sent to the soldiers
who were fighting overseas.
They also made pillows, sheets, and flannel shirts for
the soldiers.

16. THE VOTE!
On September 20, 1917, women whose husbands, sons
and brothers served in the war were given the right to
vote = Military Service Act/War-time Elections Act.
All women in Canada, thanks to the Suffragists,
received enfranchisement (the right to vote) federally in
1918.

18. I N VA L UA B L E
C O N T R I BU T I O N S
Women on the home front were as valuable to the war
effort as soldiers because they kept the Canadian economy
going and took over men's jobs so the men could enlist to
fight.