Status of Women After Ww Ii and How They Got Their Rights

Categories: Women's Rights

With the ending of the second world war, it brought so many changes in Canadian society, eased participation of women in the workforce was one of the most significant changes in Canadian social life. A quarter-century after the war, this was the period when women actually step out of the house to earn a living especially women with families in order to support their husbands financially as well as they also take of their families. Using the case studies from the ‘Fighting from home the second world war in Verdun, Quebec’ by Serge Marc Durflinger and from the history across the country, this paper will further discuss about women’s experience with the unions, changes in work patterns, challenges faced by women, women’s participation in strikes for the rights, etc as well as the situations of the country after the war in terms of working class, labour, gender, immigrants, labour moments, status of women in society etc.

Before that, the only role of a married woman was just to take care of her family and the upbringing of their children.

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After the war, women not only just step out for work but their participation in labour-force increased over the time period. Between the time period of 1941- 1971, not only the participation of women in labour increased but there was also a gradual increase in the ratio of women to men. According to Sangster, J.( P.18), in 1941 women’s labour-force participation rate was 20 percent, by 1961 it was almost 30 percent, and by 1971 it stood near 40 percent.

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There is no doubt that women experienced many drops in number two after the second world war women, especially with children, were forced to leave the workforce. Now, the government started giving preference to males in the civil services in order to ban females from the workplace government introduced many policies like start biting funds for child care, new policies regarding tax, even started public relation campaign in order to hire males only. Women’s high labour-force participation rate of 33 per cent in 1943 dropped to 25 percent by 1946, but this shift proved to be short-term. By 1960 women’s participation rate again reached post-war levels; and the decades of greatest growth, the 1960s and 1970s, were yet to come. S.J. (p.18). The state put many restrictions on the entry of women in some certain professions and government jobs. Working of married women outside was not less than a revolution. Even there were many cases like women received less pay than men even for the same piece of work.

Immigrants workers played an important role in order to maintain balance in the economy, but they also not able to get equal rights in the beginning. One only goal of the state was to meet labour market needs, in order to meet the goals approximately two million immigrants were welcomed by Canada in the years between 1946 and 1961 from across the globe and they were haphazardly distributed across the country. Most were working in the metropolitan cities like Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto etc. and on the other hand Canadian born were working in the small towns, this policy is just to attract more and more immigrants. Those who were immigrated from the English speaking countries have more employment opportunities and were treated almost the same as the Canadian, but non- English speakers were not able to get equal treatment at the workplaces and were most likely engaged in manufacturing, construction, factory, service and domestic jobs.

After war immigration was very remarkable because most of the Europeans choose to migrate in Canada in order to get relief from the after war damage in the country, this not only helped Canada in improving economically but also enriched in culturally, socially as well as politically in many ways. Not only Europeans were entered but also the Asian were welcomed by Canada in large number including India and China and also from the other psrts of the world like Africa which were also migrated in significant number. After that, the Government of Canada introduced many other policies to invite more and more immigrants and inviting spounse was one of them. Canada also started inviting refugees but also have tight control over their selection.

During the period of the cold war, relation between the western countries and europeans countries were not good. Many argues that Canada experience less effect than the united states, but actually affected the Canada in many ways. New immigrants were not satisfied to live under the control of French law and the New Catholic Church. They want their full privileges over the things. As French were having the majority over the Canada so, that is why Britishers experienced a dilemma as individual French laws were not working properly for both English and French. Then they divided the society between the two main classes that were: Upper Canada for English and Lower Canada for French and assigned their own individual assembly to them in order to take decisions but major decisions were still under the control of the British. It was not less than a compromise over the problem but later it was proven to be the best move as it helped to resolve the conflicts between English and French. It helps to convert society from commercial to an industrial economy which later became a great reason in transmitting the power structure of the country.

Period of post world war brought many significant changes in the workplace environment. Introduction of technology impacted labourers in many ways. Most youngsters decided to pursue higher education and staying the school for a long time on the other hand women were working outside and they were fighting to get their basic rights like equal wages, better working conditions and maternity rights, etc. advancement in public service sector was the greatest development of the time. There were many disputes between the employers and the workers regarding their demands, most of the times they end up with agreements and compromises but still, some serious demands lead to strikes and thus workers formed the unions at their own basis in order to get their rights. These unions were responsible for raising the needs and demands of the workers, not all unions were that strong but even there were some unions which even able to sue the corporations which were not working as per their demands and for that these unions get help from the law body of the country and fight their cases in the court.

For example, in 1947 the Labour Act was passed in Alberta which was responsible for resolving the disputes between the workers and employers, made many unions for the rights of the workers and tried their best till maximum workers signed for the strikes, boycott some employers, etc. Present, in Alberta this law reacquired a new face of Labour Relation Act. after that, it turned to Labour Relation Code in 1988.

Women’s situation was very critical in the factories, there was a case of Toronto when a woman gave birth to a child and she was regular at works two days before, after two weeks she was fired over the phone for not coming to the work regularly. This case was hilarious, and the situation of woman can be imagined very easily. After this, the manager admitted that she was a good worker no doubt, but her only crime was that she was not regular to the work and she was even ‘unmarried mother’. The lower class workers have worse condition in society. Even the work very hard but still they experience violence and poverty. The violence and poverty they experienced cannot be separated from their history.

Class, gender, race, were the main categories under which society analysis people. Informed partly by social-science studies of the time, however conjointly by prevailing philosophic pictures of the white, conservative family, politicians and policymakers typically assumed a male as an owner of the family as each the norm and also the ideal. Girls were seen as adjuvant employees who worked after they were young and single or brought in ‘extra’ cash as handicraft goods. Women were just viewed as a source of money till they were young and single, and after marriage, they have to stay at home take care of the family and responsible for the upbringing of the children. Moreover, the idea that nuclearization merely created northern breed and Indian women’s lives easier unheeded the ways that during which the loss of their valued, virtuoso work on fur pelts or in fishing might need ‘other than economic’ repercussions for women’s sense of import and well-being. Culture and work, according to the generation of labour historians, were dynamically interconnected; spatial and material changes in work were negotiated by employees with the cultural resources at hand, however, economic upheaval would possibly still be huge damage causing measure.

Royal Commission on the Status of Women ( Canadian Royal Commission) came in power in order to support the rights of the women, in order to confirm that women were getting equal opportunities as men in the society. Lester B. Pearson formed the Royal Commission on the Status of Women. It was formed to ensure equality for women in society and it was the first commission that is ‘chaired by women’. The commission was responsible for raising issues regarding ‘unfairness’ with women like education, wages, working conditions, childbirth, violence and exploitation faced at home and work, etc. It was mainly to decrease the level of discrimination faced by women in the society including at home as well as workplace. After that many other issues were also raised by the commission like- the right to abortion and access over birth control, paid for maternity leave, etc. even it was argued by Azillde Lapierre Marchand women work as homemakers and workers for their family and that is unpaid which is totally neglected and undervalued by the society.

References

  1. Sangster, J. (2010). Transforming Labour : Women and Work in Post-war Canada. Toronto [Ont.]: University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.myucwest.ca/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=682687&site=eds-live
  2. McCallum, M. J. L. (2014). Indigenous Women, Work, and History : 1940-1980. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.myucwest.ca/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=861345&site=eds-live
  3. Smith, H. E., & Wakewich, P. (2012). Regulating Body Boundaries and Health during the Second World War: Nationalist Discourse, Media Representations and the Experiences of Canadian Women War Workers. Gender & History, 24(1), 56–73. https://doi-org.ezproxy.myucwest.ca/10.1111/j.1468-0424.2011.01668.x
  4. Hankivsky, O., Varcoe, C., & Morrow, M. (2007). Women’s Health in Canada : Critical Perspectives on Theory and Policy. Toronto [Ont.]: University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.myucwest.ca/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=682342&site=eds-live
  5. Serge Marc Durflinger, Fighting From Home: The Second World War in Verdun, Quebec.
  6. Epp, M. (2008). Mennonite Women in Canada : A History. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.myucwest.ca/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=497409&site=eds-live
  7. COOPER, C. (2016). Women and Canada: Struggles, Successes and a Century of Suffrage. (Women and Canada: Struggles, Successes and a Century of Suffrage.). Canadian Issues / Thèmes Canadiens, 7. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.myucwest.ca/login.aspx?direct=true&db=p3h&AN=121613131&site=eds-live
  8. Collier, C. (2014). Not Quite the Death of Organized Feminism in Canada: Understanding the Demise of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women. Canadian Political Science Review, 8(2), 17. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.myucwest.ca/login.aspx?direct=true&db=p3h&AN=100942979&site=eds-live
Updated: May 30, 2022
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Status of Women After Ww Ii and How They Got Their Rights. (2022, May 30). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/status-of-women-after-ww-ii-and-how-they-got-their-rights-essay

Status of Women After Ww Ii and How They Got Their Rights essay
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