How did World War 2 change the role of women in Canada?

Answer 1

WWII greatly helped the role of women. Women, as soon as the war was started, were desperatley needed in the workforce after thousands of job vancancies opened up when the men went to war. Women were encouraged to leave their traditional house-wife roles of cooking, cleaning, and raising the children to work in munitions factories. Daycares were common at factories for the women's children to go to while they worked. These jobs eventually began increasing the women's pay; although this never equalled to the amount the men were making. But it was a start. By the end of the war, women were expected to go back to their traditional roles, but because of the jobs they took during the war they were becoming to be considered as EQUALS among the men.

Further, women joined all THREE services, Army, Navy, and Air Force, and were trained in many roles, to free up men for the fighting units. It was smart to put women in charge of running a office and typing orders, so men could be trained for combat trades. Women were also trained to be pilots, to ferry new bombers to Britain, across the Atlantic Ocean. That took guts.

Women showed that they COULD do most jobs and even the current Queen, Elizabeth, who was a young woman in 1941, was trained to drive an Ambulance, and also to FIX it. She did that job for 4 years, at no pay, to show the British people that the Royal family was doing "their bit" for the war effort.

Women also showed that they could learn new skills, and work safely and quickly, around a factory, or a shipyard. Women in Toronto drove all the buses and streetcars, and did it well.