The Girl of the New Day: Canadian Working Women in the 1920s

Abstract

In the 1920s many liberal Canadians hoped that a modernized capitalism with new technologies and new methods of bureaucratic organization would benefit women by employment and promotion practices based on merit rather than tradition. Inequality in the workplace however, did not disappear. The failure to make great gains has sometimes been obscured by fascination with female professionals. Yet such individuals constituted a small, atypical minority. The fate of most working women lay in the non-professional employments. This study is an exploratory survey of the situation facing that majority. It begins with a brief characterization of the workforce followed by a lengthier evaluation of some of the influences which determined job selection. Career choices were basically of two types. The first, familiar blue collar occupations, were found in personal service and manufacturing. The second, in large measure, white collar, originated at the heart of the modern industrial state in the transportation and communication, commerce and finance, and clerical fields which had only relatively recently welcomed significant numbers of women. Neither choice offered women equality. The study next investigates women's collective and individual reactions to a discriminatory work situation. More exploited than their white collar sisters, blue collar workers, notably those in manufacturing, exhibited higher, more visible levels of unrest. The concluding section reviews the minimum wage legislation which, ironically enough, confirmed how little had really changed for all the anticipation of better times. Dans les annees 20, plusieurs Canadiens a l'esprit liberal esperaient que l'avenement du capitalisme avec sa technologie avancee et sa bureaucratisation allait signifier pour les femmes de l'emploi et des promotions basees sur le merite plutot que la tradition. L'inegalite au travail n'a cependant pas disparu. La presence de professionnels de sexe feminin a pu quelques fois masquer la faiblesse des gains realises. Mais ces reussites ne constituent le lot que d'une minorite car la majorite des femmes occupent des emplois non-professionnels. L'article a pour objet de tracer un portrait preliminaire de cette majorite. Apres avoir determine brievement les caracteristiques de cette main d'oeuvre, l'auteur identifie quelques uns des facteurs qui ont pu influencer le choix des carrieres. Celles-ci se sont faites selon deux avenues: un premier groupe d'occupations, les cols bleus, se retrouvent dans le secteur manufacturier et des services personnels; un second groupe occupant des fonctions de cols blancs oeuvre dans des tâches au coeur de l'etat industriel moderne, le transport, les communications, le commerce, les finances et les tâches clericales qui ont accueilli relativement recemment un nombre significatif de femmes. Mais aucune de ces avenues n'offre l'egalite aux femmes. L'article analyse par la suite les reactions des femmes, individuelles et collectives, a la discrimination subie dans l'emploi. Encore plus exploitees que leurs consoeurs cols blancs, les travailleuses du secteur manufacturier manifestent entre autre un plus haut taux de chomage. En conclusion, l'auteur termine par une analyse de la legislation du salaire minimum qui, assez ironiquement, confirme que malgre l'espoir de jours meilleurs, peu de choses en fait ont change pour les femmes.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 19 citations exist upstream.