Women in Post-WWII Canada
Ch. 7 & 12 (p. 171, 181, 306-308)
Women After WWII
Women expected to give wartime jobs
back to returning veterans
 Women encouraged to stay at home



Working women thought of as bad mothers
Some women couldn’t afford to stay
home
Made to feel guilty by society
 Paid less than men who did the same work

Women After WWII
The Women’s Movement

1960s: emergence of feminism
Belief that women should not be
discriminated against based on gender,
equal to men
 Many women frustrated by life as stay-athome mothers or having to work in lowpaying “women’s jobs”

 Waitresses,
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secretaries, sales clerks, etc.
Feminists protest, lobby government for
equality
The Women’s Movement
The Women’s Movement
The Women’s Movement

Royal Commission on the Status of
Women (1967)
To examine women’s status in Canadian
society
 Recommendations:

 Women
should have the right to choose to work
outside of their homes
 Easier access to subsidized day care
 Paid maternity leave
 Government should help end discrimination
against women
The Women’s Movement

Women’s groups lobby government to
act on Commission’s recommendations


National Action Committee on the Status of
Women (formed 1971)
1980s: more women able to succeed in
politics, medicine, law, engineering,
business (traditionally “male”)

Still instances of discrimination, but much
progress made
Rosemary Brown
Canadian Women

Media CD
Women in the Charter

1982: Women’s rights formalized in Charter of
Rights and Freedoms


Equality Rights (Section 15) forbids discrimination
based on gender, etc.
Allows for affirmative action programs


Employers required to hire certain numbers of women and
other groups traditionally discriminated against
Some controversy and debate


For: more women and minorities should be hired to make up
for low numbers in the workplace until equality reached
Against: reverse discrimination, taking place of more qualified
applicants, inequality in professions will fade away over time