Saturday is Remembrance Day, so this week I would like to dedicate ‘Vintage Photo Tuesday‘ to the Canadian Women on the WW2 Home Front. This post is also part of a previous one I did last year, that you can view HERE.
Out of a Canadian wartime population of more than 11 million, 261,000 women worked in Canadian war industries, 400,000 in the civilian workforce, 760,000 on farms and countless others in the home and in the volunteer sector.
Women’s enthusiasm for helping out on the home front was anticipated by Alice Sorby of Winnipeg who recalled in 1940, “In September 1939 when the thunder of war first crashed about our ears, the immediate reaction was an almost hysterical desire to do something….” (Source).
1940’s Vintage Photos of WW2 Canadian Women on the Home Front
Here are those brave women in action….
Female loggers (‘lumberjills’) in the Queen Charlotte Islands, BC. April 1943.
Actress Mary Pickford posing with a group of employees during her visit to the General Engineering Company (Canada) munitions factory, June 5, 1943.
FURTHER READING: The Bomb Girls Of Scarborough, Ontario Canada-As Seen Thru Vintage Photographs from the 1940s
Young woman working in the cabin of bomber being manufactured at the Fairchild plant in Montreal on May 19, 1941.
Three women in coveralls off to work in Edmonton in 1943.
A welder works on a Bren gun at John Inglis Company Ltd., 1942.
FURTHER READING: The Canadian “Rosie the Riveter”-Veronica Foster -The Bren Gun Girl
Women volunteers from Canadian Red Cross assemble packages for prisoners of war in 1942.
Starting in 1942, Vancouver’s Burrard Drydock hired more than 1,000 women. Here we see the union’s shop stewards eating in the shipyard canteen, ca. 1942 (Source).
1940s photo of workers producing primers.
“Start your Victory Garden today!” 1940s vintage propaganda sign from the ‘Health League of Canada’.
1942 photo of knitters working on the BC Telephone Co. War Effort Programme in Victoria. It was a group of ladies coming together to sit, talk, and knit scarves and socks for the men fighting overseas (Source).
“Come on Housewives SOCK HIM again!”. 1940s Canadian Fraser Valley Propaganda Poster for saving scrap from your home for the war effort.
While looking for photos to share, I came across a fantastic 10 min Canadian Documentary entitled ‘The Home Front‘ by Stanley Hawes (seen below).
This short documentary is part of the Canada Carries On series of morale-boosting wartime propaganda films. In Home Front, the various WWII-era social contributions of women are highlighted. From medicine to industrial labour to hospitality, education and domesticity, the service these women provided to their country is lauded. (Video Link)
Friends…If you are interested to read other posts I have created around the Canadian WW2 Home Front, the link is below.
FURTHER READNG: World War 2 Women’s Contributions & Homefront Posts
Liz
I absolutely LOVE this post. Even as a Canadian, it’s been hard for me to find information about Canada’s role in WWII, let alone the role Canadian women played, so reading this post and seeing the video you shared has been WONDERFUL!! I’m going to read your previous posts on the topic!
Thank you SO MUCH for this post!!
If you follow the links of some of the images I posted, you will find quite a few articles/websites on Canadian Women’s roles during WW2 (at home and abroad). Happy Reading and I’m glad you enjoyed the post 🙂
Wonderful post as always! I love the photo with Mary Pickford, all those ladies in white look so glamorous. xx
I’m reading a book about those ladies in white, called ‘Bomb Girls’ (not the TV show lol). It super interesting about how they worked in a factory making bombs and nobody was hurt. Amazing women.
So snazzy in their uniforms!
I agree!
I love looking at photos of women’s work in wartime. I like those three smart ladies off to work in Edmonton. I would have been part of that knitting group!
Even dressed in uniforms the women still look glamorous. I don’t know how they did it lol!