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

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.