Women's Roles in Canada During World War I and the Suffragist Movement
 
By Laura McCrackin

        During World War I, Canadian women began to shoulder a great deal of responsibility for the war effort.  Over 3000 received training with the Voluntary Aid Detachment, Red Cross, and St. John Ambulance, and served as nursing sisters in the war, 33 losing their lives and 200 receiving medals for their bravery.  Those that remained in Canada began taking over the roles of the men that had left to fight in the War, some because they felt they had to do their part in the war, and others because it appealed to their sense of adventure.  Some became farmerettes (farm workers),  harvesting crops and hoeing the earth for about $4 a week plus room and board. Others became munitions workers, making shells for the war.  These women worked long hours in poor conditions for a salary of around $9 a week.  These wages were often just barely enough to make ends meet, and all money earned was handed over to a woman's husband or mother.  The dramatic change in women's roles was not well-received by many men, who treated female co-workers with resentment. Yet women's involvement in the war effort undoubtedly helped Canada win the war.

          Despite women's contributions to the war, it was still in many ways a 'man's world'.  Many women felt it was only fair that they and men were given equal rights, since they were now doing men's jobs. Several Canadian women organized themselves into suffragist movements, trying to gain for themselves the right to vote.  Important figures in suffragist campaigns included Dorothy Davis from British Columbia, Margaret Gordon in Ontario, Emily Murphy and Alice Jamieson from Alberta, and Manitoba's Nellie McClung. Some suffragists went to extremes to gain the right to vote; some tied themselves to train tracks, and when arrested by police and jailed, went on hunger strikes.  One woman even threw herself in front of the king's horse at a race meeting in Ascot, killing herself to bring attention to her cause.

       The efforts of these women were not in vain; In 1916, women in Manitoba were given the right to vote.  Just months later, Saskatchewan and Alberta followed suit, and the following year, Ontario and British Columbia also granted suffrage to women. 

          In the federal election of 1917, the Wartimes Elections Act was passed, granting the right to vote to mothers, sisters, and wives of soldiers fighting in the war, as well as those who served as nursing sisters.  By the end of the war, all women over the age of 21 (except Aboriginals, Asians, and women of other racial minorities) were permitted to vote.  And by 1920, with the Dominion Elections Act, women could also run for parliament.  Although women were still considered inferior to men in some respects, Canadian suffragists during World War I helped Canada take the first steps towards the gender equality that exists today.

Top