Women in Canada 20's
Essay by kate.iln • April 8, 2017 • Essay • 601 Words (3 Pages) • 944 Views
Among the many problems our country is facing right now, women not being given the right to vote, the right to employment, and equal pay are some of the most crucial. The war definitely increases women’s political visibility, since “we were brought into the labour force as new jobs were created and men left their jobs to join the Canadian Armed Forces” (Conelly n.pag). We also partly got the right to vote in 1917, which then got all women to vote in 1922, except for Quebec, where women still struggle for their rights to vote. Even though our country has made a lot of improvements, women are still being dominated by men and society standards.
By 1917 there were 35 000 women employed in munitions factories where women’s wages were 50-80% of those paid men (Conelly n.pag).
My question is- Why do women who work equally as hard as men get paid 50% less than men? “At the end of the war, women were strongly encouraged to leave the workforce, and married women who were employed by the government were legislated out of it. By 1921, 65 % of all women workers were in domestic service and professional occupations such as nursing and teaching”.(Women in the 1920s n.pag).
Men fear that the cheap labour of women is going to undercut their wages, and that work would impair the feminist and high moral standards of women and distract them from their “true” calling as wives and mothers. Women are still expected to work only until they marry; this reflects the idealized structure of a society in which the man makes money and the woman stays at the kitchen table.
Yes, we were given the right to vote, but have you thought of the real reason why Robert Borden gave some women the right to vote? Because he wanted to win the election, and by giving women who had sons, husbands, and fathers fighting over the seas right to vote, he increased his own chances for winning. I don’t think he really thought that women should have equal rights as men, he just thought of how to get more votes. If not the election in 1917 women might’ve
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