Second World War opened up jobs for women
With Remembrance Day approaching, we think about the women and men who served their country. During the Second World War, many women stepped up to do jobs that would have been traditionally done by men.
My mother, Helen Reeder, worked in the Department of Munitions and Supply in Ottawa, keeping the steel shipments moving. Later she worked at the Toronto Transportation Commission, as it was then known, as a cashier and bookkeeper. During the war, the TTC hired many women to replace the men who were overseas, to keep the buses and streetcars running to get the many factory workers to their jobs. In 1944, the TTC had hired 386 women as bus and streetcar drivers, and 256 as office workers.
In this excerpt of a letter she wrote to her fiancé in 1943, Helen describes applying for the job at the TTC.
Darling Harry,
Monday morning I went down to Selective Service for a position and there were about twenty ahead of me, imagine! They didn’t give me much encouragement and said they didn’t have many positions at the salary I had been getting in Ottawa. I got an open permit and went to see a few of Mr. Lauson’s [ her former boss’] friends but either the positions were taken or they were only paying $20 a week. Then I went to the Transportation Commission, there was a vacancy at their Bathurst Branch for a cashier and stenographer with a fair salary, but it entailed a bit of night work. I came home and thought about it, then went back the next morning and wrote an IQ and stenographic test, which wasn’t easy, but I must have passed, because they phoned and asked me if I wanted to start work Wednesday morning and I decided to take it.
I was on cash all day today and found it a bit nerve-wracking. About every month or six weeks we’ll be on one week of nights . . .
In her work, Helen gained independence and a decent salary, and in her spare time she enjoyed shopping, going to the movies, or visiting with friends. She continued working at the TTC until she married, as the TTC’s policy was that married women had to give up their jobs for the men returning from the war. However, she got a job at Aerofilms, a new company that produced movies from the air, using technology developed during the war.
Love in the Air: Second World War
the book I wrote about the over 600 letters my parents wrote, is available in the Peterborough Public Library, at Chapters Peterborough in the biography section, at www.friesenpress.com, and on Amazon. For more information, please visit www.joanneculley.com.
Red Green
Red Green (aka Steve Smith) will be visiting Chapters on Friday, November 10 at 7 p.m. to sign copies of his new book Woulda Coulda Shoulda Guide to Canadian Inventions, written in conjunction with David Smith. The book blends fact and fiction, offering details many of the more well-known Canadian inventions, such as basketball, the Canadarm, the Blackberry and more, sprinkled with Red Green’s wacky humour. Among others, he talks about Sir Sandford Fleming, who got the idea for standard time after missing a train in 1876. In his long-running television show, Red Green was famous for “taking things intended for one purpose and using them for something completely different,” often what creative inventors do, and for using duct tape, “the handyman’s secret weapon” when things didn’t turn out the way he expected. The book is published by Doubleday Canada, and sells for $29.95.
Mapmaker
Author Barbara Mitchell launchedhernewbookMapmaker: Philip Turnor in Rupert’s Land in the Age of Enlightenment at the Canadian Canoe Museum last Thursday. The book tells the story of Hudson Bay surveyor and mapmaker Philip Turnor, an ancestor of Mitchell. Along with Turnor’s explorations, Mitchell blends her own present-day quest for information about his life, and that of his Cree wife. Published by the University of Regina Press, the book sells for $39.95.