Gender Equality In Canada

Women have not always been equal members of Canadian society. What presented change upon Canada was largely given credit to many of the events that occurred during the recent past. The two World Wars were two major events that played major roles in the change of a woman’s social status. World War One in particular, ignited the fire that established the foundation for women to pressure the government for gender equality, affecting the movement even more so than World War Two. A large portion of the males in Canada had gone off to fight in Europe, leaving many employment opportunities for the women to take. As time progressed, events such as the Conscription crisis, ultimately led to suffrage for women. While World War Two was a large phase of …show more content…
This new life had provided many of them with employment, money, and suffrage. However it was not long before men had returned from the fight and took back the jobs that they had previously left. As women had not yet been considered equal to men, they had been pushed back into unemployment. They were expected to return back to their old life of being mothers and housewives. Had they not done the jobs just as well as the men had done them? This question had crossed the minds of many of the unemployed women. Many of the women would have much rather retained their jobs as they possessed more rights and were free to do whatever they wished. The press for gender equality was stronger than ever at this point. These thoughts that surged through the minds of the female population may have been a contributing factor that led to the legendary Persons Case which granted females the right to be appointed to …show more content…
Much like during the first world war, men were sent overseas to fight the Germans, and women took over their jobs. However women desired to help their country in uniform, and eventually the government allowed women to join the Air Force in 1941 and the Navy in July 1942. The initial pay rate for working women was around two-thirds the pay of men. However, the National Council of Women led a public protest, and within a year, women had increased their pay to eighty percent of that for men. Women were also given the right to fight alongside men, unlike in World War One. In June 1943, journalist Lotta Dempsey hailed the grand launching of a female built ship and hailed the event as symbolizing “the great and final movement of women into industry…. on a complete equality with men.”. Women’s gained equal rights shortly after the second World War, but many of the changing factors of World War Two existed in the World War One; World War Two had only “built upon” the foundation that the world war previous to it had set