Some Millennial Reflections on the State of Canadian Labour History

Morton, Desmond

doi:10.2307/25149095

“…In this field, Desmond Morton (2000) cited the expansion of women's history in general as the source of major advances in labour and working-class history during the late 20 th century (32). 12 In his overview of scholarship on women's labour history in Canada, Bryan Palmer (2010) described the emergence of women as a force in Canadian labour history in terms of two paradigms.…”

Section: Filling In the Gapsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Women in the Margins: Media Representations of Women's Labour in the Canadian Press, 1935-1945

Moniz¹

2021

Preprint

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During the Second World War, women’s participation in Canada’s ‘total war’ effort meant increased domestic responsibilities, volunteering, enlisting in the armed forces, and joining the civilian workforce. Women’s labour force participation more than doubled throughout the war, with more women working alongside and in place of men than ever before. This created a situation that could challenge the traditional sexual division of labour, and so women’s labour became a subject for discussion in the public sphere. Through a comparative content analysis of the commercial and alternative (labour) press, this study examines representations of women’s labour in wartime in the context of women’s mobilization into the war effort through to subsequent demobilization near war’s end. It first considers the theoretical and methodological issues involved in the historical study of news media and women and then offers original empirical research to demonstrate that when women’s labour did emerge as a subject in the Canadian press, gender, not labour, was prioritized in the news. This was symbolically and systematically leveraged both within and across the commercial and alternative press, which reinforces stereotypical values about women and their labour and upheld the patriarchal status quo. In the end, while there were surface-level changes to the nature of women’s paid labour during the war, the structures of female subordination and exploitation remained unchallenged despite women’s massive mobilization into the workforce. By setting media representations against the wartime realities of women’s labour told through archival records and secondary literature, this dissertation argues that news media generally presented a ‘history’ of women’s labour that did not reflect the lived reality or the political economic and social significance of women’s labouring lives. This not only coloured how women’s labour was represented in the news, but it can also shape the history that scholars construct from the newspaper. In contributing to feminist media and media history scholarship, this dissertation offers empirical evidence that challenges dominant ways of thinking about women’s history in terms of the domestic sphere and furthers an understanding of women’s wage labour as a provocation to such historical public-private divisions. This may, in turn, inspire histories that more fully and equitably capture women’s experiences.

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“…12 For an overview of the historiography of women's labour in Canada, see Iacovetta 2007;Morton 2000;Palmer 2010, p 210-215;Sangster 2000Sangster , 2010a Individual studies include Bradbury 1993;Copp 1974;Kealey 1979Kealey , 1998Fox 1980;Bradbury 1993;Luxton 1980;Sangster 1989. For an overview of scholarship within this paradigm, including some of these specific studies, see Palmer 2010, p 210-212.…”

Section: Filling In the Gapsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Women in the Margins: Media Representations of Women's Labour in the Canadian Press, 1935-1945

Moniz¹

2021

Preprint

0

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

During the Second World War, women’s participation in Canada’s ‘total war’ effort meant increased domestic responsibilities, volunteering, enlisting in the armed forces, and joining the civilian workforce. Women’s labour force participation more than doubled throughout the war, with more women working alongside and in place of men than ever before. This created a situation that could challenge the traditional sexual division of labour, and so women’s labour became a subject for discussion in the public sphere. Through a comparative content analysis of the commercial and alternative (labour) press, this study examines representations of women’s labour in wartime in the context of women’s mobilization into the war effort through to subsequent demobilization near war’s end. It first considers the theoretical and methodological issues involved in the historical study of news media and women and then offers original empirical research to demonstrate that when women’s labour did emerge as a subject in the Canadian press, gender, not labour, was prioritized in the news. This was symbolically and systematically leveraged both within and across the commercial and alternative press, which reinforces stereotypical values about women and their labour and upheld the patriarchal status quo. In the end, while there were surface-level changes to the nature of women’s paid labour during the war, the structures of female subordination and exploitation remained unchallenged despite women’s massive mobilization into the workforce. By setting media representations against the wartime realities of women’s labour told through archival records and secondary literature, this dissertation argues that news media generally presented a ‘history’ of women’s labour that did not reflect the lived reality or the political economic and social significance of women’s labouring lives. This not only coloured how women’s labour was represented in the news, but it can also shape the history that scholars construct from the newspaper. In contributing to feminist media and media history scholarship, this dissertation offers empirical evidence that challenges dominant ways of thinking about women’s history in terms of the domestic sphere and furthers an understanding of women’s wage labour as a provocation to such historical public-private divisions. This may, in turn, inspire histories that more fully and equitably capture women’s experiences.

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“…Most of the later social historians agree that industrial change also ushered in industrial conflict in Ontario and that the working class was small but robust, strident, and demanding change at certain times while remaining fairly mild at other times. Morton (2000) suggests that the 1880s was the decade of the greatest industrial change as well as the greatest clashes. Kealey (1981) calls this decade that of the ''Knights of Labour,'' after the extraordinary working-class organization that was dedicated to a more egalitarian social order and opposed the exploitation of labor by providing an institutional rallying point for all workers.…”

Section: Labor Movements and The Leisure Activities Of The Working Classmentioning

confidence: 99%

Religious Discourse in Nineteenth-century Ontario

Kassam

¹

2014

Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses

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Max Weber’s ethos of work was not an integral part of the pre-industrial culture of Ontario. It had to be inculcated to encourage the formation of a culture conducive to the industrial era. This article examines the formative role of religious discourse in fostering just such a work ethic by considering sermons, diaries, manuscripts, and other publications preserved in the archives of Anglican, Presbyterian, and United (Methodist) churches. It also analyzes denominational literature, which played an important role in shaping the popular culture in an industrializing Ontario (1885–1910). Alternative voices, which challenged the nascent ethos of industrialization, are also examined. This article finds that values promoting an emerging industrial order were prominent in sermons of the era, which often dealt with issues of social control, justification of social inequities, and the development of an appropriate work ethic.

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Some Millennial Reflections on the State of Canadian Labour History

Cited by 5 publications

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Women in the Margins: Media Representations of Women's Labour in the Canadian Press, 1935-1945

Women in the Margins: Media Representations of Women's Labour in the Canadian Press, 1935-1945

Women in the Margins: Media Representations of Women's Labour in the Canadian Press, 1935-1945

Religious Discourse in Nineteenth-century Ontario

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