Canada Remembers

Mrs. A Mackay Operating a Riveting Gun at Pictou Shipyards Ltd

Photographer unknown, Pictou, NS, January 1943

I have an affinity for Canadian women who worked throughout The Great War and The Second World War. I can't conceal my unabashed adoration for their work ethic, their fearlessness, and their dedication to the war efforts at large. During those crucial years of the twentieth-century, women across the nation were called upon to fill the holes left in the workforce after recruitment campaigns plucked young men from Canadian soil. These same women entered a world that appreciated their skills during the crisis and heralded them as the veritable angels of the home front for their personal sacrifice and focus.

And yet, I feel as though these same women are erased from the Remembrance Day ceremonies staged throughout Canada each year.

I understand and honour the vital position men played as foot soldiers, naval officers, and air force men and I respect the work men carried out on the home front as well. I would be a hypocrite to think otherwise. All of my grandfathers were involved in various aspects during the Second World War: my maternal grandfather fought in the Italian campaign and was involved with the liberation of Holland; my step-grandfather was a teenager in Poland during the Nazi invasion, yet he managed to escape and fight with the British RAF; and my paternal grandfather was still living in a Canadian orphanage at that time and cared for a large number of boys who had lost their parents.

But I still find myself unsettled by the thought of so many talented and courageous women being ignored on November 11th.

What of the women like my paternal grandmother, only a schoolgirl when WWII broke, who helped with various clothing and rubber drives and even involved herself with special projects including the infamous "knit a scarf/mitts for a soldier"?

And what of my maternal grandmother who worked as a riveter and welder in one of Canada's munitions factories, a woman who entered her young adulthood with a sense of freedom unknown to her own mother's generation?

I am a historian at heart and these are the personal stories I work to remember.

I found an excellent website for readers out there who are interested in The Second World War and the stories told from all fronts. The National Film Board of Canada has access to an in-depth collection of archival footage and photos from various Canadian perspectives in regards to WWII.

Check out The Home Front section to find videos documenting the "Rosies of the North" and a wide variety of propaganda pieces and recruitment media targeting female audiences at the height of the 1940s. It's a reminder of the vast effort women poured into the war years and of the equal sacrifices made abroad and at home.

Lest we forget.