This was their generation.

Women In the Forces

         Many Women in WWII joined the Canadian forces to stand in the stead of men who were moved from desk jobs into combat positions, and otherwise just to provide more fuel for the war driven fire as workers. Women took jobs as clerks, cooks, writers, drivers, mechanics, and many other positions while in the Canadian forces. Forces such as the Canadian Women's Army Corps (CWAC), Women's Royal Canadian Naval Service (WRCNS, or WRENS), and the Royal Canadian Air Force Women's Division (RCAF WD). Gender Roles changed, Women were in the forces on a mass scale for the first time.

The Working Woman

         During the war the amount of people needed to support the war effort was overwhelming. Men were joining up and their jobs lay by the wayside. Industry was booming because of the war, but there were not many people to help support it. The absence of men on the home front opened up far too many jobs for no one to take notice. Women were needed to keep industry running. Factory jobs, mechanical jobs, and service jobs. Dirty jobs, unlike most jobs women would have ever held before the war, but they needed to be done. So women rolled up their sleeves, cut their hair and began working. The need for woman in industrial jobs brought a new found pride and idealism to the cultural forefront, you were not supporting the allies in winning the war unless you were doing something physically. Young woman all over the country (as well as in other countries all over the world) began working to support the cause. Posters and advertisements supported the fact that women were needed to help drive the war effort, and they encouraged women both young and old to go to work. Women's attitudes as well as the culturally accepted norm that feminine and privileged women did not work changed to one which displayed beautiful and powerful women supporting industry.