Abstract
Women played a crucial role during World War II in North America. For the first time, Canadian women were allowed to enlist and many of them joined the Women's division of the RCAF, the Women's Royal Canadian naval Service or the Canadian Women's Division in the Army" (the CWACS). Though they could not officially fight in front line, they showed bravery. In fact all the women were expected to do much more than just cooking and housework. The country's economy relied on them. In 1939, 63 800 women were in the work force, and in 1944 they were more than 1 077,000. They seemed to be more equal to men than they had ever been before. However the average Canadian woman's condition was far from being perfect and they had to face many hardships.
When the war broke out, Canada was not out of the" Depression era" yet. In 1940, out of a population of 11 million inhabitants, approximately 900,000 workers were unemployed, and only 20% of them were women. In fact, unemployment stood at almost ten percent of the labor force . Many families were suffering from that situation. By 1941 Canada had to face a manpower shortage. There were not enough workers as many men had enlisted and to remedy this lack, women were asked to participate in the war effort. They were regarded as being a large labor reserve . First, single women were encouraged to get a full time job. On September 8, 1942, all the women aged between twenty and twenty-four were required to register. However married women with children were at first not encouraged to work.
