‘Irreconcilable Differences’?: The Experiences of Middle-Class Women Combining Marriage and Work in Post-War English Speaking Canada (1945-1960)

Abstract

Following the Second World War, middle-class married women in English speaking Canada became for the first time a significant proportion of the labour force. Nonetheless, society still encouraged them to take up their domestic roles as housewives and mothers. They were subjected to discriminatory government policy, justified by traditional gender norms supported by academic research and popular social commentators. As a result, their lives became increasingly divorced from the prescriptions that encouraged them to remain at home. The differences meant that their work, and its associated challenges, went unrecognized. Drawing on a broad range of sources, this thesis explores how and why middle class women – especially married ones- entered the workforce, the public’s reactions to their work, and how they negotiated the difference between prescriptions and their lives. It demonstrates that the 1950s were a watershed moment for women’s labour. Married women gained greater recognition of their place in the workforce, and obtained incremental changes to minimize discriminatory policy, practice, and attitudes. Accordingly, their efforts were foundational for the future women’s labour movements and Second Wave Feminist movement in the 1960s and 1970s.