Home · War & Conflict · Second World War · On Every Front: Canadian Women in the Second World War
Topic spans: 1939 - 1945
On Every Front: Canadian Women in the Second World War
Canadian women were not allowed to fight during the Second World War but they did just about everything else. Tens of thousands joined the women's divisions of the Armed Forces. Hundreds of thousands stepped into jobs in wartime industry. At home and abroad they were welders and pilots, nurses and clerks, the homemakers that kept families together, protecting the home front and the Canadian way of life. These are some of their stories.
Photo of female workers courtesy of NFB / Library and Archives Canada.
7 television clips
15 radio clips
'I'm the proudest girl in the world!'
Broadcast Date: Nov. 7, 1982
1941: For the first time in Canadian history the call goes out for women to enlist in women's divisions of the Army, Navy and Air Force. Recruiting films make training bases look like holiday camps and highlight the newfound glamour of a woman in uniform. By the thousands women answer the call. They leave behind roles as homemakers or department store clerks to become "Wrens," "CWACs" and "WDs."'I'm the proudest girl in the world!'
• Canadian women had a long history of organizing for home defence, but had not previously been allowed in the armed forces except as nurses. As the bureaucracy of the Allied war machine grew, women were needed for clerical and other jobs in order to release men for combat. In 1941 the Canadian Women's Army Corps (CWACs) and the Royal Canadian Air Force (Women's Division) were formed. In 1942 the Royal Canadian Naval Women's Service (Wrens) was formed.• As in the First World War, women were not allowed in combat roles. They were given clerical, administrative, communications and support jobs.
• The Armed Forces recruited both single and married women, though they sometimes avoided young single women to avoid "moral issues." By the end of the war 45,423 women had enlisted.
• All three women's services were disbanded in 1946. Women were again recruited in the 1950s as the forces expanded during the Cold War.
• The Proudest Girl in the World was a two-minute Hollywood-style musical produced by the National Film Board of Canada to encourage women to enlist. It was directed by Canadian Julian Roffman.
• Roffman went on to write, direct and produce B-movie horror and crime flicks such as The Bloody Brood, The Mask (a.k.a. Eyes of Hell), The Pyx (a.k.a. The Hooker Cult Murders) and The Glove (a.k.a. The Lethal Terminator).
'I'm the proudest girl in the world!'
Medium: Television
Program: Women at War
Broadcast Date: Nov. 7, 1982
Guest(s): Molly Bobak, Georgina Keddell
Interviewer: George Robertson
Narrator: Pat Patterson
Duration: 5:04
Photo: J. Robert Baylor / National Geographic
Last updated:
July 23, 2009
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22 clips in this topic . page
Radio
25:28
May 7, 1945
Victory flags are flying high, church bells are ringing, and people are celebrating in the streets. It's May 7, 1945, and the Allies have secured victory in Europe.
Radio
3:27
Dec. 30, 1941
Winston Churchill delivers an electrifying address to the Canadian Parliament during the Second World War.
Topic from Radio-Canada
For Teachers - Educational activities
Canadian Culture Online Program partner sites
second world war · women · wwii · industry · wrens · cwacs · rcaf women's division · wds · military
'I'm the proudest girl in the world!'.
The CBC Digital Archives Website.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Last updated: July 23, 2009.
[Page consulted on Feb. 9, 2010.]