‘T the day has ar- -hat all of us have so patiently, the ‘ve worked so hard Qos: the day when Breet the mothers, -s and sweethearts of tl men and boys who Ur marched away to stant shores so that B, -Ganada might live | .s in peace and secur- y has come and with be she world over gave + at last the mass at an end and once fan turn our thoughts fon the ways of peace. * ously with the proc- eet peace, came the arning of mass lay- : industries, and cancellation of 3 and already our | / faced with the prob- employment and re- Fog standards. The “lem of xeconversion ‘itation now. confronts - of the questions fre- ing asked is “What men going to do now, return to the home, - pursuits, restaurant / ng and teaching pro- # >? This question is ; ie of the major. prob- ; vill have to be solved / nversion plan. - the war © itself has brought © a change in the whole > our Canadian woman, status, her ability to elf to new and haz- -s of living and above aonstration of ability _- jobs that had hither- » erved “for men only.” jan women helped to ; and aeroplanes and ‘ools and munitions so ; :o bring about victory. filled many important » sential civilian occupa- -*-ge numbers of women a. three branches of the vices thereby releas- - rs of the armed forces F service. © 1, 1945, the total fe- & oopulation in Canada, sof age and over was E to be 4,382,000. Of 4 estimated 1,077,000 _ the armed services or © employed in industries n*agyrieulture. At that 000 women’ were em- war industry and 31,- at the war is over, will “men who left their 1d the other restricted ch were open to women |x days in order to. enter | us industries necessary joroduction, be willing to _ these conditions? Ac- Eo the women themselves 1 be some who may want >, but the majority of ive no desire to return ear conditions of employ- -d restriction. They wish ‘Aue to work at employ- ey like and have been for, and, which is vitally at, to work for wages l give them a_ decent ‘i of living. sa little alarming to ‘© opening remarks of a soadcast delivered by Mrs aton, Associate Director tional Selective Service, rs ADVOCATE — PAGE E Women in the Peace a - and also head of the women’s division. : She began her broadcast by stating, “Every day and from all parts of Canada I am being asked the question, ‘When am I going to get a maid 2” Such a statement coming almost simul- taneously with mass layoffs of wsomen and girls from the war industries and with the dis- charge of thousands of girls from the services, sounds an ominous note of warning to the , labor movement to be on guard against the return. to such conditions prevailing in the hungry thirties when women and girls through- out Canada were forced to accept the wretched conditions. that went with the “position of maid.” We are all well. aware of just what those conditions were, any- where from ten to sixteen hours per day and seven days per week, with hole in the corner accom- modation for the “maid” and in a great many cases, food or should I say ‘“‘sustenance,” which had to be consumed at a separ- ate table and: very often from the scraps left by the employer, and all for the magnificent wage of from ten to fifteen dollars per month. Those women who would like to see a return to the miserable pre-war conditions of employ- ment, should be told in no un- certain manner that the women and girls who contributed so much: to the winning of the war through their efforts on the pro- duction line have absolutely no intention of returning to the pre-war conditions of slavery. It would appear that there are |1 still women in Canada who are unaware of the tremendous so cial change that the war brought to thousands of their sex. Our Canadian women and girls have learned what it means to be in- dependent through training and valuable practical experience both in the different industries and through the channels of the trade union movement. They have learned, also by practical ex- perience what the slogan “equal pay for equal work’? means, and that it was the united efforts of the trade unions that made this possible. “ * HE trade union movement would be extending its influ- ence amongst women at this par- ticular time if they could in some manner provide an avenue of organization for those who may desire to make home making what, it should be and to remove the stigma which has so long existed in connection with this kind of work. Another thing too, is the fact that our returning veterans are finding out that very often “the man behind the man behind the gun” at home -was in a great many instances a woman, and I feel sure that they too do not want to see their sisters, wives and mothers having to return again to ways of slavery in ord- er to eke out an existence. Those people who want to see a return to pre-war conditions in the labor market both for 11 men and women, when unemploy- ment, misery and hunger was the lot of many of our Canad- ians, would do well to remember that this war we have just brought to a successful military victory was a “people’s war’ and the labor movement along with the returning veterans and all forward thinking people are go- ing to see to it that a “people’s peace” will be~- established and maintained. -We. must, not permit a situa- tion to arise when the youth of our country are again herded into relief camps at 20 cents per day; we must see to it that men do not have to leave their fam- jlies in one part of the country |to go to work in another section, with all the added expense of maintenance; in order to eke out an existence for themselves and families. We must combat all at- tempts that will now be made to pit one section of the population against the other; returning vet- erans against displaced war men workers; young people against older people and so on; and we must particularly guard against race discrimination at this time: : by Jean Mason worker; women workers against. Those women who desire a re- turn to the “maid system”, will have to be made to understand that only on a very different ba- sis will women return to domes- tic pursuits. There will have to be established trade union stan- dards, both for work and wage rates. There will have to be def- jnite hours of work and also de- finite definitions of work. One woman or girl should never a- gain be permitted to become cook, laundry maid, dishwasher, gardener and baby tender all rol- led into one and for the sum of ten or fittecn dollars per month. N this respect there is a great need for community planning so that family life can become- more humanely organized. We need community centers in all localities, catering to the needs of all age groups. We need com- munity day nurseries and child care_centres, and we very defin- itely need a whole system of rec- reational facilities. Dorise Neil- sen in her book, “New Worlds for Women” has some very worthwhile suggestions along those interested in seeing wo- men maintain her freedom, to read it. It is interesting to recall that it was during the first world war that women acquired the’ wight to vote. I believe that the valuable experiences gained dur- . ing the course of the second ° world war will have taught Can- adian women how to use that vote and in the coming Provin- cial election in British Columbia, the woman’s vote can be one of the determining factors in elect- ing a peace time government whose major responsibility will be that of providing jobs for all, decent homes to live in and a future that will justify all of the sacrifices made during the war years. As we have united to defeat the enemy abroad, let us now remain united to maintain the peace. Just as it was possible to provide full employment for all in order to bring victory, so is it now possible with correct planning and co-operation of all bodies concerned to treate jobs for peace. We have only to con- sider the trmendous rehabilita- tion needs of our own country, to say nothing of what is requir- ed to assist the liberated peoples of Europe in the way of food, clothing and all kinds of con- sumer goods, to realize that there can be full employment for our people. Let’s remain un- ited and the new life that we hoped and worked so hard to bring about will surely mater- these lines and I would advise jalize in the very near future. 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