In 1919, they set $650 as the minimum


salary and urged their colleagues not to un- dercut others by accepting lower pay. They believed salary levels should increase with experience, and worked to put women’s is- sues before school trustees and other deci- sion makers. In 1922, when women teachers in Owen


Sound threatened a strike, the board in- creased their maximum salary to $1,200. Not all women teachers were as successful. Many who called for higher pay met oppo- sition not only from their boards but also from their male colleagues who claimed they deserved higher salaries because they taught older students, coached sports and had families to support. But men with no dependents also re-


FWTAO Board of Directors, 1947.


“BETWEEN 1930 AND 1936 THE PAY OF MALE TEACHERS WAS CUT BY ABOUT 38 PERCENT WHILE THE ALREADY LOWER SALARIES OF WOMEN WERE CUT BY 55 PERCENT. WOMEN ALSO EXPERIENCED MORE JOB LOSSES. IN 1939 THERE WERE 1,486 MORE MEN TEACHING THAN 10 YEARS EARLIER BUT 1,303 FEWER WOMEN, A TREND THAT WOULD REOCCUR WHEN ENROLMENTS DECLINED IN THE 1970s.”


FEMINISM’S FIRST WAVE – WOMEN TEACHERS BEGIN TO ORGANIZE!


Increased immigration, industrialization and urbanization brought changes to Canada’s so- cial structure in the latter half of the 19th


cen-


tury. Women started to organize. The “first wave” of feminism, the suf-


frage movement, helped open the doors for women to universities and the professions, and resulted in women winning the right to vote in 1918. In 1888, eight women formed the Lady


Teachers’ Association of Toronto, later called the Women Teachers’ Association (WTA) of Toronto. The group’s aims were “the social and mutual benefit of its members, the advancement of the interests of the Toronto lady teachers and the profession gener- ally.” The WTA established a sick leave fund and worked for better salaries. Women teachers in London, Galt, Ottawa, Peterbor- ough, Hamilton, Chatham, Port Arthur, St. Thomas, North Bay and Prescott formed similar associations. On April 3, 1918, representatives from


women’s teacher groups across the province formed the Federation of Women Teachers’ Associations of Ontario (FWTAO) “to pro- mote the professional and financial status of women teachers.”


EARLY MILITANCY


In the first year of its existence, more than one third of women elementary teachers – 4,236 out of a total of 11,359 – joined FWTAO.


12 ETFO VOICE | SUMMER 2016


ceived higher pay. Moreover, studies have shown that many women, although single, were supporting the family farm, elderly or disabled relatives or younger siblings. The women’s early successes, in combina-


tion with a growing anti-union sentiment in the country, created a backlash. There was still ambivalence about women doing paid work. They didn’t fit society’s expectations that women be models of silent self-sacrifice. Newspaper editorialists who had once been supportive now called these women teachers radicals and socialists. Even former allies in the suffrage movement thought their teacher sisters were going too far. These attitudes, a post-war recession and the 1929 stock market crash reversed many early successes. Between 1930 and 1936, the pay of male


teachers was cut by about 38 percent while the already lower salaries of women were cut by 55 percent. Women also experienced more job losses. In 1939, there were 1,486 more men teaching than 10 years earlier but 1,303 fewer women, a trend that would reoc- cur when enrolments declined in the 1970s.


WORK AND MARRIAGE


WWII changed the attitudes to women’s work. As men joined the military, first single women, then married women, then married women with children, did their patriotic duty and entered the labour force. When the war ended and the men returned, women who had built airplanes, harvested crops, driven streetcars, run businesses and taught school, went home – either willingly or as a result of layoffs. The federal government cancelled childcare subsidies and barred married wom- en from the civil service. Just as it had been their patriotic duty to enter the workforce


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52