York University, Clara Thomas Archives, FWTAO.


“IN THE 1970s, THE NEW GENERATION OF WOMEN TEACHERS FOUND THEIR PROGRESS IMPEDED BY CEILINGS ON SCHOOL BOARD EXPENDITURES, FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WAGE AND PRICE CONTROLS AND A DECADE-LONG PERIOD OF DECLINING ENROLMENT.”


during the war, it was now women’s duty to return to marriage and homemaking. Married women teachers, however, bene-


fitted from the post-war baby boom that created a teacher shortage. By 1951 some 28 percent of women teachers were married compared to five percent 10 years earlier. A few years later married women made up the majority of teachers.


WORK AND PREGNANCY


Skyrocketing birthrates were the reason chil- dren filled elementary schools, but board administrators considered the sight of a pregnant teacher in a classroom scandalous. Most boards required women to resign when they became pregnant. Women with children faced barriers


when they wanted to return to work. Women who did get jobs were rehired at the bottom of the scale or offered part-time positions with little chance of full-time work. Many boards that did provide maternity leave


14 ETFO VOICE | SUMMER 2016


would only reinstate a woman if a position was available. Although statutory bargaining rights were


years away, FWTAO took maternity leave to the bargaining table, proposing a modest plan with provisions for a leave, the right to return to work and reinstatement at the same pay level with increment and seniority. It also lobbied the provincial government


to address maternity leave. In December 1970 the Women’s Equal Opportunity Act was enact- ed. It provided for a statutory maternity leave of 17 weeks and barred discrimination on the basis of sex or marital status in hiring, firing, training and promotion.


THE SECOND WAVE OF FEMINISM


The 1960s and 1970s saw a resurgence in feminism. The suffragists believed that once women had the right to vote they would have true equality. They were mistaken; equality in law does not by itself result in substantive equality. In spite of laws governing equal pay,


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