The Great War had a profound effect on the role of women, whether at the front, in factories back home or in charitable organizations. As more men were called to the front, increasing numbers of women were taking their places in the factories of Brantford and Brant County. It is important, however, not to see these women through the lens of contemporary expectations. They were keen to support their men and perfectly aware that they were temporarily replacing those who had gone to fight.
While women remained masters of the domestic sphere, they were also beginning to envision an expanded role in the public domain as well. It is a far cry from a Canadian munitions factory to a front line trench in France. It is a vicious sight to behold row after row of finished shells, all painted blue, noses pointing upward, and bonded in copper, ready to be staked with explosive and then to be shipped β the imagination easily supplies whither. The Canadian girl has learned to make the ball the Canadian boy shoots.
As the gunner slips the shell into its final resting place, he knows he must fire the shot for two, for himself and the one who made it. A visit to the shell producing factories of the city reveals how the girls work and how clemently their welfare is provided for, as the management has gradually adapted itself to the new conditions. The women are not surprised, but the men are, at the quality and quantity of work they can do, and how easily they have slipped into their place in the big scheme of things.
At the factory of the Steel Company of Canada in West Brantford the girls work in three shifts, eight hours each. The last shift works, then, through the night hours until 6. With such working hours the time for lunch is naturally considerably varied. There is the regular noonday meal and for others the supper at 6, but the night shift eats through the spooky hour of 12 to 1.
Talking of supper introduces a new departure entirely in a steel factory. A restroom has been established. It is a long, airy apartment with a row of chairs, each supplied with a convenient arm table all down one side. Along the other side the girls hang clothing, hats and coats at one end and overalls, aprons and bloomers at the other. But the most interesting part of the restroom is in the matron. Little was the motherly person in charge on Thursday afternoon.
