Discounted Labour: Women Workers in Canada, 1870–1939

Linda Cullum is an assistant professor of sociology and women’s
studies at the Memorial University of Newfoundland.

This small volume examines the historical foundations of differential
valuing of women’s work in Canadian society between 1870 and 1939.
With their focus on ordinary women, Frager and Patrias ask how and why
women became confined to low-waged, low-skilled, less-unionized, and
less-valued paid labour. How has both horizontal and vertical job
segregation become the norm for women in Canada? In what ways do gender,
race, and class ideologies position women differently as workers? To
explore these questions and more, the authors draw on 30 years of
historical feminist and labour research to produce a synthesis of this
vast body of knowledge. The result is a highly readable generalized
account of women’s paid work that is useful for lay and academic
readers.

The volume is divided into two parts. Part 1 focuses on industrial
capitalism (factory and domestic service work in particular) and the
development of “white collar” work for women (teaching, nursing,
social work, clerical and sales work). The uneven effects of gender,
class, and racial ideologies in Canadian society shaped these jobs.
Indeed, racist ideologies in white-collar sectors could both constrain
opportunities (e.g., admission to training programs) and generate
alternatives for “non-Anglo-Celtic” women. School segregation meant
African-Canadian women were needed to teach in their own educational
institutions, and Chinese- and Japanese- Canadian nurses, who were
perceived by the dominant culture as “uplifting” models for their
communities, were thus accepted for training. The authors also explore
the “resilience of the gender structure,” even during World War I
and the Depression.

Part 2 examines efforts at social reform and legislative action. Where
were women to work? How was this to be regulated and women protected?
Stereotypes of womanhood and reformers’ class and ethnic biases, along
with resistance from male unionists, limited meaningful change.

In both sections, engaging anecdotes and careful use of statistics on
women’s paid labour ground the broader, more generalized account and
analysis. In all, I enjoyed this volume. As an accessible central text,
surrounded by detailed ethnographic or historically specific studies of
women’s paid labour, it would be very useful in an undergraduate
course.