Employment and Labour

Throughout history the workplace has been the subject of various discussions around gender equality, discrimination, and segregation. Throughout the materialAlbum photographs of Hannah Cullwick and of acrobats in Gender: Identity and Social Change occupational segregation is a recurring subject of discussion. For instance, The British Workman and The British Workwoman, published in the nineteenth century, predominantly situate the sexes in separate professional environments. In their articles and illustrations women are largely depicted either safely within the home, engaged in household management, childcare, and domestic service, or else assisting with agricultural labour. Conversely, reports of men in employment focus on daring ventures abroad or careers in the military and skilled professions such as carpentry or chemistry.

Similarly, the Victorian working-class women Arthur Munby records meeting in his diaries are often recorded in positions of servitude or manual labour. Munby keeps detailed notes regarding their daily routines, wages, and attire, as well as hand-drawn illustrations and photographs. Diaries of his servant, and later, wife, Hannah Cullwick, also feature in the resource, documenting her life in service and the frequent abuse she suffered from employers (see, Munby Papers).

Owing in part to growing levels of pro-feminist feeling and expanding employment opportunities which became open to women during the mid-twentieth century, the ‘separate sphere’ concept is less evident in later works. For instance, copies of The Trillium, published by The Business and Professional Women’s Club in Calgary, promoted women’s pursuit of professional occupations and offered advice on building careers, starting businesses, arguing for equal pay, and pursuing entrepreneurial ideas. They also regularly advertised local classes, lecturers, and support groups on managing finance, owning property, and arranging childcare around work commitments.

Illustrations of women manning telephone systems

Changing political and governmental incentives also had an impact upon broadening women’s employment opportunities. Canada's welcome to women, published in 1919 demonstrates this, as it encourages the immigration of British women to western Canada to answer the need for agricultural labour and domestic servants there (see also, Women's work in western Canada, and the United Farm Women of Alberta fonds, and chapter “Occupations for Women: The New Fields of Work Open” within The Woman's Book: Vol.1).

Rheta Dorr’s Breaking Into the Human Race and material from The Louise Crummy McKinney fonds also celebrate eminent professional women who strove for educations and careers previously denied to women. Despite lingering institutional gender discrimination, many women found ways to overcome such resistance, as Louise McKinney's copy of the book Women of Canada demonstrates. As one of the “Famous Five”, the McKinney fonds also regularly reference McKinney’s own achievements, as well as those of her friends and fellow activists. For instance, Emily Murphy, who became Canada’s first woman magistrate after her fight for the Dower Act is frequently referenced in Correspondence of Louise McKinney and Sympathy letters written to James McKinney.

Instances of women rising through the professional rankings can be found in the Kay Brownlee Papers, which not only provide details as to the daily running, employee training, and dress codes of Dewees department store in Philadelphia but also give an insight into "pink collar" work. While some of the materials reflect Brownlee's earlier position as a buyer of women's fashions, most come from her work as personnel director of the store. The Vera Scantlebury Brown Papers sourced from Melbourne University offers a comparative look at women’s employment and professional progression as Brown’s own varied medical career working at the Melbourne Hospital and Children's Hospital, Royal Army Medical Corps, and Victorian Baby Health Centres Association are recorded in detail.

Access Magazine, © Michigan State University LibrariesMen’s struggles for equality in the workplace are also recognised throughout much of the Changing Men collection. Publications such as Father love, Anti-Sexism Publications, and other miscellaneous [Men’s articles] provide a wealth of androcentric material tracing men’s personal and legal disputes over paternity leave, alimony, child maintenance, shared parental responsibility (see, Court Watcher Newsletters).


Various documents in the resource also shed light on issues surrounding sexual harassment in the workplace. The Status of Women Action Committee’s brief, “Legal Protection Against Sexual Harassment in Employment" reports upon persisting sexual harassment, advances, and attacks suffered by working women. Likewise, the 6th Men and Masculinity Conference material echoes men’s awareness of, and efforts to eradicate, sexual assault suffered by both sexes in the workplace.