Page 2 - Women in the Steel Plant, World War 2

ISSUE : Issue 37

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1984/8/1

And that's what we were getting up until the time Jimmy came home in 1945. That's less than $25 a week. Can you imagine! And that included everything--feed your chil? dren, look after them. If I didn't go to work, you know, what else was there? And many more women went to work. Not all for the same reasons;, but you know, they felt it was their patriotic duty to re? lease a man for service. (Who cared for the children while you worked?) Oh, my mother. Well, you know, I wouldn't let my mother look after them to that extent. She was here with them and she guided them, but as far as washing for them or cooking for them or getting them lunch or something--because, when I came home from the steel plant, I used to have to go to the store and pick up the grocer? ies , and come home and cook the dinner and do their laundry and everything like this. 'Cause I wouldn't allow my mother to do that. (It must have been hard.) Well, I was a lot younger then. I didn't mind it that much. Kit Falconer; (Were you married then?) No. (Were you working?) Oh, yeah. I worked housework, restaurants, I worked for a dairy, different things. You name it. I was living with my family, but I was pay? ing my way. After all, we've got to work. There wasn't anything, really, for a wom? an- -only restaurants or housework or some? thing similar to that, that's all. Doing the dirty work. (Were you surprised that the steel plant was hiring women?) Really, I was. But when I heard they were, I just took the oppor? tunity. I said, Well, that's for me. I'm going to put my name in, and if I can get a job, I'm going to work. (Was there any chance of a future there?) No. You'd just be on there till a certain time. Once men were coming back, there'd be jobs for them, and they wouldn't re? quire girls. (Did they tell you that when you were hired?) Oh yeah, we knew that; it wouldn't be permanent or anything like that. (Did you ever wonder whether that '' CCCTT/AI C AMn C/CMTC 1QO/I *' Keddy's Motor Inn 600 King's Rd., Sydney, N.S. Licensed Dining Daily Features Restaurant Hours 7 am.-2 p.m. 5 p.m. -10 p.m. 165 Rooms Air Conditioned Colour Cable TV Featuring Cape Breton's Only Complete Indoor Recreation Facility- • Pool • Sauna • Whirlpool Bath • Oasis Pool Bar • Games Machines ENTERTAINMENT & DANCING NIGHTLY AT IVORY'S LOUNGE For Reservations Phone 539-1140 (2) FESTIVALS AND EVENTS 1984 July 29 - Aug 5 Aug 3-5 Aug 8-12 Aug 17 Aug 26 Aug 30 - Sep 3 Come Home Weekend St. Peters Lennox Passage Yacht Club n'F<;rnN?;<;p Come Home Weekend ' tscousse Acadien Festival Milling Frolic, 8 PM Family Sunday Concert, 3 PM Community Festival Petit de Grat Johnstown Battery Park, St. Peters River Bourgeois Louisdale Sep 23 Fall Fair . Ask at the Tourist Bureaus for Further Details Located In southwestern Cape Breton, Richmond County offers its visitors miles of ocean shoreline, numerous lakes and rivers for fishing and canoeing, spectacular hiking trails, and country roads Ideal for bicyclers.

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