Canadian Women and the Second World War, Essay Example

While the two articles are dealing with the same topic and presenting it from quite a similar point of view, still it seems to me that the intensions and methodologies used by their authors are slightly different. Jeff Keshen is making the main stress on “mapping out the process of historical change” through the observation of the Canadian women’s role during the Second World War with a help of print media of that time. At this point the ‘process of historical change’ was that of a gradual shift in gender roles of Canada, which is analyzed by Keshen starting from the changes that occurred during the WWII. Ruth Pierson, however, is concentrated on studying the given subject through its pre-conditions and immediate consequences it provided rather than on viewing the Canadian women’s employment situation during the WWII through a larger-scale vista of the emancipation process as a whole. From an article Revisiting Canada’s Civilian Women during World War II it can be concluded that Keshen’s major argument is that popular press of the wartime period can now serve as the best available source of information on what was going on in the society of those days and it also gives a possibility to learn about the attitudes towards the on-going social processes that flourished among various groups of Canadians. Thus Keshen presents somewhat a third-party account on what Canadian civilian women were going through during the war and the impact their increased presence in the workforce had on the Canadian post-war society. On the contrast, Ruth Pierson’s Canadian Women and the Second World War is a more integrated research article that presents the author’s own viewpoint on the subject which is emphasized through the use of various sources available from that time.

The primary attention of both articles in concentrated upon the beginning of women’s emancipation in Canada during the years of the WWII. However, the authors’ conclusions at this point are slightly different. Pierson’s (1983) opinion can be summed up with the following words:

While some women had gained a new confidence and a new self-image through wartime service, many of them saw their expectations dashed. Traditional attitudes about women’s role held sway once more and the contribution that women had made to the war effort was allowed to fade quietly from public memory. (p.27)

At the same time Keshen (1997) is more optimistic about the consequences that the increase in job opportunities for women had for their later emancipation:

Even if the alterations encouraged by World War II proved small when measured against the gender-based inequalities that remained, this cannot negate the fact that, a half-century earlier, transformations such as the more open acceptance of working wives and the principle of equal pay for equal work stood as notable breakthroughs. … they also laid down a wider and stronger base upon which a later generation of women could, during more sympathetic and revolutionary times, launch a more substantial, successful initiative on behalf of gender equality. (p.266)

Therefore, tones in which authors express their views on the post-war reality of Canadian women differ. Keshen seems to be more optimistic, but at the same time it a little bit too anxious, while Pierson’s conclusions are more realistic and down-to-earth.

It should be noted that the sources and references used by both authors are quite similar as the same data can be found in the two articles. However, it seems to me that the major difference between them at this point is that while Pierson is using articles and statistics to promote and justify her own argument, Keshen is applying the same sources as arguments themselves due to the fact that the whole narration of Revisiting Canada’s Civilian Women consists of quotations from various magazines, books and statistical databases. Another divergence is that Pierson’s article is more structured as it is divided into specific sections, each of them dealing with a certain aspect of female involvement into the war effort, and thus the author is more selective in the use of sources. At the same time it seems like Keshen is trying to absorb all the mentions of women’s participation in the workforce found in the popular press of those years and thus is simply arranging and combining data into separate paragraphs.

I think that the difference in interpretations, which is found in the articles of Pierson and Keshen, is due to the fact that the authors were setting divergent goals and were seeking to answer different questions. The main query that Pierson raises is to what extend the “wider role and larger responsibility” of Canadian women was maintained after the war. Therefore, she gathers, presents and analyzes information about women’s roles and their accomplishments during the war period through a perspective of the resulting situation immediately after the war was over. On the contrast, Keshen’s primary goal is to show the process of social and historical change and to portray directly what the Canadian women were going through while their men were mobilized. At this point while certain conclusions are made in the article Revisiting Canada’s Civilian Women, nonetheless the major stress is put upon the development of the process of female emancipation in Canada as a whole.

In terms of a methodology applied by the authors it seems to me that both of them were employing a historical method, but the use of sources to research the given topic is different. For instance, Pierson is utilizing primary sources of information to create an account of the past events. In the text of the article she makes references to statistical data of the wartime period and to testimonials of the participants of the proposed events. Keshen, on the contrast, is working with both primary (print media of those days) and secondary (historical books which were written later) sources of information. For example, there are a lot of quotations from Ruth Pierson’s They’re Still Women After All, a book that was written in 1986 and thus serves as a secondary source of information. Therefore, Keshen’s research and interpretations are based not only on the direct testimonials of people who lived in those days, but also on the interpretations of the subject by other authors and historians. At this point a conclusion may be drawn that while Keshen is applying a wider range of sources, Pierson’s suppositions are less subjunctive and closer to the initial situation.

It seems to me that both authors were writing their articles for the general public that might be interested in the subject of sociological changes in the history and in the process of Canadian women emancipation. Nevertheless, even though the audiences might be similar, the intensions of authors once again may differ. I think that Pierson’s initial goal was that of making a primary introduction to the subject, and the author managed to achieve this goal brilliantly. Canadian Women and the Second World War is a well-researched, structured, and in-depth article which presents the topic and argument in a persuasive and comprehensible manner. At the same time Keshen’s article is more academically-styled as it provides a reader with a great amount of references through which an additional research of the topic may be conducted. Furthermore, it seems like the author was assuming that his intended audience would prefer to re-check the provided information and would like to make a further research of the topic.

So I can draw a conclusion that if to compare the two given articles in terms of their conformity to historiography, then it should be noted that it is Keshen’s Revisiting Canada’s Civilian Women During World War II that deals with a study of the available sources of that period and makes a synthesis of them in order to create an account of the past. The author provides us with a mother lode of information on the given subject obtained through all the printed media materials that can be found in connection to the selected theme. Even though Pierson’s use of sources is more concentrated on primary ones than that of Keshen, still Canadian Women and the Second Word War is less centered upon the study of historical sources and more dedicated to the study of history itself.

References

Keshen, Jeff. (1997). Revisiting Canada’s Civilian Women During World War II. Histoire Sociale/Social History, 30 (60), 239-266.

Pierson, Ruth Roach. (1983). Canadian Women and the Second World War. Canadian Historical Association Booklet #37, 3-27.