Kitlope Woman Cleaning Salmon
Detail of H-07109
While a great deal of work women did involved domestic duties, the nature of these duties changed over time.

Spinning and weaving for example, took up a great deal of women's time until factory-made cloth was readily available.

The canning of fruit and vegetables, however, did not become a domestic chore until the first decade of the twentieth century, when glass bottles were more readily available and more reasonably priced.

Ruth Gurr remembers some of the work her mother did in Bella Coola in the early 1900s:

"Mum used to make apple jelly and apple sauce. She'd can in two quart jars and we'd just have so much canned stuff: blackberries, raspberries, cherries, plums, rhubarb, all the vegetables, jams of all descriptions, pickles. Then she'd just be continually baking....Twelve loaves of bread every second day, I think it was. We had 13 in the family and then when the haying crew was there, oh, I don't know how many men worked on the haying. In the summer she'd bake a lot of bread."

Sound Heritage Series, Number 36, p. 49, 1982, Provincial Archives

To cope with an onerous work load, women often shared duties and responsibilities.

Sewing Circle of Bouchie Lake Women,
ca. 1923, Detail of B-06867
Tasks such as child care, food preparation, laundry, and nursing could be done communally, which provided an opportunity to socialize, as well as accomplishing work. The sewing circle is an excellent example of this.

Community work occupied women's time as well. Voluntary women's associations typically were involved in charity work and fund raising activities to assist at home and overseas. Women's groups came together because of shared religious beliefs or common community interests, such as public education, hospital care and temperance.

Women's Missionary Society Meeting,
Burns Lake, ca. 193-, B-00966
These associations probably also functioned as a support network for the women, particularly for women newly moved to B.C. who may have had no extended family near them.

In a time when educational opportunities for women were extremely limited, women's groups also provided an opportunity for education and intellectual activity.

Women's Field Hockey Team,
Victoria College, ca. 191-
D-04477
Much as their male counterparts sought entertainment outside of their daily work through sporting activities, women also engaged in a variety of sports. Some of these activities were as basic as bicycling, skating, and croquet. Others were team sports that involved organized competition such as hockey, soccer, field hockey, and softball.

The process of industrialization during the last one hundred and fifty years had a large impact on the nature of women's domestic work in that it provided goods women previously had to produce themselves such as clothing and various foodstuffs.

Industralization also altered the traditional female role in society, in that many women could work outside the home to provide extra income.

Fraser River Cannery Operation,
Women Packing Salmon into Cans
D-08372
Many of the new jobs were somewhat socially acceptable because they were very similar to the kinds of work women had always done at home. Canning salmon is one example, as illustrated in this photograph.

Increasingly it became more acceptable for women to work outside the home. However, there were still many restrictions. While it was permissible for women to work outside the home, ideally this occurred for only a specific period of time, between the age of leaving school and marriage. Also, working outside the home was considered proper only in specific occupations designated feminine.

Member of the Victorian Order of Nurses
Detail of D-06359

In Canada in 1901, the number of occupations considered acceptably feminine was quite small. Over sixty percent of all women paid workers were segregated into only three occupations: servant, dressmaker, and teacher. By 1911, the situation in Vancouver was not much different. Here, 42 percent of women paid workers were domestic servants, 23 percent were stenographers, teachers, nurses, or other professionals, and a third group, seventeen percent, were saleswomen office employees.

Clearly it was not an easy task for a woman to seek work outside of the home. Mamie Maloney Boggs worked as a reporter for the Vancouver Sun during the 1930's and recounts some of the hostility she encountered:

"I was .... slightly afraid of my job in the Sun because there was a lot of agitation in the letters-to-the-editor column about married women not working, as there were so many men unemployed - women should give up their jobs if their husbands were earning and all that sort of thing"

Sound Heritage Series, Number 35, p. 22, 1982, Provincial Archives

While the traditional view of women in the past has been that they quietly worked at home fulfilling domestic duties, there have always been women, such as Mamie Boggs, who challenged this role. B.C. was a "new" society; there were many opportunities for women to stretch beyond the confines of the home and into new realms of activity or to challenge the traditional boundaries of sexuality or gender roles. Women are not just mothers or daughters; but business partners, educators, professionals, athletes, politicians, philanthropists, lovers, friends, and comrades. Researching women in history involves understanding women in all these facets. The women in the following biographical portraits are all examples of unique and independent women who sought new experiences and wanted to change their accepted position in society.

Sylvia Stark ran her own farm on Salt Spring Island in the 1800s. Catherine Schubert was a pioneer and farmer. Hannah Maynard was one of the earliest professional photographers in British Columbia. Nellie McClung was actively involved in politics and assisted in women obtaining the vote. Helen MacGill was a lawyer, and the province's first female judge.

Use the forward button below to learn more about each of these women.