Reading Assignment

“Only a working girl”

Canadian Women

and Paid Work

1890 – 1921

Curated by

Chris Willmore

2

Cover image by Chris Willmore

VICTORIA, B.C. – DECEMBER 2020

Version 1.0

This work is licensed under a

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

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Table of Contents

“Only a working girl” ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….4

Trades and Case Studies …………………………………………………………………………………………………..5
“Of Many Daughters” (August, 1890) …………………………………………………………………………………………………… 5
“Western Ladies Wear are made in Winnipeg” (July, 1907) …………………………………………………………………….. 6
“Making biscuits and confectionery” (July, 1907) …………………………………………………………………………………… 9
“Sometimes I feel pretty tired” (June, 1911) ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 15
“How I found my work” (January, 1913) ……………………………………………………………………………………………… 16
“Sewing by the day” (February, 1913) ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 18
Matilda Harper (June, 1914) ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 20
“Operators are entitled to a better return” (May, 1917)……………………………………………………………………….. 22
“What do the teachers say?” (September, 1918) …………………………………………………………………………………. 25
“Women who spy on store windows” (August, 1921) …………………………………………………………………………… 29
“She makes miles and miles of pies” (August, 1921) …………………………………………………………………………….. 31

Conditions of Life and Work …………………………………………………………………………………………… 33
“In practically every form of activity” (May, 1910) ……………………………………………………………………………….. 33
“Less than five dollars a week” (August, 1912) …………………………………………………………………………………….. 35
“For the protection of women workers” (March, 1913) ………………………………………………………………………… 38
“The minimum wage of girls” (March, 1913) ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 39
“Not from starvation wages” (March, 1913) ………………………………………………………………………………………… 40
“The afternoon is the hardest part” (April, 1919) …………………………………………………………………………………. 43

Alberta and the “Domestic Problem” ……………………………………………………………………………….. 44
“I want people to like me” (April, 1919)………………………………………………………………………………………………. 44
“This is serious” (May, 1919) ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 45
“The employer has some share in the responsibility” (May, 1919) …………………………………………………………. 45

The Paid Domestic Worker …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 49
Part I (November, 1912) …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 49
Part II (November, 1912) …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 51
Part III (November, 1912) ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 54
Part IV (November, 1912) ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 57
Part V (November, 1912) …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 59
Part VI (December, 1912) ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 61
Part VII (January, 1913) …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 62
Part VIII (January, 1913) ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 63
Part IX (January, 1913)………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 63

Canadian Women Bank Clerks and the Great War ………………………………………………………………. 66
“Clerks and stenographers” (March, 1913) ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 66
“Woman’s work grows with war” (May, 1918) …………………………………………………………………………………….. 68
“Fifty percent of the bank clerks in the city” (January, 1917) …………………………………………………………………. 70
“In the business to stay” (November, 1917) ………………………………………………………………………………………… 71
“Women bank clerks to be eliminated” (June, 1921) ……………………………………………………………………………. 75
“Women bank clerks give place to men” (September, 1921) …………………………………………………………………. 76
“Their services would not be required” (November, 1921) ……………………………………………………………………. 77

4

“Only a working girl”1

I know I am only a working girl,

And I’m not ashamed to say

I belong to the ranks of those that toil

For a living day by day.

With willing feet I pass along

In the paths that I must tread,

Proud that I have the strength and skill

To earn my daily bread.

I belong to the “lower classes”-

That’s a phrase we often meet-

There are some who sneer at working girls

As they pass us on the street.

They stare at us in proud disdain

And their lips in scorn will curl,

And sometimes we hear them say-

“She’s only a working girl.”

Only a working girl! Thank God!

With willing hands and heart,

Able to earn my daily bread,

And in life’s battle take my part.

You could offer me no title

I would be more proud to own;

I stand as high in sight of God

As the queen upon her throne.

Ye gentle folks, who pride yourselves

Upon your wealth and birth,

And look with scorn on those who have

Naught else but honest worth.

Your gentle birth we laugh to scorn,

For we hold this as our creed-

“That none are gentle save the one

Who does a gentle deed.”

We are only the “lower classes,”

But the Holy Scriptures tell

How when the King of Glory

Came down on earth to dwell,

Not with the rich and mighty,

‘Neath costly palace dome,

But with the poor and lowly

He chose to make his home.

He was one of the “lower classes,”

And had to toil for bread;

So poor, that oftentimes he had

No place to lay his head.

He knows what it is to labor

And toil the long day through;

He knows how we get tired,

For he’s been tired too.

Oh, working girls remember

It is neither crime nor shame

To work for honest wages

Since Christ has done the same.

And wealth and high position

Must seem of little worth

To those whose fellow-laborer

Is King of Heaven and Earth.

So, when you meet with scornful sneers

Just lift your heads in pride;

The shield of honest womanhood

Can turn such sneers aside.

And scoffers yet will understand

That the purest, brightest pearl,

‘Mid the gems of noble womanhood

Is “Only a Working Girl!”

1 From Joussaye, M. (1901, October 26). ONLY A WORKING GIRL. The Province, p. 6. By Marie
Joussaye (1864 – 1949), Canadian poet and onetime president of the Working Girls’ Union.

5

Trades and Case Studies

“Of Many Daughters”2 (August, 1890)

It never occurred to me in all my romantic girlhood that I should live to have

daughters tall enough to look over my head; and it seems very funny that seven little

girls called me “mother” before I was thirty-five. Dear old Dan was a happy father of

these “silks and jewels, bangs and curls,” without a boy to bear his name. But they

all had a welcome to his fatherly arms and heart. “She looks like you, wife,” he said,

when the first was born, and insisted on giving her my name. He looked in the

blinking eyes of the second and they were like his mother’s, so he called her Jane,

softened afterwards to Janie. The third was a plain-looking, good natured baby that,

he said, reminded him of his dead sister Rachel, so “Ray” became the pet of the family.

The next was a delicate infant and we dubbed her Lily. The fifth looked like my

mother and I had her named Eliza. The sixth was such a great disappointment that

I was determined to call her Danelda, and she well sustained the name, for “Elder” is

her father’s counterpart in many ways.

Then one stormy night the last baby came. It was a big snow-storm, and as the

wind howled and everything was so dreary we talked a little and I said smiling, “She

will be the Hope of our old age.” “Then,” said Dan, “we’ll call her Hope,” and so our

crowd of little girls grew to womanhood. They suffered childish ills, in a take-it-for-

granted manner, enjoying all the fun that they could get out of life, and wore old

clothes and cut-down frocks with composure and content. Early in life I marked out

a career for each and did not consider that a difference in sex ought to make such a

difference in their success in life work. The eldest devoted her leisure to music, and

fitted herself to teach, but when she wanted to be paid the same price as Professor

Bangum, she was told that a gentleman’s prices were allowed to be higher than a

lady’s, and had to be contented to take about one-half, even though doing as good

work.

Janie started out to be a lawyer, but though she was very good at an argument,

somebody proved better, for she married Tom Jenkens the second year, and I saved

the rest of the school money for her setting-out, and took her home to study

housekeeping with me. “Ray” grew up as plain as her babyhood promised, but her

sunny temper sweetened and brightened all our lives. I wanted to keep her to myself,

and Janie’s engagement gave me a decided “turn.”

I didn’t want the girls to marry and spoil all my ideas of a career, so looked for

an occupation for Ray, whose principal gift seemed to be to brighten the home, and

that could not be classed among the professions, though the most indispensable, I

admit, for there ought to be H. B. after the name of such girls, as an every day help

and “Home Brightener.” But then, it doesn’t require a seven years’ course of study.

2 From Jack, A.L. (1890, August 5). “Of Many Daughters.” The Regina Leader, p. 6. By Annie L. Jack
(1839 – 1912).

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When aunt Neville came in from the country, she used to wag her head, and say, “Oh,

let Ray alone, wait till Mr. Right comes along.” But I didn’t want to wait, and besides

I am not such an orthodox believer in predestination as aunt Neville, who is sure you

can’t get past what is allotted to you. Ray liked to dig in the ground, and grow plants

from seeds in our little back garden when she was quite a child, potting them and

selling to the neighbors in summer, till she saved enough money to build a little glass

house off of the dining room and grow plants for the florist, who tried at first to get

them cheaper because a woman grew them. But little “Ray” had some determination,

and knowing they were a first class article she would not sell them under value, but

took more pains with the quality of her plants, and now has money in the bank and

her career is secured as long as plants are in fashion.

“Lily” grew strong and took type writing, but is not able to earn as much as

Harry Sayers, who works beside her, and does no more than she, besides going out

for a smoke and losing time at noon, which the girls never think of doing. Liza teaches

in the High School, another case of reduced pay, but it was reserved for Elda and

Hope to show us what women could do. For after they finished schooling, and while

they were looking for a career, Dan fell and broke his leg. His business is house

decorator and painter, and he had a very important contract on hand just at that

time, for it was early autumn when everybody wanted work done before cold weather

set in. “Elda” took all the work in and superintended it. She had shown a talent for

house painting and decorative art, and studied the journals he subscribed for on the

subject. She had painted and frescoed our own rooms sufficiently well to meet with

her father’s approval, and caused him to say he wished she was a boy; but it had

never occurred to him that her hands were as well suited to the work as a boy’s could

be, and her brain quite as clear for designing and coloring in artistic taste if only she

was trained as a boy would be.

Before Dan was better the girls had such a hold on the business, and did so

well, that he took them fairly into partnership – Hope to keep the books, and Elda as

general manager. And so they are still helping Dan in his business, but able to assist

me when needed – none the less housewifely because they understand a trade and

can earn their living. There is no need of marrying for a home, and there is blessed

independence in being able to earn one’s living. House decorating is a work of taste

and art, better suited to a woman who knows women’s needs and ideas on these

subjects, and so we have decided that “girls” are as good as boys, if given opportunity.

“Western Ladies Wear are made in Winnipeg”3 (July, 1907)

For centuries the women of America have been doing homage to Paris, homage

abject and unreasonable – first to Paris and after that to New York and every other

great center of fashion. And the adage is still true that a prophet is not without honor

save in his own country. Even the ready-to-wear garment must come from abroad,

3 From WOMEN’S GARMENTS LARGELY MADE AT HOME. (1907, July 11). The Manitoba Morning
Free Press, p. 7.

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and until recently the knowledge that her skirt came from a down town shop was

enough to make any ordinary woman blush, but if these slaves of custom knew that

the garment was not only bought, but manufactured in their own western city, how

great would have been their shame.

In the last few years a new sentiment has been slowly developing among our

western women. They are no longer ashamed to wear home-made suits, and perhaps

many of them will not be very much shocked to learn that there are two factories in

Winnipeg where the manufacture of ready-made garments for women and children is

an important industry. All skirts, blouses or suits stamped Western Ladies Wear are

made in Winnipeg, and the owners of the factory are preparing a new stamp which

will include the word “Winnipeg,” and this stamp will be so attached to each piece

that it will last as long as the garment. The other firm is the Model Manufacturing

Co.

These firms employ nearly sixty hands and have in constant use almost as

many machines. Nor is the number employed limited by the demand for the finished

product, but by the difficulty in securing help, competent or otherwise. That which

forced eastern manufacturers to desert their splendidly equipped buildings in the

suburbs and build new ones in the centre of the city in order to secure the necessary

operators is the great handicap to western manufacture. It is not so much the

prejudice against home production that this industry has to contend with, but the

inability to persuade girls to learn the work.

LABOR DIFFICULTY

It would seem that factory work is being black-listed by the modern girl, and

many of them would prefer to sit long hours operating a typewriter for a mere pittance

rather than enter a factory at a fair wage. But this condition of things cannot last.

The time will come when the demand even for stenographers will not increase as

rapidly as the business colleges can turn out eligible, and girls will be compelled to

turn to factory work for their support. Then, Winnipeg’s manufacturers will be in a

position to keep pace with her development along other lines.

Even as it is, the progress has been remarkable. One firm, starting in business

here last November, has been compelled to increase the number of its employees to

five times the original. One hundred and fifty dozen (1,800) blouses, and seventy-five

dozen (900) skirts are sent out by one of these firms every month, besides which there

are boxes and boxes of underwear and piles of aprons.

PLEASANT WORKROOMS

In the long, well-lighted rooms are rows of power machines, where young girls

and even gray haired women make dozens of blouses or skirts or suits with a rapidity

that comes of long practice. With deft fingers they transform the piles of cloth beside

them into plies of clothes ready for the presser, who with gas or electric irons soon

completes the process and has the garment ready for the shipping department. So

expert do these workers become that the visitor would lose very little time by waiting

to watch the whole process of some simple garment, from the cutting until it is put

away in a box ready for shipment.

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The garments made in our home factories vary in quality, as they do in price.

They make the very plainest of gingham or beautiful silk and lace robes, but all are

carefully made and bear the trade mark of the maker as proof that they have

confidence in their own work. A beautiful brown silk jumper suit was being pressed

in the factory when we visited it. It was very simple and stylish and carefully finished.

A black silk skirt made almost after the pattern of the kilt was very beautiful and

was sufficient proof that our factories can shape the more dainty costumes as well as

simple blouses and skirts, and why should they not? Can we be loyal citizens if the

stamp “Made in Winnipeg” detracts from our appreciation of an article?

It would be impossible to give anything like a definite estimate of the number

of women in Winnipeg who make their living sewing, but it has been ascertained that

in the departmental stores alone (where dressmaking is done), in the busy season

there are between 200 and 300 girls employed. These stores do all kinds of

dressmaking and ladies’ tailoring, and during the busy seasons of spring and fall are

often unable to supply the demand.

These houses charge, on an average, from $15 to $25 for making a fancy

evening dress. A shirt-waist suit costs from $8 to $20 for making, and a tailored suit

from $14 to $25. These establishments keep up-to-date books, one establishment

paying $50 a year for one fashion sheet alone. Some have fashion sheets sent

exclusively to them, and every effort is made to have the work done in Winnipeg

second to none.

This does not include the dozens of establishments devoted exclusively to

dressmaking and ladies’ tailoring, nor does it include the women who sew in their

homes, and the hundreds of sewing girls who sew by the day. There must be upwards

of a thousand women in Winnipeg who are competent dressmakers, and yet the

demand for help along this line always seems to exceed the supply.

Then there are a large number of men engaged in ladies’ tailoring, and they

are always busy, the general complaint being that competent help is almost

impossible to obtain. Many of these establishments turn out only the very best class

of work, and are consequently almost always busy.

The busiest season of the year for dressmaking and ladies’ tailoring is the

spring and fall; the middle of winter being the slackest season. March, April and May;

and September, October and November are always the busy months. The necessary

investment for a dressmaking establishment is practically nothing, except the

machines, fashion books and irons. The larger establishments use power machines

and electric or gas irons, but the smaller places get along very well with the ordinary

machines and irons.

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“Making biscuits and confectionery”4 (July, 1907)

The baker and confectionery industry is essentially a neighborhood industry,

and it must stand or fall with the country. The official figures, however, show that

there is still room for importation of foreign products, at least in the matter of

chocolates, the demand for which has certainly grown faster than the country, and

Winnipeg appears as one of the largest importing cities. It can not be said, however,

that our manufacturers have not done fairly well in meeting the demands of the

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IN THE BISCUIT FACTORY

When you take a soda biscuit from the box in which it is so neatly packed,

perhaps you may idly notice that it bears a home label. Possibly it is made by Foley,

Lock & Larson, or it may be the product of the Paulin-Chambers company. In either

case, it is sure to be pretty good and equal to the best made the wide world round.

“Patronize home industries” is a well-worn motto, but it is to be feared that many

neither know nor care whether a thing is home-made or not. If it suits them, they get

into the habit of looking for it, however, and that is how the local manufacturing

business has grown by leaps and bounds within the last ten years.

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worry the grocer. “Sorry, but we are just out,” is not often heard in Winnipeg when

biscuits are called for, though last winter the country dealers had to be disappointed

once or twice by the manufacturers. A firm which only started the manufacturing of

biscuits a year ago, is now practically running full capacity. It has its own transfer

track, and the extent of its business may be estimated from the fact that there are

sometimes seven cars standing on this siding.

The time taken in the cooking of a biscuit is about six minutes, a thermometer

being placed in the centre of the ovens, by which the heat may be regulated. Large

mixers, holding 3,5, 8 and 12 barrels of flour each, are run by electricity. Every

housewife knows the process of mixing, and except that hand labor is eliminated in

this case, the biscuit dough receives the same treatment. Of course everything is on

a mammoth scale. In Paulin-Chambers’ establishment, I saw great dishpans full of

butter waiting for the baker, and they told me that the weekly consumption was 2,000

pounds. Multiply that by 26 cents, and the bill is no small one for this one item alone.

GINGER SNAP DOUGH

The big “arms” of one huge machine beat the dough thoroughly. I saw a great

wooden trough of “Ginger-snap” dough, ready for rolling and baking, which they said

held between 500 and 600 pounds.

After being mixed, the dough is dumped into large troughs on wheels and run

into machines which roll it out into the proper thickness, and cut it into regulation

shapes, perforated neatly as it goes its swift way to the ovens. In connection with this

operation one machine does the work of fifteen men, and the almost human

4 From MAKING BISCUITS AND CONFECTIONERY. (1907, July 11). The Manitoba Morning Free
Press, p. 31. Image by Hay Stead (1872 – 1924).

10

intelligence shown by the clutching “fingers” is most fascinating to watch. All day the

endless chain revolves which brings the hot biscuits to the rows of waiting girls from

the furnace below. Down there these sultry days, men are working like mad that you

may have biscuits for your cheese on your dinner table, madam. Into the fierce heat

the trays of biscuits are shoved continuously, and when taken out on the other side

are placed on a small elevator with shelves. When it reaches a certain level, that of

the packing table upstairs, there is a revolving wheel which takes each one of the

pans on to an endless-chain arrangement, which carries the pans all along in front of

the waiting girls. As it slips swiftly past, they sweep the rows of ginger-snaps with

nimble fingers into the boxes, or “cartons” as they are called. Meantime the tray has

come to the end of its journey. Of its own impetus it falls over and is caught by another

chain, which takes it underneath the table and so back to the oven from which it

started. Some pans don’t have time to get cooled off in their rapid transit.

HOT YET SWEET

We went round and found a biscuit at its hottest, and it tasted better than any

just toasted in an oven, even if we did have to take it without butter. The girls did not

seem to mind the heat, but worked steadily at the never-ending stream of pans, which

brooked not a moment’s neglect. A few of the biscuits were burned, and there was a

good deal of broken stuff, but the latter is sold for cracker-meal or to the camps, so

there is no great loss on it. In one batch only 8½ pounds of broken biscuits resulted

from the mixing of ten barrels of flour. Manitoba hard wheat is too strong for the

high-grade soda biscuit, so that soft winter wheat must be used. The ginger for ginger-

nuts is imported direct from Japan. It takes several carloads of soda each year to

make biscuits for western Canada, as far as Foley, Lock & Larson are concerned. This

firm has 11 travelers in the biscuit department alone, and 26 travelers in all. The

speed with which the product reaches the consumer may be judged from the fact that

goods baked in the morning are shipped the same afternoon.

WEST’S FANCY TASTES

Soda biscuits alone have so far been considered, but there is a great demand

in the west for fancy biscuits, and to this the above-named factory, with others, also

caters. Among the varieties made are the Abernathy “Animals,” marshmallow tarts

and balls, jumbles, cookies, arrowroot biscuits, assorted sandwiches, bananas,

Brunswicks, Buster Brown buttons, chocolate bars, fig bars, crisp wafers, toffee bars,

Dixie sandwiches, fig newtons, iced fruit cakes, lemon creams, Java coffee cakes, jelly

lady fingers, macaroon snaps, “moss roses,” “newsboys,” “Neapolitan bars,” Regina

cakes, rice croquettes, Vanilla bars and Vienna crisps. And these are only “among

those present”.

The young girl in the sample room knows all the varieties of cakes, candies and

biscuits, and knows the price of each. She has a position which the manager would

find hard to fill in her absence. In the sample room there are trays to be made up each

day for the use of the travelers, and she it is who must do her best all the time, and

do it often in a hurry, for all the different men who besiege her for their own wares.

They travel “light,” these men, for their bags have a collapsible interior, and the

11

candies vanish in their depths, yet manage to keep in their proper niches when

opened out.

The “sample girl” and I went from top to bottom of the huge establishment on

…