All three Canadian services recruited women as clerical workers and nurses, and to perform such tasks as maintaining aircraft and vehicles, driving light transport, providing food services, playing musical instruments, packing parachutes and operating radar and radio equipment. Unlike their British counterparts, they were not assigned combat duties; in the United Kingdom many women operated anti-aircraft guns. Throughout the war a total of 21,624 served in the Canadian Women's Army Corps, 17,038 in the RCAF Women's Division, 6,781 in the Women's Royal Canadian Naval Service, and 4,518 in the medical services. The participation of these women in the war effort enabled thousands of men to be allocated to more dangerous tasks, but their importance can easily be overstated; less than three percent of the Canadian forces were women. Their employment was also an instance of sexual discrimination as they initially drew only two-thirds (later increased to three-quarters) the pay of their male counterparts.
A native of St. Petersburg (Leningrad), Paraskeva Clark (1898-1986) left Russia following the October Revolution. Having married a Canadian, she arrived here in 1931. Her activities as a wife and mother limited the time she could devote to her art, but she became recognized for portraiture. In 1944 she was commissioned by the National Gallery of Canada to paint views of women at work in the armed forces; three oil paintings resulted, all dealing with the RCAF Women's Division. As this painting (81.5 x 101.9 cm) suggests, the work required strength and was essential for the effective maintenance of the planes.
Courtesy: Canadian War Museum, National Museum of Man, National Museums of Canada (14085)
