The Pictou, Nova Scotia, shipyard was the first in North America to employ women in construction. Mrs. A. Mackay, shown here handling a riveting-gun at the Pictou shipyard, was one of thousands of Canadian women working in shipbuilding during the war.
While some women might have hoped for equal opportunity after having "proved" themselves by doing jobs previously reserved for men, the traditional division of labour returned with renewed vigour after the war. In Toronto, for example, the Toronto Transit Commission agreed to hire women as vehicle operators only as long as the wartime emergency existed. Resistance by the street railway workers' union kept women from driving buses or streetcars in Toronto from 1946 to 1973. Such union resistance to the hiring of women often stemmed from the practice of paying women less money than men for doing the same job. Union members were fearful that their wages would be undercut by women who were willing to work for less than the going rate.
