The Huntington Copper Mining Company's Works, Eastern Townships, Quebec, 1867.
Although it is unclear whether women ever worked underground, they were associated with Canada's mines from early days. More commonly they were found working in many of Canada's cotton mills. Such apparently unfeminine employment aroused those reformers, feminist and others, who feared especially for the home life of children with working mothers. Although precise details about the extent and nature of female involvement in the industrial work force had to await such studies as the Royal Commission on the Relations of Labour and Capital (1889), sensitive women could as early as 1867 see proof of the need of some protection for female workers. The existence of female labourers, such as these, helped prompt observers to create the first branches of the YWCA, the Girls' Friendly Society, and the Dominion Order of King's Daughters. The continued presence of such conditions helped push many women into support for woman suffrage.
Courtesy: Notman Photographic Archives, McCord Museum, Montreal
