Fears of a breakdown of the sexual division of labour and of the male-over-female hierarchy of authority or, in other words, of conventional gender identity, were triggered by women's entry into the armed forces, the proficiency of some in traditionally male jobs, and the adoption of slacks as wearing apparel. Some thought that servicewomen and women war workers would lose their "femininity" and cease to be women. Recruitment propaganda sought to appease this fear by assuring the potential recruit that she would lose none of her charm and attractiveness by joining the military or the assembly line of a war plant.
The media lent their efforts to making such assurances. Lotta Dempsey wrote an article entitled "They're Still Feminine!" which carried this insert in bold print: "Clothes don't make the man and uniforms and overalls don't seem to be unmaking the female of the species." Defence plants in Ontario staged beauty contests, the winners of which then entered the "Miss War Worker of 194-" contest held before the Canadian National Exhibition grand stand during the Toronto Police Games in July. Beauty soap and cosmetic manufacturers suggested that the female factory worker or servicewoman would remain "womanly" only if she used their products.
Under the concern over the changed appearance of women lay a more profound but less often articulated fear that women were invading male territory and becoming too independent. In a 1942 Maclean's article on "Women Power," Thelma Lecocq half-jokingly proposed a number of possibilities "that make strong men break out in a lather"; for example, the possibility that at war's end the thousands of war working women would "refuse to be stripped of the pants and deprived of the pay envelopes." "What if they start looking round for some nice little chap who can cook and who'll meet them lovingly at the door with their slippers in his hand? What if industry has to reorganize to give these women sabbatical years for having babies?"
By September 1945, however, when 80,000 women war workers had already been laid off, Maclean's could print the cartoon shown here which derives its very humour from the assumed absurdity of the role reversal it portrays.
