The end of the war coincided with the onset of the "baby boom" which lasted well into the 1950s. Demographers do not agree on the explanation of this phenomenon. Some have attributed it to the post-war prosperity which stood in such contrast to the economic uncertainties of the prewar years. The feminist theorist Olive Schreiner, on the other hand, reflecting on the Boer War and its effects, wrote in 1911 that wars generally tend to impose a surtax on "Woman as woman," this war tax being society's need for an increase in childbearing to make up for the lives lost during the hostilities.
While the diffusion of a pro-natalist atmosphere in Canada after the Second World War cannot be traced neatly to state or society, policies implemented by various departments of state and certain social institutions promoted childbearing and child-rearing as women's primary life task. Coincident with the dismantelling of state-supported child care, the family allowance legislation of the end of the war, for example, recognized the woman's contribution to society as a mother more fully than any previous legislation. By mid-1945, advertisements reflected and reinforced the pro-natalist atmosphere as advertisers began to feature babies in their ads and to show how their product, be it a facial soap or a bathroom cleanser, could improve child care or bring greater comfort to a baby.
There was a proliferation of classes in "mothercraft" for young women, especially those being discharged from the armed forces. By September 1945 when these members of the Canadian Women's Army Corps at CWAC Barracks, Long Branch, Ontario, were shown "what constitutes a baby's wardrobe," nearly 2 000 young women undergoing demobilization from the CWAC had taken advantage of weekly lectures in homemaking. These were offered at the Long Branch base with funds from the United Welfare Chest and through the efforts of the Victorian Order of Nurses, the Visiting Homemaker's Association, and the Public Health Department of Ontario's prenatal service. Lecture topics included pre-natal care, infant welfare, "personal hygiene" (a euphemism for sex education), and family nutrition.
Courtesy: Toronto Telegram Collection, York University Archives
