STAND BY YOUR MAN An Examination of Women's Participation in the Ontario and British Columbia Cooperative

Commonwealth Federation 1933-1950

by ALEXANDER GUY RICHMOND

A thesis submitted to the Department of History in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts

Queen's University Kingston, Ontario, Canada

April, 2000

copyright O Alexander Guy Richmond, 2000

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Abstract

The role of women in the early years of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation has

been the source of much academic interest in recent years. Canadian political historians

have attempted to analyze both the form of women's participation in the party and the

consequences of their involvement. Joan Sangster, in Dreanîs of'Equality, addressed

these issues through her analysis of the role of women on the Canadian lefi and how both

the Communist Party and the CCF dealt with issues of women's equality. Regional

analyses have been undertaken by historians such as Dan Azoulay, who explored the role

of women through his work on the Ontario CCF, and by Irene Howard, who studied CCF

women in British Columbia. Most historians have approached the study of women in the

CCF by examining their roles in CCF controlled organizations. The full extent, however,

of women's participation in the fight for the socialist cause and the consequences of their

actions cannot be completely understood if the analysis is not expanded to include the

work of women in autonomous women's groups. CCF women paraded, demonstrated,

produced weekly radio broadcasts, ran as candidates, and directly confronted those in

authority. On many occasions CCF women acted without any assistance from the party,

and in several instances, in direct conflict with both federal and provincial party leaders.

This thesis explores the role of CCF women in two distinct regions and their

participation in the spread of socialism during the 1930s and 1940s. CCF women's

experiences in Ontario and British Columbia were different, and 1 argue that such issues

as the origin and makeup of the British Columbia CCF generated a different environment

in which socialist women enjoyed greater acceptance by the male leadership of the party.

CCF women's participation in the party was constrained in both British Columbia and

.. II

Ontario. B.C. CCF women7s efforts, however, were far more extensive and consequently

they had a greater impact in their fight for social justice and their attempt to introduce

socialism into their local cominunities.

Acknowledgernents

My greatest debt of gratitude is owed to my wife and best fiiend Brenda Richmond. The

concept for this thesis evolved fiom ideas she first explored in an undergraduate essay.

Brenda has been my greatest source of inspiration and support throughout the two years

of the Masters programme at Queen's and the many years spent working towards the

B.A. She sacrificed much to come with me to Queen's and 1 would not have survived had

it not been for her love and friendship. In addition she spent many long hours with me

travelling the 401 only to spend more time pouring through letters and meeting minutes

at both the Thomas Fisher Library and the NAC.

1 would also like to thank my parents, Elspeth and Chris Richmond, for 28 years of

continual love and support. Without the foundation of confidence they provided and the

continuai challenge to think about life and the society we live in, 1 certainly would not

have succeeded in my stsidy of history. 1 thank both of you for the opportunities you

provided.

Six very good friends of a different kind also aided me in the completion of this thesis.

Astro, Lando, Arlo, Cosmo, Georgie and Lea - friends of the four-legged fùny kind - al1

provided continual love. Whenever 1 was stressed out one of them always seemed to find

my lap and their purr brought a smile to my face.

Much of the British Columbia chapter was brought to life through interviews and insight

provided to me by Irene Howard. Mrs. Howard was very generous with both her time and

iv

her research. 1 cannot adequately state how valuable are the interviews with these

fascinating CCF women. Of equal value is the friendship of Irene who read over an early

draft of my chapter on the Ontario CCF and offered helpful suggestions on how 1 might

approach the B.C. material. Her work on both Helena Gutteridge and the Mother's

Council of Vancouver paved the way for my own contribution. Thank you, Irene.

For his patience and ongoing generosity 1 thank Bob McDonald of the University of

British Columbia. Always extremely busy with his own work within the department of

history, Bob took the tinle to edit each chapter. His suggestions were most helpful. In

addition his friendship over the last few years has meant a lot.

Also at UBC, 1 would like to thank Phi1 Resnick, Chris Friedrichs, and Frank Roberts. A

special thanks is owed to Car1 and Angela Johnson. Their support and friendship has

meant so much.

At Queen's:

My good friend Dave Regéczi: again, there is not nearly enough space to thank him

enough for al1 his help. From Our insane tennis-bal1 battles and weekly encounters on the

ice - much needed stress reliefs -- to his guidance and expertise on everything from

computers to word processing. Thank you Dave!

v

Also at Queen's: The best part of my experience at Queen's was the incredible support 1

received from several new fi-iends: Thanks to: Jamie Murton, Ross Cameron, Me1 Cook,

Heidi Cooinbs, Alice Mao, Julie Johnson, Jake Whalen, Mike Dawson, Krista

Kesselring, Amy Bell, Meghan Leuprecht, Jenn Marotta.

Special thanks to Chris McCreery. No other goalie would let me take a slap shot at their

head and ask for more. No one else would sing Gilbert and Sullivan with me.

Special thanks to my office mate and good friend Erin Melvin.

Support Staff at Queen's:

1 benefited greatly fiom the help provided by Yvonne Place, graduate secretary, and al1

the office staff: Debbie, Joe Anne, Norma, and Judy. Thank you for making me feel

welcome.

At the Queen's Archives, 1 met two new fiiends, George Henderson and Stewart

Renfi-ew. Again, there is not enough space to recount al1 the ways in which George aided

me.

The Staff of the University of British Columbia Special Collections:

Thanks to George Brandak, Raymond Adams and Sarah Eccelston. Al1 of them made my

many hours spent at the archives an enjoyable experience.

1 thank Dr. Bryan Palmer for his work as my thesis supervisor. 1 thank Bryan for

accepting me as his student, even though it was probably a surprise for both he and 1.

vi

Thanks to the staff at the Thomas Fisher Library. Their speedy photocopy service saved

the day!

A special acknowledgement goes to Ron Francis, who has inspired me over many years

and has shown me what hard work can do.

Finally, 1 would like to acknowledge the lives of the CCF women who fil1 these pages.

They lived through such hard times, and yet faced them with determination.

"I'm laughing at the superior intellect."

List of Abbreviations

CAC Consumer Association of Canada

CCF Cooperative Commonwealth Federation

CCW Canadian Congress of Women

FOR Fellowship of Reconstruction

HCA Housewives' Consumer Association

LPP Labour Progressive Party

NPA Non-Partisan Association

NWC National Women's Council

PEL Political Equality League

PWC Provincial Women's Committee

UFC United Farmers of Canada

UFCSS United Farmers of Canada Saskatchewan Section

UFO United Farmers of Ontario

UWA Unemployed Women's Association

VLCW Vancouver Local Council of Women

VMC Vancouver Mother's Council

VWUC Vancouver Women's University Club

WAC Women's Action Committee

WILPF Women's International League for Peace and Freedom

WJC Women's Joint Committee

WNEL Women's New Era League

Table of Contents

Abstract ............................................................... i Acknowledgements .................................................... iii

.................................................. List of Abbreviations vii

................................................. Chapter 1: Introduction 1

.................. Chapter 2: Women. Women's Groups and the Ontario CCF 13 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ontario CCF Women in the 1940s 36

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Conclusion 60

Chapter 3: Women and the British Columbia CCF: Political Osmosis at Work . . 63 AFamiliarDilemma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . An Inherited Tradition 71 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B.C. CCF Women: Identity and Experience 74

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CCF Women in Women's Groups 82 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Civic Politics 91

CCFWomenandRadio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . CCF Women and Demonstrations 99

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Socialist Women and The CCF: A Strained Relationship 109

Endnotes ............................................................ 131

Bibliography ......................................................... 150 Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Articles 150 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Archiva1 Collections 151

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Interviews 151 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . NewspapersandMagazines 152

VITA ............................................................... 153

Chapter 1 : Introduction

There are some women who say they 're not intercsted in politics: that if 's a man S business. But is if? After all, what is politics? It 's our way of choosing the right government to do those things which can give us a chance to bzrild good and happy homes. This is the job ofpolitics and of government. And obviottsly, it concerns the mothers and housewives of Canada, just as much as the men, andperhaps even more.'

- CCF Radio Broadcast, 1947

Evidence of women's participation in the early Cooperative Commonwealth

Federation [CCF], such as the above commentary, rarely found its way into the early

histories of the CCF. Since the late 1960s, when CCF history began to attract serious

attention, historians have focused their attention on the party's leadership, organization,

and on its shift from a grass-roots socialist inovement to a social-democratic political

party. In the 1980s women's work within the CCF became a central topic for many

historians. New questions were asked as historians debated the nature of the relationship

between women CCFers and the predominantly male leadership of the party.

Additionally, the impact of this relationship on women's role in the party was also

explored. Women's work in groups and committees outside the Party, however, remains

largely ignored.

During the 1940s Dean McHenry, an American scholar, wrote about the CCF

from the unique position of active observer.' McHenry was introduced to many leading

figures in the party such as J.S. Woodsworth, M.J. Caldwell, Grace and Angus MacInnis,

and was invited to live with CCF members while also attending numerous party

fùnctions. His book was published in 1950 and therefore lacks insights that often come

from more distanced histories which have the benefit of analyzing the long-term

significance of events. While acknowledging that the CCF was a grass-roots

2

organization, his conclusions, products of 1940's historical methodology, are drawn from

a study of the male leadership in the party. Any mention of women's participation is

completely ignored.

McHenry's omission of women from his history of the CCF can be explained in

part by the fact that during the 1930s and 1940s women simply were not involved in

either public work or politics to the same degree as men. McHenry focused his study on

only the most visible portion of those active in public life. Therefore, while this thesis

introduces new questions to the study of the CCF with an emphasis on women's

participation, it must be acknowledged that women made up the minority of those active

in both the labour force and on the political stage. In 193 1, for example, women made up

only twenty-one per cent of the total Canadian workforce. By 194 1 the percentage of

women working in public employment climbed to just over twenty-four per cent.3 In

short, while a substantial gender gap existed within the public labour force, a similar gap

was replicated within the CCF.

Similar to McHenry's history of the CCF is Leo Zakuta's A Protest Movement

Becalmed. Published in 1964, Zakuta was studying the party while a member of the

Ontario CCF and quite active in a Toronto riding association."^ the title of his book

suggests, Zakuta explored the CCF's transition from a radical grass-roots socialist

movement to that of a social-democratic party devoid of the anti-capitalist rhetoric which

was so prominent in the Regina Manfesto, the CCF's original constitution presented at

the founding convention in 1933. Zakuta's interest in the organization of the CCF,

particularly the continua1 interna1 debates over whether the party would remain socialist

3

as opposed to shifting toward the political centre, is farniliar to CCF historians.' Walter

Young, in Anatomy of a Par&, expanded on Zakuta's "protest movement becalmed"

thesis which, in fact, became the foundation for many future studies of the party. Like

McHenry, missing from both Zakuta and Young's studies is the issue of women's

participation in the party. Both historians failed to acknowledge women as a viable and

necessary force in the early CCF movement. In part, this omission was due to the

continual focus on party leaders. For example, Young argued that J.S. Woodsworth

provided the focus and direction for the several protest movements in the West. The party

that eventually developed was built on the foundation his presence had caused to be laid.6

According to Young, "there was nothing sinister about the fact of one man's control of a

party when it is considered in the light of that man's abilitie~."~ Young attributed

Woodsworth's abiliiy to consolidate the various factions that made up the CCF -

farmers, labourers, and intellectuals in the League for Social Reconstruction [LSRI- to

his "strong patriarchal a~thority."~ He described Woodsworth as a "fatherly" figure, a

"saintly" gentleman capable of uniting the disparate groups under the banner of the CCF.

A similar focus on leadership is found in Young's work on the British Columbia CCF. In

a study of the party's origins, Young described the battles that raged between the SPC's

father and son team of Ernest and Harold Winch and the more mainstream Robert

Conne11 and Bill Pritchard.'

While Young's top-down patricentric explanation illustrates the evolution of the

CCF, it does so from a narrow, male-centred perspective. The CCF party was itself quite

male centred and patriarchal and thus histories of the CCF have been fashioned in much

4

the same manner. The CCF had traditionally rejected women's active participation as

political leaders, reserving those high profile positions for men. Early leaders such as

CCF president Wallis Lefeaux declared that he "would permit no woman to run him or

any board that he sat on."" Young, therefore, seems to have concluded that women's

participation within the CCF was negligible.

Several historians expanded on Young's work, yet most of them retained the

same methodological framework. Their studies focused on the organizational decisions

made, ovenvheliningly, by male leaders in the party. The primary theme remained a

study of the party's shift from a grass-roots socialist movement to that of a moderate

social-democratic party. This prompted Alan Whitehorn, in 1985, to argue that new

approaches to CCF history were needed. He credited historians such as Ivan Avakumovic

and Gerald Caplan for useful contributions to CCF history, but suggested that a new

perspective might produce different insights."

In the late 1970s feminist studies of women's importance became generally

accepted as a legitimate form of historical analysis. Joan Sangster's study of the CCF and

Canadian women on the left was representative of these new gender-focused histories.

Moving away fi-om "the protest inovement becalmed" thesis, she explored the role of

women in the CCF. Sangster was interested in how socialist and communist women dealt

with the relationship between feminism and s~cial ism. '~ If class inequality was abolished

would sexual inequality also disappear? How did leftist feminists work within a party

that practiced a sexual division of labour, did not approach equal levels of sexual

representation at the leadership level, and that refused to allow many women's issues

equal stature in the party platform? Sangster's research revealed that women's

participation in the CCF, while significant, was complicated by the largely accepted

belief that a woman's proper sphere was in the home. The dominant ideology held that

women could best contribute to society by fûlfilling their role as materna1 housewives

which meant raising the next generation of healthy citizens. In the minds of many people,

a woman's proper sphere did not include the hustings. The CCF was not immune to

sirnilar thinking. "Whatever their background," Sangster states, "once active in the CCF

many women gravitated towards specifically 'female' areas of political work, revealing

the existence of a political sexual division of labour within the CCF similar to that in

Canadian society."13

As a result of this sexism many women CCFers shared a similar experience. After

inte~iewing women who were active in the party during its first twenty years and

reviewing much of the archiva1 evidence, Sangster argued that women in the party faced

similar barriers to full participation. For al1 CCF women, Sangster concluded, "it was

usually more difficult for them to reach leadership positions. . .The reasons for their

circumscribed role in the CCF were complex," she explains, "involving both the

influence of outside society, which sanctioned sexual inequality, and the disinterest of

the party in challenging those same inequalities within their own m~vement." '~ Despite

the practice of a sexual division of labour, however, Sangster found that women CCFers

still participated in important ways. Women may not have been the majority at the

leadership level, but they still "comprised an indispensable army of local educators,

organizers, and electioneers who created the supporting edifice which allowed the

6

socialist movement to build upwards."I5 During the last twenty years, several CCF

historians have come to a similar conclusion.

Two particular studies published just prior to Sangster's work help to elaborate

on her findings by examining specific Ontario CCF women's committees. John Manley

wrote on the Toronto based CCF Women's Joint Committee, while Deen Beeby

researched the role of the Ontario Provincial Women's Council. '~onclusions gained

from these studies were siinilar and seemed to reiterate Sangster's thesis that sexist

attitudes held by the male CCF leadership barred women from full participation. Manley,

for example, found that while CCF women "attempted to create an autonomous agency

of sexual and political struggle," the CCF executive's restrictive policies towards semi-

autonomous women's committees actually diminished the group's influence in the

community." The party leaders "were completely lacking in sensitivity to the needs that

impelled Toronto's CCF women to organize themselves c~llectively."'~

Dan Azoulay has published the most recent studies of women's involvement in

the Ontario CCF.I9 His research deals mainly with the 1950s and the early 1960s' but

there is some overlap with Sangster as both historians discus party events of the late

1940s. Azoulay challenged Sangster's argument that the CCF engaged in a deliberate

sexual division of labour. However, it is important to note that he interpreted the

evidence of women's participation through a different lens. In addressing the history of

the CCF during the 1950s' Azoulay's focus was on the rebuilding process that the CCF

undenvent following the 1945 defeat in both provincial and federal elections and that

ended with the eventual transition of the CCF into the New Democratic Party in 196 1.

His analysis of women's participation, therefore, relates to his singular focus on the

organizational changes in the party that took place as the CCF reacted to a membership

crisis which began after 1945. During this period, Azoulay argues, women were

encouraged to join the CCF. Many of them, Azoulay states, worked in auxiliary r01es.~'

His interpretation of why women worked in such roles is different than Sangster's.

Azoulay states:

In short, the largely patriarchal CCF hierarchy did not impose a sexual division of labour on its own members, as most historians claim. Rather, the sexual division of labour stemmed largely from the psychological limitations of women themselves (rooted in a sexist socialization process to be sure), and fiom the constraints created by their domestic responsibilities and economic dependency. While women may not have been strongly encouraged by party leaders of either sex to rise above these constraints, those who tried were generally welcomed and accepted for what they could contribute to a party desperate for any leadership ability whatsoever. Evidently, and notwithstanding the various limitations, many were suc~essful.~'

Essentially, Azoulay's assessment of women's participation within the CCF differs from

Sangster's in two ways: first, he suggests that sexist attitudes affecting CCF women in

the party came about more as a result of attitudes held by society in general rather than

an intentional policy established and carried out by male members of the CCF. Secondly,

despite the sexual segregation of party activities many women chose these positions of

their own accord. In addition, given the fact that ardent feminists were not common

among CCF women, many of them did not conceive of their matemalist contribution as

contradictory.

Despite their differing interpretations of why CCF women worked within the

party in certain roles and how women perceived of and negotiated their relationship with

8

male members of the party, both Sangster and Azoulay agree that women made a

significant contribution to the survival and growth of the CCF in Ontario. Both historians

provided insight into CCF women's work within the party. However, a substantial part of

CCF women's effort to initiate their own form of socialist agitation -- Sangster's

"indispensable army of local educatorsW- took place beyond the boundaries of officia1

party activities.

Olenka Melnyk in No Bankers in Heaven: Remembering the CCF examines the

work of individuals involved in the grass-roots activity of the CCF. " While the book

does not attempt to historically analyse the CCF, Melnyk nonetheless demonstrates

through the numerous interviews she presents, how women's participation helped to lay

the foundation and launch the party in its early stages. Mainstream CCF women such as

Grace MacInnis, Betsy Naylor, and Marjorie Mann; radical CCF women such as Mildred

Fahrni and Eve Smith; CCF women from farming cornmunities such as Nancy

Zaseybida; and minorities such as Kay Shimuzu represent not only the significant level of

female participation in grass-roots activity in the CCF, but also the diversity of women

committed to furthering a party they believed in. In addition, Eileen Sufrin added to the

historical record of women's participation in grass-roots activities when she published

the story of her fight to help unionize Eaton employees from 1948 to 1 952.13 However,

with the exception of Irene Howard's study of Vancouver CCF women's grass-roots

efforts, a detailed historical analysis of these activities remains to be done.

9

Howard made a significant contribution to CCF history when she published two

studies dealing precisely with women's grass-roots efforts in the British Columbia C C F . ~ ~

Her research into groups such as the Vancouver Mothers' Day Council and into the life

of long-time CCFer Helena Gutteridge demonstrated that CCF women played an

important role in B.C. politics. Her work introduced new elements to our understanding

of women's role in the party. Howard revealed that several B.C. CCF women in the

1930s and 1940s instigated highly publicized independent political actions that brought

substantial support to the party. Leftist women paraded, demonstrated, addressed mass

meetings, adopted militant tactics, and confronted the authorities in an effort to force

them to listen to socialist alternatives. It was precisely activities of this nature that were

missing from the works of Sangster and Azoulay, mainly because both their studies

centred on how women in the pariy interacted with the main structures and personalities

of the CCF itself. While both historians were aware of women's external activity, it was

not within the scope of their work to pursue an extended analysis, especially since the

results of such a study would not alter their conclusions.

Howard only examined a few instances of leftist women's political activities;

there still remained a lot to uncover. In addition, her work only covered British

Columbia. After digestiilg Howard's conclusions and reviewing studies of the CCF in

Ontario, 1 began to ask myself if similar activities to those Howard had uncovered for

British Columbia, might also be found in Ontario. If Ontario CCF women were not as

active as those in B.C., or if in fact they were, then how would this effect our

understanding of the development of women's political agency in Canada and what does

10

it tell us about the history of the CCF? Depending on the answers, could we still label the

CCF accurately as a western protest party? In addition, why would active and highly

motivated women continue to support a party that on many occasions ignored policies

proposed by women and occasionally threatened them with expulsion from the party?

This thesis attempts to answer those questions by expanding the study of CCF women in

both Ontario and British Columbia.

Prompted by these questions, 1 found that women in both provinces contributed to

the growth of socialism and of the CCF by working within their own communities and

educating their neighbors, by acting as living representatives of socialism, and by setting

an example through their often evangelistic efforts to better the lives of those around

them. Furthennore, they often fought for the CCF with little or no aid fiom the party, and

sometimes while in direct conflict with the CCF. Many CCF women continued their

support for the party despite the way they were treated because they believed that a CCF

goveïnment would inuoduce new legislation and end the Depression. As Sangster has

suggested, women were restricted in the range of their participation in the party. But as

gender was one factor in their segregation, equally important was their radical socialism.

While not al1 CCF women shared this characteristic, those who did were often severely

limited in their access to influential positions of power within the CCF. Regional

differences were also a factor in the degree of success CCF women had in their fight for

social justice. While CCF women in Ontario attempted to enact strategies similar to their

comrades in B.C., as a political pressure group they were never able to exert the same

force. Too many factors acted against Ontario women that simply were not present to the

11

sarne degree in British Columbia. These factors included greater tension between

cornrnunist and CCF women in Ontario, and substantial differences in the creation of the

B.C. and Ontario sections of the CCF that resulted in a more radical identity for the B.C.

CCF. This in turn led to a greater acceptance of not only women in the party, but of

radical women as well.

Chapter one deals with women's participation in the Ontario CCF fiom 1933-

1950. Women's activities and their role in the party are explained in two distinct sections

which 1 have separated chronologically. The first section deals with the CCF in the 1930s

and attempts to explain women's actions and their significance in the context of the

Depression. In addition, 1 have tried to summarize some of the important ideological

debates which occurred at the time and that continued into the 1940s' including the

debate among CCF women over the necessity and utility of separate women's

committees. The second half of the chapter deals with the 1940s. Several changes

occurred within the CCF during the decade as the party oscillated wildly fiom a high

point when the CCF nearly formed the provincial government to almost fatal lows when

the party was on the verge of extinction. Women's role in both the CCF and society also

changed during the years after the party's birth in 1933. As one means of gaining access

to contemporary opinions and understandings of the evolution of women from private to

public figures in the community, 1 examine responses in the media to the greater

participation of women in politics and in the workforce.

Chapter two centers on developments in the British Columbia CCF. The

backgrounds of the most visible women who were involved in grass-roots activity are

12

discussed. Their identities, motives, and attributes firmly established, what follows is a

detailed account of the various mediums and methods B.C. CCF women used in their

fight for social justice.

The discussion of B.C. and Ontario regional similarities and differences is found

predominantly in the conclusion, which also underscores the point that our understanding

of women's work in the CCF is incomplete until their grass-roots efforts, often enacted

by women with little or no help from the CCF, are considered alongside the story of the

CCF women's struggle within the CCF itself. This thesis, therefore, is simply one more

step towards a greater understanding of both the evolution of the CCF and the growth of

women's political agency in Canada.

Chapter 2: Women, Women's Groups and the Ontario CCF

During the first seventeen years of the CCF's existence, from 1933-1 950, women

CCFers in the rank and file of the party contributed to the growth of the organization and

to its day-to-day operations; women's backroom work was essential to the CCF.25 Very

rarely were men associated with such activities on a regular basis. As one CCFer stated,

"The CCF was made in the kitchen and you didn't find too many men in the k i t ~ h e n . " ~ ~

But backroom envelope licking and fund-raising was only part of women's work. CCF

women fouglit to publicize issues that were common to both the socialist cause and to

women's everyday lives; they struggled for the minimum wage, price controls, and even

birth control; they attempted to change labour legislation in the hopes that new policies

would include protection for women employees and secure equal opportunities in

vocational training that could lead to future employment. Women fought for these

changes despite, on some occasions, a lack of cooperation from their party. As a result,

many of the activities in which these women took part were organized outside of official

CCF structures, even though one of the main goals was to generate support for the CCF.

TakIi!g the fight for social justice to the public stage was not an easy task for

Canadian women during the 1930s. Ontario, afier all, had a history of conservatism and

was a society steeped in the "Britishness" of its r ~ o t s . ~ ~ Even taking the consequences of

the Depression into consideration- the political radicalization it caused in some people,

for example - one would not expect Ontario in the first half of the twentieth century to

be a hotbed for politically active women. Many women, therefore, were constrained by

societal guidelines of the 1930s and this often limited their political activities to

"maternal" causes such as child care and consumer concerns. Some CCF women,

however, urged on by the injustices of the Depression they witnessed both in the home

and the workplace, fought for industrial change as well.'* To be sure, CCF women of the

1930s were entrenched in al1 the cultural aspects of their time, but they were also

beginning to make an effort to move beyond them. For many, their maternalist attitudes

did not take away from the fact that these women were socialists who fought for the CCF

by dealing with issues that effected them at the time. Sangster uses the word

'contradiction' to describe the issues CCF women raised. For many of them, however,

there was nothing contradictory about predominantly maternal issues during the 1 9 3 0 ~ . * ~

Women made these issues part of their own programme. Maternalism, part of the

political consciousness first constructed by women in the 1900s, was preached to their

neighbors despite the lack of support from the CCF itself.

Before 'progressive' socialist Ontario women could spread their message to

family and neighbors, they would have to await the birth of a new contender in the

political world. Many women were familiar with local women's and labour

organizations, but as long-time CCFers such as Marjorie Mann and Mary Morrison often

stated, women's groups were only a means to an end. Discussion and ideas could be

generated at this level, but actual change would only be enacted by an elected party that

would form the government; the CCF would be their party.

Immediately after its creation the Ontario CCF had a hard time organizing. At the

founding Calgary Conference in 1932, A.R. Mosher - a well known labour leader who

15

represented both the Canadian Brotherhood of Railway Employees and the Ali Canadian

Congress of Labour - was Ontario's sole representative. He did not attend the Regina

convention a year later.30 In 1934, J.S. Woodsworth dissolved the Ontario CCF because it

had become closely connected with the communists and in part because the provincial

leadership was completely disorganized and plagued with conflicting partisanship.

Despite Woodsworth's and the federal executive's reorganization of the provincial party

structure, success at the polls was not forthcoming. The Liberals and Conservatives

continually denounced the new party as communistic and led very effective campaigns

against the CCF.31 In the 1935 provincial election no CCF members were elected. Like

Mackenzie King in the 1945 federal election, the leader of the Ontario Liberal party,

Mitchell Hepburn, defeated the CCF but took the liberty of including some CCF policies

in his election platform.

Despite the lack of any great success for the CCF during the 1930s, Ontario was

undergoing a subtle shift in political culture. The effects of the Depression played a

primary role in the gradua1 radicalization of some Ontario voters. Many women, finding

it hard to keep their families properly fed and increasingly alamled at the rise of

unemployment, found the CCF platform which proclaimed greater use of CO-operatives,

promised equality of economic opportunity, and offered statements demanding

legislation for better health facilities and employment, much to their liking. That the CCF

received support from women is not surprising; similar to the success of previous third

parties in Ontario, women had a history of involvement in left-wing politics. Prior to

World War One women were involved in labour leagues, many of them made up of

16

"housewives whose husbands were already active in the socialist movement and in the

trade unions."" Other women who made up the first generation of CCF supporters, came

out of the suffrage movement of a decade earlier. Agnes MacPhail is perhaps the best

individual example of a woman who decided to take her new citizenship rights to the

fullest extent by running for elected office. Her successful campaign in 192 1 made her

Canada's first woman M.P. as a member of the United Farmers of Ontario [UFO]

movement and the elected member for South East Grey.

To state that MacPhail was representative of Ontario women in the 1930s would

be a mistake. Nor would it be accurate to suggest that she represented the political

ambitions of many left-wing women in the province. But MacPhail did illustrate the

ability of leftist women to spread the CCF's message to groups that would otherwise

have been completely inhospitable to socialism. Her work with both the CCF and the

UFO surnmarizes the central theme of this thesis and, as such, is an example of what low

profile CCF women could accomplish in women's groups throughout the 1930s.

The affiliation of the UFO with the Ontario CCF had little to do with

commonality. The political culture of Ontario farrners evidenced that they were much

more conservative than their counterparts in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Support for

the UFO steadily declined in the late 1920s, and by the 1930s the UFO had moved away

fiom ambitions of electoral victory and became essentially a pressure group. MacPhail,

however, retained her close association. How did tliis young school teacher from South

East Grey connect the CCF with a conservative group that completely rejected anything

which in appearance looked remotely like socialism, or appeared to threaten the

17

existence of private p r ~ ~ e r t y ? ~ ~ As this letter from R.J. Scott, president of the UFO, to

MacPhail demonstrates, trust did not come easy between the two groups and official

affiliation soon ended:

The recent action of certain members of the Labour Section in associating themselves with the activities of groups communistic in character has brought the matter to a head ... Feeling that we can best serve the farm people of this province and make a better contribution toward recovery and the cause of social justice by proceeding independently of the C.C.F. we have decided to withdraw officially from the ~ederation.'"

Such a response from the UFO could not have been much of a surprise to MacPhail. The

conservative nature of the group was well known. A newspaper article dated only a few

years afier the UFO's officiai departure from the CCF suggests that nothing had changed.

The paper notes that "by and large the farmers of Ontario are not CO-operative minded

and are probably unprepared, because of lack of experience and CO-operative education,

to accept the Rochdale principles and give themselves over wholeheartedly to the

cause."35 Despite the differences in political ideology, MacPhail was able to keep the

UFO openly supportive of the CCF for a short while and was herself re-elected for South

East Grey despite the UF07s break with the CCF and her own continued close

association with the party. Gerald Caplan, in fact, attributes the connection between the

two groups entirely to the work of M a ~ P h a i l . ~ ~

MacPhail continued to advocate socialist ideas to the farming community, and

therefore her influence on them also continued despite the open rejection of the CCF by

the UFO and many rural voters. The party itself had been rejected, but MacPhail was not.

The combination of the continued effects of the Depression and her record as a reliable

18

representative for South East Grey ensured that the CCF message would be heard.37 But

what was it about MacPhail's message that generated enough support to win her re-

election?

MacPhail urged a socialist's answer to problems that were uncomfortably

familiar to rural and urban families alike. At one meeting, in December 1939, at the

Eaton's Round Room, MacPhail delivered a speech to a gathering of the "Good

Neighbors."3R While her speech included the usual reference to the growing numbers of

unemployed men and women and to the general economic distress felt by communities

al1 over Ontario, MacPhail devoted great attention to the role that women played in the

past in alleviating the strains that "hard times" brought to families and the cornrnunity.

Her solution involved "reviving the old spirit of neighborliness and applying it to [the]

present social and economic set-up." She also discussed "the part women [could] play in

building a new social order which ... is bound to corne." After discussing the role of the

cornrnunity in non-partisan terms, MacPhail turned her attention to a concrete and overtly

political solution. "We must build up," she stated, "a new social system. . .I think it will

be done by a combination of consumer CO-operation and socialism."

Speaking before a crowd described as "a large and representative luncheon

gathering," MacPhail elaborated on the specifics of socialism as a cure for the

Depression. She stated, "Control over economic life must return to the counties, the

small communities. It will be done by control over their purchasing power, buying from

themselves, educating themselves through adult study closely related to their economic

needs." She also informed her audience that one of the most important actions to be

19

pursued if conditions were to improve was the demand for public ownership of essential

services and industries, stating that "those things best done by centralized authority

should be socialized - services like the post office, railways, communication, mines,

light, and water." It is important to remember that MacPhail was not some strange

academic coming to preach to local communities and introducing unfamiliar ideas and

solutions to their problems - solutions that to the farmer's ear could sound dangerously

close to collectivisation; MacPhail was one of their own. She described herself as a

"farmer's daughter" and she was accepted as one. One newspaper described her as a

"raven-haired young school teacher, eloquent with the wrongs of her agricultural

c~nstituency."~~ As a respected member of her cornmunity and as an M.P., MacPhail was

able to talk to her constituents and they, in turn, visibly responded by supporting her

through re-election.

If we attribute to MacPhail the ability to successfÙlly connect local concerns with

the national program of the CCF, it is important to determine what it was that voters

were supporting when they elected her. Were people voting for MacPhail herself, or were

they voting for the CCF?" The answer, unfortunately, is difficult to determine. It is fair

to suggest that once she left South East Grey voters may have identified with a new party.

The fact still remains, however, that while she was associated with her rural riding

MacPhail was able to expose her constituents to socialism and to the CCF philosophy,

both of which would not have had the same impact had she decided to not support the

CCF. If her work is evaluated in terms of the long-term consequences, then it can be

argued that voters could hardly be expected to give a mandate to a party with which they

had no prior history or experience. MacPhail supplied the first necessary step when

voters in South East Grey were provided with several years with which to gain first-hand

contact with the CCF.

MacPhail was not the only female socialist candidate. Olive Jane Whyte ran in

Windsor-Walkerville under the CCF banner. On an election flyer dated 1934, below

Whyte's picture is stated "Vote CCF and Humanity First."" In the flyer the CCF clearly

connected its platform with issues of paramount concern to members of the community

such as free public education, no evictions from farms, and rural electrification. Striking

at the consequences of the capitalist system and the Depression, the flyer States:

The CCF (Ontario Section) stands for the establishment in Canada of a Socialized and Planned Economy, in which the principle, regulation of Production, Distribution and Exchange is Service and not Profit. We believe that the evils of recurrent depressions, of growing unemployment, of depressed agriculture, of great wealth side by side with great poverty, and exploitation of the people in city and country, by a minority of increasing power, are inherent in the present Capitalist System, and can be permanently cured only by the transfer of ownership and control of the means of production fiom private predatory interest to the cornm~nity.'~

While Whyte was not elected in her riding, despite a platform similar to that used

successfully by MacPhail, she represented the increasing number of Ontario women who

either played a direct role in the growth of the CCF by their participation in the party or

an indirect one by attending lectures sponsored by local women's councils that featured

leftist women. Unfortunately the role of women CCFers cannot be measured

numerically." It would be simplistic, however, to minimize women's participation in the

CCF by resorting only to election results or the record of women's participation in the

21

officia1 CCF structure. Reports in the media, for example, contained descriptions of

women who, while not greatly involved in partisan fights, were nevertheless in the public

eye disseminating the socialist message and encouraging more women to get involved in

the fight.j4

During the 1930s newspapers began to draw greater attention to the increasing

involvement of women in politics.CCF women occasionally received support from

media that were generally hostile to the CCF. For example, the Globe and Mail stated

that women had shown an aptitude for service as parliamentarians and that their interests

were wide and keen. Citing the efforts of both MacPhail and Mrs. George Black -

MacPhail's only other female companion in Parliament- the reporter suggested that if

more women expressed discontent about the current economic predicament then perhaps

change might o c ~ u r . " ~ Of course not al1 reports in the media were supportive of women

either in politics or even the work force. In Chatelaine, for example, an interview with

Mederic Martin stated that he believed one cause of the Depression was the employment

of women. In the next month's issue, MacPhail responded and promptly attacked

Martin's comments suggesting that the argument was so outrageous that he must not

have meant to be serious.j6

Criticism of women's role in politics also came from women themselves. One

newspaper reported the comments of Mrs. George Black, an M.P. for the Yukon who had

run for the seat, previously held by her husband George Black, while he was ill. Mrs.

Black stated that politics was simply not for women: "The vast majority of women take

little interest in the economical causes which give rise to conditions requiring their

22

philanthropies. They are using their hearts, but not their heads."" Some forms of

criticism, however, were used to spur more wonien into action rather than keep them at

home. In an article entitled "Why Women Fail as Voters" Mrs. E.A. Duncan, an editor,

stated that giving women the vote was a mistake because very few of them would go to

the polls against their husbands and that "the franchise for Our sex has only increased the

work of officials at the polls."48 The article states that Duncan might be correct, but not

for the reasons she stated. The author attacks women for their lack of conviction.

Motivating women to change their current situation the article states that,

We are dressed up with the vote and have nowhere to go, because we have lacked courageous leadership among our own sex, have been the willing prey of male party organizers who have kept most of us well within the folds and well controlled, and because while for the most part lamentably ignorant regarding public affairs we have made no real or concerted effort to learn 'the rights of things' but have swallowed anything easy that came our ~ a y . ~ ~

Mrs. Barr, a recent immigrant to Canada, expressed similar outrage adding that she was

quite angry to find that more women in Canada were not politically involved, unlike their

counterparts in ~ n ~ l a n d . " An article in Liberty, from 1936, questioned why greater

numbers of women were not successfùl in politics. After noting that 53 per cent of

registered voters were women, the author stated that inany women voted but not always

for women candidates. She then asked why women failed to elect other women to

Parliament: "In my opinion, it is due entirely to themselves. It is due to their lack of

loyalty and tolerance of each other. It is due to their pitiless persona1 criticism of each

other. It is due to their low appraisal ofbrains and eflciency in their own ex."^' Yet, in

reality the number of women who ran for federal office from 1930 to 1935 had increased

23

fiom four to fifteen. MacPhail and Whyte represented the most visible CCF members of

this contingent. Other women in public positions also contributed to the growth of the

party in Ontario. Nora Francis Henderson, for example, spoke to many audiences of

women voters in the Hamilton area.

Henderson was involved in municipal politics and was elected to the position of

Controller on Hamilton's Board of Control. Often invited as a guest speaker to the Local

Council of Women in both Hamilton and London, she spoke about the need to get more

women involved in politics. As with MacPhail, Henderson connected the need for more

women in politics with everyday issues that were of concern to women and their

families. If women wanted price controls on milk and other essentials, then they should

run for office and enact these changes themselves. Henderson was angry that "palpitating

deputations of women [were] knocking at the back door of Parliament to plead for

measures which they should have carried in themselves, through the front do~r . "~* Faced

with the reality that she could not persuade many women in her Hamilton area to run for

office, she suggested that women at least work for a party. Again, similar to MacPhail,

the strategy she followed was to connect issues of concern to women with the CCF. The

CCF, she argued, was the only party that women could work with. "In the major political

parties, only," Henderson announced to the London Local Council of Women, "are

women refused an equal status. They have it with the C.C.F. and the Labor party. But the

women's organizations of the older parties are just auxiliaries; they are allowed to do the

troublesome work, but when it comes to choice of policies or candidates, they have little

to Say. And yet 1 cannot believe that women who think are confined to one or two

24

gr~ups."'~ A growing number of women were not confined to either the Liberals or

Consewatives. Caroline Riley, who became president of the Provincial Women's

Committee in the late 1940s, was one who knew that women could work toward concrete

changes in their communities by participating in the CCF.

CCF women in the 1930s followed a clear strategy. As Riley stated in the Labour

Annual, the idea was to get CCF women involved in other women's groups and then to

introduce these groups to socialist solutions but in a non-threatening environment. In

describing the role of women in the CCF Riley stated that "women's groups could

discuss problems of particular interest to women, but should be especially active in co-

operating with other women's groups and in permeating them with our ideas. So our

council is affiliated with the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and

the Local C o ~ n c i l . " ~ ~ The job of CCF women, outside the mainstream work of the party,

was to connect the CCF, in the minds of women voters, with issues that concerned them.

CCF women would act as speakers in non-affiliated groups on issues such as peace, the

use of Canadian radio, juvenile delinquency, and birth control. According to Riley, CCF

women "CO-operated in the open forums of the Local Council, in a mother's day peace

program, and in supporting a strike of laundry worker~."'~ Riley and other CCF women

bent themselves toward "the task of speaking to women's groups, getting ourselves

invited to speak, perhaps and putting our case."56 Given that the continuing Depression

had begun to radicalize some women as they lost hope in the more conventional avenues

of political participation, it is not surprising that Riley believed that transforming non-

political women into CCFers would "not be so hard actually, because we have wonderfùl

25

material for that subject. 'Women and Children under Socialism.': what an attractive

picture that should make to the suffering women of Capitali~m."~'

When women chose to participate in the CCF, particularly in its first years, they

faced a different party format than women in the Liberal or Conservative parties. The

first major difference was that the CCF did not support women's auxiliaries per se. If

women's groups joined the party they were to do so on an equal footing with any other

group. The CCF constitution stated that the CCF should be an egalitarian movement and

al1 groups given an opportunity for voting rights on party policy and be represented at

provincial and national conventions. In the other Canadian parties, women's auxiliaries

operated on their own and the women were not officially part of the policy-making

decisions. The second difference in the early years of the CCF is that only groups or

clubs could join the party. In this way, a local women's club would join the CCF as a

group. The point of this policy was to ensure that the CCF did not become too

centralized. Each group, it was hoped, would maintain its unique identity while

participating in the ~ a r t y . ~ '

Politically active women were attracted to the CCF because, even though they

joined the party in a group context, membership meant active participation in the

movement. Young States, while characteristically avoiding consideration of gender, that

"in such a party those prepared to become active automatically established themselves as

leading figures by virtue of their willingness to assume party re~~onsibi l i t ies ."~~

Unfortunately, as political events unfurled the reality was somewhat different than the

policy. Rae Luckock, a CCF M.P.P. and daughter of J.J. Morrison, played an important

26

role in party activities but was actually ejected from the party when she refused to follow

the CCF lead. Women's groups, however, played a central role in getting women

involved with the party. They were made up of a diverse mixture of "social, study, and

lobby groups," and emerged "with goals ranging from fund-raising to feminist social

Despite the promising statements found in the Regina Manfesto, the number of

women who joined the party in its first years, and the number who became potential

candidates was much less than the party executives had hoped for. Deen Beeby states that

the party leadership felt that women were not becoming involved with the party at the

candidate level because many female CCFers simply were not interested in the positions.

Women's committees, it was hoped, would help generate more interest among the party

~ o m e n . ~ ' When election time rolled around, the party had another concern regarding

women: rural female voters, "isolated amidst domestic drudgery," would be completely

unrnotivated to spend time thinking about politics. Discussion in CCF newspapers often

explored ways in which women could participate and writers "tried to indicate ways in

which government decisions affected women's daily lives, and especially the lives of

~hildren."~? Party organizers spent time working on different methods to involve women

because they realized the potential for women's work in the CCF.

As the Depression continued unabated, more Ontario women began to identiQ

their fight against social injustices with that of the CCF. Women from an agricultural

background, for example, were familiar with the problems of an open market society.

When they joined the party they "brought with them the influence of their own class

27

analysis, which stressed the value of the small p r ~ d u c e r . " ~ ~ The CCF leadership felt that

many urban women were homemakers, and in an attempt to gain more of these potential

voters as CCF members, urged that the party had to "convince this large constituency of

the need for socialism," and they did so "by speaking to the immediate daily concerns of

women in the home."64

Some women proposed policies which were much more progressive than those

endorsed by the party leadership. The few women who sat on the provincial Executive,

however, ever mindful of the need to maintain voter support, were sometimes pitted

against other women CCFers who were anxious to see the party come through for them

in the form of helpfùl, yet often radical, legislation. Marjorie Wells, a member of the

provincial executive, felt that some CCF women were too far ahead of their time. A

typical exarnple of this conflict can be seen in the reaction to a proposa1 which was

brought fonvard stating that day-care should be free for al1 women. Wells felt she had to

change the wording of the proposal so that it would read as being fiee only for poor

women. She stated that the change had to be made, despite the needs of CCF women,

because the party was fighting the public label of "crazy ~pendthrifts."~~ Wells'

comments were motivated by electoral goals; other CCF women outside the confines of

the executive were not so restricted. Women's groups and committees were often the

medium through which both radical and mainstrearn socialism were pursued, and the

Women's Joint Committee [WJC], which worked in the Toronto area, was an example.

The WJC, founded in 1937, was organized by four CCF women who came from

politically radical backgrounds. Rose Henderson had a strong history in the suffrage

28

movement, while Alice Loeb took up the fight for public education and support for birth

control. Jean Laing and Elizabeth Morton worked with trade unions and with union

a ~ x i l i a r i e s . ~ ~ The WJC was created to fulfill two main goals: to address "social problems,

particularly those of women," and to "act as a training school" for ~ o m e n . ~ ~ Maternalist

issues such as health care and price control were an important part of the WJC mandate.

Once trained, women took this message into their own communities.

Much of the WJC's activities were undertaken with no help from the CCF. As

John Manley has argued, the WJC represented a group of women within the CCF that

"attempted to create an autonomous agency of sexual and political ~ t rugg le . "~~ But the

intent behind the actions of the women in the WJC actually paralleled the efforts of the

party at the time. The party executive decided that the educational activities of the CCF

should grow beyond merely election time efforts and thus they hoped to expand the role

of the CCF in society. Similarly, the women of the WJC, "driven by the sarne Depression

imperatives, began to suïpass sexual stereotypes in the range and creativity of their

political initiative^."^^ One issue in which this expansion can be seen clearly is in the

WJCYs fight for public education over birth control. Further, the WJC hoped to connect

their fight on this issue with the CCF. Women would then realize that a vote for any

other party come election time would be contrary to their immediate needs.

The WJC also fought for issues less emotionally charged such as welfare relief,

which were more central to the official CCF platform. At an unemployment conference,

a WJC delegate requested that the committee work on her behalf to petition the

provincial goverment to repeal a recent cut in welfare payments. Accordingly, Mrs.

29

Tilton, the secretary of the cornmittee, wrote to the Hon. David Croll: "The C.C.F.

Women's Joint Committee wishes to protest against the policy of cutting single men off

relief in different parts of Ontario. We feel that they should be put back on in view of the

fact that work is unobtainable for even a fraction of them. We hope that you will give

this matter your serious con~ideration."~~ While Croll wrote back two days later stating

that the action had been taken by local municipal governments and that he had no

authority to act in the matter, it was clear to women attending meetings of the WJC that

the CCF was on their side and willing to represent their needs. Welfare recipients were

not the only group to receive attention from the committee. Dr. Rose Henderson, a well

known CCFer, used the WJC as a medium to talk with other professional women.

Attacking the provincial government at one meeting, Henderson spoke to women about

"women's inequality in salary with men."7' She addressed the issue of recent cuts in the

salary of school teachers and "pointed out that women have been for years trained by

law and tradition to consider themselves inferior to men both in ability and training."72

To combat these restrictive attitudes and to spread the CCF message to women

throughout the province the WJC planned to organize women's committees "in each

locality to deal with social problems, particularly difficulties of ~ o m e n . " ~ ~

The WJC also took direct action against several companies by instigating

boycotts. One member, Mrs. Teskey, suggested that the committee be used to help

unionize certain Toronto area businesses. John Manley States that, "After investigating

Toronto's bakeries, dairies and movie theaters, she drew up a list of union and non-union

concerns. She presented this list to a WJC meeting, and the latter decided to have it

30

mimeographed for distribution around the CCF clubs, afier distribution, they planned an

initial boycott of non-union dairie~."~' When election time rolled around the actions of

the WJC would be remembered.

Despite such efforts, many of which coincided with the CCF platform, the WJC

received no help from the CCF. The main reason for the CCF's distance from the WJC

was that the Committee cooperated in united front efforts, activities that involved

personnel from parties other than the CCF. Women in the WJC might be seen associating

with members of the Labour Progressive Party [LPP] and thus the public would assume

CCF collusion with communists - something the CCF struggled bitterly, at times, to

deny. What is important to note, however, is that many of the women in the WJC were

avid supporters of the CCF- despite the way the party treated them- and continued to

spread the socialist message in the manner they saw fit, which meant cooperation with

other groups when necessary. In an attempt to maintain officia1 affiliation with the party,

the WJC wrote several letters to the provincial executive stating that their members were

loyal CCFers. When the CCF executive took action against certain WJC women, the

Committee responded in writing by asking the executive to reinstate these women. One

attempt to gain cooperation from the party involved a letter to the national chairman.

"Dear Mr. Woodsworth," the letter began:

At a meeting of the C.C.F. Women's Joint Committee held in Toronto on May 12"' resolution of confidence was passed unanimously in Dr. Rose Henderson, Mrs. Jean Laing, Mr. Ben Spence and Mr. J. McArthur Conner. Those present expressed their appreciation of the faithfùl work of Mrs. Laing and labor women who have been associated with her for many years have full confidence in her a ~ t i v i t i e s . ~ ~

31

This letter, along with other actions of the WJC, exemplifies the fact that some CCF

women marked out their own spheres of political operation. The continued top-down

pressure, which emanated from the party's executive, sent a clear message that in no

uncertain terms were they going to tolerate a separate "women's" strategy - especially

one that entailed cooperation with cornmunists. Yet for women like Dr. Henderson, the

fact that the CCF leadership disagreed with her tactics made little difference. At first, the

women responded by writing to the party leaders, as in the above letter in which the WJC

was trying to inform the CCF executive that the party had expelled loyal members. When

these efforts had little impact on the executive and several WJC members remained

officially expelled fiom the CCF, many women continueci to participate in united fiont

activities. Why?

The ultimate goal of the WJC was to spread the message of socialism and to

teach other women how to educate their neighbors in the political solutions, not the

organizational strategies, the CCF espoused. It did not rnatter to women like Laing and

Henderson that the party leadership disagreed with their tactics if the end result was a

victory for the party, which in tum would mean positive change in local cornmunities and

hopefully the introduction of new policies that would end or lessen oppression and

suffering. In the end, however, the WJC was disbanded when the CCF actually expelled

al1 the members of the committee - with the exception of Rose Henderson - as a

result of the WJC participation in a May-Day p r ~ t e s t . ~ ~ As a consequence of this action

other women's groups received a message loud and clear fiom the party executive. The

CCF would not officially tolerate independent women's groups acting outside party

32

discipline. But hard-line attitudes from the party executive did not dissuade women from

continuing their work for the party despite the lack of appreciation they were shown. One

reason may have been because some of them realized that they were the ones generating

grass-roots support in their own communities and that therefore they knew better than the

executive which tactics worked. This attitude is evidenced by women like Henderson

who continued on as they had prior to their conflict with the party leadership, while other

women simply started new groups.

It is precisely because these women were willing to give their time to help the

CCF, despite the party acting against them at times, which makes their efforts significant.

Many of the women discussed thus far were professionals who were enduring the

Depression yet also held positions through which they had first-hand experience with the

government and other influential agencies. As a result, many of them realized that the

authorities could be enacting legislation and providing leadership which would lessen the

severity of the Depression. Despite the patriarchal attitudes which the CCF displayed,

women like Dr. Henderson felt that a CCF govemment would pass much-needed

legislation and, therefore, she was willing to continue her work generating support for the

Party.

Shortly after the WJC was disbanded some familiar names were involved in the

Women's Progressive Association. In a letter announcing a forthcoining convention from

the association's President, Alice Cooke, the group was described as comprised of

"women who have been active in the work among the unemployed and in educational

and social ~ o r k . " ' ~ At the convention members were to discuss the issue of women's

relief and the current state of their economic condition, better housing in slum areas of

the city, the need for better facilities for child welfare, and the role women could play in

the peace movement. The convention, held at the Prince George Hotel in Toronto in

1936, brought together women not only from the Progressive Association but from

several groups across Toronto. Miss Bella Gordon of the Women's Unemployed

Association, Mrs. Anne Smith of the Parkdale Women's Progressive League, and Miss

Mary Jennison of the Federation for Community Service al1 attended the conference as

representatives for their respective g r o ~ p s . ~ '

The conference minutes, perhaps more clearly than any other source, demonstrate

that these leftist women were prepared to act on their own to gain support for the

socialist cause. The conditions they lived through during the Depression radicalized them

to the point that many felt they could not wait for the CCF to act on their behalf. The

women of the Progressive Association knew that they could fùnction as a pressure group

and work effectively with other women to generate attention and support for their cause.

As Alice Cooke pointed out,

the problems facing the woman on relief, the effects, both mental and physical that her economic position has had ... the effects of undernourishment [on] thousands of relief children; and finally the role woman can play in fighting for peace ... She greatly stressed the need for united activity on the part of al1 women's organizations, to help solve the great problems facing thousands of women.

After Cooke's remarks, the conference heard about a strike at the local New

Method Laundry. Moving away from speeches on generalities, one of the strikers

"outlined the terrible conditions in the laundry, the intense speed-up which caused a

34

number of accidents." The woman went on to describe the strike and "attempts on the

part of the company to smash any efforts of the workers to organize for the protection of

their living standards. The firing of one of the workers, an employee of the company for

15 years, for union activity, was the direct cause of the strike."

Concluding the conference was a presentation by Dr. Rose Henderson. She was

the one member from the WJC with whom the provincial executive of the CCF had

shown leniency and was therefore still an official member of the party. Similar to

MacPhail, Henderson was well respected in her community. While not an M.P. or

household name, Henderson could still influence audiences of potential voters. As a

Toronto doctor she had first hand experience in dealing with problems created by

poverty. Her address, the secretary recorded, "was an inspiration to al1 present."

Attacking the capitalist system and the curent federal and provincial govemments,

Henderson "gave a picture of the pitiful conditions under which some of the unemployed

were forced to live, cases she herself had come in contact with, in her district."

Attempting to educate her audience on the role women could play in effecting positive

change, she "related that, according to history, no less than 5 million women in Europe

and about 100,000 on this continent at one time were bumed as witches at the stake.

They were women who challenged the social order and the conditions then." The

message was clear and her instructions direct. It would be an up-hi11 battle, and like

women of the past those of the Depression would be challenging many entrenched social

and political structures. Had she read Gramsci, Henderson might have informed her

audience that hegemony was a real force at work. But women, working in their local

35

communities as they had always done, could instigate change and subverc the dominant

paradigm. For CCF women, however, they always returned to the same set of questions:

what role would the party allow them to play, and what did women themselves feel was

the best way to aid the party?

There is no doubt that some women were forced (othersfelt forced) into

participating at the grass-roots level of the party because of a sexual division of labour.

The leadership of both federal and provincial parties was, as a result, almost entirely

male in composition. But the male leadership created an environment racked with

partisanship conflicts and disagreement over which policies the party should embrace

and which organizational methods were to be f ~ l l o w e d . ~ ~ When it was decided that the

party would have to be more actively involved in local cornmunities, this was the area in

which women had already been hard at work. As 1 have stated, there are no numbers to

connect women's efforts with an increase in votes for the CCF. One cannot, however, use

hard numbers alone to rate influence - which was exactly what local CCF women

generated. Low profile CCF women could solve problems whose solutions had eluded

other party members. For example, one issue that continually plagued the CCF was the

party's identity in the mind of the voter. The CCF, as a result of the leadership's decision

to adopt a less radical stance, became pinned to the political centre in the minds of the

voter; many people felt that there was little difference behveen the CCF and the Liberals.

Yet the party was unable to move to the left or the right without losing part of their

support. If they maneuvered to the left, the party was threatened with an isolationist

label; the CCF would be known as a radical left-wing party whose staunchly anti-

36

capitalist anti-profit policies would be clear to al1 Canadians. A shift to the right,

however, would result in a further loss of identity than had already occurred. If the CCF

became more like the Liberals then some voters, whose main concern was simply to

prevent a Conservative victory, would see no point in supporting the CCF. Women such

as Henderson, therefore, played an important role in overcoming this dilemma. They

could inform their neighbors that the CCF was not made up of comn~unists, nor were

they merely "Liberals in a hurry."

Ontario CCF Women in the 1940s

The 1940s brought both the high-water mark for the Ontario CCF and its near

destruction. By the late 1940s the party seemed to change its outlook and, arguably,

began to see itself as a perennial third choice. Leadership defended this outlook with a

measure of self-justification. The Liberal party, after all, had adopted some CCF policies

and the party prided itself on its grass-roots origin which it felt had instigated these

p o l i c i e ~ . ~ ~

The provincial election of 1943 was a high point for the Ontario CCF. Historians

have suggested that the success of the CCF at the polls was evidence that the party had

become a viable contender on the political stage despite the fact that the CCF was still

far behind the Liberals and Conservatives in one element crucial to electoral success -

financial support8' The key to CCF success lay in grass-roots enthusiasm. Ivan

Avakumovic has argued that "when the spirit of the times favored CCF demands for

planning, full employment and social welfare legislation," during this time period the

37

CCF had its best electoral success and could win seats despite meager finances.82 The

"spirit" was, in part, generated by members of the CCF rank and file; women in women's

groups were part of this effort. External events, however, also played a significant role in

the success of the part-.

The Second World War, which generated great change in Canadian politics, aided

the CCF in that it pushed Mackenzie King towards enacting something of a planned

economy with strict governmental controls. The CCF platform, therefore, became much

more credible as the planned economy seemed to be working. As another example of the

success of a similar controlled economy the public could look to the Soviet Union.

Gerald Caplan has pointed out that "the success of the Soviet Union against Germany

showed firther confirmation that socialism could ~ o r k . " ~ ~ Perhaps more directly, the

voting public wanted to ensure that the Depression would not retum after the war;

socialism could help guard against it. Another consequence of the war was the massive

decrease in unemployment. The trade union movement, containing sorne unions which

slowly affiliated with the CCF, benefitted from the war economy and gradually

e ~ ~ a n d e d . ' ~ By 1945, however, CCF dependance on union support became a

disadvantage.

In Ontario, 1945 saw both a provincial and federal election in the province. An

election year that showed every sign of possible victory at the polls for the CCF ended in

disappointment. Historians have suggested a number of reasons for the party's failure. At

least one of the main sources of the party7s shortcomings involved the lack of anticipated

- and most likely assumed - support from the trade unions. Instead of an entire voting

block increasing the number of CCF seats the party received only limited support,

partially because the "labour movement was split wide open by communist forces

determined to block further CCF ad~ance."~' Other suggested reasons for the party's

failure to win either election have included the possibility that the party's organizational

structure and funding were too weak, prohibiting it from running two campaigns

successfùlly in the space of a few weeks.

Exacerbating such problems was the "gestapo incident." Ted Jolliffe, leader of

the Ontario CCF, accused Conservative leader George Drew of employing a secret

police to spy on and publicly discredit members of the CCF.'"hile the significance of

the event has become a contested issue to historians of the Ontario CCF, it is probable

that the incident cost the party a few votes, but doubtful that it was campaign destroying.

What undoubtedly did cost the party support, and not completely unconnected to

Jolliffe's cornplaints of unfair practices on the part of the Conservatives, was the anti-

CCF campaign which was unleashed on Ontario voters by big business interests in the

form of media propaganda. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent on preparing

and distributing anti-CCF literature." From page-size ads in the newspapers with

statements such as "Communist-CIO-CCF dictatorship to exterminate democratic

govemment by violence," to cheap novels explaining the evils of socialism,

representatives of big business in Canada such as Gladstone Murray and Montague

Sanderson invested great amounts of time and money to ensure a CCF defeat.

By the end of the 1940s, and clearly evident after the 1953 election, the party

seemed confined to the role of pressure group or social watchdog for the country. When

39

the unavoidable discussion cornmenced on the need for the reorganization of the party,

one concept was advanced which was not entirely new. "For the CCF to regain its

popularity," radical members of the party argued, "it had to talk more about basic

socialism. This would foster a core of well-versed socialists who would then embark on a

mission to convert others to socia l i~m."~~ CCF women had followed through with this

strategy during the 1940s. The 1930s had seen limited exposure for groups such as the

WJC and the Women's Progressive Association; in the 1940s' groups such as the

Provincial Women's Council and the Housewives's Consumer Associations would

increase women's participation in spreading socialism throughout the province.

As in the 1930s, printed media played a role in imreasing the public's awareness

that women were involved in Canadian politics. Significantly, the main difference

between articles from the 1940s and the previous decade was that newspapers in the

1940s had a legitimate track record of women's participation in elected office on which

to report.89 What this meant for potentially politically active women was that they could

more clearly differentiate between the parties by comparing the views of high profile

women politicians whose opinions were receiving greater attention. In 1944 the

Canadian Home Journal ran an article which compared elected women from the Liberal,

Conservative and CCF parties. Under the picture of each woman the article quoted a

brief synopsis of her views on women's participation in politics. The reader could

compare MacPhail and Luckock to Mrs. J.F. Rolston, a Conservative MLA from British

Columbia. In line with the CCF's strategy to get more women involved with the party it

is not surprising to find that both CCF women stated that women should get out and

40

participate in politics; they should attend public lectures and educate themselves on the

issues. Mrs. Rolston, in contrast, informed women readers that they should stay in the

home as homemakers. She felt that "if women leave this job which is theirs, juvenile and

moral delinquency will result and homes be broken U~."~O Regardless of women's

position in the household, the article States that women should keep themselves informed

on current political issues. It was important that "every woman should know enough of

what is going on in her community to realize the defects and how they can be remedied.

Every woman should infonn herself about those who seek election and the policies for

which they ~tand."~ ' Indicating that the author still felt that most women were still

occupied with household management but felt that women should still be politically

involved, the article metaphorically compared the two activities: "If she will but realize

that government is only housekeeping on a large scale she soon will feel that a woman

who can run her own family efficiently is equally capable of giving a worthwhile opinion

on fundamental issues concerning the national fa mil^."^^

While CCF women would have been encouraged by the aforementioned article,

other papers also confirmed that women were creating a substantial influence on the

electorate. One newspaper from May 1949, reported the long way women still had to

travel before their numbers in elected office equaled those of men, but also that the

actual numbers were not reflective of women's influence in politics. "The fact that only

seven of the more than 625 candidates who have already been nominated are women,"

the paper stated, "should not be taken as any indication of the interest and enthusiasm

which is being displayed by Canadian women in the forthcoming e l e ~ t i o n . " ~ ~ In addition,

41

the paper praised the ways women had participated. Hardy told his readers: "Don't think

some hundreds of thousands of other women are not going to have their Say. They are

working behind the scenes and their techniques and stratagems are highly effe~tive."~'

On some occasions, when an issue generated substantial attention, CCF women

got favorable publicity from sources such as the Globe and Mail. One consequence of the

war that was directly relevant to women CCFers was the increased number of women

who entered the workforce. The issue of equal pay for equal work, therefore, became an

important fight for lefiist women. When MacPhail and Eamon Park attacked Ontario

Premier Kennedy over his reluctance to pass legislation ensuring equal pay, the Globe

reported MacPhail's actions favorably on the front page stating that she was the most

eloquent speaker on the t ~ p i c . ~ ~

For CCF women, the war years in particular presented new hopes, but also a new

set of concerns. During the war women "were inspired by the image and reality of 'Rosie

the riveter'," and thus the gendered make-up of the Canadian work force began to be

altered.96 In response to this change, the question of women's equality and concern for

women's issues were beginning to be heard more often in party discussions. While these

questions were never the party's top priority, the very discussion itself was enough to

help construct the women's committees that would in turn lead to greater women's

participation in the party. In addition to the creation of new women's committees, during

the 1940s radio was also used by the CCF to encourage greater public support for the

Party.

42

Prior to the 1945 elections, women in the workforce and the household became a

target of increasing importance to the CCF. Building on strategies which commenced in

the 1930s, the party used radio as a medium through which CCF women could speak to a

wide range of women. Further, with more women in the workforce and thus exposed to

new issues, the party felt that support for the CCF would be found amongst these newly

radicalized women. Louise Lucas' broadcast on women and the banks is a good example

of CCF efforts to aid in the radicalization process. Her remarks were directed to women

who did not think critically about the banks: "To such people 1 submit that the whole

setup of our banking and money system very materially affects the kind of homes we can

build, furnish and operate. It is high time that women do give some thought as to how

these institutions have a very definite bearing on our standard of li~ing."~' CCF women

never failed to connect what might seem an abstract issue to a woman's everyday life,

and Lucas' broadcast did not deviate fiom the nom. She went on to inform her listeners

that

if someone gets something for nothing, then someone gets nothing for something. That is why our banks can brag today that they have the highest earnings ... but many mothers still can't buy their children the proper food they need whether they be the wives of farmers producing well below cost, or of labourers who still receive only $50 a m ~ n t h . ~ '

The problem the CCF had with radio broadcasts such as Lucas' was two-fold: radio time

cost money, of which the CCF was chronically short, and their effectiveness was limited

by the fact that the message was only heard once and thus its impact on voters could not

be sustained. Evidence suggests that both federal and provincial executives were aware

43

of this problem and of the need to continue the inroads CCF women had made in the

1930s.

Several statements made during meetings of the National CCF Women's

Committee demonstrate the party's awareness of the need for CCF women to integrate

themselves into their communities. As the role of the committee was to increase party

members, Mary Morrison, a representative from Ottawa, elaborated on how such growth

could occur. "We must be constantly on the alert," she stated, "to provide activities

which will attract people of many different interests to the CCF, to help them to an

understanding of socialism and to give them opportunities to make their contribution to

the work of the CCF. Women's committees are an excellent way of helping to do this job

with Canadian ~ o m e n . " ~ ~

Committee women ofien worked on their own, away from the party, and

occasionally without the full support of the executive. The efforts of the National

Women's Cornmittee [NWC], for example, were weakened by the fact that the

committee could only meet during the national convention. Funds were short and the

committee minutes note that no money was designated for traveling ex pense^.'^^ The

committee communicated through letter writing instead, and reported back to the

executive on such issues as the current marriage laws and equal pay for equai work.

When the committee members did report back to the party's leadership, at times their

information and requests were ignored. Reports fiom the committee's supporters in the

executive show that despite the party's eagerness to gain women's votes, they were not

always willing to place women's issues on an equal footing with other platfom planks.

44

In a letter fiom Lome Ingle to Barbara Cass-Beggs, Ingle informed her that at the recent

national convention, organizers "either deliberately excluded from the scope of its

resolution or simply forgot about many women's iss~es." '~' Nor did resistance to

women's groups come singularly from the men in the party. NWC meeting minutes from

1948 revealed that "there [was] still some feeling in the CCF both among men and

women that women's committees are unnece~sary."'~~ By 1950, however, the NWC in

particular generated support from women previously skeptical of the role women's

cornrnittees could play in enhancing the authority of leftist women. "When this

committee started," MacPhail said in 1950, "1 was afraid women would be side-tracked

into it, but having seen these women, I'm not afiaid of them being pushed aside."Io3

The creation of distinct women's groups within the CCF caused some concem in

party women that they would be pushed to the fiinges of the party and forgotten.

However, many women in the party, especially those from trade union backgrounds,

would have been familiar with the role of auxiliaries. "Craft unions," Sangster suggests,

favored "their traditional mode of organization - the wives' auxiliary."lo4 Despite this

familiarity, some women still felt that the creation of auxiliaries would push women to

positions of weakness and irrelevance in the same fashion as women in both Liberal and

Conservative ladies' au~ i l i a r i e s . '~~ Many CCF women were aware of these dangers

throughout the years of the CCF. The party never created a ladies' auxiliary per se;

however, Manley has argued that the end result of the Provincial Women's Cornmittee's

[PWC] activities (which will be discussed shortly) was such that the committee acted as

an auxiliary.

45

Two polar opinions on women's groups existed arnongst CCF women during the

1940s. Margaret Lazarus, for example, states that "We didn't believe in separate

associations because we didn't want to be set aside and apart. Marjorie Mann and Peggy

Brewin felt that a Women's Committee could attract some of the non-political women,

but we political women felt that the separate Cornmittee would demote al1 of us within

the larger ~rganization." '~~ Lazarus also stated her concern with CCF policy on women in

general. She completely disagreed with the policy of attracting women to the party

through issues found in women's daily lives. She disagreed with appealing to women

through stereotypical feminine activity. "You should appeal to women ... where you

thought they should be," Lazarus argued, rather than directing politics to where women

were currently at in their political l i ~ e s . ' ~ ' Influential CCF women such as Mann,

however, offered a different argument. Sangster elaborates on one such belief: "Separate

women's groups were seen as a training ground for new women activists and female

leadership, as well as a medium through which women's special concerns and abilities

could be expres~ed." '~~ In addition, it could be argued that separate women's committees

actually fulfilled two distinct goals. Women could pursue fund-raising and political

lobbying activities "in a comfortable social atmosphere while simultaneously developing

their own understanding of socialist issue^.""'^

This dispute over separate women's groups was not confined to women CCFers.

Some male party members "argued that women's groups threatened socialist unity with

feminist false consciousness."''O Yet the counter argument, that many women simply

would not join the CCF directly but might join a women's club feeling less threatened by

46

the more social atmosphere, was also heard. A report from the PWC to the provincial

convention in 1948 exemplifies this issue: "In every community there are many women

who are sympathetic to the CCF but who are unable or unwilling to enter into the

activities of the CCF Club. . . It is the function of [local] women's committees to provide

facilities. . .through which the maximum number of women may make their best

contribution to the CCF.""' The problem still remained, however, that many more

"politically conscious" women did not support the party's policy on the committees. Like

Lazarus, Nellie Peterson did not want token positions given to women in the party

through segregated committees because "women had the abilities ... and we could and

should have earned this our~elves.""~ Even women who were involved in committees

showed signs of disillusionment. The secretary of the PWC, for example, "referred

openly to the indifference and skepticism of many women members over the Council's

~sefulness.""~ Another factor that contributed to similar sentiment was the fact that

many women's organizations in the party were not democratically elected at party

conventions as were other organs of the party. Because women's organizations did not

have a "vote on the Provincial Cmncil [they] lacked a measure of power and prestige -

if only token prestige - that might have helped it move beyond an auxiliary role."""

Another concern in the CCF's debate over separate women's committees was the

fact that in other provinces, such as Saskatchewan and British Columbia, women's

committees had a different relationship with the party, and Ontario women CCFers were

in constant contact and discussion with these groups. It was an interesting relationship;

sometimes the advice flowing from the West was contradictory. Marjorie Mann and

Caroline Riley, for example, often received commentary fiom CCF women in

Saskatchewan. Riley was told, and later so too was Mann, to work with women's

committees even though many Saskatchewan CCFers disagreed with them in principle.

In fact women in Saskatchewan had a completely different experience stemming fiom,

for many of them, a farm background. In Saskatchewan women did not form separate

women's committees and instead formed clubs of mixed groups. Georgina Taylor has

suggested that this was because farm women had experienced direct participation and

played a crucial role in the farm economy."' When women were asked to form women's

committees to be affiliated with the United Farmers of Canada Saskatchewan Section

[UFCSS] women such as Violet McNaughton and Amie Hollis "insisted that the

interests of women would be better served if the UFC had constitutional guarantees of

the participation of women on the provincial executive and the board of directors than

they would be by retaining the Saskatchewan Grain Grower's Association women's

~ection.""~ When the UFC transformed into the Saskatchewan CCF in the early 1930s

"influential women opposed a separate women's section in the Saskatchewan CCF and

the men were opposed to constitutional guarantees of leadership for ~ o m e n . " " ~

Despite such negative reaction from both CCF women in Ontario and in other

provinces, some women's cornmittees were able to engage in meaningful attempts at

social change. As Sangster has noted, some women's committees "were able successfully

to channel resolutions on various issues, including government aid to nursery schools,

widows' pensions, and a women's bureau, through their constituencies to provincial

convention^.""^

48

There is no doubt that many women felt pushed into women's committees and

backroom work. This thesis argues that those who felt more cornfortable in women's

committees could still be involved in a vitally important aspect of the party's survival.

Some party women felt adamantly that women's committees only sidelined women,

while others in the NWC felt that "women's groups provid[ed] additional facilities

through which many women [could] make their best contributions to the work of the

CCF.""9 The main contribution for these women was to connect their neighbor's daily

concerns with the socialist fight. For example, in 1947 the Women's Action Committee

[WAC] was involved in interviewing housewives in their homes on the affect of the

increased price of milk on their consumption habits. In this particular case, not only did

the WAC women work within their own communities, but the results of their findings

were sent to the Ontario Royal Commission on Milk.I2O While a primary concern for

socialist women during the 1940s was price regulation, the inquiry into Milk

consumption represented only a fraction of CCF women's work in this field. In one party

document, plans were laid out on how to connect the party with women as consumers.

"The question of family security," the document reads, "is bound up with prices and

quality standards.""' Under the heading of "Method of Work" the reader gains a clear

understanding of how the party envisioned women's contribution to the spread of

socialist support outside of officia1 party circles. It starts by reminding women that they

should not keep it a secret that they are members of the CCF:

Neither should they 'talk CCF' as such. They should go to the consumer meetings knowing what issues are going to be discussed, be prepared to make concrete suggestions for meeting the various problems, and be prepared with

information to back up their suggestions. In this way their suggestions will be accepted not because they are CCF policy, but because they appear to be sensible in themselves. In this way many women not favorable to the CCF can be brought to accept those points of policy which are in line with their own particular needs.I2'

The party, therefore, continued to build on an effective strategy that began fifieen years

prior to the printing of the above document.

Perhaps one the most familiar roles of women CCFers who continued in this

tradition was that of the "militant mother." The term was used to describe women who

were concerned with maternalist issues and acted on them in a radical fashion. Such

actions contributed to protests such as the On to Ottawa march, organized in part by

militant mothers in the West, and the March of a Million Names which protested the lack

of price regulation and was organized by the Housewives7 Consumers Associations, in

which many CCF women participated.'" There were other maternalist issues that

involved work by CCF women such as penal reform, child welfare, and mothers

allowances. Not only were CCF women anxious to contribute to the fight for social

justice as militant mothers, but many of them led the way. Elise Gorius, for example,

"believed that women frequently held more advanced views than men. She felt women

had borne the brunt of the depression and this often caused them to respond more

directly to issues."'24

When women responded, they did so in ways which showed a fundamental

understanding of the issues and not just a gut reaction spawning Street demonstrations.

Many CCF women, for example worked with the World Congress of Mothers. In a draft

of a speech to be delivered at a convention of the group in 1947, it is clear that these

'militant mothers' were able to contribute to the socialist cause with powerful arguments

no different than those heard at Queen's Park:

With half a million people unemployed in a country as rich in natural resources as ours is, there is a gnawing worry in the minds of mothers about how to meet the every-day needs of our families. How are we to pay the rent, or pay off the mortgage on the house, with both rents and the price of homes for sale sky-rocketing higher than ever in Canada's history? How are we to provide proper food and clothing for the family, pay for fuel and light and ~ a t e r ? ' ~ ~

The speaker continued her attack, this time directing women's attention to the

government's contribution to the economic troubles of the country. One sees displayed

the same political astuteness of the best politicians: "Al1 mothers do not yet realize that

what our government spends on one jet-plane could double family allowances for al1 the

children in the prairie city of Winnipeg. But more of us are learning these things every

day."

Some members of the audience may not have known what the federal and

provincial governments could have done to ameliorate problems associated with high

inflation. The representative of the Congress of Mothers was able to inform her fellow

citizens exactly what could, but was not being done. The government

refiises to increase fainily allowances, refuses to launcli national health insurance, refuses to increase the starvation level of old age pensions, and instead of increasing unemployment insurance benefits, and increasing the length of time for the unemployed to be paid such benefits, it is now planning to cut down that time and give no increases to the vast majority who need them and who have paid into the insurance fund for them.

51

In the same speech, mothers were given some concrete numbers to back up what they

already suspected was going on in their neighborhoods. In dealing with the issue of the

high cost of living for families, the speaker informed her audience that families were

breaking up and that "in Toronto alone there are 3500 children needing foster homes

because of the break-up of their own families." The audience was told that as a result of

these break-ups, children with no proper home were "left to roam on their own after

school because mothers have to go to work."

After informing women on the government's moral and fiscal shortcomings, the

speaker then presented the case for the CCF. In one example, which was familiar to the

maternalist cause, mothers were informed that CCF and Canadian Congress of Women

[CCW] "members have taken united action with other women," in the attack on "horror

comics." "The mass sale of lurid war, horror, and sex comics,"the draft states, "extends

into millions of dollars yearly, as millions of children buy and keep trading this cheap

pulp matter." Concerned mothers learned that "both the CCW and Home and School

Clubs in the main centers have taken the lead in calling for government action to bar the

influx of this propaganda from the United States."

Finally the drafi made an open pitcli for the CCF. In addressing the question as to

what women could do to change their imrnediate situation, the drafi states that the

answer is to take direct political action into women's own hands. Women should "build a

political party which you can control and therefore make sure that the promises will be

kept. The CCF is just such a party. In fact, the CCF was founded fifteen years ago just

because the old parties failed so miserably during the terrible depression of the thirties."

52

In a sample radio script, the CCF itself used similar language in suggesting that,

when elected, the party would act like a good mother:

1 think that no one should find it easier to understand the meaning and purpose of the CCF than the mother of a family. What makes the difference between a good and an indifferent housewife? The difference is that the good housewife plans her budget. She figures out carefully what she needs for rent and for food and for clothing and for fuel. She finds out what food is good for her children and what isn't good. And she plans her expenditures accordingly ... The purpose of the CCF is simply to have the province run as sensibly as a good housewife runs her home. After all, if careful planning is necessary for the happiness of your family and my family, how much more is careful planning necessary for the happiness for the whole Canadian fa mil^?'^^

Good family planning would only be possible if mothers were able to purchase

daily items at a price they could afford. Women CCFers, particularly those from farming

backgrounds, were often acutely aware of issues concerning the economics of the open

market. A farm woman, for instance, was often "almost without exception responsible

for the farm bookkeeping, and often supplemented the family income through the sale of

her garden and dairy produce."'" One CCF woman stated that "quite apart from our

duties as wife, mother and housekeeper, we are producers in the strictly economic

~ense.""~ While the Depression completely destroyed the farmer's sense ofjustice in the

form of a fair and honest price, CCF wonlen in the 1940s took to the public stage to

announce a similar discontent. In one example, a speech demanded that "women must be

lined up in the world camp of progress against the camp of Wall Street and its allies. The

overriding necessity for al1 progressive-minded women in 1948-49 is the defeat of the

warmongers and profiteers and the governments wliich are their ~ O O I S . " ' ? ~ After defining

53

who the enemy of mothers was, the speech elaborated on a solution to women's

problems which could be put into irnmediate action: "The alternative to King-Tory

governments is a C.C.F. govemment, and a movement fighting on a program of peace

and security to elect such a government. Unity at the polls is essential for election of such

a govemment. Women's work and votes can be decisive in bringing about realization of

this aim."'30 But CCF attacks did not end at inatemalist issues. CCF women also fought

against class injustices in the workplace. The same speech States that women could fight

for concrete changes here too, for example, "if steps could be taken in a big way to

organize the Eaton and Simpson stores - and many offices - what a change that would

bring about in thousands of women, in raising their class ~nderstanding!'"~'

There were at least two major differences between CCF women's fight against

capitalism during the 1930s and during the post- World War II period. In the 1 93Os, the

issues of concem and familiarity which leftist women shared with the majority of women

were limited, as were the numbers of women involved in the fight. In the 1940s,

however, due both to a fear of return to economic depression created in part by high

inflation, and the numbers of women that had moved into the workforce, a plurality of

issues were of common concem to women in the province. In addition, CCF women in

the party and in women's groups were joined by thousands of women who took up the

fight against an unregulated market by joining Housewives' Consumer Associations or

the Consumer Association of Canada. To organize and direct CCF women's involvement

with these organizations, the Ontario CCF created the Provincial Women's Cornmittee

[PWC].

54

The PWC represented a new phase in the relationship between CCF women and

the party. Unlike the WJC in the 1930s, the PWC was "to be a standing committee of the

Provincial Council, equal in status and responsibilities to any other council committee.

Despite being the only elected council committee, the PWC was not intended to be a

women's auxiliary but an integral part of the ~ a r t y . " ' ~ ~ The role of the PWC, however,

was very similar to that of the WJC. Its main goal "was always to attract women to the

CCF, 'particularly the occupational group known as housewives,' where they could be

made into socialists and active party workers, and to get existing CCF women to play a

more active role."'" When discussing the reasons for women's lack of participation in

the party, the PWC came up with some familiar sounding arguments. The main reason

was thought to be that most women were shy and, as a result of cultural pressure, they

felt that "politics were the responsibility of men and that, as one delegate put it, 'it is

queer for a woman to be in poli tic^'."'^^ Another culturally related reason was that some

women feared and anticipated forms of social rejection "such as being called a

Communist or putting their husband's job at risk." '35

The relationship betweeii the PWC and the party was not without contradiction.

When the committee was created in 1947, it had the odd distinction of having a president

who did not agree with its existence. Caroline Riley did not support the ideas behind the

PWC yet the CCF provincial executive, aware of Riley's beliefs, insisted that she be the

committee's first president. Riley and another radical CCF woman, Avis McCurdy, were

representative of an interesting combination of beliefs that some women CCFers held. A

few women, commonly CCF farm women, agreed with McCurdy and Riley in that they

55

did not believe in separate women's cornmittees because they felt that a sex segregated

comrnittee would not be taken seriously and would not be heard at conventions or have

much pull with the Provincial Executives. But they did see women's issues, such as equal

pay, as very important. They thought, however, that a mixed group, both males and

females, would get more respect and thus women's issues would have a greater chance of

being addressed at party levels where something could actually be done to voice them.'36

Despite such concerns about the integration of women's committees, the PWC was

actually involved in leading the party on one very interesting issue -the question over

united front activities. CCF provincial and federal executives and members of the PWC

had concerns about losing public support if party women associated with a known

communist organization. In this particular case, the affiliation in question was the

Housewives's Consumer Association [HCA].

The HCAs were a consumer watchdog organization that attempted to take action

against the rising cost of living by urging federal government intervention through price

controls. In the late 1940s, inflation created havoc on Canadian families with the cost to

feed a farnily doubling over the course of the decade.I3' The HCAs, therefore, were

popular with many women and the fact that many communists were also involved in the

associations was largely ignored because the HCAs seemed to be a legitimate effort to

enforce actual change.

A long term dialogue between Marjorie Mann and Grace MacInnis recorded in

letters between the two women reveals the CCF's interest in the HCAs and in its non-

communist offshoot the Canadian Association of Consumers [CAC]. Expressing the need

56

for the groups Mann wrote, "The vast majority of women are not well inforrned on

consumer matters. For them an organization like the CAC can do an excellent job."I3'

But educating women on certain issues was never the final goal; the women had to

connect their discontent with the actions of the curent government and place their

support with the CCF. "Political action is the effective solution," Mann wrote, "to the

consumer's problems. And we inust never forget that that's why we are CCFers and why

we are active. And its our job to make the consumer see that the only government which

can solve her problems is a CCF one."'39 Once women were active in the HCA, it was

thought, they would soon find their heads banging against a wall. Mann felt that "when

[women] find that a consumer organization can only go so far and that political action is

necessary it should be possible to get them to work actively in the CCF."'40 Problems

arose for the executives of the PWC, however, when it appeared as though the CCF was

not the only party finding support from the newly radicalized women.

The PWC began to receive reports from CCF women that the HCAs were heavily

infiltrated by communists and they began to investigate the associations themselves.

Marjorie Mann, at the time president of the PWC, discovercd that the rumors were in fact

true. She therefore informed her fellow CCFers to disengage from the HCAs and urged

them to throw their support behind the Consumers Association of Canada which was

officially supported by the CCF. At first, the PWC got no support from the CCF

provincial or federal executives. In fact many MPs and MPPs actually encouraged

women to participate in the HCAs despite protests from Mann and the PWC. At this

point the CCF provincial executive felt that more potential votes for the party would be

57

lost by removing CCF support from the HCAs than would be sacrificed to the threat of

communist association.

Three members of the PWC, Marjorie Mann, Lucy Woodsworth, and Peg Stewart

took it upon themseives to purge the HCAs of any women CCFers. Two prominent CCF

women, however, refused to disassociate from the HCA. Rae Luckock and Kay Carlin

were finally brought before three members of the PWC and interrogated as to their

involvement in the HCA. The meeting ended in a shouting match when Mann,

Woodsworth, and Stewart demanded that Luckock and Carlin leave the HCA or they

would be expelled from the CCF. Luckock stormed out of the meeting and, after much

prompting by the provincial executive, the PWC expelled the dissidents from the ~ a r t y . ' ~ '

What is important to understand about this event is that CCF women in the PWC

played a leading role in this particular battle in the ongoing anti-communist actions taken

by the part-. Dan Azoulay suggests that while many women in the CCF lacked

confidence and lefi the heated anti-cornrnunist 'heretic hunting' to men, the women of

the PWC actually led this particular fight and were just as ruthless as the men.I4' It is

worth repeating that the PWC fought a continua1 battle with both the federal and

provincial executives around this issue of united front women's work and its relation to

anti-communism. In a final act of fnistration Mann and others moved on their own

authority to demand that members of the CCF not work with the HCA. If women chose

to continue their association despite the new directive, they would be expelled as

Luckock and Carlin had been. Azoulay States that "this episode was the culmination of a

hard and bitter campaign led not by tough-talking, hard-nosed CCF men, but by tough-

58

talking, hard-nosed CCF women determined to stop collaboration talking place between

female party members and a communist-dominated consumer's gro~p.""~

While Mann and other CCF women ran into conflict with the executive over

women's involvement in the HCAs, women's work with labour unions received high

praise and generated cooperation. By 1950, the CCF finally worked out a compromise

with several of the major labour unions. Issues over union representation at provincial

and national conventions were ironed out and the party benefitted from substantial

financial support.'" In the 1940s CCF women were actively involved in union

auxiliaries. In a familiar role, party women attempted to connect issues such as equal

pay, equal job opportunities, benefits such as nurseries and paid maternity leave, with the

CCF's fight. In large part, because of the efforts of leftist women, al1 of these issues were

eventually added to the party platform.'" One document notes that "the very excellent

work done by [women] ... indicates what can be done through a~xiliaries." '~~ The same

document goes on to elaborate on the role women would play aiding the party's

recognition within unions. "The role of women in the trade unions," the document reads,

"is to see that these things [equal pay etc.] become part of the program of every union. In

order to do this our party should help in every possible way to see that in the

unions ... women are developed as union leaders."'" Work within labour unions,

therefore, complemented women's efforts carried out on several fronts throughout the

decade.

By the 1950's the expansion of women's groups had come to a halt. A few

possibilities behind this trend might have been a lack of funding, party disinterest, or

59

simply poor organization. Azoulay argues that there was growing cultural acceptance of

the 'mystique of feminine fulfillment' which "asserted the primacy of the home and

family as women's ultimate goal in life, [and] may also have contributed to a lessening

of partisan political action by women."'" The 1940s, however, offered a completely

different environment to women. The immense degree of social and economic upheaval

that was created by both the Depression and World War Two, allowed for no such

'feminine mystique'. Instead, many Ontario CCF women were very much active in public

political lives. Some CCF women did not support the idea of working within women's

groups and committees and instead worked with other organizations, such as the HCAs,

which they thought would fight for greater changes. In some instances, as has been seen,

women continued in these organizations despite threats fiom the CCF that continued

participation would mean expulsion from the party. Other women were willing to work

within the party structure through such groups as the PWC and NWC. Despite these

differences in political philosophies, CCF women within the party and externally fought

to spread the socialist message.

Conclusion

The CCF is a movement among the people, a crusade for a new social order. Its progress

therefore requires members to make themselves fit representatives of their cause in word

and deed. It requires that they convert the ~ninds of others to a philosophy andprogram

quite dflerent fiom those of the older parties.'"

This quote illustrates the role that women CCFers played within the Ontario CCF

and its external women's groups fi-om 1933 to the early 1950s. It was a role that has been

partially overlooked and, more often than not, was trivialized in the first party histories

by Young and others. This chapter has explored the efforts of CCF women from the high-

profile Agnes MacPhail and her work to unite the UFO and rural community with the

CCF, to the lesser known Rose Henderson and her inner-city work to ensure that Toronto

area women knew that the CCF was the only party which could help to alleviate their

poverty. Over two decades, the strategy was always the same: enter the con~munity, talk

to wornen, educate them on the issues that affected them in their daily lives, and help

them to the understand that real change would only occur once the CCF was elected.

Of course many barriers prevented women from having a greater impact on the

province. Some of these were created by the CCF itself. For example, Leo Zakuta has

noted the number of women who were used as 'sacrificial' candidates during the late

1940s; most were placed in ridings that the CCF had no hope of winning. Clearly this

tells us something about the value that the party executive placed on women's

involvement - at least in terms of their perceived potential for advancement within the

6 1

party leadership. In addition, as Sangster has proven, there is no doubt that the pariy

exercised a sexual division of labour. Whether it came about as a direct result of party

policy or, as Azoulay suggests, was more the work of cultural pressures in general, its

existence limited the role women played within the CCF. But women were able to aid the

party in ways that did not always involve the party structure.

The work of groups such as the WJC and WPA helped to establish a breeding

ground for socialist ideas in Ontario. Both the CCF party and women's groups were

fighting for the same social change, but it can be argued that such change could better be

realized through women's organizations as the socially acceptable medium of the time.

Once a skeptical public was prepared for political change by various women's

organizations, the CCF could establish itself as the government to implement it. CCF

women could then connect the CCF and women's organizations through their dual

membership. When women's contribution to the growth of the CCF is examined in this

light, it appears as though women played a substantial role in the survival and expansion

of the CCF in Ontario over the twenty-year period.

Political historians restrict their analysis when they focus only on those records

pertaining to party members. To achieve an understanding of how and why events

transpired in the case of the CCF, one must not limit their historical scope to official

party programmes and numbers. The goal of this chapter has been to demonstrate the

significance of exploring influences outside the party structure and to examine how low-

profile political figures connected issues of everyday significance to political platforms.

Elections cannot determine or reveal the extent to which leftist women were able to

62

influence members of their own communities. We do not always know what prompts an

individual to vote for a particular party and what causes a last minute swing in the polls.

Lefiist women were a part of the Ontario CCF story and an understanding of their work

in the party, and in organizations, must be acknowledged if the complete story is to be

told.

Chapter 3: Women and the British Columbia CCF: Political Osmosis at Work

After exploring the role of women's groups and their grass-roots efforts in the

Ontario CCF, a similar endeavor addressing the British Columbia CCF is essential. The

effect that B.C. women had on their local communities, following an almost identical

strategy to their Ontario counterparts, was clearly much more forceful and their

achievements more far-reaching. By examining the role of B.C. socialist women we gain

a greater understanding of the range of women's influence as a political pressure group.

CCF women during the first twenty years of the party's history operated along a spectrum

of involvement in the party. To complete the metaphor, there were women at the "low

end" who aided the party through back-room organizational efforts, but there were also

highly visible women who contributed to the spread of socialism in very open and public

ways, raising the profile of female activism on the West Coast.

British Columbian CCF women had one major benefit which their counterparts in

Ontario lacked. Immediately afier its introduction into the political culture of the

province, the CCF was a strong force on the B.C. political stage. A series of left-wing

MLAs sat in Victoria during the First World War years and into the twenties, including

Parker Williams, Sam Guthrie, Hany Neelands, Frank Browne, and John McInnis, al1 of

whom were well known to members of the B.C. working class, their voice in the

Legislature associated with reform politics. During the 1933 provincial election, the first

contested by the CCF, the party became the official opposition. The party leader, an

Anglican minister from Vancouver Island named Rev. Robert Connell, sat in the

64

Legislature with six other CCF MLAs. In its first federal election in 1935, the CCF won

three seats in B.C., and received the highest share of the popular vote in the province.

Second place at the provincial level, however, only meant that the CCF had a louder

voice in Victoria. The ability to influence policy concerning unemployment and poverty

could best be pursued at the provincial level. CCF women knew this and they believed

that afier the next election in the mid-to-late 1930s, the Lieutenant-Govemor would be

asking their party to form the provincial government.

Like their colleagues in Ontario, B.C. women felt that the best way to contribute

to the spread of socialism was to disseminate their knowledge and the benefits of their

socialist education to other women outside the party. This chapter will discuss how CCF

women implemented this plan by preparing their own weekly radio broadcasts; by

participating in local women's organizations such as the Vancouver Local Council of

Women [VLCW] and the CCF Women's Central Committee; by participating in civic

politics; by working for the party itself and running for office as MLAs; and by their

organization of, and participation in, public demonstrations. Through al1 of these

activities British Columbia's CCF women were able to coiistruct their own areas of

political action. Despite the fact that some CCF women disagreed with leading a separate

gender-specific fight for the CCF through women's groups, thus bringing attention to the

gendered nature of their protest, the need for this separate sphere was created by the lack

of upward mobility available to women within the party proper. As Joan Sangster has

pointed out, the patriarchal attitude of the party leaders ofien lefi little option for women

who wanted to advance within the CCF.

65

This chapter will also demonstrate that CCF women in B.C. were highly

successfùl in bringing attention to the need for the immediate implementation of

socialism. Often acting independently of the CCF, these women were occasionally able

to galvanize the diverse political opposition in B.C. to the capitalist system. In addition,

CCF women were successfiil in their attempts to confiont directly those in authority, thus

reminding voters on relief exactly who was looking out for their interests. CCF women

acted out their socialism in their own everyday lives, often feeding and housing the

unemployed themselves.

At the founding convention of the CCF in 1933 two B.C. women, Mildred

Osterhout and Dorothy Steeves, drove fiom Vancouver to Saskatchewan in an old and

unreliable car because they felt strongly that this "new party" would represent their

socialist ideals.I5" In addition, they had already lived through almost three years of the

Depression and firmly believed that preparation for political action in the next election

was absolutely ne~essary. '~' Prior to the creation of the CCF and their trip to

Saskatchewan both Osterhout and Steeves organized local socialist discussion groups in

Vancouver. Known as the Fellowship of Reconstruction [FOR], and loosely connected to

the eastern organization of the saine name, the women met with other socialists to read

and discuss the writings of such political notables as Marx, Laski, and Bellamy. Dorothy

Steeves, in particular, was a driving force in the process that transformed the groups from

the FOR into the Reconstruction Party in 1932, which at that time was competing with

the B.C. Socialist Party for the allegiances of reform-minded voters. The Reconstruction

66

Party, along with both the B.C. Federated CCF Clubs and the Socialist Party, officially

amalgamated in 1935 to form the British Columbia CCF."'

A Familiar Dilemma

Although the CCF was successful in B.C.- much more so than in Ontario -

B.C. women faced many of the same barriers to full participation in the party that

restricted Ontario women. While B.C. women responded to these challenges differently,

and more vigorously, a similar set of prejudices held by party leaders forced women to

create their own spheres of political agency. Provincial leaders such as Ernie Winch

highlighted a gendered radical socialism in which masculinist understandings of class

and its politics prevailed. Some B.C. women CCFers espoused a similar 'class politics',

thus restricting their potential rise to power within the party. B.C. women were

nevertheless allowed greater agency within the party, but they still fought many political

battles with the B.C. leadership, and marking out their territory was no easy task.

The work of Helena Gutteridge while she was secretary of the CCF Economic

Planning Council and the experience of Eve Smith at a provincial convention are

excellent examples of what many women CCFers were trying to accomplish and how

they interacted with the male leadership. By briefly examining the experiences of both

women, the segregating pressures which were at work within the CCF are exposed. On

some occasions women actually gained confidence in themselves when forced to

confront these pressures. Eve Smith's convention experience was such an occasion.

67

Smith recalls one particular event, which has since become known in CCF

circles as the "literature incident," from which she feels she gained great confidence. The

event occurred at a CCF convention in 1950 that took place in Vancouver. Smith was in

charge of the literature table to be placed at the back of the conference hall. As she

recalls, a day before the convention, after the literature committee had agreed upon the

materials to be made available, she received some pamphlets from the British Socialist

party that questioned whether the British Labour Party was really left-wing. Smith called

Dorothy Steeves to discuss the possibility of including the new pamphlets; Steeves felt

that they should be made available. During the convention, David Lewis walked by the

table and saw the "offending" material. Outraged, he demanded that Smith remove the

pamphlets, to which Smith replied that she would not comply. She then lectured Lewis

on the democratic nature of the CCF. One person, no matter who he happened to be,

could not decide what would or would not be made available. Lewis stormed off only to

return a short tirne later in the Company of M.J. Coldwell. Together, the two leaders

demanded that Smith remove the material. Again she replied that she would not,

repeating that neither of them sat on the literature cornmittee and therefore had no right

to make such a demand. In the end Lewis and Smith debated the issue on the speaker's

platform in front of the entire convention. Despite the fact that Smith was not an official

delegate and had no right to address the floor, many of the members applauded her,

feeling that Lewis was wrong to have interfered. Smith had gained confidence over the

years of involvement in the party and the conflict with Lewis and Coldwell confirmed for

her that "a situation like that incident, brings [the confidence] out in y o ~ . " ' ~ ~

68

More prominent CCF women also rail into conflicts with male leaders in the

Party. Helena Gutteridge was Secretary of the CCF Economic Planning Cornmittee. In

this capacity she put great effort into contributing to the CCF Labour Code, which

explained exactly how the CCF would implement a socialist society should it receive a

mandate to do so. Gutteridge, intellectuals from the University of British Columbia, and

other professionals worked together to assimilate their ideas into an actual plan to be put

in place when the CCF was elected. For example, the committee came up with a policy

for nationalizing B.C.'s logging industry: the forests would be managed for the people

instead of for privately-owned logging companies.

The Labour Code found no support amongst the provincial leaders. Angus

MacInnis responded to Gutteridge's work by stating that the Code was completely

unrealistic. He went so far as to suggest that if the Economic Planning Cornmittee really

wanted to implernent the Code they would have to be prepared to enact extra-

parliamentary powers, which in his mind meant that the CCF had better be ready to fight

a class war since the owners of industry would never accept what the Code entailed. "1

realize," he wrote Gutteridge, "that the Labour Code forwarded to me was only tentative.

But even at that it shows the attitude of mind of those who drafied it. 1 hope the

convention will get down to business and drafi a program that will have regard for our

political and economic development in British Columbia."lS4 While Angus MacInnis had

been polite in his communication with Gutteridge, earlier letters between himself and

prominent B.C. CCFer Wallis Lefeaux display the actual dishonesty with which he had

dealt with her. MacInnis asked Lefeaux to publically state his opposition to the

69

Economic Planning Committee and to lead his supporters in a movement to disband the

coinmittee. Lefeaux's comments in reply to Macinnis' request are worth quoting in full:

"They [the Planning Committee] are regularly issuing highly-coloured graphs, as they

cal1 them, showing what we are going to do with the forests and how many people we are

going to employ. 1 have been complaining about this right along; in fact 1 very much

object to practically al1 the work of this so-called Planning Commission."'55 In response

to MacInnis' request he wrote, "1 must inform you that 1 am not looking for anymore

work than 1 have on hand, and 1 do not feel like leading an insurgent group against this

mass of optimistic verbiage."Is6

Helena Gutteridge, "one of those actively preparing the way for a socialist

government," and her colleagues on the Planning Committee, put countless hours into

constructing the Labour Code.Is7 Many of them struggled to generate grass-roots support

for the party by organizing and canvassing in every election, be it a by-election, a civic

campaign, or a federal election. The Committee developed the Labour Code to enable the

CCF to enact changes immediately afier an election. In her particular fight to help

spread socialism, however, Gutteridge had to contend with CCFers such as Macinnis,

who went behind her back to generate support to disband her Planning Committee.

The Economic Planning Committee was not the only group in which women

CCFers played a major role and yet also faced condescension from party leaders. The

Unemployment Conference, the group through which Sarah Colley acted to gain

concessions from the premier, was disbanded in 1937. At the provincial convention that

year it was announced that "The Industrial and Unemployment Conference, on the

70

grounds that it placed the CCF in embarrassing Positions in its relations with other

groups, is to be disbanded."Is8 The possible dissolution of the Conference had been

discussed a year earlier when complaints were heard that the Conference nullified the

work of other CCF clubs and that its collaboration with the communists was

unacceptable.

A clear pattern becomes evident as CCF women ran the gauntlet between their

own sense that political action through the CCF was absolutely necessary if socialist

policies were to be implemented and the suffering of the Depression alleviated, and male

leaders in the party who were eager to reap the rewards of women's participation, but

only if it coincided with their own visions of the party. It stands to reason, however, that

not al1 CCF women were radicals representing a challenge to Winch and other provincial

leaders. Grace MacInnis is a good example of a more moderate CCFer, and she did not

face nearly the same opposition that barred the path of Gutteridge or Smith. Because

CCF women did differ in their own interpretations of the CCF, conflict often arose

among themselves. For example, the bitterness between Steeves and Grace MacInnis was

quite well known within CCF circles. Ir1 general the main obstacle barring the way to

higher leadership positions for many radical CCF women was their own political

consciousness, not so much their gender, although it too was a factor.

Interviews with CCF women active during the party's first twenty years of

existence, and much of the archival evidence, demonstrates that B.C. women faced

discrimination by party leaders both because of their gender and their radical socialism.

The remainder of this chapter documents the women's response to this top-down

7 1

pressure. Women such as Osterhout, Steeves, Sarah Colley, and many others took the

space which the leadership allowed them to manoeuver and expanded it. They used

radio, public demonstrations and otlier mediums to express their support for the CCF and

to encourage others to join the fight.

An lnherited Tradition

The fact that Steeves and Osterhout were involved with the formation of the B.C.

CCF is not surprising. British Columbia women had a history of participating in politics

that stretched back into the early years of the twentieth century. In fact, some of the older

CCF women were themselves involved in early women's organizations. Groups such as

the Vancouver Women's University Club and the Political Equality League had been a

part of the political landscape in the pre-World War 1 years. CCF women were thus the

recipients of a growing tradition of women's public involvement in political life that in

Canada can be traced back to the late nineteenth century. Wayne Roberts has argued that

during this period there was a gradua1 shift in the public consciousness of many upper

and middle-class women. Women moved out of the private family sphere, but they did

not forget their obligations as mothers. Many of these "new women" extended their

position as mothers in families to that of mothers of society; women would protect and

clean up society as they did their own children.Is9 The Woman's Christian Temperance

Movement, for example, tried to reform society by protecting it from the evils of alcohol.

When women campaigned for the vote, however, the reason most often cited was that it

could be used to reform sociel, rather than challenge its basic structure.

There are several reasons why the growth of women's participation in reform did

not steadily build after the birth of the "new woman"in the late nineteenth century.

According to Roberts, a form of conservative feminism undercut the initial radical

impulse of the suffragists. Upper-class women embraced only the most conservative

elements of the 'new woman' movement. It was these women who ran organizations

such as the Canadian National Council of Women, one of Canada's most influential

women's groups during this initial phase. In addition, while many more women entered

the workforce as professionals, most women who did so were restricted to fields that may

be labeled "dependent professions." These women's

professional existence was designed to extend the characteristics of familial subordination to the public arena, reinforce the ideological separate spheres and secure them in a network of confining structures and obligations ... In the process, their rights became conditional on special attributes - self-denial rather than self-advancement, helping others rather than themselves, and service rather than leadership.I6O

This view of women's role as the protector of society was one that many elite

Vancouver women, such as Evelyn Farris, who formed the Vancouver Women's

University Club [VWUC] in 1907, accepted. As the problems of modern industrialization

and the market economy hit Vancouver and an outdated judicial code failed to protect

the most vulnerable in this society, women began to use their influence as protectors to

act as a pressure group. The VWUC, for instance, was concerned with improving

conditions for women especially in the realms of education and employment. The group

was formed to bring together women with a university education and to organize them

such that they could give something back to society. Philanthropically, they felt that they

73

should spread their knowledge to women who did not have the same privilege of a

university education. While the VWUC joined in the fight for suffrage, it was not by any

means a radical group bent on reshaping the structures of society. While some

"progressive" women, such as future CCFer Laura Jamieson, did speak at the VWUC, in

general the more radical women could be found in the Political Equaliîy League [PEL].

The PEL was founded in 19 10, and unlike the VWUC focused entirely on

suffrage issues. In 191 6 it became known as the Women's New Era League B E L ] and

began to take a stand on a broad range of reforms; future CCFer Susan Lane Clark was

the NEL's first president. Another CCFer, Helena Gutteridge, was part of both these

groups; she also founded the B.C. Women's Suffrage League in 1913 and the Minimum

Wage League in 191 7. Moving beyond the position of merely "cleaning up" or protecting

communities, Gutteridge introduced her socialism to many of these groups because her

aim was to completely re-structure society. In 1913, in the B.C. Federationist, she stated

that "the need of political power for the working class is greater than that of any other

class because only when she is able to influence industrial legislation will she cease to be

exploited and forced into starvation and s ha me."'^' By 1934, women's groups such as the

NEL were, if not openly socialist themselves, at least paralleling CCF demands. For

example, in 1934 the NEL was demanding that the B.C. provincial government establish

a proper welfare department. The women pointed out that the current Welfare

Federation, which was run partially by private individuals and yet received public funds,

was wasting money on exorbitant salaries for officials who were unaccountable to the

public. In a statement printed in the Vancouver Province, the NEL demanded that "the

74

Provincial Government [should] establish a department of public welfare and by co-

operation with the municipalities shall co-ordinate and administer al1 public services

taking them entirely out of the hands of private or semi-public ~rganizations." '~~

In addition to an extensive tradition of women involved in progressive women's

groups, women also had a history of lobbying successfully for legislative change. In her

work on women's reform and legislation passed by the B.C. Liberal government in the

1920s, Diane Crossley suggests that women made a significant contribution to the

passage of such legislation. After the suffrage victory, women transferred their energy to

welfare reform. With the aid of progressive Attorney-General Farris, Evlyn Farris7

husband, and Mary Ellen Smith, B.C.'s only female MLA at the time, groups such as The

Minimum Wage League, the Victoria Local Council of Women, Women's Institutes, the

Progressive Home Worker's League, and the University Women's Club worked hard to

ensure the passage of legislation such as the Minimum Wage Act of 191 8, the Matemity

Protection Act, and "a 1923 amendment to the Factory Act [that] prohibited the

employment of any child under the age of fifteen in any factory." '63 Women, therefore,

forrned organizations and acted successf~~lly as a pressure group in achieving certain

reforms. Many CCF women took part in these campaigns, which informed their

experience of the 1930s.

B.C. CCF Women: ldentity and Experience

Who were these CCF women? We have detailed histories of only a comparatively

small group of women, but many of their backgrounds contained important similarities

75

and the persona1 development of many followed cornmon patterns, which in itself

provides useful insights into the motivations of CCF women. Perhaps the single most

important unifjing characteristic of these women was the high level of education that

most of them obtained. For example, Grace MacInnis received her BA fiom the

University of Manitoba and then studied at the Sorbonne in France; Dorothy Steeves

earned a Doctor Of Laws fiom Leiden University; Laura Jamieson secured a BA fiom the

University of Toronto; Helena Gutteridge obtained degrees fiom both the Regent Street

Polytechnic and the Royal Sanitary Institute in London; and Mildred Osterhout had been

to normal school (teacher's training), received her BA from the University of British

Columbia and attended graduate schools at both Bryn Mawr University outside of

Philadelphia and at the London School of Economics where she went to lectures given by

Harold Laski and Sidney and Beatrice Webb. With these atypical educational experiences

behind them, therefore, many reports fiom women's groups and the local newspapers

emphasized how impressive the knowledge of leading CCF women was on many issues.

Next to education, many also shared organizational work experience. During

World War 1, Dorothy Steeves served as a legal advisor to the Dutch government and

organized the distribution of food and other necessities. Helena Gutteridge sat on the

executive of countless organizations, acting at different times as treasurer, vice-chairman

and trustee of the Vancouver Trades and Labour Council; secretary of the Vancouver

City Central Woman's Suffrage Referendum Campaign; and later, the Vancouver Town

Planning Cornmittee, where she contributed as Vancouver's first woman alderman. Laura

Jamieson brought her experience and reputation as a Juvenile Court Judge in Burnaby to

76

the CCF group. Mildred Osterhout worked at the Kingsley Hall relief centre in London's

East End; she had met and worked with Gandhi, an experience that changed her life.

Together, this collective involvement in movements, organizations and causes gave CCF

women an air of authority when they presented CCF positions to different women's

groups throughout the province.

In addition, many of the leading female CCFers were also well known in their

own comrnunities through positions on numerous civic bodies. Dorothy Steeves was a

member of the Point Grey Town Planning Council from 1926 -1 928 and Laura Jamieson

was President of the B.C. Parent-Teacher Association from 1925-26 and member of the

B.C. Public Library Commission fiom 1927-1938. Such women were familiar names and

faces outside of the CCF. Finally, it is worth noting that many women, including

Mildred Osterhout and Grace MacInnis, had strong religious backgrounds; both women's

fathers were Methodist ministers. As will be discussed later, several women felt that their

fight for the socialist cause was evangelistic in nature and that it was easy for them to

endorse the CO-operative system since, in many cases, they had grown up with it as part

of their background.

If the level of education seemed to be one factor in detennining the authority a

woman assumed while working in groups and committees, this was not always the case.

The CCF was full of women who received an 'education' by experiencing the injustice of

the Depression. Their desire to change society helped them gain respect and positions

within women's groups through which they could direct reform activity. Eve Smith,

whose only official education was elementary school and nurse's training, combined her

77

own reading of her father's copy of the Communist Manifesto with her exposure to

extreme poverty. Thus motivated, she organized socialist groups on her 0 ~ n . I ~ ~ Another

example was Annie McGougan, a less-prominent figure, who ran CCF operations in

Vancouver during the 1930s at the Rio church; this religious-based operation became a

focal point for reform organization. McGougan also took care of the centre's finance and

repairs. Harold Winch States that women such as Margaret Cook, again not among the

ranks of the CCF women's 'educated elite', "practically ran" his campaigns.16' For many

women, therefore, witnessing poverty on a daily basis provided both an education and the

motivation to bring about change. The fact that most CCF women, coming from the

middle class, witnessed yet did not directly experience poverty, is an important

distinction. Nevertheless, it must be noted that their observation of extreme poverty

proved enough of an impetus.

For many women drawn to the CCF, much of their motivation came from

continua1 exposure to poverty and al1 the consequences that went with it; people's lives

were shattered in every way, fiom the economic to the psychological. The CCF offered

new solutions that were different from those espoused by the Liberals and Conservatives.

Many of the CCF platforms emphasized issues that were important to women and

reflected their concems- which for some women was simply an end to abject and

needless poverty. For Eve Smith, it was the "insanity" of the whole situation which drove

her to become active politically. She contracted tuberculosis when in nurses' training in

Vancouver. After recovering at a sanitarium in Kamloops, Smith worked as a nurse and

home helpmate. While working in private homes she came into contact with low-paid

78

female servants and was outraged to find that many of these women were forced to sleep

in cramped attics and were paid "starvation wages" while they were surrounded by

wealth in "high-class" homes. The blatant inequality of wealth was always visible; the

poverty surrounding Smith drove her to a politics of social transformation.

As a social worker in Philadelphia, London, and Vancouver, Mildred Osterhout

realized that her clients' persona1 and family probleins were mainly a result of their

inability to find work, which in turn led to their feeling of displacement f'rom society. Al1

the psychological guidance she could give would amount to nothing unless people had

the opportunity to work. In Vancouver, one of her first jobs after returning f'rom Europe

was to work as a coordinator for the YWCA. She worked with unemployed women and

girls in the Burns Building at the corner of Hastings and Carrol where, on the top floor,

she set up a restaurant and club room for the women. While working in the Vancouver

cornrnunity she found that, when given a rare job opportunity, women were forced to

undercut men's wages, if they got any waged labour at all. Many of them were so

desperate that they went into pros t i t~ t ion . '~~

For others, motivation came from the observation of continua1 inaction by those

in positions of power. Helena Gutteridge used her civic positions to combat the

dangerous probleins created by poverty and housing crises in Vancouver during the

1930s and 1940s. For years the city council did nothing to relieve pressures on housing.

Effie Jones, who ran for mayor in Vancouver in several elections during the 1940s,

complained about the general inaction of the city council and against specific actions

79

such as the announcement by incumbent Mayor Charles Jones that street car fares would

be raised.

Another source of motivation came from direct observation of other governments

that had taken what seemed to be positive action to alleviate problems created by the

Depression. For example, Mildred Osterhout states that when she arrived back from

Europe and saw the massive levels of unemployment and a government "that was not

facing up to the crisis," she wondered why the Canadian state had not taken action like

that of Russia, which had implemented a programme of affordable housing, providing

work and daycare facilities so that people could participate in building the countt-y.'67

There were several reasons why such women felt that the CCF provided a

political programme with which they could affiliate. According to Hilda Kristiansen, a

long-time CCFer who participated in the growth of the CCF in B.C., many women

believed that the CCF represented both the industrial struggle and women's struggle

~ o m b i n e d . ' ~ ~ They believed this despite, as Joan Sangster has shown, the limits on

women's activism that existed within the For example, Kristiansen notes that

one of the CCF plays, which were often read during evening reading nights put on by

local riding committees, was "surprisingly contemporary in that it portrayed women's

struggle in the work place." This is an important observation because it points to the

difference between myth and the reality of women's place in the political culture of

Vancouver during the 1930s. Kristiansen states that far more women than is currently

believed were able to take their activism into the workplace because many of them were

already in the workplace prior to the employment boom of the Second World War. When

80

recalling this pre-war presence, amongst other employments, Kristiansen states that many

women in her life were working as journalists, stenographers, or running boarding

houses. "This idea that women were in the home al1 the time," Kristiansen argues, "is

really a figment of someone else's imaginati~n."'~' It wasn't simply a fight for price

control or single women's relief, therefore, that leftist women shared in common with

the CCF. Many women chose to participate in the CCF 'movement' because many had

experienced first hand the industrial conditions that desperately required attention. The

CCF offered political agency to women in the workforce in a way that older parties

simply did not. Labouring men, let alone women, were often ignored by other parties

because, "it was not recognized that labouring people had intelligence and that they

could assume responsibility to meet their own needs, " states Mildred Osterhout, adding,

"this new party recognized this and made a place for the common man."'7' For some

leftist women like Osterhout, such a position was simply part of the "Christian"

philosophy that the CCF espoused. Osterhout clearly felt that one reason why she

believed so strongly in the cooperative movement was because she had been exposed to

it through her father's religious work. Her understanding of the principles of the CCF

included a heavy dose of Christianity, and in this light she often noted that she saw

herself in the fight against capitalism and the Depression as a missionary, bringing

socialism to the people with an evangelical air of righteousness. "We went into this [the

CCF] with great enthusiasm," Osterhout states,

feeling that we had to arouse others and arouse in people a sense of their opportunity and responsibility. And so we went out on an evangelistic mission almost, to bring people into this movement which was holding up as

an ideal a CO-operative way of life that would bring al1 into respect for each other and sharing together in opening opportunities for everyone to have full de~elopment.'~'

When Osterhout recalls how she felt when asked to run as a candidate for the CCF in

1935, a similar religious tone is apparent:

We felt that this was a cal1 we must answer. And so almost like evangelists we went out to convert people to help them to realize that this was an ideal which we could make real in our own country. That we could build a cooperative movement which would be concerned about the needs of al1 the people. And so we went into this with great enthusiasm and although 1 was somewhat startled when they asked me to run, 1 decided well, yes, this is the thing 1 believe in, this is the thing 1 want to do.'73

Acting as messengers of the newly-created CCF, women undertook much of the leg-work

necessary to pave an easier path that would lead to a CCF electoral victory in the 1930s.

They started groups such as the Women's Lyceum Club, an officially chartered CCF

body designed to educate women in socialism. And they ran a hospitaiity room, located

next door to the party's head office in downtown Vancouver, which welcorned new

arrivals to the province and helped them to contact local socialist groups in their new

community; no other CCF coinmittee had thought of the need for such a service. In

addition, CCF women took their message to other woinen's groups. The Vancouver

Local Council of Women had five CCF women on its executive; women like Hilda

Kristiansen, Helena Gutteridge, and Dorothy Steeves were al1 delegates to the VLCW.

The Vancouver Women's School for Citizenship was another group in which CCF

women could influence other women. One activity of the school involved taking women

to City Hall so they could learn about civic politics or the role of the marketing board -

82

both of which might othenvise have been of little concern to many women. Women's

role as civic politicians, public demonstrators, MLAs, and radio hosts must al1 be

understood if the significance of their contribution to the CCF in British Columbia is to

be made clear.

CCF Women in Women's Groups

Perhaps the most familiar woman's group in Vancouver during the 1930s was the

Vancouver Local Council of Women, which brought together representatives from

women's groups throughout the city into one body. During the 1930s' the VLCW minutes

were often a who's who of B.C. socialist groups. This is significant not only because it

tells us that CCF women were involved in the Council and thus spreading the CCF

message to a widely representative group of women, but also because during the 1930s

the Depression created conditions that forced the VLCW to change its normally passive

role in politics and allowed CCF women a greater influence than leftist women on the

council would have had during the previous decades.

By the late 1920s and into the early thirties many community women's groups

were still essentially "non-political," with many women still accepting the lead of upper-

class women. At the turn of the century women looked for leadership to Lady Ishbel,

wife of the Governor General, who was president of the National Council of Women; the

conservative influence was still very much present. The guidance and direction given by

women like Lady Ishbel placed restrictions on the political nature of the NCW. Needless

to Say discussions of class conflict and the need for socialism were not welcomed. In the

83

NCW, of which the Vancouver Council was a member, resolutions had first to pass the

council's national executive. Therefore, any radical resolutions which might result in a

petition to provincial or federal governinents would be rejected by the national council's

executive in which no socialist voice was heard.

Prior to the Depression, the direction and extent of the Vancouver Local

Council's policy was decided, as mentioned, by the national council executive, but in the

1930s the national executive decided that since "only the Local Councils knew

community needs, relief programs would have to be handled locally. This was the extent

of policy direction given to the Local Councils by their national organization during the

1 9 3 0 ~ . " ' ~ ~ This decentralization of control from Ottawa to the local level meant that CCF

women now had a greater chance to introduce socialist solutions that previously had

found little support. In her study of the VLCW during the Depression, Mary Powell

stated that unlike other women's councils across Canada, the VLCW noted "the effects

of the Depression soon after the beginning of the cri si^."'^^ Uncovering the cause of this

anomaly, Powell attributed it to "the presence of such knowledgeable and experienced

women as Susan Clark, Laura Jamieson, Helen MacGill, Helena Gutteridge, Helen Smith

and Dorothy S t e e ~ e s . " ' ~ ~ Powell concludes, "Given that the minute book for these years

reads like a 'who's who' in provincial socialist circles, it is likely that the Vancouver

Council was more radical than most other Co~nc i l s . " '~~

CCF women did undoubtedly help shape the scope of the VLCW reform policy

during the Depression but it was not a universally accepted idea amongst socialist

women that participation in the VLCW was appropriate. Some were against the idea of

84

joining. This is not surprising given that many CCF women did not see themselves as

feminists and disliked drawing attention to their gender. Susan Walsh has pointed out

that Dorothy Steeves and Grace MacInnis were at times completely opposed to playing

the gender card. Mildred Osterhout felt the same, stating that "1 did not emphasize that 1

represented something novel, or forefront in a women's movement. 1 was part of the

CCF, a movement that was for al1 people."'7x

However, opinions were not unified on this issue, especially on the utility of

joining local women's groups such as the VLCW; some CCFers endorsed women's

groups and motivated other members to become active in local women's organizations.

A typical incident was recorded by Dorothy Steeves. After attending a CCF women's

luncheon discussion in 1939, Steeves recorded in her diary that she had opposed Laura

Jamieson's position that it was beneficial for the CCF to join the VLCW. Mrs. Jamieson

was not pleased by her colleague's comments. Nevertheless, Steeves reported in her

usual confident style that, "1 fancy several women there agreed with me."'79

There were other reasons why Steeves felt negatively about the CCF's

participation in the local council. Steeves' diaries from the previous two years contain

several entries in which she complains that the Liberals still maintained influence in the

council through the presence of Mrs. Paul Smith, a Liberal MLA. A year before her

disagreement with Laura Jamieson at the luncheon, Steeves realized that the battle lines

had been drawn in the local council between herself and Mrs. Smith. "[A] difference of

opinion [is] likely to develop between Mrs. Smith and myself," Steeves wrote, "as she

parrots forth Pattullo's views on 'better terms for B.C.""80 And a week earlier she noted

85

her concern, stating that "the Local Council of women is largely a Liberal group - Mrs.

Paul Smith has them well in contr~l ." '~ ' Yet Steeves and other CCF women such as

Jamieson and Gutteridge continued to attend the meetings. As a result, the other women

present would have listened to many debates between Smith and Steeves as the spirited

CCF MLA representing North Vancouver and Alderman Gutteridge presented their

federalist and socialist solutions for welfare shortages while their Liberal opponent

continually pontificated on the value of provincial rights.In2

Despite Steeves' complaints about the presence of Mrs. Paul Smith, she was quite

clear about her understanding of the need for a CCF presence on the council. Steeves,

Jamieson, and Gutteridge were al1 there to educate other women who were not members

of the CCF; hopefully new CCFers would be created. For example, while noting her

continual debates with Mrs. Smith, Steeves also wrote that many women present during

the discussion did not seem to know the issues well enough to make an informed

contr ibuti~n. '~~ It was for the benefit of these women that Steeves continued to attend the

council despite her feeling that it was dominated by the Liberals.

Both male and female leaders within the CCF realized the importance of what

Steeves and other CCF women were doing when they attended non-CCF women's

groups. If socialism was to succeed in B.C. more people needed to be converted at the

grass-roots level, such as women present at meetings of the Local Council of Women. If

these women could be brought into the CCF, they too would influence other women and

men in different organizations and in their own communities. In a letter fiom Angus

MacInnis to David Lewis, MacInnis demonstrated that he was aware of this need: "The

86

main difficulty in this province is the scarcity of capable workers. We have a sufficient

number of people who can speak at meetings, but we are short of people who can and

will work in other organizations such as trade unions, farmer organizations and

professional g r o ~ ~ s . " ' ~ ~ Grace MacInnis argued similarly. "The more 1 think of what Our

movement needs," she wrote to Angus, "the more 1 am convinced that it is quiet contact

work leading to permanent organizations."lX5 Grace MacInnis' comments demonstrate

precisely why women's participation in the early CCF was so significant; more often

than not it was women who undertook this contact work. Sometimes their work, and not

just the need for more of it, was acknowledged. For example, Arnold Webster took the

time to inform Angus MacInnis that "Mrs. Jamieson's success has had a good effect upon

the organization and, likewise, upon the general comm~ni ty ." '~~

In addition to engaging in debate with Mrs. Smith and her Liberal allies, CCF

women continued to introduce to the Local Council resolutions that emanated from their

socialist beliefs. At a general meeting in 1937, Dorothy Steeves "moved that the Local

Council appeal to the provincial government to take immediate steps to provide food for

the single unemployed men."lH7 And in the late 1940s, the unemployment crisis having

receded to the background, CCF women continued to voice their opinions by presenting

resolutions that encouraged the implementation of CO-operative programs in Vancouver

communities. For example, they presented a resolution which suggested that CO-operative

play groups "be encouraged where parents have done the preliminary study and local

authorities be requested and expected to provide suitable premises under proper

supervision, fiee of ~harge."'~' Many of these resolutions presented to the VLCW were

87

first constructed within CCF women's groups - the CCF Women's Central Committee

being the most prominent in B.C.

Many in the CCF executive were aware that women undertook the majority of

the backroom organizing for the party - the less than glamorous but necessary activities

such as fùnd rasing and mailing. But the party leaders also recognized additional roles

that women could effectively fùlfill. One particular example was the acknowledgment

that women had the power to influence public opinion - especially at election t h e .

Angus MacInnis wrote to a friend in Hamilton wondering why a popular CCF candidate,

Sam Lawrence, failed to win the seat. One of the causes, MacInnis was told was "the

grape-vine slander racket [which] was used extensively by the Liberal women canvassers.

It was deadly and difficult to trace to its source, but it w ~ r k e d . " ' ~ ~

The CCF Women's Central Committee, formed in 1934, was used in part to start

a socialist "grape-vine" for the CCF. Mildred Osterhout recalls that, once formed, the

cornmittee was quite popular and u ~ e f u l . ' ~ ~ Essentially the CCF Women's Central

Committee would act as an organizer for local community women's groups. Its main

service was as an educator. It informed women on the CCF platform and helped them

gain the confidence to take what they learned and apply it constructively to the crisis

many of them witnessed. Women were angry at "the systein" that both accepted and

created poverty. For example, Sheena Livesay, Elizabeth Kerr's daughter, recalls her

shock and subsequent rage upon seeing her cousin ride by on a relief train. She saw .

someone who "belonged" to her, and thus the impact was even more de~astating.'~' At

the outset of WorId War II anger was heightened further when jobs suddenly appeared. If

88

business and owners of capital could provide work making products that were designed

to kill human beings, many people realized that the ability to relieve poverty existed

during years of suffering and that it could have been used constructively.

Alongside anger, however, went a feeling of helplessness. Through the CCF

women could, nevertheless, do something to correct the situation. The CCF Women's

Central Committee was continually organizing events so that women could learn to take

action. A common activity was public speaking classes which, during 1935, for example,

were offered weekly on Thursday evenings.'" At the CCF Women's Central Committee

women were provided with the opportunity to try out their public speaking skills "before

a considerable group on problems of their ~ w n . " ' ~ ~

What, then, did women talk about, and how did they go about gaining grass-roots

support for the CCF? The CCF Women's Central Committee wanted to demonstrate to

non-political women how politics affected their everyday lives. On the issue of

international cartels, for example, it was thought that "the subject must be simplified

and brought down from its Olympian heights of research terms and phraseology and

brought home to women in simple terms of consumers, inaterials touching every

home."'93 Once women mastered particular issues they were encouraged to spread their

knowledge outside party circles. For example, CCF women were aware, as a letter to

Dorothy Steeves indicated, of the significance of penetrating church groups, "because so

many women are in them." The writer continued, "you can sometimes get discussion on

a non-political subject such as post-war reconstruction or health or municipal milk."'95

Other socialist women's groups acted in conjunction with the Central Cornmittee;

different groups represented the diverse range of women.

Many women became interested in the CCF because of difficulties they were

having while members of the workforce. CCF women, Eve Smith for example, realized

that women often encountered different problems than men. Therefore, while there was

continua1 debate within socialists circles about the value and utility of women working in

separate women's organizations, even those opposed to female-only activity occasionally

participated in such endeavors. Smith, unlike Dorothy Steeves who reluctantly

participated in the Vancouver Council of Women, created the Unemployed Women's

Association [UWA]. In the mid 1930s shortly after her arriva1 in Vancouver fiom

Kamloops, Smith recalls that she did not really believe in separating men and women

because both men and women experienced the difficulties of capitalism. But women in

domestic service were in a different position fiom men. When she formed the UWA,

Smith wanted to contact women working in "high-class" homes receiving "starvation

wages." When she discovered the poor conditions that many of these women domestic

servants were living in, she was disgusted: "This sort of thing in these wealthy

Shaunassey homes," Smith States, "1 was so browned off?"'9h

One of the actions of the UWA was to send out a brief asking women why they

felt they were living lives of oppression and exploitation. A list of possible solutions was

also included. The brief was sent to the Vancouver City Council and to different political

and non-political women's organizations. In addition, the UWA sent speakers from their

own group to talk with other interested clubs. In 1937 the UWA dissolved afler a short

90

existence. When looking back on the UWA, Eve Smith was not sure why the group was

short-lived but she felt that, at the time, it was an experiment to discover if women could

draw more attention to their cause by acting separately. The main achievement of groups

such as the UWA can only be evaluated when examined over a long period of time. The

UWA, according to Smith, was a mouthpiece for socialist commentary disseininating

different ideas that would not othawise have been heard. It was hoped that one of the

long-term ramifications of new political concepts gradually gaining acceptance in society

would be that other women would begin to question othenvise generally accepted

economic structures such as private ownership and the profit system. People would begin

to realize that these structures were in large part responsible for the Depression.

If the level of success of women's groups in getting more women involved in the

CCF is to be measured by attendance numbers, then sources seem to indicate that during

the 1930s and 1940s interest was continually growing. At regular meetings held at Boag

House, for example, groups of 60 women or more were often in attendance.'" According

to one participant, the women were impressive in their show of energy and

accomplishments. "They are well informed," she stated, "and desirous of being more

~ 0 . " ' ~ ~ Outside of Vancouver, CCF women in Port Albemi started a library by charging

ten cents a member and also formed their own public speaking co~rse . '~ ' But how

common was this level of enthusiasm among CCF women? In the same letter, a CCFer

told Grace MacInnis that "One young woman said, '1 didn't join the CCF to wash

dishes,' which raised quite a chortle from me - having heard similar remarks from so

many w ~ m e n . " ~ ~ ~ At the 1943 provincial convention, 35 women representing 18

91

women's groups attended. The Women's Central group, therefore, increased its numbers

when participating in provincial conventions.

Civic Pol itics

Some CCF women increased their influence on their communities by winning

election to civic positions. Two of the most notable examples of CCF women in civic

politics were Mildred Osterhout, who won a term on the Vancouver School Board in

1935, and Helena Gutteridge, who was elected as an alderman in 1937.

Gutteridge, as a Vancouver alderman, was hopeful of enacting concrete changes

while she sat on the city council from 1937-1939. When Gutteridge was elected other

CCF women were overjoyed. CCF women were making a difference in gaining grass-

roots support for the party, and to many of them, Gutteridge's victory proved that "she

had gained recognition from the public as a whole. That it wasn't just those of us who

were in the same movement and were working together. But the public had come to

realize her ability and her interest and ~oncern."'~'

The reaction from the Vancouver press was somewhat different. As Irene Howard

has pointed out, two basic reactions were recorded in newspapers shortly after the civic

election night in 1937. By the late 1930s the maternai-feminist position had been

developing within Canadian society for close to fifty years. This position was one

through which women participated in the public and political sphere as the moral

guardians of society - cleaning it up and saving society from the evils of alcohol and

other vices. A general sense of acceptance of "political" women had gradually taken

92

hold within the public conscience. As a result, commentary found in the press afier civic

election day stating that Helena would bring "a woman's instinctive sense ofjudgement

and good sense" to the council, was not s~rprising.~ '~ The second form of response, a

warning about the entrance of party politics into civic affairs, was significant in two

ways. First, to combat the CCF's entrance into Vancouver civic politics, the political

opponents of the CCF - the Liberal and Conservative parties - united in the next

election to form the Non-Partisan Association [NPA]. In turn, the success of the NPA

explains in part why Gutteridge failed to be re-elected. The second significant factor, this

time favoring the CCF, was that by announcing to the public that Helena represented the

CCF, the victory gave added publicity to the socialist cause. When Gutteridge became

heavily involved in the Council Town Planning Cornmittee and when she set up the

Housing Committee, Vancouver voters were reminded of what a socialist could bring to

public office. When Gutteridge made one of her several tours of the slums of stilt houses

and shacks along Vancouver's harbor front and announced in City Council exactly what

she found and what she wanted done about it, newspapers and her colleagues reported

that Helena was definitely a force on the Council. According to Mildred Osterhout,

Helena was outspoken, "fearless in her presentation [and] not exactly tactful always."

"And [she] made an impression, because you felt she had [a] basis for what she said, and

people accepted her," Osterhout concluded. "It was Helena Gutteridge but she knew

what she was talking about."'03

Helena only lasted two years as an alderman. In addition to the creation of the

NPA, the actions of the VLCW worked against her re-election. Irene Howard has shown

93

that while the VLCW helped Gutteridge to win election in 1937 when the council was

supportive of the CCF, by 1939 such support was much weaker. One reason why the

council withdrew its aid to Gutteridge was the comment of Mrs. Smith's adversary in the

local council, Dorothy Steeves. Steeves made a speech in the Legislature which at the

time was highly publicized. Speaking against Canada's involvement in World War II she

drew the ire of not only the Liberals and Conservatives but also of many of her own CCF

MLAS.~'" Howard argues that as a result of Steeves' comments, and of the remarks of

other CCFers who held the same views, many women on the VLCW viewed Gutteridge

"as someone not altogether to be trusted, and so she lost the widespread support of

women's organizati~ns."'~~ In a sense, therefore, al1 CCFers were tarred with the same

brush. As a consequence, after the 1939 civic election, when Gutteridge was defeated,

the City Council no longer included any CCF members.

For Osterhout, her campaign to bring socialism to the classroom began

immediately on her retum fiom Europe. Shortly after arriving home Osterhout went to

talk with the Superintendent of Education at the Vancouver School Board Office. She

told him of her experiences with progressive education in Europe and "how it had

enriched [her] life." She really thought that she had something to share. Superintendent

Robinson looked at Osterhout and "in a rather fatherly like way, patted [her] on the

shoulder and said, 'My dear, don't you realize we're in the midst of a Depression. You'll

be lucky to get back on the regular staff. You'll have to wait your tum for that now."*06

Undaunted by this paternalistic brush back, Mildred went on to fight for changes.

94

Prior to her election in 1935 Osterhout's efforts to change the curriculum were

brought to public attention. Mildred had toured a number of progressive education

schools in Europe and wanted to change schools in Vancouver. At the time she felt a lot

of things in the Vancouver education system were "rather stodgy - not very

meaningfùl."207 For Osterhout, bringing socialism to the classroom meant that she wanted

children to learn how to live together and felt that an education should be about learning

not to compete but work together. Children needed to learn how to cooperate and relate

to one another, she argued, "which was of course in keeping with the socialist

thinking."20R Her ideas were received with much hostility and she was accused of

teaching socialistic propaganda to children. At the time, Mildred responded by stating

that socialism should be taught, along with capitalism and communism, al1 of which

should be e~plained.~" Children should be aware of different political alignments and

organizations. She reiterated, however, that she was not saying that only socialism should

be taught. In addition, she felt that educational techniques in schools should be more

socially oriented; she supported projects in which children worked together. Continually,

Osterhout explained that in no sense should competition enter into the classroom. When

she realized that her ideas were receiving harsh criticism in the local press, this simply

reinforced her conviction that "we must learn to live together and that surely this process

must be started in the scho~ls.""~ Socialism for Mildred "was a way of living, and

therefore the proper content of a school c~rriculum."~"

Despite the bad press Osterhout did win election to the school board in 1935,

serving one two-year term. She could not change much, but always kept before the board

her socialist values. Perhaps her own feelings at the time best describe what she hoped to

gain from her years on the school board. In her yearly Christmas report, which she

mailed out to friends and family, she wrote:

In my new officia1 capacity as School Trustee 1 look on you al1 as the Great Uneducated. Having run in the recent municipal election as a CCF Candidate, 1 feel gratified that the movement has acquired that much more status. It will mean considerably more work, but 1 think the municipal field is a useful one in which to work. While waiting for the big revolution, we must seek to educate on the local front."'

For several years, during the 1930s, Mildred Osterhout, socialist educator, reached many

more British Columbians than she did while on the School Board. Through the wonders

of radio her voice became a familiar sound in many Vancouver homes.

CCF Women and Radio

From 1933 to 1935, on Thursday evenings at seven o'clock listeners to CJOR

radio would hear a fifteen minute talk by Mildred Osterhout entitled The Woman 's Point

of View. The programme, as Mildred faithfully announced each week, was sponsored by

the generous proprietors of Ye Old English Fish and Chips located at 44 West Hastings.

For the first year of her programme CJOR placed no restrictions on Osterhout's

cornrnentary. Each fifteen minute talk took her about eight hours to prepare and some of

them took the form of a dialogue between herself and Dr. Lyle Telford's partner,

Frances Moren.

In a general sense, Osterhout's broadcasts encompass the entire theme of this

thesis. Through them we hear the 1930's voice of a socialist woman who strongly

believed that women had an important role to play in ending the Depression. Her

message revolved around motivating CCF and non-CCF women outside the

organizational hierarchy of the party to help the public understand the significance of

political issues in the hopes that hrther support for the CCF would be gained. For

example, many of her programs discussed the following: why were people having to

endure the economic hardships of the Depression; every-day issues had political

elements to them that many people had completely overlooked; the current governments

at both the provincial and federal level were partly responsible for the ongoing misery,

and they had failed to do anything to help solve the crisis despite al1 their promises to do

so; the CCF and socialism in general offered an entirely new economic and social system

that was based on people's needs, on cooperation and sharing, and on the basic

understanding that every person had the right to live a peaceful, prosperous, and

productive life; and finally the broadcasts were about informing women and men that

they had both the ability and responsibility to take part in the spread of socialism. The

program, therefore, espoused the entire CCF message.

Osterhout attempted to generate audience support for the party by discussing

current events and by informing her listeners what could be, but was not, being done to

alleviate their current distress. One tactic she used was to infonn her listeners of what

CCF MLAs were doing in Victoria and then compare them with those of the Liberal

Party. Almost always Osterhout would ensure that such a discussion revolved around a

pertinent issue; never would she let her commentary remain in the bureaucratically

complicated world of Victoria politics. Instead, she had an ability to take her program

into the kitchens and living rooms of her audience where she knew that what people

really worried about would be close at hand: their families and the food on their tables.

For example, in one broadcast she talked about the Mother's Pension Act:

Have you talked with mothers who are trying to maintain a household on a pitifully small sum? So many complaints have come from mothers on pensions that Mrs. Steeves moved in the house the other day that the Pension Act be examined. Surely that is a fair request, but Mrs. Paul Smith who claims to have the interests of women at heart moved an amendment that no investigation be made."3

In an earlier broadcast, Osterhout attempted to awaken in her listeners an

understanding of how the entire capitalist system was responsible for much of their

current uncertainties. In language that was both alarming yet motivating, she explained

why more CCFers were badly needed in Victoria:

Mrs. Steeves and 6 other members go to Victoria to raise hand and voice in protest against this scrapping of human nature. This is al1 they can do at present. But when you men and women are awakened to an understanding of how you are being cheated of the right to live, of how an inhuman system is preparing to crush the lives out of your sons and daughters, then you will send CCF representatives from every riding of this province with a mandate to destroy the system and Save the

Osterhout made it clear to her listeners that saving people meant getting out and

participating in reforming the system. "We women," she said, "individually and in

organizations must do our part. There is nothing that bums me up so much as to find

women taking an indifferent unconcemed attitude to these matters which are of vital

importance to them."*I5 She understood what people were worried about, but she wanted

them to confront their problems.

98

Each week listeners were informed about issues which some of thein probably did

not want to hear. Unemployment and poverty were a reality and they were not just going

to disappear. People, possibly neighbours and friends, were forced into accepting

unacceptable situations. "A girl of 26," Osterhout explained, "whose husband of 41 is a

proven degenerate, with several jail records, and who has beaten her unmercifully on 3

occasions, left him. They were on relief, but when she applied for her allowance

separately she was refüsed and told she must go back to the vicious brute. If she didn't

that was so much saved to the capitalist ~ o f f e r s . " ~ ' ~ Situations such as that of the

physically abused wife were not unique, yet Osterhout never left her comrnentary to

conclude with the current depressing reality. The situation could be changed, she ofien

argued, if women themselves changed: "As we face up seriously to our responsibility we

recognize that as women we have a bigger part to play than ever before. No longer can

we escape because of home responsibilities. Our own homes are in danger, and we must

share in protecting them not only for ourselves and our children, but for our neighbors

and their~."~"

Such broadcasts helped establish Osterhout as a popular figure in parts of B.C.

When Francis Moren and Osterhout went on speaking tours of the province from Powell

River to Soyentoula, Osterhout felt that, "Because we were out for the common man we

were warmly accepted and received. We were meeting with [the] working class and with

farmers and labourers, and our reception was always very warm and very pleasant."

During their tours, signs of the Depression were always around. Looking back

humorously, Osterhout recalls that there was usually a pot of coffee and soup container

99

on the stove in the homes she visited while on the road: "They all, not wined and dined

us, but souped and teaed US."^'^

What, then, did the CCF and the figiit for socialism gain from Osterhout's weekly

commentary? According to Irene Howard socialist broadcasts were very popular. If one

was to walk through some areas of Vancouver on a summer evening one could hear the

voice of Osterhout or Dr. Lyle Telford emanating fiom many radios.219 Moreover, other

CCF women also used the airwaves effectively, and the minutes of the party's Radio

Cornmittee for 1948 indicated that several women were featured in the course of a

month: Dorothy Steeves broadcast a commentary on international affairs on September 2,

Grace MacInnis spoke on social security in the middle of the month, and in the first

week of October both Laura Jamieson and MacInnis discussed housing and health

issues.220 Osterhout received letters which often informed her that the talks were

inspirational to some li~teners.'~' Perhaps most importantly, many women took up

Osterhout's challenge to get involved in the socialist cause. An examination of several

major public demonstrations indicates the significant contribution made by women.

CCF Women and Demonstrations

The unemployment crisis in B.C. during the 1930s can be considered one of the

most explosive in al1 of Canada at the time. By 1932 B.C. had 75 000 registered

unemployed. This situation was made worse by the arriva1 of many transients from

eastern Canada who came to Vancouver in hopes that the employment situation would be

more favorable and because the mild Vancouver climate made living without proper

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shelter a lot more comfortable than in the east, especially during the winter when those

without shelter could die of exposure. A cardboard and tent city of unemployed men and

women soon began to sprawl around the railway station in downtown Vancouver. Unable

to find work many of the men began to walk the streets of the city becoming known by

residents as "tin canners" on account of the containers they carried to keep the money

they hoped to collect. The city's jails soon became filled with these destitute men as the

policy of the police was to arrest anyone found begging.

In April 1935, a bad situation became worse when Vancouver's growing

numbers of unemployed were joined by men from the National Defense Camps. Also

known as "the relief camps," they had been set up by R.B. Bennett under the Department

of National Defense as a means of dealing with the country's growing population of

unemployed single men whom it was feared would become so desperate to generate an

income that it might resort to unlawful behavior. The men were sent to govemment work

projects, often in remote locations, and paid meager wages to dig ditches, construct

roads, and clear brush. Outraged by working conditions and their treatment in general,

"the boys", as they came to be called by supporters in Vancouver, organized themselves

and "under the leadership of the Relief Camp Workers' Union walked out en masse and

gathered in Vancouver to confront the authorities with their demand for work and

w a g e ~ . " ~ ' ~

Vancouver was the site for continual unrest during this time, but particularly

again in May 1938 when the city's unemployed took part in the Post-Office and Art

Gallery sit-down strikes, with men from the camps occupying both buildings. The strikes

were ended when Chief of Police Foster led the riot police into both buildings and

forcibly removed strikers through the use of tear gas and clubs.

What is most significant about these events as they relate to this thesis is the

major role CCF and other leftist women played in supporting the unemployed and

bringing attention to the unjust nature of the men's plight. Through her analysis of the

Vancouver Mothers' Council Irene Howard has shown that CCF women provided food

and shelter for many of the unemployed who did not qualiS, for relief, joined in

demonstrations, and initiated their own forms of protest independently of the CCF.

Howard states that "a close study reveals that the Council took a pre-eminently political

direction, independently attempting to influence governments and contributing

substantially to the public debate on what turned out to be an insoluble p r ~ b l e r n . " ~ ~ ~

The relief-camp workers strike commenced in April 1935 afier the men organized

and marched to Vancouver to protest their conditions. The government responded by

blacklisting workers involved in organizing the relief-workers' union. By blacklisting the

men, the government ensured that the strikers would not find work nor would they be

eligible for any fonn of welfare. CCF and other socialist women, already angry that

Premier Pattullo would not provide adequate relief for anyone in the province, took up

the relief camp workers' cause. CCF women began to look upon the relief workers as

"our boys"; none of them were "strangers" or an ugly problem to be swept away by

sending them to remote locations. Instead, they were sons and fathers, parî of the

community, and they belonged.

102

To help organize on behalf of the unemployed CCF women, represented by Sarah

Colley, who became known in the newspapers as the "CCF mother," and other socialist-

minded women such as Effie Jones, Elsie Munro, and Annie Stewart, formed the

Mothers' Council of Vancouver. Originally called the Mothers' Day Committee, the first

meeting took place on 3 May 1935 and was aitended by 37 ~ o m e n . ' ~ ' Prior to the

formation of the Mothers' Council, many of these same women had already organized

and thus came to the Council with experience and an agenda for action in mind. For

example, only a few weeks earlier, 300 women met at Moose Hall in Vancouver to

organize a tag day for the ~ n e m ~ l o y e d . " ~ Frustrated by Pattullo's inaction, the women

stated, "We've had enough of commissions, delegations and petitions. Now we'll take

over and a ~ t ! " ~ ' ~

Tag days were not the only form of action the women decided to take. On

Sunday, 28 April, two thousand women led another fourteen thousand men fiom the

Cambie Street grounds to the Denman Arena downtown. The women "were marshaled

by Mrs. Colley," the Vancouver Szin reported, and the entire procession "took 35 minutes

to pass a point on Georgia Street." Car traffic was disturbed for three-quarters of an hour

with cars being routed up Richards Street instead of Gran~ille."~ At the rally the women

marched to reserved seats on the floor of the arena. Speakers were set up outside the

building so everybody could hear the presentations made inside. Sarah Colley was among

the many speakers featured.

The women of the Mothers' Council followed up the earlier arena march with

another demonstration. Playing up the maternalist image with which Sarah Colley had

now clearly become identified, "the committee decided to act in a political way,"

Howard States, " and to do so by employing a traditional f ~ r m . " ~ ' ~ Again leading the way,

three hundred women, scme of them pushing baby carriages and marching to the music

of the CCF band, led fifteen hundred relief camp workers from the Cambie Street

grounds into Stanley Park. Some of the women carried a banner which read, "We the

Mothers of today Demand Abolition of the Relief Camps.""' Once the procession

reached Stanley Park the women formed themselves into a giant heart with the men

standing inside. Sarah Colley spoke to the crowd, stating that "this is a Mothers' protest

to the Dominion Governrnent in Ottawa from British Columbia. The mothers are really

aroused at the plight of the boys, and we'll keep right with them to the end of the

r~ad."'~' She also emphasized two other points: that the demonstration was not political,

and that both governments "should understand that the strikers were 'our boys' not

f~reigners."'~' Before the demonstration broke up the relief camp men were given

addresses and directions to the homes of CCF families where they would be taken in and

given a Sunday dir~ner.~~'

The significance of these actions, similar to Osterhout's radio broadcasts, speaks

directly to the nature of this thesis. Clearly the Mothers' Day march was a political event,

despite the comments of Sarah Colley. CCF women accepted the maternalist label, which

in tum had already been accepted by society in general. With the help of women such as

Mildred Osterhout and her weekly broadcasts, the work of CCF women in local

organizations such as the VLCW, and the tag days campaign by many of these same

women, socialist women were able to build on the matemalist image by making it overtly

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political. As Irene Howard has argued, the Mothers' Council, in this particular case, "had

exploited the received idea of motherhood and embraced a new one with such genuine

conviction that thousands rallied with them around the struggles of the ~ n e m p l o y e d . " ~ ~ ~

By the summer of 1938, the unemployment situation had become worse. In

addition to relief camp workers, men from logging camps that had been shut down due to

an extraordinarily dry summer flooded the city. Thrown out of work, many of these men,

angry at the government for its logging policy, joined the relief strikers in

demonstrations. From April 1938 until late June, in an attempt to force Premier Pattullo

into finally aiding the unemployed, the striking relief camp workers occupied both the

Vancouver Main Post Office on Granville Street and the Vancouver Art Gallery. The sit-

down strike ended in violence when mayor Miller and Premier Pattullo ordered the

police to clear both buildings, if necessary by force.

The newspapers report that afier the attempts by Harold Winch to mediate

between Chief of Police Foster and the relief camp workers failed, the police evicted the

strikers with the use of tear gas and truncheons. What the newspapers do not report is

that the strikers were able to occupy the buildings for weeks on end, thus forcing the

authorities to take action, because of the support work of socialist and communist

women. Throughout the entire sit-down strike CCF and other lefiist men and women had

been holding tag days to raise money to support the men.234 In addition, the women had

worked together day after day preparing food, working in shifts to deliver it to the men.

Harold Winch recalls not only that women provided food, clothing, and reading material,

but he felt that they raised the morale of the men and increased the public's sympathy for

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the strikers. The women gained support for the unemployed, and they let the men know

that someone was interested in them.2" The 1938 show of support was not unique. Eve

Smith points out that leftist women in Kamloops provided food and clothing necessary

for the men to survive their trip when they started out from Vancouver by train during the

On-to-Ottawa Trek."6 In the aftermath of the Post Office and Art Gallery "eviction day,"

as it became known, demonstrations were again organized. On 20 June, ten thousand

protesters gathered at the Powell Street grounds. This time CCF women were represented

by Helena Gutteridge who addressed the crowd.''' In defense of the evicted strikers she

stated, "If the beaten and gassed men fleeing along Hastings Street happened to damage a

little property in-retaliation, who are we to Say that they were wrong." The crowd

cheered in r e s p ~ n s e . ~ ~ ~

The day after the demonstration at the Powell Street grounds, several hundred

protesters left for Victoria to take their demonstration directly to Pattullo. Newspapers

record that as the jobless men boarded the ship, cheers went out. Significantly, the

Vancouver Sun States that "there were cheers for the Mothers' Council and for the CCF

Women's Emergency C~mmittee." '~~ Clearly the men knew who had supported them.

The next evening, traveling from Vancouver to Victoria on the over-night boat

the Princess Joan, were ten women from the Mother's Council and the CCF Women's

Emergency Council, forrned earlier that year. The women of the Council decided that,

while the unemployed men were attempting to gain the ear of the provincial government,

they would confront Pattdlo themselves. The men arrived a day earlier and were turned

away. The women of the Mother's Council were received and had a meeting with

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Pattullo and Minster of Labour George Pearson. They were told, as was the premier's

usual response, that there was nothing he could do. The problem supposedly lay with the

federal go~emrnent . '~~

It is interesting to analyze how these women were viewed by the public and the

press at the time. Perhaps one reason why it has been easy for historians to overlook the

actions of women in Iîistory, and specifically CCF women and their grass-roots activity,

can be credited to the significance we have given to certain voices - newspapers for

example. Often newspaper interpretation was combined with commentary on an MLA's

persona1 character. CCF women could be the target of gender-biased character

descriptions. Grace MacInnis, for example, was described with more than a little air of

condescension. "Mrs. MacInnis is a persistent little woman, bright as a dollar," the

Vancouver News Herald reported. "She stays with the same old subjects, year after year,

hoping to Wear down the government as rain drops might Wear down stone."'" Reporters

were never able to completely refrain from trivializing women's accomplishments by

making persona1 remarks about their character, MacInnis being presented in specific

gendered ways: "when she gets mad she bounces about, swinging her arms, as if she'd

like to punch some people on the nose - figuratively speaking [because] she is nwch too

much of a lady to literally punch anyone on the no~e."'~'

The report provided by James Dyer of the Vancotrver Sun on the Mothers'

Council delegates when they arrived in Victoria illustrated this kind of gendered

reporting. Dyer wrote sarcastically, "The Victoria police force or a large part of its

uniformed and plain clothes branches which had been rushed to the boat to take care of

1 O7

the 'riot' turned away disgustedly," when they saw the "rather staid group of ten women,

carrying their lunches ... walking wearily off the Princess J~an."''~ Yet the next day this

"staid group " received fiont page attention in The Vancouver News Herald. The

headline read, "Pattullo Sees Women Delegati~n."~'~ The premier agreed to meet with

the women upon the advice of the local Victoria clergy. As Irene Howard has pointed

out, Dyer reported rather comically how the women had spent the night sleeping on the

foyer of the ship and how they had talked with the ship's crew and had been given

blankets and pillows for the night. The result of such commentary was that women's

efforts were down-played and trivialized. While much of society held certain

discriminatory attitudes which were undoubtedly present and influential, women

nonetheless succeeded in talking with the premier. In the 1930's women would not have

been seen as a political threat. It was precisely because of women's non-threatening

position in society that Pattullo agreed to meet with them and not the 500 striking,

unemployed men. The Sun belittled the women's mission and many historians have

ignored it. Why? On this occasion, the premier refused to budge from his stated position.

But do we record only success, or do failures also deserve historical credit? A few years

earlier a similar envoy, this time under the banner of the CCF Unemployment

Conference, gained certain concessions, yet this too has been ignored.

On 7 December 1934, several socialist men and women presented a petition to

the premier demanding that he take "immediate action to relieve citizens of the effects of

p~verty.""~ Along with the petition, the group asked that the premier listen to cornrnents

from citizens of the province who were trying to survive on the current relief system.

1 O8

Each speaker was to represent a particular group of people. For example, Mrs. Beaumont

represented the case for married women living on relief while Mary McCormick spoke

on behalf of single women. She told Pattullo about the experiences of many homeless

and unemployed girls who "are expected to accept domestic employment without

[receiving a] sufficient amount to eat." She told him that their bodies were

undernourished and that "our resistance to disease is being lowered al1 the time." She

concluded her presentation stating that, "It is disgracefùl that girls should be forced to

accept any kind of position and exploitation by employers for fear of being cut off

relief."2J6 Yvonne Gillard, a young girl, spoke for B.C. school children. She told the

premier that many of her classmates were in want of a good hot meal once a day; she

talked about the need of wann clothing and a little bit of extra money so that the children

could enjoy the occasional show or a Christmas p r e ~ e n t . * ~ ~ Sarah Colley, the "CCF

mother," was also present. As she spoke, the premier heard horror stories about the

impoverished conditions that many pregnant women, and those with infants, were living

in. Many mothers did not have clean baby bottles with which to feed their children. They

slept in unsanitary conditions with many of them reporting that they had not been able to

purchase linen in ten years. "The lack of these things, and proper medical treatment in

time of child birth," Colley stated, "is a crime, a disgrace to Our motherhood."'" AAFter

the delegation concluded its presentations Pattullo agreed with much of what he had

heard. However, instead of restating his usual comments about the faults of the federal

government and leaving it at that he agreed to make some concrete changes. Sarah

Colley convinced him to increase the pre-natal allowance. An amount of five dollars a

month for four months prior to the delivery of a child would be given to expectant

mothers on relief in addition to their base a m ~ u n t . ~ ~ ~

What, then, do CCF women's actions tell us about how these women constructed

their own arena of participation and protest? Often a minority within the leadership of

the B.C. CCF, socialist women like Sarah Colley developed their own jurisdiction in

which to organize and contribute to reform and the possible spread of socialism. On

some occasions women were successful in bringing about immediate change. But what

about CCF women who were officially integrated in the party; how did they negotiate

between both an unfriendly press and, on many occasions, an unsupportive party? It is

worth discussing some of the experiences of women like Dorothy Steeves, who was a

CCF MLA for several years, and Helena Gutteridge, who was closely involved with the

leadership of the party while holding several officia1 positions. Their experiences help to

reveal tliat in many cases CCF women who participated in the events discussed thus far

had to fight against the actions of their own party- the same party they were working to

get into office. When one understands the number of barriers these women had to

transcend, the significance of their triumphs becomes al1 the more clear.

Socialist Women and The CCF: A Strained Relationship

Mildred Osterhout stood up on the platfonn, the distinct smell of cigarette smoke

filling the Pender Street Hall where she spoke on several occasions. The hall was often

crowded and people would come in off the street to hear what "this woman" was saying.

The audience asked her how the CCF intended to solve many of the problems that were

on the party's agenda. In response she engaged them in discussions, informing her

audience of the principles of the CCF, and often asked them questions herself.

Frequently, the meetings were organized as a forum in which ideas were openly

debated.250 Osterhout had an interesting approach to her audience. It wasn't just another

political party she represented, but a movement. Osterhout recalls

coing to many meetings and telling the story of the beginning of the CCF and urging people to join and come and share in this movement, to make our country a country which the needs of al1 were given primary concern. We used the slogan 'from each according to his ability, to each according to his need,' and we felt that this would cover everyone. And so it was witli real conviction, not concern for oneself or one's advancement in any sense. It was something for the people, and that we wanted them to be sharing in it t00.~''

Osterhout never wanted to be seen as superior to those she spoke to. When listening to

her recall her days in the CCF it is evident that the cooperative and egalitarian

conscience was always at work within her socialism. For example, even though she often

spoke before crowds made up of mainly working-class constituents, she never felt any

distance between herself and her audience. "1 felt that we were al1 part of the human

species," Osterhout explains,

and 1 had no sense of being superior because I'd had the chance for education and traveled to some extent. But 1 felt very mucli their needs and that we al1 had to share together; we al1 had a part to play. They had as significant a part to play, and feeling this common sense of humanity with which I'd grown up 1 think, it was easy for me to speak to an audience which had a predominance of working people or labour people and feel at one with them.252

1 1 1

Osterhout's attitude was significantly different to at least the perceived attitudes and

appearances of a Coldwell or Lewis. Eve Smith, for example, recalls that many male

CCF leaders came across with a substantial air of superiority about them.253

While Osterhout saw herself as equal to others, political opponents wasted little

time, especially during elections, in playing the gender card. Satirizing the response of

Premier Pattullo to her candidacy she wrote, "That Osterhout girl, you know she has

broken her father's heart. She has a shady past. Of course she is a communist. Women

have no business in politics anyway. She should be married and raising a family of half a

dozen young voters if she wants to inake a contribution to the country."254 For herself,

Osterhout replied, "Ah me, 1 foresee that before the next election 1 must grab a husband

and give birth to a couple of sets of quintuplets." Then, humorously acknowledging her

electoral defeat she added, "1 was appalled at the idea of being thmst into the house at

Victoria, with al1 the troubles of the countryside on my shoulders. But now Mr. Strachan

is in and being a good Liberal he won't have to do anything about ir."255

While Osterhout was not elected to the Legislature, there were several women

who were. How did they function? Predominantly, as Osterhout had mentioned in many

of her broadcasts, Steeves, Maclnnis, and Jamieson acted as the conscience of the

Legislature. They continually brought attention to the consequences of poverty and the

unregulated economy. During one particularly cold winter a fuel crisis, precipitated by

the actions of private enterprise, prevented many people from keeping their homes

properly heated. Outraged that an essential commodity was not publicly owned and

distributed, Grace Maclnnis inforrned the Legislature that an elderly Vancouver couple

112

froze to death because they could not afford to pay for heating.256 CCF women MLAs

also served as public reminders to voters of what the CCF and socialism stood for.

Among the CCF's more effective parliamentary advocates was Dorothy Steeves.

One reporter commented, "There is no doubt that Mrs. Steeves is a convincing speaker,

so convincing she is just about the only CCFer who can make Coalitionists shift

~neasily."~~' In Dorothy Steeves, the CCF had an MLA who was known as "one of the

most silvery tongued orators in this House," and who, unlike many other MLAs, was

"really worth listening to."258 A glance at Steeves' diary indicates how often she went to

her constituency office in North Vancouver, where she often talked with people on

welfare who came to her with problems.

CCF women MLAs were also known outside of the province, and were

acknowledged not only by women, but also by men in the CCF. For example, when a

Winnipeg area seat was to be contested in a by-election in 1942, David Lewis wrote to

Angus MacInnis hoping that he could convince Grace to help out in the campaign. Lewis

wrote that both he and M.J. Coldwell were "of the opinion that Grace's presence would

be of tremendous value ... Grace's position in the movement not only in B.C. but

throughout the country, would make it quite natural for her to take part in the

~ampaign."~~' One reason why Grace MacInnis was well known and supported, aside

from her own efforts - which were substantial and often noted - was because she was

the daughter of J.S. Woodsworth and married to Angus MacInnis, both respected figures

within and outside CCF circles.

By the end of the 1930s CCF women, at least in British Columbia, could

negotiate their own political agency within the party in a number of ways. In a sense,

however, their relationship with officia1 party structures was essentially contradictory.

Many CCF women were highly respected in the party and this can be seen not only in

private correspondence but also by noting the number of women in executive positions.

By 1938, for example, of the ten-member provincial executive, three were women:

Gutteridge, Steeves, and Elizabeth Kerr. In this sense, we can see that in the B.C. CCF

the range of possibilities for women's participation in the party was extensive. The

reason, however, that their relationship was contradictory was because many of them

faced serious attack from other influential party members. It is important to note,

however, that opposition to these women was not always because of their gender. On

certain occasion gender certainly was a factor, on others it was their politics. Some CCF

women were much more radical than many of their male colleagues. As a result, we find

plenty of evidence demonstrating the influential role CCF women could play in the party,

but also of heavy opposition to much of what they hoped to gain. Grace MacInnis' career

is a perfect example. MacInnis achieved high status in the CCF and maintained her

influence in the party for a number of years. But it should be made clear that MacInnis'

career was one that, for the inost part, always followed the party line. Steeves, however,

often fell out of favour with party leaders because she insisted on voicing her own

positions. And Kerr, much more radical than Steeves or MacInnis, never gained access to

the upper-echelons of the party except for a few brief stints on the provincial executive.

When examined in isolation B.C. CCF women were indeed restrained from equal

I l 4

participation in the party. But the careers of al1 B.C. CCF women to a certain extent were

actually aided by a left-leaning provincial leadership. The politics and attitudes of Ernie

Winch and other members of the leadership allowed B.C. women a far greater range of

participation than was available to women in other provinces who were circumscribed by

a moderate federal and provincial leadership. Lewis and Coldwell, for instance, were

moderate national CCF executives based in Ottawa, and their reach extended more

weakly to the West Coast than it did to other regions.

In British Columbia, the most obvious source of women's presence or voice in

the party can be found in the CCF press. Steeves' commentary on international relations

and Elizabeth Kerr's "Women's Voice" both had a prominent place in the

Commonwealth. In a rather caustic comment on the value of the paper, Agnus MacInnis

revealed that in his opinion the Steeves' column 'The World at a Glance' "is worth the

subscription price." Then, cornrnenting on the rest of the paper he wrote, "1 do not think

it is an exaggeration to Say that seventy-five per cent of the space taken up by editorials is

more or less w a ~ t e d . " ~ ~ " The degree of praise depended on what Steeves had to Say. Her

editorials might have been worth the price of the paper, but when she argued that Canada

should not be involved in the war, many party leaders felt that they could not keep her

quiet quick enough.

Perhaps the final element of women's participation in the B.C. CCF that needs

scrutinizing is the impact that their socialist presence had on their own communities, the

methods through which these women practiced socialism in their everyday lives. Many

CCFers realized the importance of practicing what they preached. Mildred Osterhout

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expressed this sentiment at the beginning of one of her broadcasts: "Yes Little Mr.

Public, you, each one of you must interpret the CCF to al1 you meet. Your neighbors

judge the movement by you. If you stagger down the Street, the movement staggers down

the ~ t ree t . "~~ ' Osterhout's comments were not just a creed or party strategy but an integral

part of how she and other women presented themselves as people. For example,

Osterhout organized a housing arrangement in which a visiting teacher from Manitoba

working in Vancouver moved each inonth to live in a different house so that her salary

could be spread around to a different family each month in the form of rent.262 In another

example, women members of the Unemployment Conference invited many of the relief

camp strikers to their home to make sure they got a Christmas dinner.263

In a way, Osterhout, Gutteridge, Kerr and other CCF women acted as the public

voice of the party. This is not to Say that CCF men were invisible, for obviously the

Winchs and others were prominent political figures. But much of the CCF executive's

time was spent in interna1 debate with marxist and other left-wing radicals in the party,

while the women were out in their communities providing concrete aid to the

unemployed and homeless.*" Precisely because, as Joan Sangster points out, the

leadership was largely male, local positions were left for women to fill. Many CCF

women, usually middle-class women who did not have to work outside the home, had the

time to get involved in their own communities. Freed from the obligations and concerns

of the CCF executive or leader, many socialist women could afford to open their homes

or boarding houses to those in need, or to work in shifts together to provide food for the

relief camp strikers. They had time to attend local women's groups and to introduce

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socialist concepts to their fiiends. Despite CCF public speaking courses and reading

groups, many women felt no urge to stand on the hustings. Others did not feel that they

had to become public figures in order to help. Women had a long tradition of working in

the local community, of feeding the poor and providing care. CCF women in the

Depression, therefore, were merely continuing an established and accepted form of

"women's" communiq work. As far as understanding political issues, the Depression

reduced economics and politics to its most basic form- survival. As a result, many CCF

women may have felt that they "understood" the issues better than the men. They took

the party to the people. Socialism inoved froin its high concentration among party

women to a wider public, a process of political osmosis.

Chapter 4: Conclusion

This thesis has focused on the experiences of CCF women in Ontario and British

Columbia during the first twenty years of the parp's existence. Historiographically, it

expands the scope of studies by Joan Sangster and Dan Azoulay, who deconstructed

women's role in the Ontario CCF, and Susan Walsh's and Irene Howard's exploration of

women in the B.C. CCF. In one sense, the premise of this thesis rests on the fact that

Sangster was correct when she argued that women in the CCF were restricted in their

efforts to fully participate in the party; sexist attitudes influenced many party leaders. As

a result, motivated women were forced to the peripheries of the party or to back-room

organizational work. But because they were forced into such positions women gained

some unique locations and qualities that enabled them to carry out influential work for

the CCF at the grass-roots level. Here, away from the confining nature of "official" CCF

structures, women created their own sphere of influence, and they generated their own

strategies, both of which relied upon the expression of women's political agency.

Both chapters pick up CCF women's stories where Sangster and Azoulay left

them. Women did not constitute the majority on provincial or federal executives, and

many maternalist issues were never given top priority in the party platform. But identities

are often constructed through resistance to authority. This was precisely what happened

with many CCF women in both Ontario and British Columbia. Much of women's

resistance stemmed from the fact that a substantial difference in organizational methods

and in campaign tactics developed between themselves and several of the male party

leaders. However, this needs to be clarified. As mentioned, some women CCFers such as

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Grace MacInnis agreed with the party positions as delivered from the leadership. Other

women, and they existed in both Ontario and British Columbia, were determined to

follow their own course of action.

Many CCF women did not experience poverty directly. However, as doctors,

social workers, and in other occupations, they continually witnessed it. Women such as

Dr. Rose Henderson and Mildred Osterhout were painfully aware of the shortcomings of

government social assistance programmes and the consequences of continual

deprivation, both psychological and financial. They wanted to educate other women on

socialist solutions in an attempt to gain a greater acceptance and iinderstanding for

socialism in Canadian society, thus facilitating a CCF victory at the polls. But because of

their gender and the radical socialist vision of women such as Osterhout and Henderson,

full participation in the CCF was inhibited. A different world view of politics evolved in

many of these women. Many of the leaders - predominantly male and almost

exclusively moderate socialists - in the CCF tried to shape the party so that it would fit

into the already existing social structure. This was particularly the case in Ontario, but

the B.C. CCF, under the leadership of Ernest Winch and later his son Harold, also drified

gradually to the centre yet always remained fiirther left than either the Ontario or federal

CCF. As the party slowly gained support in the 1930s and grew explosively in the early

1940s, the leadership was confident that electoral victory was near. As a result, much of

the original socialism of the CCF, the staunch anti-capitalist language found in the

Regina Manifestu for example, was toned down in both provinces as the CCF attempted

to win over the additional voters needed to ca ry the party into office. For most of the

119

women discussed in this thesis, they too hoped that victory was near but when segregated

and restricted from full participation in the CCF they created and developed their own

political agency and used it to aid the CCF in ways that women themselves saw fit. This

usually involved the formulation of iiiimediate and practical reform-minded policies,

intended to aid those suffering unemployment, exploitation, and other consequences of

the capitalist system. Their policies ran the full range of socialism from the far left, such

as the Labour Code constructed by Gutteridge's Economic Planning Commiîtee, to the

more moderate requests for increased aid for unemployed mothers successfully

championed by Sarah Colley.

Osterhout and other "utopian" socialists, as they were often labeled by moderates

within the party, tried to educate, change, and improve upon a society that had many

visible problems. While the ends of these CCF women were probably similar to those of

Jolliffe, Winch, and other CCF leaders, the means to those ends often differed. As the

CCF got closer to electoral victory, many of the leaders insisted that the Party not

significantly challenge or alter society. That was precisely why Angus MacInnis was

determined to block the progress of Gutteridge and her Economic Planning Commiiree.

He did not want the public to perceive of the CCF as a meddling bunch of academics

prepared to nationalize the logging industry along with many other businesses. What

must be noted, however, was that it was MacInnis' job to ensure that the CCF maintain

and increase its electoral support. As Walter Young has suggested, many CCF leaders

were just as liable as any other political figure to fa11 prey to their desires for power. As

Winch and others believed that they were close to winning power they did not want

120

anything to threaten the irnrnediate success of the CCF.265 It is ironic that leaders like

Winch and Lefeaux who occasionally fought to silence Gutteridge and other leftist

women, were originally marxists themselves and had greatly distrusted both the CCF

hierarchy and the Reconstruction Party in B.C. In the early 1930s both men fought

bitterly to ensure that the CCF would plan for revolution and not new ways of merely

"fixing the ~ys tem." '~~ Because they often lacked the necessary support to achieve

positions of leadership, many CCF women had a different set of concerns. Faced with

the reality that they would not have equal access to positions of authority within the main

body of the CCF, many women set out on their own. Some of them did limit themselves

to back-room organizational roles, but this thesis has shown that women like Gutteridge

and Osterhout in British Columbia, and Henderson and Laing in Ontario did far more

than fil1 envelopes.

In exploring the role of women in both provinces, 1 have argued that on certain

occasions the women often acted on their own, away from the main body of the CCF.

Sometimes the party worked directly against women by rehsing to endorse a committee

or even by expelling women from the party as was the case with Rae Luckock when she

refused to disassociate from the HCA. By examining women's experiences in two

provinces, however, it is evident that the party leadership in Ontario often acted

differently than that of British Columbia. As a result, CCF women did not al1 share

identical experiences. In concluding this thesis, it is necessary to investigate the nature of

these differences and to suggest some reason for their existence. Perhaps the most

obvious question is why were B.C. CCF women more successful in confronting those in

121

authority, and in disseminating the socialist message than women in Ontario? B.C. CCF

women benefitted from a politically charged community, a thriving radical culture with

decades of historical precedence, and a party leadership that was much more conducive

to both politically active women and radical reform politics. At least one reason why the

B.C. CCF was more accepting of these women has to do witli major differences between

the origins of the B.C. and Ontario CCF.

The CCF has been called a western protest party by many political historians, and

not without reason. Wken members of radical farm and labour organizations met, first in

Calgary in 1932 and a year later in Regina, to hammer out their differences in the hopes

of creating a new party with which to challenge the Eastern establishment, representation

from Ontario was almost completely absent. British Columbia, however, was represented

by several marxist and socialist organizations. After the acceptance of the Regina

Manifesto as the party's constitution and the official birth of the CCF as a federal party

with several provincial sections, the Ontario CCF immediately ran into difficulties and

was disbanded by Woodsworth. But while the B.C. CCF faced similar turmoil, as

different personalities and ideologies battled for control over the party, there was no way

that Woodsworth or any of the federal leaders could have imposed their will over the

B.C. CCF as they had in Ontario. Geography undoubtedly played a role in the

independence of the B.C. CCF. Federal CCF leaders, based in Ottawa, their feet in both

provincial and federal camps, were often heavily involved in the Ontario organization.

Travel to B.C., with the train as the main means of transportation, was both time

consuming and expensive. But geography is only part of the explanation. Perhaps more

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importantly to the support and greater participation women enjoyed within the B.C. CCF

were the personalities and political groups that made up the party in its first years.

Although history records the first provincial election that the CCF contested in

British Columbia as 1933, the party actually ran under the banner of the Socialist Party of

Canada British Columbia section. While the B.C. CCF was also made up of the

Reconstruction Party, and of independent CCF clubs, the officia1 link between the federal

CCF and British Columbia was, until 1935, maintained through the SPC. Both the

Reconstruction Party and the CCF clubs were admitted to the federal CCF tlîrortgh the

SPC. The SPC was led by Ernest Winch, a doctrinaire marxist who insisted right from

the formation of the CCF that the party always remain faithful to the Regina Manifesto.

His own SPC manifesto was marxist and Winch fought bitterly at times with others in the

CCF to keep the new party tmly socialist. Winch was countered by the more mainstream

socialists, found both in the Reconstruction party and, much to Winch's disgust, within

his own party. As a result of this mixed membership, the CCF was less radical than

Winch and his supporters had hoped, but it was certainly more radical than the Ontario

and federal CCF. However, if the new party was to achieve success at the polls Winch

realized that the more moderate socialist stance, as represented by the popular Angus

MacInnis, was the more pragmatic strategy to follow and thus Winch and other

doctrinaire socialists swallowed a bitter pi11 and allowed the party to shift to the right -

but not without serious consequences.

Substantial disagreement soon surfaced in 1935 when CCF provincial leader,

Rev. Robert Connell, who rose to prominence because of his moderate socialism, made

123

statements in the Legislature that did not represent what the CCF membership and

executive had agreed upon at the party's annual provincial convention. The relationship

between Connell and Ernest Winch became irreconcilable. Connell was expelled from

the party and replaced by Winch. Ideological difference and partisanship in the Ontario

CCF, therefore, was handled by Woodsworth and the federal CCF; federal figures

stepped in, disbanded the party, and reorganized it to their own liking. In B.C. there was

no such federal intervention as the marxist Winch, although admittedly less doctrinaire,

re-established control of the party. As a result, B.C. firmly established its own identity in

the CCF and was constantly a thom in the side of the federal CCF caucus as the B.C.

section occasionally announced its support for legislation that often contradicted

policies put fonvard by the federal CCF in Ottawa.

There were also differences between the backgrounds of B.C. and Ontario

leaders. Ernest Winch, for example, came from a working-class background and worked,

as would his son and future CCF leader Harold, as an electrician. He served as president

of the Lumber Workers Industrial Union prior to leading the CCF. Angus MacInnis, one

of the few B.C. CCFers to become influential in the federal CCF, worked on his family

farm and as a miner before becoming a street-car conductor in Vancouver and head of

the Conductor's Union. Almost illiterate when he married J.S. Woodsworth's daughter,

MacInnis was taught to read and write by Grace MacInnis. In contrast, most of the

Ontario and federal CCF leaders - David Lewis, M.J. Coldwell, and Frank Scott - were

lawyers and a c a d e m i c ~ . ? ~ ~ While not Wobblies, Winch and others in the B.C. CCF were

124

certainly more radical than their Eastern comrades and the labouring and trade-unionist

backgrounds of many B.C. CCFers played a role in this class politics.

It is difficult to discuss differences between Ontario and British Columbia

without dealing with theories of western exceptionalism. Although some historians have

argued that western exceptionalism has failed as a method of historical explanation

because it "assumed what it had to prove," there are some differences between the

political development of British Columbia and Ontario whicli help to possibly explain

why the B.C. CCF was more radical than Ontario, and thus why women in B.C. were

more successful in their attempts to aid the CCF ~ause.~~"erhaps the most accurate

description of the British Columbia left, is not that it was more radical than the East, but

merely different. Norman Penner, for instance, has argued that western labour activists

faced a "particularly predatory and reactionary capitalist cl as^."^^^ These western

capitalists, competing with the Eastern establishment, formed direct connections with the

govermnent or, as in the case of the Dunsmuir family, actually formed it themselves.

Political historians specializing in British Columbia, Martin Robin for example, note the

commercial nature of B.C. and label it the Company province.'70 The first two decades of

the twentieth century in B.C. were filled with open class warfare as coal miners fought

battles against the militia during the Nanairno coal strikes, and political scanda1 as both

Liberal and Conservative governments faced charges of corruption and profiteering over

issues such as the Pacific Great Eastern railway. But the owners of capital make up only

half the equation. The working-class immigrant population was also different in the

west.

125

One could argue more generally that late nineteenth-century Ontario was largely

populated by an older generation of immigrants who settled the land and brought with

them a protestant and conservative tradition, and that British Columbia received a large

population of working-class immigrants, many of whom came fiom England. Working-

class men and women - Helena Gutteridge among them - left England just afier the

rise of new trade unionism. Industrial unions had formed the successful Labour Party. As

a result, Penner suggests, "the great immigration movement into the West, coming at a

later date than that in the East, brought men and women who had been exposed to the

ideas of new unionism, of Marxian Socialism, and of independent labour political

action."27' B.C. CCF women, therefore, benefitted fiom a political environment in which

radical beliefs continually ran both through their own party and the greater society. When

CCF women interacted with others whom they hoped to influence in their own

communities, they were aided by the fact that strikes, demonstrations, and other attempts

to attract attention to the fight for social justice, were commonplace in British Columbia.

This was especially the case in Vancouver where labour unrest and urban demonstrations

made up of singing Wobblies were a familiar scene.

Connected to this familiarity with radical politics was the relationship between

CCF women and Communist women in B.C. Here again, in exploring women's

experiences in both Ontario and B.C., exists another significant difference. The

relationship in both provinces between the CCF and the CP was affected by the policies

set forth by meetings of the Communist International. It is well documented that after

1935 the policy of the Comrnunist Party, or Labour Progressive Party [LPP], toward other

126

lefi-wing parties completely changed. Prior to 1935 the CP attacked the CCF and the

CCF acted similarly. But the CP changed its policy completely and in the late 1930s it

continually attempted to cooperate with the CCF. Many CCF leaders, however, were

convinced that the new CP policy was merely a ploy to enable CP members to infiltrate

the CCF with the intention of destroying the Party. As discussed in chapter one, many

CCF women during the 1930s did not agree with the leadership's interpretation of the

CP. Women such as Rae Luckock and Jean Laing were convinced that the only way to

succeed in changing society was to cooperate in united front activities; big business and

the established Liberal and Conservative parties were too strong for the CCF to combat

on its own. There were of course differences of opinion among CCF women as some,

such as Marjorie Mann, did support the executive lead. It must also be pointed out that

attitudes among CCF women changed over time. Many CCFers who had been

sympathetic to the CP during the 1920s and into the 1940s, severed al1 ties with the

communists after World War II when it became clear that the Stalinist programme bore

no resemblance to their own socialist ideas.

In the 1 %Os, however, when many CCF women did not oppose cooperation in

united front activities, a different relationship existed between B.C. CCF women, and

those in Ontario. We have already uncovered the confrontational relationship which

existed during the late 1930s between the women of the WJC in Toronto and the

provincial executive. Al1 members except Rose Henderson were eventually expelled

from the CCF for their refusal to end their association with communist women. In the

1940s, a similar event transpired when Rae Luckock and Kay Carlin were expelled for

127

their continued participation in the HCA. While there was similar animosity between

communist and CCF women in British Columbia, cooperation between the two groups

was frequent and conflict never erupted in the manner which occurred in Ontario. To be

sure, the B.C. CCF certainly expelled members for their communist leanings; the

expulsion of A.M. Stephen is particularly well documented. But B.C. women were not

threatened in the same manner as their comrades in Ontario. For example, CCF women

worked very closely with communist women during their support of the sit-down strikers

and throughout the long drawn-out support of the relief-camp workers. There were many

other examples of cooperation between the two g r o ~ p s . ' ~ ~ A letter from Grace MacInnis

to Marjorie Mann demonstrates this difference between Ontario and B.C. In 1947 she

wrote to Mann explaining that B.C. CCF women were "quite used to working in omni-

community organizations since the Women's School for citizenship, the Vancouver

Housing Association and other groups have given us ~ract ice." '~~ While Grace MacInnis

was certainly no supporter of the LPP she - and more significantly women like Sarah

Colley, Mildred Osterhout, and Betty Kerr - understood the need for cooperation with

any group that was willing to aid in the fight for social justice.

Summarizing, then, the explanation for the greater success of B.C. CCF women, 1

have suggested that they benefitted from a number of differences that culminated in a

greater freedom to work both within the CCF and externally to it. The B.C. CCF had a

stronger identity from its birth onward than the Ontario CCF and it maintained this

radical identity when challenged by the moderate federal leaders. B.C. CCF women were

thus aided by this identity. Their grass-roots activity, which often included the help of

128

communist women, did not face nearly the same level of opposition as was leveled at

Ontario women. In addition, Osterhout and Gutteridge worked with individual leaders

who were more radical themselves because of a working-class and trade- unionist

background. And B.C. women had the additional benefit of living in a province that had

a tradition, by the 1930s, of radical politics in which the working-class often saw itself

pitted against businessmen in the guise of a provincial government. When they worked in

local women's groups and took their protests to the streets, they were interacting with a

public that was already at least aware of alternative political ideologies. Ontario women

attempted to introduce socialism h t o a province whose political culture was far more

conservative and less receptive to radicalism. When they had to communicate with the

CCF, many women faced a largely uncooperative and moderate leadership. And in

addition, they were forced to negotiate with both a provincial and federal executive as

both bureaucracies, by nature of geography, were involved in local events.

None of these factors, however, meant that CCF women in Ontario were inactive

or that they were confined entirely to back-room organizational work. Determined that

their grass-roots efforts away from the main body of the CCF were effective in generating

support for the party, Ontario women instigated many of their own activities. Rose

Henderson and other Ontario women were determined to duplicate the efforts of Agnes

MacPhail. They knew they could enter their own small communities, just as MacPhail

had done, and connect socialism and the CCF with everyday issues many women were

dealing with during the 1930s and 1940s. But while Ontario women organized and

educated to the best of their ability, in comparison to socialist women iri British

129

Columbia, the cards were stacked more decisively against them. B.C. CCF women were

able to generate greater support for their cause and they mobilized this support to great

effect. While Osterhout voiced her socialism on the radio and to the Vancouver School

Board, in Vancouver City Council Gutteridge demanded social housing. On the streets of

Vancouver and in Stanley Park, gathered behind the banner of the Mothers' Council,

thousands of socialist women demonstrated against the capitalist system.

But why write about these women, in Ontario or British Columbia? The CCF did

not win power in either province. It was not until the party evolved into the New

Democratic Party, and even then not until the early 1970s, that the left won power in

B.C. under the leadership of Dave Barrett. And Ontario had to wait until the 1990s when

Bob Rae led the NDP to victory. History, however, is not always about victories or about

those who wield power. It was precisely an interest in top-down history which left many

significant groups without a voice thus creating a flawed and reductive historical

understanding. Studies of the CCF prove no exception. Walter Young, for example,

attributed most of the CCF's early success entirely to the work of J.S. Woodsworth. And

while Woodsworth certainly played a major role, his efforts alone are insufficient as a

historical explanation. This is especially the case when Young himself states that the

party was much more of a social movement in its early years, dependant on grass-roots

activity.

Women in both provinces were greatly involved in grass-roots activity, and yet

they are almost completely absent from traditional, mainstream studies. And while Joan

Sangster, Susan Walsh, and Dan Azoulay have corrected this omission, there still

130

remains much to tell. It is important to understand that a socialist party which prided

itself on its democratic nature was just as susceptible to contemporary sexism as the

Liberal and Conservative parties. This tells us something about the strength of latent

sexism, when even among those supposedly challenging the existing social structure, it

still affects their decision making. But equally important to Our historical understanding

is that many CCF women did not succumb to pressures and confinements. This, too, tells

us something. It indicates that a movement which started in the nineteenth century, when

sexist values were even more a basic part of the fabric of society, continued to build

strength until, afier first rearing its head over the suffrage issue, it surfaced again more

visibly during the Depression. By the 1930s, some women had become professionals, and

when they continually witnessed the destructive nature of the Depression, they led their

own fight for change. No longer content to allow men a monopoly of political power,

they attempted to gain access to it themselves. The story of women like Osterhout,

Gutteridge, and Henderson is thus an important chapter in a larger story which explains

the construction of women's political agency in Canada. It is a story of resistance and

also of empowerment, one that illuminates the potential and possibility of change.

Endnofes

1 .University of Toronto, Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library. Kenny Collection, Box 42A Sample Radio Script - No.2 1947.

2.See Dean McHenry, The Third Force in Canada 1932- 1948, (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1950).

3.Sylvia Ostry, and Frank T. Denton, Historical Estimates of the Canadian Labour Force, (Ottawa: Dominion Bureau of Statistics, 1967).

4.See Leo Zakuta, A Protest Movement Becalmed: A study of Change in the CCF, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1964).

5.Historians who have studied socialism will be familiar with the constant ideological warfare that raged between communists and socialists and among socialists themselves. There has consistently been a loud minority within the CCF and NDP which demanded the party remain true to its socialist roots. This minority has been in constant conflict with members who wished to see immediate results at the polls. Essentially the debate concerns disagreement over both how the party could most help society and correct the problems created by the capitalist system, and over which strategy would best aid in the irnrnediate election of a CCF government. Usually the doctrinaire socialists favored an emphasis on education: the party should work to toward educating a socialist public which would then give the CCF a popular mandate to implement the platforms outlined in the Regina Manifesto. Of course, the radicals in the CCF were opposed by more mainstream members who labelled themselves as "practical" and accused their rivals of insisting the party follow unrealistic "utopian" policies which would only serve to alienate the public.

6. Walter Young, The Anatomy o f a Party: The National CCF (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1969), 162.

9.Walter Young, "Ideology, Personality and the Origin of the CCF in British Columbia," B. C. Studies 32 (Winter 1976-77): 139- 1 62.

10.Irene Howard, "The Mother's Council of Vancouver: Holding the Fort for the Unemployed, 1935- 1938," B.C. Studies 69-70 (June 1986): 184.

1 1.Alan Whitehorn, "An Analysis of the Historiography of the CCF-NDP: The Protest Movement Becalmed Tradition," Building The Co-operative Commonwealth: Essays on

the Democratic Tradition in Canada, ed. J. William Brennan, (Regina: Canadian Plains Research Centre, University of Regina, 1985), 1-24.

12.Sangster has contributed two influential studies on CCF women. An article from the collection of essays on the CCF edited by William Brennan, entitled '"Women in the New Era': The Role of Women in the Early CCF," focuses entirely on the CCF and predates her later book Dreams of Equa l i~ which incorporates al1 Canadian women on the left and deals predominantly with the relationship between women's feminist goals and the left-wing politics of both the CCF and communist parties. See Joan Sangster, "'Women in the New Era': The Role of Women in the Early CCF," Building the Cooperative Conzmonwealth: Essays on the Democratic 7Yadition in Canada, ed. J. William Brennan, (Regina: Canadian Plains Research Centre, University of Regina, 1985). And Joan Sangster, Dreams of Equality: Women on the Canadian Lep, 1920-1 950 (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1989).

13.Sangster, "Women in the New Era," 76.

16.See John Manley, "Women and the Left in the 1930s: The Case of the Toronto CCF Women's Joint Cornrnittee," Atlantis 5 (Spring 1980): 100-1 19. and Deen Beeby, "Women in the Ontario C.C.F., 1940-50," Ontario History 74 (September 1982): 258-83.

17.John Manley, "Women and the Left in the 1930s: The Case of the Toronto CCF Women's Joint Committee," Atlantis 5 (Spring 1980): 101.

19.Azoulay has published several studies of the CCF. See Dan Azoulay, "Winning Women for Socialism: The Ontario CCF and Women, 1947- 196 1 ," LabourLe Travail 36 (Fall 1995): 59-91. and '"Ruthless in a Ladylike Way': CCF Women Confront the Postwar 'Communist Menace'," Ontario History 89 (March 1997): 23-52. See also Azoulay, Keeping the Dream Alive, (Montreal: McGill Queen's University Press, 1997).

20.See Azoulay, "Winning Women for Socialism."

22.01enka Melnyk, No Bankers in Heaven: Remetnbering the CCF, (Toronto: McGraw- Hill Ryerson, 1989).

23.Eileen Sufrin, The Eaton Drive: The Campaign to Organize Canada's Largesr Department Store, 1948 to 1952, (Toronto: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 1982).

24.See Irene Howard, The Struggle For Social Justice in B.C.: Helena Gutteridge, The Unknown Reformer, (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1992). and also Howard, "The Mother's Council of Vancouver: Holding the Fort for the Unemployed, 1935-1 938," B. C. Studies 69-70 (June 1986): 249-287.

25.Many historians have noted that much of the day-to-day work which was critical to the party's continued existence and presence was done by volunteer women. Speaking tours, to name but one example, would not have taken place, and the money needed to finance them would not have been available if not for the work of women CCFers.

26.Joan Sangster, "'Women in the New Era': The Role of Women in the Early CCF," in Building The Co-operative Commonwealth: Essays on the Democratic Tradition in Canada. ed. J. William Brennan (Regina: Canadian Plains Research Centre, University of Regina, 1985), 77.

27.J.T. Morely gives a good background on the political culture of Ontario in his biography of the Ontario CCF. He suggests that even into the 1930s, Ontario maintained a colonial mentality in which society looked to both England and the United States for political inspiration. As for the province's conservative tradition, for the most visible political evidence, one need only glance at the Conservative party's record of provincial electoral dominance in which they have governed the province continually but for a few brief Liberal (and one UFO) interruptions. See J.T. Morely, Secular Socialists: The CCF/NDP in Ontario A Biogrcphy (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1984).

28.Sangster has argued that women who remained focused on materna1 issues were "echoing the very contradiction which kept women isolated from the mainstream of the socialist movement." See Sangster, "Women of the New Era," 92.

29. Sangster's contradiction refers to the relationship between feminism and socialism. Her emphasis is on exploring the way in which CCF women grappled with the problem of consciously deciding to deal primarily with gender or class inequality. Some socialist feminists, by ignoring the inconsistencies within the CCF of dealing with gender issues, felt that gender equality would arise out of class equality. As Susan Walsh has argued, however, some CCF women felt no contradiction at the time and were able to deai with both issues. See Susan Walsh, "Equality, Emancipation and a More Just World: Leading Women in the British Columbia Cooperative Commonwealth Federation," Master's Thesis. Simon Fraser University, 1983.

30.Dean McHenry, The Tlzird Force in Canada: The CCF 1932-1948 (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, l95O), 26.

3 1. Gerald Caplan, "The Failure of Canadian Socialism: The Ontario Experience, 1932- 1945," in Prophecy and Protest: Social Movements in Twentieth Century Canada. ed. Samuel Clark, J. Paul Grayson, and Linda Grayson (Toronto: Gage Educational Pub.,

32.Ivan Avakumovic, Socialism in Canada: A Study of the CCF-NDP in Federal and Provincial Politics (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1978), 26.

33.Communism and collectivisation were two of the most fiequently reported fears which consistently appear in CCF documents which report on the public's perception of the party. The party was constantly fighting to distance itself from concepts such as the outright abolishment of private property. Anti-CCF campaigns, on the other hand, almost always encouraged the connection and thus the fear of their possible iinplementation.

34.National Archives of Canada. MG 27 III C4 Vol. 1. MacPhail Papers. Letter from R.J. Scott to Agnes MacPhail. 1 March 1934. National Archives of Canada hereafter cited as NAC.

35.NAC MG 27 II1 C4 Vol. 5, MacPhail Papers, Agricultural -National Organization, 1938-39.

37.MacPhail was re-elected as M.P. for South East Grey in several elections before becoming an M.P.P. for the Ontario CCF - this time running in a Toronto riding. MacPhail had the highest rate of attendance in the House of Commons and kept her constituency informed, through bi-weekly reports in the local paper, of her actions and those of her opposition in the House. Suffice it to Say that MacPhail was well known and publications of her political beliefs and actions were easily available. MacPhail won re- election in her rural riding because voters knew were she stood, not on account of the ignorance of the voting population.

38. "New Social Order Predicted When Agnes MacPhail, M.P., Addresses Good Neighbours," The New Order, 16 December 1939. The following quotes are al1 from this same article.

39.NAC MG 27 II1 C4 Vol. 5 MacPhail Papers. Unidentified newspaper, file "Women, Role in Society 1933-45."

4O.The answer to this question is complicated by the fact that MacPhail, as a person, was very well known. By that 1 mean that people knew that she stood for the farmer's cause. For anyone who has even glanced through her papers available at the NAC, it is very evident that the farmer's plight was right at the top of her list. So what was the most important element about MacPhail that gained her support? It's very difficult to determine.

41 .NAC MG 27 III C4 MacPhail Papers, Election Flyer for Olive Jane Whyte, 19 June 1934.

43.CCF archiva1 material unfortunately does not include actual membership numbers for the Ontario CCF in the 1930s. For several years the party did not keep a record of membership cards. While there are financial records available and the most obvious source, election returns, there are no numbers which could give the historian a clear picture of the gendered make up of the CCF during the period in question. For this reason the reader gains some usehl insights by reviewing the works of both Zakuta and McHenry, both of whom wrote about the party during periods in which they were either actively involved, as in Zakuta's case, or like McHenry who observed the party in action.

44.0ne notorious battle which can be found in contemporary newspapers involved the struggle between the radical Ginger Group in the CCF and the more moderate party leaders.

45. "Let the Women Get Mad," The Globe and Mail, 22 March 1939.

46. "Go Home, Young Woman? Ha! Ha! Agnes MacPhail tells Mederic Martin it is to laugh," Chatelaine, October 1 933, 13.

47.NAC MG 27 III C4 vol 5 MacPhail Papers, File "Women, Role in Society 1933-45" Newspaper clipping, undated, "Canadian Women Socially Conscious Not Politically."

48.Ibid. Unidentified Newspaper clipping, undated, "Why Women Fail as Voters."

5O.Mrs. M. Barr, "Letter to the Editor," Toronto Star, 30 March 1940.

5 1 .Elizabeth Bailey Price, "Have Canadian Women Failed in Politics?" Liberty, 29 February 1936. Italics in original.

52.NAC MG 27 III C4 vol 5 MacPhail Papers, File "Women, Role in Society 1933-45," Real of Women, 7 November 1936.

54.Caroline Riley, "Women in the C.C.F." Labour Annual, 1938.

58. Walter Young, The Anatomy of a Party: The National CCF 1932-1 96 1 (Toronto:

University of Toronto Press, 1969), 142.

59.Ibid., 150.

oO.Sangster, "Women in the New Era," 70.

61.See Deen Beeby, "Women in the Ontario C.C.F., 1940-50," Ontario History 74 (September 1982): 258-83.

62.Dan Azoulay, "Winning Women for Socialism: The Ontario CCF and Women, 1947- 1961 ," Labour/Le Travail 36 (Fall 1995): 77.

63.Sangster, "Women of the New Era," 74.

64.Ibid., 77.

65.Sylvia Bashevkin, Toeing the Lines: Women and Party Politics in English Canada, 2nd ed., (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1993), 124.

66.Joan Sangster, "Women of the New Era," 88.

67.John Manley, "Women and the Left in the 1930's: The Case of the Toronto CCF Women's Joint Committee," Atlantis 5 (Spring 1980): 10 1.

68.Ibid., 101.

69.Ibid., 104.

70.University of Toronto, Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, Woodsworth Memorial Collection, Letter from Women's Joint Committee to Hon. David Croll, Minister of Welfare, 10 June 1936. Hereafter cited as Woodsworth Memorial Collection.

7 1 .Woodsworth Memorial Collection, WJC Minutes of Meeting, 6 March 1936.

75.Woodsworth Memorial Collection, letter from WJC to J.S. Woodsworth, 16 May 1936. A similar letter was sent to Herbert Orloff, the provincial secretary.

77.Woodsworth Memorial Collection. Letter from Women's Progressive Association

Ward 8, 1 1 May 1936.

78.Woodsworth Memorial Collection, Women's Progressive Association, Minutes of Conference Held on May 27Ih 1936 at the Prince George Hotel, Victorian Room, Toronto. The following quotes are al1 recorded in the Minutes.

79.See Young.

86.Jolliffe's accusation was made in the final days of the campaign and was completely unexpected; none of the members of the CCF campaign cornmittee or on the provincial executive knew what Jolliffe was going to Say. Members of the executive, George Grube for example, have been quoted as saying that they were quite angry with Jolliffe for not consulting the executive.

88.Dan Azoulay, Keeping the Dream Alive (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1997), 8.

89.It could be suggested that one reason women politicians received such attention in the 1930s was because they were still an oddity at the time. Unfortunately women such as MacPhail were sometimes looked at as show pieces, despite, in MacPhail's case, the fact that she repeatedly stated she was no different from men M.P.s and that she was not fighting for special treatment for herself or women in general. Her fight was always for equality.

90."Government is Big Scale Housekeeping for the Well-being of the Whole Country," Canadian Home Journal, June 1 944.

93.Reg Hardy, "Women Spurn Political Arena For Themselves - Support Men,"

Unidentified newspaper, 27 May 1947. NAC MG32 G12 1 CCF Papers, file "Ontario Women's Committee - Status of women press clippings 1946-49.''

95. "Equal Pay for Woinen Given Hoist by MPP's," Globe and Mail, 8 April 1949.

97. NAC MG27 III D6 Vol. 3 CCF Papers, CCF Radio Broadcast, Given by Louise Lucas, 28 February 1944.

99. NAC CCF Papers, National CCF Women's Committee, Secretary's Report, July 1948.

1 O 1 .NAC MG 32 G 12 II Mann Papers, Letter from Lorne Ingle to Barbara Cass-Beggs, Undated.

102.NAC CCF Papers, NWC minutes, 1948.

103.NAC CCF Papers, NWC minutes, June 1950.

104.Sangster, Dreanis of Equality, 83.

105.A Royal Commission on the Stattis of Women in 1970 reported that women's political clubs or auxiliaries should be fùlly amalgamated with political parties because if groups remained separate evidence had shown that women did not participate equally within the parties and their ability to impact party policy was limited. See Sylvia Bashevkin, Toeing the Lines: Women and Pars, Politics in English Canada, 2nd edition (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1993), 1 14- 15.

1 O%.Sangster, "Women of the New Era," 82.

1 1 O.sangster, Dreams of Eqztality, 2 1 0.

11 1 .Cited in Azoulay, "Winning Women for Socialism," 64.

1 12.Sangster, Dreams of Equaliv, 2 1 0.

1 15.Georgina Taylor, "Gender and the History of the Left," in Saskatchewan History 44 (1992): 32.

1 18.Sangster, Dreams of Equality, 2 1 1.

119.NAC CCF Papers, NWC minutes, July 1948.

120.NAC CCF Papers, Supplementary Brief: submitted to the Ontario Royal Commission on Milk, Ontario CCF, 14 March 1947.

12 1 .NAC CCF Papers, CCF Women as Consumers, 1948.

123.The HCA's, it was eventually discovered, were a front for the LPP. The issue of cooperation in united front activities is discussed shortly.

124.Barbara Evans, "'Yours for a Square Deal...': Women's Role in the Saskatchewan Farm Movement and Early CCF," Canadian Dimensions 2 1 (MayIJune 1987): 9.

125.University of Toronto, Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, Kenny Collection, Box 57. Draft for Contribution to World Congress of Mothers, 1947. Hereafter cited as Kenny Collection. The following quotes are al1 from the same draft.

126.Woodsworth Memorial Collection, Sonzple Radio Script #14 Women and Politics, Undated.

129.Kenny Collection Box 45A, Speech entitled "Rights of Women" 20, Undated.

132.Azoulay, "Winning Women for Socialism," 62.

136.See Sangster, Drearns ofEqualip, p. 2 16-2 17.

137. Dan Azoulay, "'Ruthless in a Ladylike Way': CCF Women Confront the Postwar 'Communist Menace'." Ontario Histoiy 89 (March 1997): 23-52. In his article, Azoulay's emphasis is only on this event. The significance to this thesis of the PWC conflict with the HCAs is that it is fiirther evidence of the important role which women CCFers played in the history of the Ontario CCF. It is not argued here that women in the party Ied the anti-communist fight in general. The party's relationship with the LPP was never linear. At certain points, CCF men who were active in labour unions had extensive conflicts with communists. As Azoulay argues, however, the incident between the PWC and HCA should not be trivialized.

138.NAC MG 32 G12 II Mann Papers, File "Housewives's Consumer Association 1947- 1948," letter from Mann to MacInnis, 17 February 1948.

139.NAC MG 32 G 12 II Mann Papers, Letter from Mann to MacInnis, 1 1 February 1948.

141 .Ibid. The events surrounding the dispute are recorded in the letters from Mann to Grace MacInnis.

142.Several letters from Mann to Grace MacInnis, Barbara Cass-Beggs and Gladys Strum over this time period indicate that the women led the fight against the HCA and any association with the LPP. After the national executive had agreed with the provincial leadership that the women should continue to work with the HCA several CCF women were outraged. For example, Mann wrote to Cass-Beggs, "1 think you probably gathered that 1 was considerably disturbed about the attitude expected of us by Morden [Lazarus], etc, towards the Housewives Consumers Association. There was no point in me blowing my top off until 1 had sized up the situation. . .And once 1 personally know that an outfit is LPP controlled 1 personally will have nothing more to do with it." - Letter from Mann dated 25 June 1948. In another letter which proves that the PWC women acted ahead of the men, Mann stated that while such action made her nen1ous, she felt they had done the right thing. She wrote, "When 1 got home 1 found a letter from Mrs. Woodsworth urging us to do exactly what we had done! Was 1 relieved!."

143.Azoulay, "Ruthless in a Ladylike Way," 24.

144.See Zakuta. It has been argued by Zakuta, Young, and many others that the new relationship with unions was responsible for starting the party down the path toward the Winnipeg Declaration and the eventual transformation into the New Democratic Party. Mark Leier has also argued that the CCF led a vicious campaign during the 1940s to rid the unions of their ties with radical leftist organizations. Part of a strategy by the Liberals and conservative union officials to maintain control of the growing union movement was to both legalize the collective bargaining process, thus forcing employers to negotiate with legally elected unions, and for the union leaders with the help of the CCF to rid union leadership of any communist ties. CCF women, therefore, undoubtedly played a role in this process.

145.Woodsworth Memorial Collection, Box 17 Women and Labour, "Substitute Resolutions" #5, Status of Women, Undated.

146.Woodsworth Memorial Collection Box 57, "Women in Industry," Undated.

148.Azoulay, "Winning Women for Socialism," 69.

149.Woodsworth Memorial Collection, Box 20, "Socialism Today: Lesson II How to Build Socialism," Undated.

15O.Mildred Osterhout was married in the 1940s to Walter Fahrni. Her papers, available at the University of British Columbia Special Collections, are listed under her married name. For the purposes of this chapter she will be referred to in the text as Osterhout as this was her name at the time. Her interviews are cited as Mildred Fahrni.

15 1 .Mildred Fahrni, interview by Irene Howard, tape recording, 20 June 1984. Al1 interviews cited were conducted by Irene Howard, in 1983-1985, and remain the possession of Ms. Howard. The autlior owes a great debt of appreciation to Ms. Howard for her help and inspiration for this chapter.

152.The CCF contested the 1933 provincial election as a tnixed organization. Official amaigamation did not occur, as mentioned, until 1935.

153.Eve Smith, interview by lrene Howard, tape recording, 19 Febniary 1985.

154.Agnus MacInnis Collection Box 54A:6, Letter to Helena Gutteridge from Angus MacInnis, 23 June 1936.

155.Angus MacInnis Collection Box 54A:6, Letter from Wallace Lefeaux to Angus MacIimis, 4 May 1936.

157.Irene Howard, The Struggle for Social Justice: Helena Gutteridge, the Unknown Reformer (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1992), 173. On the extensive work of the Planning Committee, see Howard. The cornmittee had even set up a forestry school and was prepared to implement an employment programme based on the school. They succeeded in selling the iciea to professional foresters, and in one example, an Austrian who did not even support the CCF; he was a Liberal.

158.The Federarionist, 8 July 1937.

159. See Wayne Roberts, "'Rocking the Cradle for the World': The New Woman and Materna1 Feminism, Toronto, 1 877- 19 14," in A Not Unreasonable Claim: Women and Reform in Canada, 1880s-19205, ed. Linda Kealey (Toronto: Women's Press, 1979) 15- 46.

161 .B.C. Federationist, 3 October 1913. Also cited in Susan Wade "Helena Gutteridge, votes for women and Trade Unions," in In Her Own Right: Selected Essays on Women S History in B.C., ed. Barbara Latham and Cathy Kess, (Victoria: Camouson College Press, 1980).

1 62. Vancouver Province, 20 June 1 934.

163.Diane Crossley, "The B.C. Liberal Party and Women's Reforms, 1916-1 928," in In Her Own Right: Selected Essays on Women 's History in B. C., ed. Barbara Latham and Cathy Kess, (Victoria: Camouson College Press, 1980), 244.

164.Smith is clear to point out that while she always had enough to eat herself, she was outraged that she saw horrible levels of poverty in a country so full of resources. The complete ridiculousness of this situation was a common motivator for many socialists.

165.Jessie and Harold Winch, interview by Irene Howard, tape recording, 24 January 1984.

166.Mildred Fahrni, interview by Irene Howard, tape recording, 23 May 1984.

167.Mildred Fahrni, interview by Irene Howard, tape recording, 1 1 June 1984. During her time as a social worker in London's East End, she had travelled to Russia to learn how the post-revolutionary country was dealing with housing and employment shortages. She recalls how inspired she was as she witnessed people coming into the cities from the country side al1 eager to contribute to the new society.

168.Hilda Kristiansen, interview by Irene Howard, tape recording, 7 April 1983.

169.See Joan Sangster, '"Women in the New Era': The Role of Women in the Early

CCF," in Building The Co-operative Commonwealth: Essays on the Democratic Tradition in Canada, ed. J. William Brennan, (Regina: Regina University Press, 1985), 69-98.

171 .Mildred Fahrni, interview by Irene Howard, tape recording, 1 1 June 1984.

174.Mary Powell, "A Response to the Depression: The Local Council of Women of Vancouver," in In Her Own Right: Selected Essays on Women 's History in B.C., ed. Barbara Latham and Cathy Kess, (Victoria: Camouson College Press, 1980), 258.

178.Mildred Fahrni, interview by Irene Howard, tape recording, 20 June 1984.

179.UBC Special Collections, Dorothy Steeves Collection Box 6: Diaries, Dorothy Steeves diary, 10 February 1939. Future citations referred to as Steeves Diary. Similar discussions show up frequently in many of these women's letters. For example, a letter from Caroline Riley to Steeves outlines other options for women to get involved with the CCF other than through separate gender specific groups. Riley was quite sure that allowing women to join segregated women's groups would make the CCF no different than the Liberal or Conservative parties. See Letter from Riley to Steeves, undated. Dosothy Steeves Collection Box 5.

1 80.Steeves Diary, 1 1 January 1938.

18 1 .Steeves Diary, 24 January 1938.

182.See, for example, diary entries for 1 1 January 1938 and 2 February 1938. Steeves records that yet again, conflict arose between herself and Mrs. Smith over federal intervention in health insurance and in general, federal rights over labour and social services. Gutteridge and Steeves championed federal intervention and increased fùnding.

183.Steeves Diary, 2 February 1938.

184.UBC Special Collections, Angus MacInnis Memorial Collection Box 54A: 13 Correspondence 1940, Letter from Angus MacInnis to David Lewis, 3 1 December 1942.

Al1 further references cited as Angus MacInnis Mernorial Collection.

1 85.Angus MacInnis Mernorial Collection Box 54A: 12 Corresponderice 1937, Grace MacInnis to Angus MacInnis, 15 October 1937.

1 86.Angus MacInnis Mernorial Collection Box 54A: 12 Correspondence 1939, Arnold Webster to Angus MacInnis, 20 May 1939.

187. Mary Powell, "A Response to the Depression," 272.

188.UBC Special Collections, Vancouver Local Council of Women, Box 2, Resolution passed by the B.C. CCF Women's Council, Vancouver Branch, presented to the Vancouver Council of Women, 23 January 1947.0ther resolutions were presented on issues such as the equal distribution of wealth and on world peace and capitalist contributions to the antagonisms of war.

189.Angus MacInnis Memorial Collection, Box 54A:8 Correspondence 1937,Steeves from Jack OYHanley to Angus MacInnis, 28 November 1937.

190.Mildred Fahrni, interview by Irene Howard, tape recording, 20 June 1984.

19 1 .Sheena Livesay, interview by Irene Howard, tape recording, 20 November 1984.

192.Angus MacInnis Memorial Collection, Box 55 Ernest Winch Papers 55A:29, Letter from Mildred Osterhout, 12 November 1935.

193.UBC Special Collections, Grace MacInnis Collection, Box 4:2, Letter from Mildred Osterhout to Grace MacInnis, 7 April 1935. Further citations referred to as Grace MacInnis Collection.

194.Grace MacInnis Collection Box 4:4, Letter to Grace MacInnis, 25 May 1946.

195.Dorothy Steeves Collection Box 5, Letter to Dorothy Steeves, Undated.

196.Eve Smith, interview by Irene Howard, tape recording, 19 February 1985.

197,Grace MacInnis Collection Box 4:4, Letter to Grace MacInnis, 19 April 1943

200.1 bid.

201 .Mildred Fahrni, interview by Irene Howard, tape recording, 20 June 1984.

202.See Irene Howard, The Struggle for Social Justice: Helena Gutteridge, the Unknown Reformer (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1992), 189. Also see The Vancouver Sun, 25 March 1937; The Vancouver Province, 25 March 1937; The Vancouver News Herald, 26 March 1937.

203.Mildred Fahrni, interview by Irene Howard, tape recording, 20 June 1984.

204.The entire issue of involvement in the war almost split the CCF apart. Steeves, and those who agreed with her were responsible for making B.C. CCFers notorious in Ottawa for refusing to follow the federal caucus lead. Incidently, J.S. Woodsworth maintained his pacifist stance despite pressure from the majority of those on the national executive who completely disagreed with him. Mildred Osterhout1 also maintained the same position. The decision of those in control of official party policy to support Canada's participation in the war drove a permanent wedge between the CCF and supporters such as Osterhout who would never feel the same level of support for the CCF again. In part because of the strength of her commitment to the peace movement, amongst many other reasons, Woodsworth requested that Osterhout speak as his memorial service when he died in 1942.

205.Howard, The Struggle for Social Justice, 2 16.

206.Mildred Fahrni, interview by Irene Howard, tape recording, 20 June 1984.

209.0sterhout was perhaps drawing on her own learning experiences at UBC. While attending Dr. Boags' political science classes, the students were taken on a field trip to local dock workers' union meetings where they would listen to speeches. They were also encouraged to stand up at these meetings and make speeches of their own.

2 10.Mildred Fahmi, interview by Irene Howard, tape recording, 20 June 1984.

212.UBC Special Collections, Mildred Fahrni Collection Box 1 :8, Letter from Mildred Osterhout, 12 December 1935.

2 13.Mildred Fahrni Collection Box1 : 1, Mildred Osterhout Radio Broadcast, The Woman 's Point of View, 7 March 1935. Further citations cited as Osterhout Broadcast.

2 14.0sterhout Broadcast, 14 February 1935.

215.Ibid., 7 March 1935.

216.Ibid., 3 January 1935.

2 18.Mildred Fahrni, interview by Irene Howard, tape recording, 20 June 1984.

2 19.Howard, The Str~cggle~for Social Justice, 160.

220.Angus MacInnis Memorial Collection Box 24: 12, Radio and TV Committee, Report of the CCF Radio Corninittee to the CCF Provincial Administration Committee, 30 September 1 948.

221 .See, for example, one letter froin Jane Montgomery to Mildred Osterhout, 18 January 1935, Mildred Fahrni Collection Box 1:l.

222.Irene Howard, "The Mothers' Coiincil of Vancouver: Holding the Fort for the Unemployed, 1935- 193 8," in B. C. Stuclies 69-70 (1 986): 249.

225.A tag day was an event in which demonstrators would stand out on street corners and sel1 buttons which represented a particular cause. They were a means of rasing both awareness and money. On the Moose Hall meeting see The Vancouver Sun, 26 April 1935, "Women to Tag for Camp Strikers."

227.The Vancouver Sun 29 April 1935.

228.Howard, "Mothers' Council," 269.

229.The Vancouver Sun, 13 May 1935. See also Irene Howard, "Mothers' Council," 270.

23 1 .Howard, "Mothers' Council," 270.

232.The Vancouver Sun, 13 May 1935.

233.Howard, "Mothers' Council," 287

234.0fien, these tag-days were organized in direct violation of city law. A tag day had to have the prior authorization of the city council. CCF women had petitioned Mayor Miller and were turned down. The women, therefore, went ahead with their tag days

despite the risk of incarceration. It is important to point out that the newspaper reports do not mention the fact that CCF women as well as men participated in the illegal tag days. These reports are at variation with the recollections of CCFers such as Winch and Eve Smith, who state that the women were also out on the streets. For newspaper reports see: The Vancouver Sun 22 and 23 June 1938, "500 Jobless 'Tin-Canners' De@ Mayor."

235.Jessie and Harold Winch, interview by Irene Howard, tape recording, 24 January 1984.

236.Eve Smith, interview by Irene Howard, tape recording, 19 February 1985.

237.The Vancouver Sun, 20 June 1938.

239.The Vancouver Sun, 21 June 1938.

24 1. The Vancouver News Herald, 17 February 1945.

243. The Vancouver Sun, 2 1 June 193 8.

244. Vancouver News Herald, 22 June 1938.

245. Angus MacInnis Collection. Memorandum on Relief and Other Matters, Presented by the British Columbia Joint Committee on unemployment to the Honorable Premier and Cabinet Ministers of the Province of British Columbia, 7 December 1934.

246.Angus MacInnis Collection, Report of the Delegation of Unemployed - Sponsored by the British Columbia Joint Committee on Unemployment who Presented the Demands on Behalf of the Unemployed of British Columbia Before the British Columbia Cabinet, 7 December 1934,10:30 am.

249.CCF Unemployment Council Annual Report of the CCF Unemployment Conference, 24 July 1935. The minutes report the same information, that Paîtullo had specifically promised the funding in response to the presentations.

250.Mildred Fahrni, interview by Irene Howard, tape recording, 20 June 1984.

253.Eve Smith, interview by Irene Howard, tape recording, 19 February 1985.

254.Grace MacInnis Collection Box 4 2 , Letter from Mildred Osterhout to Grace Maclnnis, 23 May 1938.

256.The Colonist, 10 February 1943. MacInnis had demanded that a food a fuel board be set up by the government, stating "There is no use to expect that democracy will work when the people have votes but no fuel or bread. These two commodities are basic needs of our people!"

257. The Vancouver News Herald, 1 4 February 1 945.

259.Angus MacInnis Collection Box 54A, Letter from David Lewis to Angus M a c I ~ i s , 1 3 October 1942.

260.Angus MacInnis Collection Box 54A: 13 Correspondence 1940, Letter from Angus MacInnis, 20 March 1941.

261 .Osterhout Broadcast, 29 November 1934.

262.Mildred Fahmi, interview by Irene Howard, tape recording, 20 June 1984.

263.Angus MacInnis Collection, Annual Report of the CCF Unemployment Conference, 1935.

264.0n events concerning the B.C. CCF leadership see Walter Young, "Ideology, Personality and the Origins of the CCF in British Columbia," B.C. Stztdies 32 (Winter 1976-77): 139-162. Also see Dorothy Steeves, The Compassionate Rebel.

265.Walter Young, "Ideology, Personality and the Origins of the CCF in British Columbia," B. C. Studies 32 (Winter 1976-77): 139- 162.

267.There are a few exceptions to what I've suggested for the B.C. CCF. Behind Winch stood Wallis Lefeaux, a lawyer known for expounding his scientific socialism, and Arnold Webster, teacher and Secretary-Treasurer of the B.C. Teachers' Federation. But the B.C. CCF also included Arthur Turner, a popular figure in the party and known as the

"Popular Mechanic."

268.0n the failures of western exceptionalism as historical methodology see: Mark Leier, Rebel Life. The L f e and Times of Robert Gosden Revolzctionary, Mystic, Labour Spy (Vancouver: New Star Books, 1999), 163.

269.Norman Penner, "The Western Canadian Left: In Retrospect," in Western Canadian Politics: The Radical Tradition, ed. Donald C. Kerr, (Edmonton: Newest Press, 198 1 ), 6.

270.See Martin Robin, The Rush for the Spoils: The Cornpan-v Province (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1972).

272.The list of events in which B.C. CCF and communist women worked together is lengthy: the On-To-Ottawa Trek, many of the Tag-Day campaigns, the WILPF, etc.

273.NAC MG 32 G 12 II Mann Papers, Letter from Grace MacInnis to Mann, 12 November 1947.

Bibliography

Avakumovic, Ivan. Socialism In Canada: A Stztdy of the CCF-NDP in Federal and Provincial Politics. Toronto: McC lelland and Stewart, 1 978.

Azoulay, Dan. Keeping the Dreant Alive. Montreal: McGill Queen's University Press, 1997.

Bashevkin, Sylvia. Toeing the Lines: Wonren and Party Politics in English Canada. 2nd ed. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Caplan Gerald. The Diletttma of Canadian Socialisnt: The CCF in Ontario. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1973.

Caplan, Gerald. "The Failure of Canadian Socialism: The Ontario Experience, 1932-1945." In Prophecy and Protest: Social Movements in Twentieth-centztry Canada, edited by Samuel Clark, J Paul Grayson and Linda Grayson. Toronto: Gage Eduzational Pub., 1975.

Crossley, Diane. "The B.C. Liberal Party and Women's Reforms, 1916-1 928." In In her O n Right: Selected Essays on Women S History in B.C., edited by Barbara Latham and Cathy Kess. Victoria: Camouson College Press, 1980.

Crowley, Teny. Agnes MacPhail and the Politics of Equality. Toronto: James Lorimer & Company, 1990.

Howard, Irene. The Struggle for Social Jztstice: Helena Gutteridge, the Unknown Reformer. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1992.

Leier, Mark. Rebel LIJé: The Life and Times of Robert Gosden Revoltttionary, ~Mystic, Labour Spy. Vancouver: New Star Books, 1999.

Lewis, S.P. Grace: The Lfe o f Grace MacInnis. Madeira Park, British Columbia: Harbour Publishing, 1973.

McHenry, Dean. The Third Force in Canada 1932- 1948. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. 1950.

Melnyk, Olenka. No Bankers in Heaven: Remembering the CCF. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1989.

Morley, J.T. Secular Socialists: The CCF/NDP in Ontario A Biography. Montreal: McGill- Queen's University Press, 1984.

Ostry, Sylvia, and Frank T. Denton. Historical Estimates of the Canadian Labour Force. Ottawa: Dominion Bureau of Statistics, 1967.

Penner, Norman. "The Western Canadian Lefi: In Retrospect." In Western Canadian Politics: The Radical Tradition, edited by Donald C. Kerr. Edmonton: Newest Press, 198 1.

Powell, Mary. "A Response to the Depression: The Local Council of Women of Vancouver." In In her Own Right: Selected Essays on Women S History in B. C., edited by Barbara Latham and Cathy Kess. Victoria: Camouson College Press, 1980.

Roberts, Wayne. "'Rocking the Cradle for the World': The New Woman and Materna1 Feminism, Toronto, 1 887- 1914." In A Not Unreasonable Claim: Women and Reform in Canada, 1880s-1920s, edited by Linda Kealey. Toronto: Women's Press, 1979.

Robin, Martin. The Rush for the Spoils: The Company Province. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1972.

Sangster, Joan. "'Women in the New Era': The Role of Women in the Early CCF." In Building The Co-operative Commonwealth: Essays on the Democratic Socialist Tradition in Canada, edited by J. William Brennan. Regina: Canadian Plains Research Center, University of Regina, 1985.

. Dreams of Equality: Women on The Canadian Left, 1920- 1950. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1989.

Sufrin, Eileen. The Eaton Drive: The Campaign to Organize Canada's Largest Department Store, 1948 to 1952. Toronto: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 1982.

Wade, Susan. "Helena Gutteridge, Votes For Women and Trade Unions." In In her Own Right: Selected Essays on Women S History in B.C., edited by Barbara Latham and Cathy Kess. Victoria: Camouson College Press, 1980.

Young, Walter. The Anatomy of a Party: The National CCF 1932-1961. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1969.

Zakuta, Leo. A Protest Movement Becalmed: A Study of Change in the CCF. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1964.

Articles

Azoulay, Dan. "Winning Women for Socialism: The Ontario CCF and Women, 1947-1 96 1 ." Labour/Le Travail 36 (Fall 1995): 59-91.

. "'Ruthless in a Ladylike Way': CCF Womeli Confront the Postwar 'Communist Menace'." Ontario History 89 (March 1997): 23-52.

Beeby, Deen. "Women in the Ontario C.C.F., 1940-50." Ontario History 74 (September 1982): 258-83.

Evans, Barbara. "'Yours for a Square Deal...': Women's Role in the Saskatchewan Farm Movement and Early CCF." Canadian Dimensions 2 1 (MayIJune 1 987): 7- 12.

Howard, Irene. "The Mothers' Council of Vancouver: Holding the Fort for the Unemployed, 1935-1938." B.C. Sttrdies 69-70 (June 1986): 249-287.

Manley, John. "Women and the Lefi in the 1930's: The Case of the Toronto CCF Women's Joint Committee." Atlantis 5 (Spring 1980): 100-1 19.

Smith, Andrea. "The CCF, NPA, and Civic Change: Provincial Forces Behind Vancouver Politics 1930- 1940." B. C. Studies 53 (Spring 1982): 45-65.

Taylor, Georgina. "Gender and the History of the Left." in Saskatclzewan History 44 (1 992): 3 1- 34.

Walsh, Susan. "Equality, Emancipation and a More Just World: Leading women in the British Columbia Cooperative Commonwealth Federation." Master's thesis, Simon Fraser University, 1983.

Whitehorn, Alan. "An Analysis of the Historiography of the CCF-NDP: The Protest Movement Becalmed Tradition." In Building The Co-operative Commonwealth: Essays on the Democratic Socialist Tradition in Canada, edited by. J. William Brennan. Regina: Canadian Plains Research Center, University of Regina, 1985. 1-24.

Young, Walter. "Ideology, Personality and the Origins of the CCF in British Columbia." B.C. Studies 32 (Winter 1976-77): 139- 162.

Archiva1 Collections

National Archives of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario. Louise Lucas Collection. Agnes MacPhail Collection. Grace MacInnis Collection. Marjorie Mann Collection. Cooperative Commonwealth Federation Papers.

Queen's University Archives, Kingston, Ontario. Ontario Cooperative Commonwealth Federation Collection.

Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario. Robert S. Kenny Collection. J.S. Woodsworth Memorial Collection.

University Of British Columbia Library, Special Collections and University Archives Division, Vancouver, British Columbia. Dorothy Steeves Collection. Mildred Fahrni Collection. Angus MacInnis Memorial Collection. Grace MacInnis Collection. Vancouver Local Council of Women Papers.

lnferviews Al1 interviews in the possession of Irene Howard.

Fahrni, Mildred. Interview by Irene Howard, tape recording, May 23, June 1 1, June 20, 1984.

Kristiansen, Hilda. Interview by Irene Howard, tape recording, April 7, 1983.

Livesay, Sheena. Interview by Jrene Howard, tape recording, November 20, 1984.

Smith, Eve. Interview by Irene Howard, tape recording, February 19, 1985.

Winch, Jessie and Harold. Interview by Irene Howard, tape recording, January 24, 1984.

Newspepers and Magazines

The British Columbia Federationist, 191 3, 1937.

Chatelaine, October 1933.

The Colonist, 1 933 - 1 949.

The Globe and Mail, 1 933 - 1 949.

Liberty, February 1 936.

The New Order, 1939.

The Toronto Star, 1933 - 1949.

The Vancouver News Herald, 1933 - 1949.

The Vancouver Province. 1933 - 1949.

The Vancouver Sun, 1933 - 1949.