Rosies of the North: women’s employment at Canadian Car and Foundry in Fort William during the Second World War

Abstract

“Rosies of the North: Women’s Employment at Canadian Car and Foundry in Fort William during the Second World War” is an analysis of women’s employment at the Canadian Car and Foundry (Can Car) plant in Fort William, Ontario, during the Second World War, focusing on the experiences of the “Rosies of the North” who built military aircraft for the Allied war effort. Drawing on employee records, plant newspapers, union publications, oral histories, and wartime media, it situates women’s industrial labour within the broader economic and social context of the Great Depression, wartime mobilization, and post-war demobilization. The study analyzes women’s recruitment, training, working conditions, union involvement, and participation in home front initiatives, alongside persistent gendered divisions of labour, unequal pay, and supervisory practices.