I am a fan of the television series Foyle's War so this project gives me a good excuse to watch it all over again. The series is about the life of a policeman in England during WWII. I am a HUGE fan of Michael Kitchen's understated acting and Honeysuckle Weeks'plucky character. Last night I watched the episode called Bleak Midwinter based around the female worker's death in the munitions factory. It really drives home the point of how dangerous this work was.
In Vancouver women worked in the shipyards, the Boeing Factory, and the lumber industry ("lumberjills"). I also found out that the Canadian women worked making "light" machine in guns Toronto were represented by Veronica Foster, known as the Ronnie the Brenn gun girl. Images of her have a smoldering, sexy edge.
Some interesting stats and trivia from the Veterans Affairs Canada website:
Out of a total Canadian population of 11 million people, only about 600,000 Canadian women held permanent jobs when the war started. During the war, their numbers doubled to 1,200,000.
At the peak of wartime employment in 1943-44, 439,000 women worked in the service sector, 373,000 in manufacturing and 4,000 in construction.
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