Canada:
A Changing Society
Setting the Stage
Before
Industrialization
Before industrialization began, people made things by hands. People had to use items/resources that were all ready around them. Farmers were primary resources since farming meant growing their own food. Other primary resources included mining, forestry, and fishing to survive.
After
Industrialization
After industrialization began, things started to change, machines and tools in factories were created. More goods were being created to be sold. People left their farms and started to move to the city. As factories became to produce more goods, Canada increased its trade with other countries.
Urbanization
Urbanization is the growth of the
cities. This happened during the
1800s and the 1900s where the cities
and laws changed dramatically.
The Impact of
Technology
Technology and
Communication
With the help of technology, people all across Canada could start communicating with each other with telegraph lines linking all across Canada and to the United States. 63 192 telephones were in Canada households by 1901. Also, a new invention called the radio were allowing people to know whats going on all around the world.
Technology and Agriculture
In 1867, power driven tools had
replaced hand tools on most farms.
A steam threshing machine was
created to make things easier. It could
harvest more then one human can in 1 year. A steam power tractor was also created and could pull a plow that could cut 3 trenches deep.
Canada's wheat yield went from
490 000 tonnes in 1896 to 2 123 000
tonnes by 1911
Technology and Transportation
Horse-drawn carriages were starting
to be replaced by electric streetcars.
The normal cars, though were too expensive
for most people to buy. Another two new transcontinental railways were built. They were used to help move and transport humans and cargos across Canada, but couldn't handle all the needs of the country.
Technology and
Manufacturing
Starting in 1910, many goods and clothing
that people needed were no longer being
made by hand. People back then used to cook and clean by hand, but since vacuums cleaners and stoves were invented, these machines made life easier. Since better technology was created, sewing machines were created. That meant factories could now make clothes and sell.
Social Classes
3 levels of social classes
what is :
- Upper Class meaning
rich people doing businesses, being
a banker, plantation owner, e.t.c. They also live in fancier houses with servants and owning the latest technology
- Middle Class meaning
you don't live fancy and you don't live poor. There jobs were being factories mangers, supervisers, office workers, or being a high paid factory worker,e.t.c
- Lower class also known as
working class. They are poor meaning
they don't own brand new fancy stuff. They
work any low pay jobs like being a factory worker, a miner, e.t.c
Housing
The people that lived in poor and crowed homes were working-classing people. If people worked and lived in the city, they would only live in one roomed homes. You may think this is small, but compared to workers who work on farms, in the mines, and in forestry, you would be lucky. People who work those types of jobs would live in crowed shacks or bunkhouses provided by there employers.
Immigrants worked on farms or on the railways so they would be living in shacks or bunkhouses. Mine workers lived in company towns that were built and owned by mine owners. The owners would then rent it to the miners, setting high rents making the miners and their families in debt to the owners.
Working Conditions
All workers are paid a good amount or
a small amount, but if you work on a farm or
in a factory, you'll get paid less. The workers often get overworked and barely earn enough money to survive, let alone for their family even.
Many women and childrens become
factory workers especially mens. Adults
work 6 days a week, 12 hours a day with
only 1 day off.
- Men were paid $8.50
- Women were paid $4.00
- Children were paid $1.50
If you got hurt on the job which won't be
surprising if most workplaces weren't safe, then you wouldn't get paid. Farmers and factory workers had no medical coverage to pay so if they got hurt, they wouldn't be seeing doctors or be at the hospitals. They also have no pension plans helping out so when people retired or can't work, its what they have left/own.
Right to
Vote
Women's weren't given the
right to vote in federal elections until 1918.
Thanks to Nellie McClung and Dr. Emily
Stowe being important leaders for the suffrage (right to vote) in 1910. Groups in 1893 united together to form a group called the National Council of Women in Canada to fight for Women's Right
The Role
of Children
In the late 1800's, many children
did not go to school, instead they went
to work. In 1891, even when education acts were passed for children to be kept in school until the age of 14, about 75 000 aged 10-14 children still worked and very few 14 year olds stayed in school by 1921.
Workplace
The job for womens and children was to
work to help support their families, but most find they can't do that while living on a farm, so they moved to the city to find work. One in every six paid workers in Canada was a women in 1901.
The jobs the women were given
to do were to become
- a maid
- a teacher
- a nurse
- a factory worker
- a sales clerk
At whatever job the women's chose to do,
men would earn double the wage of what women's would get for that certain type of work too. There was also no law to protect the women's and children working in that workplace. Women did not have the right to vote to change all that.
Temperance Movement
Is alcohol the cause to most social problems? Well people believed it did back in the 1800s.A group in 1874 was founded and called the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). Banning the sale of alcohol is called 'prohibition' and thats what the group wanted to do. WCTU made little progress in doing this with the law though.
The Role of
Women
In the late 1800s, many women's began banding together to work for social changes. Some of their causes were child labour, dangerous factory
conditions, the need for better schools and public
health, equal rights for women, and alcoholism. To change these laws and help improve life in Canada, women's realized they need to get the right to vote and hold political offices.
Women and Social Change
Nellie McClung (1873-1951)
Nellie was a teacher, novelist, lecturer, politician,
historian, and prohibitionist (opposes to intoxicating beverage). She campaigned for the Woman's suffrage and worked for the right to education for all. Nellie was also a memeber of the Alberta legislature.
Emily Carr (1871- 1945)
Emily was a writer and painter.
She developed a new style that
loved, painting landscapes in
Canada, but in her lifetime,
women painters was unusual to
become well known.
Pauline Johnson (1861-1913)
Pauline was a poet and storyteller. Being one of the few women's who can write and entertain, she made a living out of that. She then broke tradition, marring off and raising her family. Pauline wrote about her aboriginal heritage.
Dr.Emily Stowe (1831-1903)
Emily became the first women
doctor practising in medicine in
Canada back then. Also, it was Emily that formed Canada's first suffrage society for Women's.
Changing Roles
in Society
Children in the
Workplace
Social Working and
Conditions
Life in Canada changed dramatically
during the late 1800's and the early 1900's
Children worked full time and were hired
only because they be paid less. They would either be working in factories or mines, or in family businesses; farms or stores. Children 's bosses would mistreat often.