Discovering Womens Work:: A Study of Post-Retirement Aged Women

Abstract

While the range and nature of Canadian women's work has varied at times and places due to a variety of factors, that work has usually contributed to the family economy. The discussion here focuses on women who were married during the period from just prior to the First World War until the end of the Second World War. Data were gathered from a sample of 22 ever-married women using unstructured face-to-face interviews. Immersion and crystallization were used to analyze the data. Similarities were found in women's experiences during early transitions in marriage, including the marriage bar and making ends meet. Fairly quickly, however, the effect of socioeconomic status became more salient. Four categories of women's experiences were identified, including volunteer work, paid work for extras, necessary but hidden paid work, and family provisioning by single women. It is apparent from this study that women's work included not only paid and unpaid work, but Goffmanian labor that contributed to their families' class and status