Gender, Family, and Unemployment in Ontario’s Great Depression

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Introduction

Lara Campbell wrote this book to make the public aware of the problems that Canadians went through during the Great Depression that occurred between 1929 and 1939.

Respectable Citizens: Gender, Family, and Unemployment in Ontario’s Great Depression

Campbell gives her account a heartrending title that gives a complete picture of what Ontario went through. In my opinion, I think this title is touching and one that expresses a great degree of honesty on the account that she gives. Though the title may appear to be long and boring, I feel it is appropriate for the information that Campbell sets to describe. In fact from the cover illustration, on which we see people on a peaceful protest, one can easily identify the appropriateness of the title (Srigley, 7). Furthermore, this long and self-explanatory title goes further to indicate to the reader that what is about to be given in the book is not fiction; it shows that it is actually serious stuff! Her work so goes ahead to provide a clear picture of what the people went through during this Great Depression: unemployment, hunger, family tribulation as seen from the unemployment of husbands, child labor, and many other problems.

Campbell starts by giving simple and clear background information situation to facilitate understanding of the story. This introduction, for example, appears slightly in her acknowledgment. She actually reveals through her dedication that the work is a well-researched project. Campbell also tells us that her two grandmothers Elspeth Margaret Hume Siequien (1908-1995) and Agnes Annie Lucinda Blagrave Campbell (1914-2006), both of whom lived through the Great Depression (Campbell, XI). This information has its value since it further assures the reader that this word actually comes from a passionate writer who has a stake in whatever has been presented.

Further, in the introduction, Campbell tells us how she has gathered all the material. That is, she has given some sources as acquaintances, travels within Canada, court recordings, archives, etc. These sources give reliable information. There are various accounts, as we will see, given which make one associate with what is being said as they make one identify with the experiences given. For example, she describes how life was then. These include contrasting how life was earlier on and how it is now. For instance, she says that people by then were friendlier, neighbors were found to be more amenable; and by this, a typical reader will develop the interest in wishing to know more. I was particularly moved by the description of how things were.

It is through symbols that Campbell manages to effectively describe the family strife that the people went through. These include descriptions of how husbands went without employment, children suffered as mothers were not counted as single entities but, their fate lay in the hands of the husbands (Campbell, 26). During the census to determine the people to be provided with government relief, mothers were left out. Though one would like to take this show that she is a feminist, the sincerity with which Campbell gives this analogy makes one discard such a feeling altogether. Clear fairness is what comes out as one figure out the kind of alienation that the women went through. Even though they suffered a lot, they weathered the storm thus earning the title ‘respectable citizens’ (Campbell, 22).

The introduction and all the background that Campbell gives are firmly in line with the goals of this course. For example, it gives a clear explanation as to the way life was then. The course talks about the early staples and colonial beginnings.

The first part of the study is the business and the economic history. This situation is clearly illustrated by the cover artwork on Campbell’s book. In the illustration from the writing on the placards, the demonstrators are holding one can see that surely there is an economic problem. Some of them read: ‘No cash relief no school; strike for cash relief’ among others. It is easy to deduce that the economic situation was simply devastating (Campbell, 93). People looked up to the government intervention to have them meet their daily needs. Therefore, the cover illustration perfectly matches the introduction in our class lecture.

Campbell illustrates how the Great Depression was different from previous depressions and recessions. The class notes attempted to give economic and business history just like Campbell does. The staples approach gives us the Canadian social, political, and economic history (Srigley, 4).

We are also told of the political and economic history of Canada. The lecture notes show clearly how the reliance on staples (agriculture-based economy) developed and shaped the development of Canada. Over-reliance on this led to backwardness and thus devastating economic strife that the Canadians faced; Campbell’s cover illustration perfectly illustrates this situation too. In her Respectable Citizens: Gender, Family, and Unemployment in Ontario’s Great Depression, Campbell states that labor statistics show that unemployment hit a 30% mark in 1933. It was a problem within Canada and even within the provinces of Ontario’ (Campbell, 4).

The Prairie Provinces were most affected as the price of crops went down sharply. There was an equally prolonged drought, which actually rendered many farmers bankrupt. Perhaps this could be the reason the cover illustration’s placard carriers are truly demanding cash relief. In the lecture notes, we saw how the British North American economy from 1760 to 1840 was. As a background, the British used to get a supply of the staples that Canada provided for its population. By this, the vast wheat plantations’ proceeds were thus meant for export (Campbell, 12). Nevertheless, the British colonists did not just expect this; they had something to pay back and this was to do with technology that was necessary for mass production. With the proper technology, more would be produced, and by this, there was a need for labor and infrastructure. Thus, many worked on the farms for wages. This situation may have continued to prevail where families would seek employment on the farms.

Campbell, perhaps in her work, has shown why the need for labor occupied many in the staples such that during the Great Depression. When everything collapsed, many were left jobless. There was great family strife. Mothers lost their livelihood and getting employment was a delight to many. Campbell has effectively shown what the people went through after a long reliance on the staple economy. She talks of how children could be sent by their mothers to steal coal from the processing factories. She has succeeded in this account by actually collecting court proceedings in which a boy called Martin confessed to the judge that he never knew that stealing was wrong until he was arrested since, according to him, everyone was doing it. The situation was critical as we are told that even by then some industries allowed the theft of coal by the population without bothering to arrest them.

As for the infrastructure, we cannot see this getting the distinction from Campbell’s work. However, in our classwork, we saw how the British struggled to develop the infrastructure so that the processed staples could be transported. The railway line construction is one good example there was equally development of the administrative structures. The court session from which Campbell portrays the desperate state of the locals shows the British influence. So Campbell can be said to be describing the manifestations of what had earlier been established.

Campbell has actually stressed the family economy to show what the Great Depression caused. She has dwelt in detail on how women contributed to the family labor through paid and unpaid labor and how this was central to the family’s survival. The farming growth that had been established between the periods of 1760-1840 continued to be what the population relied on for survival.

In our study material, the role of workers in Canada cannot be downplayed. In fact, we learned about the central role that workers played in the development of Canada. We learned how European settlers would force other people to work for them to generate wealth for them (European settlers). Workers did all this. Campbell equally covered the plight of workers in her work. As earlier on illustrated, the work that people did make families earn something. Children on top of unemployed husbands labored during the Great Depression, and their work cannot be underestimated. Campbell for instance gives a disturbing story of how the children worked late at night to boost parents’ unemployment. She also gives an account of a 13- year old boy Jack Collison who was charged with failing to go to school, as he was too tired to attend school after having worked late selling newspapers to help his widowed mother (Campbell, 94). We can see Campbell’s assists in helping us know the history of Canadian labor.

For Campbell, the labor history she provides in her work goes further into telling us clearly, how labor influenced the family. Desmond Morton on the other hand, tells us the facts about the labor history. This is in contrast with Campbell’s in-depth view of the impact of labor. For instance, Morton tells us about the labor movement as well as colonial policy on labor. Here, he tells of how the colonial policy favored mostly farming over any other type of livelihood. A worker occupied the ‘temporary’ tag – a worker was viewed as a hired person. This was an awful position. He even goes further to tell of how leadership would provide in hordes of immigrant laborers whenever the local workers demanded higher wages. The immigrants especially came from Ireland in the 1840s.

The workers were even extorted of their paltry wages through labor gangs who posed as agents. These gangs even extorted the employers. Workers were denied certain rights, for example, the right to vote. Campbell’s expose also comes in here since in her work she has clearly focused on human rights abuses. She talks of how women were sometimes left out in the census count. She tells of how women were taken to be under their husbands in that they were not clearly entitled to relief. They were forced to go to court to claim the relief of their husbands who had deserted them.

Campbell’s narrative on the Great Depression goes in line with the lecture notes in class. The Great Depression greatly affected the nation. It affected all the provinces of Canada. Since jobs were solely based on agriculture and many worked in this sector, the effect was just devastating (Campbell, 8). This depression, unlike others, affected everyone in one way or the other. The depression made the government display different tasks and responsibilities. It had to re-examine its future business undertakings. Commissions were therefore established and policies that were meant to govern the financial sector were equally established among others. Campbell says that ‘…Great Depression cannot be understood without an understanding of the connections between manhood, respectability, and labor’ (Campbell, 59). She says that men were viewed as important only if employed. Unemployment really affected their ego. They were indeed ashamed of being unemployed.

Campbell effectively adds the issues of culture to the Great Depression, thereby making us figure out another aspect that has not been covered by other works. The analysis is sufficient and gives us a vivid picture of the whole situation. There was for instance conflict of roles at the family level, which greatly affected the people. It is discouraging that this challenge was not fully addressed. Most projects done on the Depression have majored in labor and many other policies, but no serious work has been done to look into how the depression affected relationships and also the human culture. Campbell has clearly attempted to address this aspect. This therefore is an advantage when it comes to making us understand the history of Canada.

Other scholars have talked about business consolidation entirely after the Great Depression. However, Campbell can be said to have given this crucial aspect some sort of a blackout. She has majored on Depression and its vagaries on the family at large. The other scholars have for instance looked at the rise of Canadian Business. One such scholar is Graham Taylor. He has looked at the systematic growth of Canadian business depending on the time. The example periods of business depending on occasion for example, periods of business consideration, activism and even globalization. Other scholars have given their contribution in by telling us about the war and Canada.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Campbell has achieved the objective of helping one to understand the history of Canada. Though she has not directly addressed the issue of business policies, she has gone largely of telling us the effects of everything that happened during the Great Depression and their effect on the Canadian people. Some of the effects have greatly focused on the family circle. Perhaps this could be one way of making the reader to identify with the situation, thereby understand the Canadian business and labor history. This she has done by giving moving accounts of child labor and even elements of exploitation of the labor force; not forgetting the effect, it particularly had on family relations and culture in general. Campbell’s work constitutes an interesting read. The only flaw I found in her work is that it lacks sufficient pictorial illustration in the text.

Works Cited

Campbell, Lara. Respectable citizens: Gender, Family, and Unemployment in Ontario’s Great Depression. Ontario: University of Toronto Press, 2009.

Srigley, Katrina. Breadwinning Daughters: Young Working Women in a Depression-Era City, 1929-1939.Ontario: University of Toronto Press, 2010.

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Gender, Family, and Unemployment in Ontario’s Great Depression

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