Canadian War Museum
Josephine Ellison Godman, who lost her husband in the First World War and her son in the Second World War, donated this painting of the bombed-out Temple Church in London to the Canadian War Museum.Forty years of upheaval and violence that affected Canadian women during the two world wars of the 20th century will be commemorated at the Canadian War Museum this fall. A new exhibition, titled World War Women, will run from Oct. 23 until March 20.
Stacey Barker, the historian behind the exhibit, says World War Women is about telling personal stories of the mothers, wives, factory workers, volunteers, nurses and female service personnel during the war.
“It’s the women’s perspective,” says Barker. “It’s their experiences during the war through their own voices. We were very adamant that we wanted to tell their stories using their own words and their own objects.”
The First World War and Second World War were times of fundamental change for society as a whole – but they were a watershed moment for the women of Canada, many of who gained new opportunities and entered new lines of work.
“I really want people to come to this exhibit and realize the variety of ways that women’s lives were affected by war, and the number of roles they took on in the war effort,” says Barker.
The exhibition is laid out in a circular shape, and is divided into five sections representing the main themes of the exhibit: military service, paid war work, volunteering on the home front, domestic pressure and worry and loss.
The format is designed to allow visitors to absorb personal stories, without focusing on chronological order.
“Each story stands alone,” says Molly McCullough, the museum’s creative director. “The artifacts are displayed so the focus is on the objects and images and quotations that feature the women themselves.”
Josephine Ellison Godman, a Canadian woman who lost her husband in the First World War and her son in the Second World War donated one such example. She bequeathed a painting of Temple Church in London after the Germans bombed it in 1942.
“It was painted sometime during the war and in 1963 she donated it to the museum,” Barker says. “In her letter to us, she wrote that she didn’t ever want to remember London or think of war because she lost her husband and her son.”
While much of World War Women focuses on themes related to women gaining the opportunity to serve in the military and enter different lines of work, Barker says the final section, titled Worry and Loss, takes a different tone.
“We wanted to show some of the consequences of war, one of which is loss. So we have personal stories where we talk about women who lost husbands, fiancés, sons, and the ways that they coped with that.”
According to the museum, the centennial of the First World War – which spanned from 1914 to 1918 – made this the perfect time for an exhibition on women’s role in the wars.
“That’s one of the wonderful opportunities we have during the centenary: to take a look at some of the stories we haven’t been able to tell before,” says Yasmine Mingay, the museum’s director of public affairs. “This is an opportune time to tell and highlight some of the experiences of women.”
Sarah Hogenbirk, a PhD student at Carleton University researching the entry of women into the Canadian Armed Forces during the Second World War, is eager to see the exhibition.
“I’m very much looking forward to seeing the exhibit,” says Hogenbirk. “Hopefully it will bring attention to a subject I feel a lot of people don’t know a whole lot about.”
Hogenbirk says that while the true impact of women in the 20th-century wars can never truly be measured, women certainly played a vital role and made fundamental contributions.
“Too much had changed for Canadian society to fully go back,” says Hogenbirk. “The door had opened, and you couldn’t completely shut the floodgates.”