Industrial Revolution In Canada Essay

Words: 1258
Pages: 6

During the second half of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century in Canada, a large shift occurred in the dairying industry. Dairying was a traditional domestic job performed by women until men took over the industry. Ultimately, many factors led to men involving themselves in the dairy industry. During the nineteenth and twentieth century, Canada was going through an industrial revolution, changing many farm practices into factory work, leading to a much more efficient, cost-effective, and less-skilled manner. The government subsidies that resulted in men investing into this industry was another important factor leading to the displacement of women. Most importantly, the gender roles during this time negated women from performing …show more content…
First and foremost, technological advancements allowed for creating butter in an uncomplicated way. However, this advancement was still not sufficient to stimulate the creation of more creameries; with government encouragement, more creameries were established and ultimately displaced the work from farm women (Cohen, 1984, 328). Women's dairying became associated with ‘women's nature,’ and had no relation to learning the trade through experience. When dairying was becoming a large industry, many people thought that the system was to be, “more systematic, more intensive, and more masculine” (Cohen, 1984, 332). Specifically, men who believed in this were the individuals the government wanted to get involved in the dairy industry (Cohen, 1984, 332). For this reason, state aid came in the form of education that men received from women about the techniques of dairying, as well as grants to dairymen for the purpose of starting their own dairy factories. The government also involved themselves by delivering factory equipment and financial aid to beginning owners of dairy factories (Cohen, 1984, 330). The investment in the dairy industry was enormously biased, as there is no proof that women received government assistance from the government regarding dairying (Cohen, 1984, 332). Their genders played a role of investing in the dairy industry because women were not seen to be the ones who handled the primary sources of income for the