Women and Society

October 8th, 2020 1 Minutes

Canadian Women’s Press ca. 1915. Collection #0119.0102

An excerpt from the Cranbrook Herald of 100 years ago Jan. 17, 1907, supports the continuing national debate on the health of the family, “the glass ceiling,” and the general valuation of women’s labour in contemporary society. As we often say, by looking back, we move forward.

“It is a gross injustice that women’s service, though it wears away her life, robs her of the ability to do that which is for her children’s highest good and chills her love of the refined and beautiful, has no promise of compensation equivalent to the lifelong sacrifice it demands…A mother’s health, both body and mind, is worth more than additional acres of land and fine livestock.

Sewing Circle Kimberley, B.C. ca. 1925. Collection# 0196.0071

“The heart should not be allowed to grow old. Life should not have lost its charm, the heart its spirit, and the body its elasticity at forty years. Yet, many women are faded and wan and shattered in mind and health long before they are forty. The joy of life would not be in its mourning if tyrannical or thoughtless oppression were restrained by the hand of justice.” – unknown