In our readings this week, we focused on family, gender, and sexuality, and how it relates to our case study, “Public and Private Canada.” In addition, we discussed the use of the Census in Canadian society between 1900 and 1950, and how it provides historians today with useful information regarding a wide range of subjects, including those covered in our readings. As demonstrated in Bettina Bradbury’s article, “Single Parenthood in the Past: Canadian Census Categories, 1891-1951, and the ‘Normal’ Family,” the Census offers valuable insight into the structure of living situations during this time period, as well as the evolution of what was considered to be a “family.” Bradbury writes, “In 1921, for the first time, Canadian census takers attempted to make a distinction between households… and private families” [1]. As the census became increasingly specific, including space to indicate whether a parent was single or not, it began to provide the government with a look inside the private dwellings of the Canadian populations, shedding light on family dynamics that had been previously disregarded. The census also provides us with a look at how gender roles evolved in Canada during the first half of the twentieth century, as outlined in Derrick Thomas’ article, “The Census and evolution of gender roles in early 20th century Canada.” As Thomas writes, “In the early part of the last century men were apparently regarded as the persons in charge of their families. The Census reflected this view. Census takers employed the term ‘head of household’ when collecting and organizing the information gathered from each family” [2], which indicates why there was a stigma surrounding single mothers of this time period. In addition to family and gender, sexuality was an important topic during this time period, as Catherine Gidney discusses in her article, “Under the President’s Gaze: Sexuality and Morality at a Canadian University During the Second World War.” Gidney writes, “Fears about students’ sexual purity merged with concerns during the Second World War about the increase of divorce rates, venereal disease, juvenile delinquency, and the growing number of women in the workforce, resulting in a general anxiety about the stability of the family and in calls for the moral regeneration of society” [3]. As demonstrated by these anxieties, along with the stigma surrounding the structure of families previously mentioned, Canadian society placed great value on order and morality during this time period. Through historical documents including the census, we are able to explore how society changed during this period with regards to topics such as family, gender, and sexuality and how this shaped the culture we live in today.
[1] Bradbury, “Single Parenthood in the Past: Canadian Census Categories, 1891-1951 and the ‘Normal’ Family,” Historical Methods, 33, 4 (Fall, 2000): 212.
[2] Thomas, “The Census and evolution of gender roles in early 20th century Canada,” Canadian Social Trends, (June 2010): 42.
[3] Gidney, “Under the President’s Gaze: Sexuality and Morality at a Canadian University During the Second World War,” Canadian Historical Review, 82, 1 (March, 2001): 38.