New book honours women who quietly helped win the Second World War

Lezlie Lowe’s new book, ‘The Volunteers’ uncovers the untold stories of hardworking women whose unpaid efforts helped Halifax cope during wartime

CITYnews halifax \ Steve Gow

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It is no coincidence that Lezlie Lowe’s latest book is being released on International Women’s Day.

After all, The Volunteers: How Halifax Women Won the Second World War is an empowering narrative history that uncovers many stories of dedicated women whose unpaid efforts during the Second World War exemplify the incredible, unspoken achievements of women in general.

“A lot of the ways that we see women during the war and the images that we have of women are people who worked in industry, which was something the federal government asked women to do,” explains the Halifax-based author. “But actually way, way, way more women were volunteers in their own communities — especially in Halifax — but we’ve never really heard that story.”

Although Canadian women were not permitted to join the military to fight, the role they played in society changed dramatically during the six year crisis.

Much has been written about women pitching in to take over jobs that were traditionally held by men such as machinists, welders or other blue-collar occupations. In fact, according to the Veterans Affairs Canada website, only about 600,000 Canadian women were permanently employed when the war broke out in 1939. During its course, that number doubled to 1,200,000.

However as Lowe found out, the female citizens of Halifax voluntarily took on another crucial role during the war — meeting the food, comfort, mental health and recreational needs of the city’s amplified influx of service personnel.

“The reason I sort of took up the cudgels on behalf of these women was because the Halifax Women’s History Society put up some statues in 2017 to commemorate the work that these women had done,” notes Lowe about the bronze monument that sits along the Harbourfront boardwalk near the back of the Discovery Centre.

Lowe admits that in addition to the statue piquing her interest in the voluntary efforts of women during wartime, it caused her to realize that her own grandmother had played a role during the Second World War.

“(But) I literally never asked her,” says Lowe. “I think that just shows how much we’ve forgotten or misunderstood these stories.”

A longtime journalism instructor at the University of King’s College, Lowe set out to uncover the long lost stories of female volunteers but admits the quest became a tougher challenge than she had anticipated.

“It was supposed to take no time at all, also because it was supposed to be a happy story, because I assumed that the narrative was these women are forgotten and (then), yay, the statues are up — everybody’s happy,” says Lowe. “Then I started actually researching and realized how terrible women had been treated during the war by the federal government specifically in terms of being devalued.”

Ultimately, it would take Lowe five years to finish The Volunteers after scouring the provincial archives, the municipal archives and even spending a week in Ottawa at the Library and Archives Canada.

Ultimately, Lowe located five Haligonians who had voluntarily contributed during the Second World War (as well as the son of a sixth) and probed the humble women about their gallant efforts and labour.

“Every one of them reiterated this notion that they didn’t do anything,” laughs Lowe. In particular, she mentions interviewing one woman who spent the bulk of the war years working all day long and then voluntarily dressing up and entertaining servicemen as a musician at night.

“She would climb onto ships in the (Bedford) Basin, like climb up an ice-covered rope in heels and then say, ‘well, everybody did their part!’” says Lowe. “So I think the women didn’t even value their own contributions because they weren’t told to.”

With The Volunteers now in stores, Lowe hopes that her narrative history will help to recognize not only the individual work some women accomplished during wartime in Halifax. She also hopes that it will prompt many people to consider the broader questions involving many unacknowledged roles in society.

“I think there is a bigger picture of value there and when we start to think about the stories we’ve never heard, it gives us the opportunity to ask ourselves why we’ve never heard these stories and what kind of value placement is automatically placed on certain people or jobs,” says Lowe. “(I hope) it gives us a moment to look at a whole bunch of different historical events or current events that are happening and ask ourselves if we’re actually getting a full picture of those events.”

For more information on The Volunteers, visit the book’s website.