RCAF Recruitment of Women

As you know, the war started in ‘39 and they recruited, they started recruiting immediately. Canadian Government didn’t allow the Defence Department to recruit women until ‘41 when they finally found out that in the RAF in England, they were getting all their work done, ground work done by women. So they convinced the government that it was quite alright to have women in the military and they recruited. Because of the RCAF needing so many men and needing so they were losing so many because it was the flights, you know, the bombing flights and all the rest of it. They were losing so many men. They needed the staff to do administrative ground work. And they needed it more, more readily than the navy and the army at that time for some reason that’s the way... the way the fight was going. It was the air crew that had the emphasis in those days. So the RCAF were granted first, by the military were given permission to recruit women and then, then the army later, after that, and then the navy a year or so later.