Four Woman Workers, McClary Manufacturing Company

Datec. 1943

Credit LineGift of Mrs. Helen Cox, London, Ontario, 1982.

Object number1982.010.001

Label TextHere, from left to right, Gwen Cedar, an unidentified woman, Lillian Clarke McCann, and Margaret Wilds Willis stamp plates for depth charges. They worked at the McClary Manufacturing Company’s York Street plant, around 1943. They were among the many London women who flocked to the city’s factories to produce the war materiel the Allies needed to continue to fight. Working class women had worked in factories for decades prior to the war. As a result of the conflict, middle class women joined them. And all women undertook factory work that had been closed to them before the war. But they did so for lower wages than men.

NamePhotograph