Careers and Cradles

Since the turn of the century, Canadian women have achieved a revolutionary change in status. The film notes the significance of the change, introducing women who command respect as leaders in government, science and the arts. In their attainments we see demonstrated those principles proclaimed by suffragettes. Women's organizations and leaders, among them Senator Cairine Wilson and Madame Thérèse Casgrain, meet the challenges of their times. The film pays tribute to Canadian women who are leaders in the society by means of brief scenes of the following women and short commentaries about them: astronomer Helen Hogg at the Dunlap Observatory; aircraft designer Elsie MacGill; [Verda Vincent], pathologist for the province of Ontario; [Amy Kelsey] of Erickson, British Columbia, whose Reward wheat was judged the finest on the continent by the Chicago international grain exposition; Ann Shipley, reeve of one of Ontario's gold mining districts; Byrne Hope Saunders, editor of a women's magazine who worked with the government in the area of price controls during the Second World War; parliamentary reporter [Evelyn Topps] of Halifax; newspaper reporters [Margaret Healey, Vera Kelly, Margaret Ecker-Francis] and [Doris Mulligan]; broadcaster Claire Wallace; novelist Gabrielle Roy; symphony orchestra conductor Ethel Stark; singer Portia White (including an excerpt of her singing); figure skater Barbara Ann Scott; flying instructor Violet Milstead; commercial photographer [Geraldine Carpenter] (who is shown photographing model [Madge Johsnton]); designer Maxine Samuels; singer Dorothy Alt; and Ray Lewis, publisher of the Canadian Moving Picture Digest and a motion picture distributor. The film concludes by commenting on how women juggle marriage and careers, assisted by household appliances and childcare facilities such as nursery schools.