Women in Canada have faced numerous challenges over the course of history. The first generation of Canadian feminists in the early twentieth century were defined by what they were not; they were not men. When women tried to break the stereotypes that had been forced upon them since early childhood, those who enforced the stereotypes pushed back. The first step in increasing representation of women in the workplace is to take a step back and re-evaluate the gender roles faced by both men and women. Between 1960 and the late 1980s tremendous progress was made by feminists and those who supported women’s movements to increase representation and equality within the workplace. This progress was not without strife though. Although faced with different working conditions rural and urban women dealt with similar obstacles when it came to joining the workforce. This paper will look at the process women took to join the workforce, both in rural and urban environments, as well as gender roles in the workplace and representation in unions. Women have always had to fight for their equal rights among men, the two decades that will be looked at were witness to the increasing movement among women. Gender roles were ever present in the twentieth century. Success for example, is highly valued, then and now, as a positive goal. However, girls are socialized, especially from early adolescence on, to see achievement as un-feminine.2 The women who began changing the moulds women were cast in were raised in a time when the nuclear family was the proper way. Their mothers were housewives, staying home to take care of the children. However with the outbreak of the Second World War, low income mothers as well as young single women began joining the workforce to supplement the wages earned by men. At the beginning of the war, one in twenty married women worked for pay. By 1951 that number jumped to one in ten married women working outside of the home, and in 1961, one in five married women were working.3 Mothers who worked were criticized as being unhappy in their home life or unfit to be mothers. These attitudes and ideas were enforced by print and broadcasting media that portrayed women as secondary or decorative roles to males who were the “masters of argument and fact.” Women were not taken seriously as academics or in higher managerial positions. Seen as weaker and more emotional, it was believed that women could not function in demanding jobs. This left clerical, childcare, teaching, and menial jobs for women to work in. As side from teaching, the jobs offered to women were easily learnt and easily taken away. It did not matter if the woman was married or single, had children or not, she was believed to be subordinate because of her reproductive role. Women who decided to break this stereotype were met with great disdain. Deciding to go against society, women who chose not to have children were seen no longer as women in the eyes of men. By taking control of their life and bodies, women lost their femininity. Maryon Kantaroff states that: "Our society goes to great lengths to keep a woman in the female mould; if she steps out of it for whatever reason she is subjected to suspicion, alienation and sometimes total social rejection." Kantaroff knows this from experience. She, herself, is a female artist, an area of work that is dominated by males. Although Kantaroff is speaking of experiences she faced as a female artist, the experiences she has have been had by other women who have taken on a male-dominated job. Even though a woman has decided to take on a more masculine role, when it comes to interactions with males, she is still expected to conform to the requirements of her feminine “obligations,” Kantaroff explains. Having been raised to see success as a masculine driven goal, women are hesitant to go for what they want. Telling of her own inner battle with success, Kantaroff explains that girls are raised with certain ideas of what to expect from life. Told from a young age that their goal is to marry and have children, but what happens when those children grow up and realize that this life that has been planned for them is not what they want? It is absurd that a woman’s major decisions about marriage and a family and her major decisions about a career are forced on her at the same time and presents a conflicted situation.7 In a study completed by Charles W. Hobart for his paper “Egalitarianism after Marriage,” in Women in Canada, Hobart asked men how they felt about their wives working. When men were asked about the roles they wanted their wife to play, thirty-seven per cent answered with that they would want their wife to be employed, but only after the children were in high school. At only eighteen per cent, men answered with housewife and mother to (our) children, not surprisingly only two per cent wanted their wife to primarily be a career woman. When