Abstract

This thesis explores Canada’s significant societal transformation during the Second World War by analyzing the representation of military women in two National Film Board (NFB) films. Following Canada’s entry into the war on September 10, 1939, the demand for male recruits led to a labour shortage, opening unprecedented employment opportunities for women. These changes disrupted traditional gender roles, which had confined women to domestic responsibilities while men worked outside the home. In 1941, women became eligible for military service, marking a pivotal moment in Canada’s evolving social norms. Simultaneously, the Canadian government established the NFB, which was tasked with shaping public opinion through cinematic propaganda, including addressing societal concerns about shifting gender roles. This research focuses on two NFB films directed by Jane Marsh, Wings on Her Shoulder (1943) and Proudly She Marches (1943), as case studies to investigate how Canadian cinema reflected and responded to wartime social changes. It examines the ideological messages in these two films, particularly themes of femininity and subordination, while also contextualizing these portrayals within broader media representations. By comparing the depiction of women in the Canadian Armed Forces in these films with contemporaneous advertisements in magazines like Chatelaine and Maclean’s, this study highlights how Marsh’s films, while propagandistic, could be interpreted as progressive for their time. The primary purpose of this thesis is to examine the representations of military women in wartime films, analyzing how their portrayals conformed to and diverged from pre-war societal norms, and how these depictions were used to influence public opinion by presenting women in new social roles.