Post-War Housing in Canada (40s, 50s)

Post-War Housing in Canada (40s, 50s)

1. Themes

   • What kind of Canada did we want?
     • Changing ideals
       • Rural at first, but as the economy developed we wanted more urban
         • Industrial age, urbanization
   • Urbanization
   • Gender roles
   • Regional differences

2. Changing societal ideals

   • Post-war Canadians hoped for a better life
     • Prosperity
     • high employment
     • More gov support
   • Role of women
     • Equality: Not considered inferior to men, had unique qualities
       • Were responsible for family survival and happiness
       • Men were "weaker", women had to act happy and cater to their needs
       • Men got first access to money, women had to make sacrifices
     • Sexuality
       • Alfred Kinsey wrote a book on this
       • Women's erotic potential was now included in domestic ideal
       • Active sexuality considered a prerequisite for satisfactory personal and marital life
       • Gender roles are considered a result of different anatomy
     • Jobs
       • Increase in labour force participation
       • Unequal opportunities and wages
       • Domestic life was still primary duty
         • Working was an investment into a more ideal and domestic future
         • Double day: Still had to work at home after job
           • Wives acted as unpaid assistants to further husband careers
     • Suburbs
       • Didn't cater to women's needs
       • Only connected to community through
         • Communal child-centered activities
         • Volunteering with local institutions
         • Activism to better community
     • Often seen as victims and authors of own misfortune
   • Capitalism
     • Private consumption was the first defence against communism (proof os capitalism's success)
   • The ideal family/ home
     • Cons
       • Men ignored family and emotional needs
       • Overly materialistic
       • Didn't really contribute to greater community
     • Rural
     • Nuclear Family
     • 2 acres min
       • Bc gov didn't want this to become urban housing
     • Self-sufficiency
     • Capitalist
     • Male breadwinner
     • Shift
       • Don't want to be farmers
       • Want less than 2 acres, closer to city
   • How do these ideals affect housing policy?
     • Difference between anticipated ideals and changing ideals
       • Rural --> More city-oriented ideal

3. Government spending

   • Extension of the welfare state
     • Result of changing expectations regarding government responsibility
     • Not everyone benefited from state support
       • National housing act required higher incomes to pay down-payments and interst
   • Focus on suburbs, not reclamation of aging housing
     • Aging housing was crowded
       • This created social disarray
         • People feared family breakdown from this
       • Vets protested lack of housing
     • CMHC fails to provide new housing in cities
   • Suburban built environment affects:
     • Who lives there
     • Crime
     • Health/ Happiness
     • Infrastructure
     • Education
     • Values
     • Resources
     • Public housing

4. Context

   • White flight
     • CA lacked the racial divides present in US
     • Large scale migration of white residents to more racially homogenous living areas
     • Was not as influential as in US
       • Suburbia was more racially diverse/ less homogenous. Backgrounds of suburban residents varied by province
         • But homogeneity was still supported, and race was frequently used as a criteria by land developers
   • Red Menace
     • Fear of rise of communism
   • Decline in rural population
   • Baby Boom

5. Suburbia

   • Suburban experiment was fuelled by high birth rates
     • Increased home-based responsibilities
   • Layout
     • Child-centered (required maternal leadership), encouraged family time
       • Lots of driving = harder to have joint parental efforts (only one car)
       • Not a lot of common space; little attention to women's needs
     • Uniform housing
       • Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation inspection and zoning laws
     • Car-culture
       • Distance from work Few intersections Cul-de-sacs Driveways Many parking lots Lack of sidewalks
     • Accidental green spaces
       • Originally why people moved here
       • Start to disappear with new developments
       • Gov has to start planning
   • Infrastructure and policy have large impacts on society, social norms, and development

6. General Info

   • Veterans Land Act (WWII)
     • After WWI, there was the Soldier's Settlement Act
     • Assumptions of policy makers affect policy
     • Research more
   • People
     • Betty Friedman (the Feminine Mystique)
       • Challenged the claim that men and women were equal
         • Thought suburbs consigned women to subordination and frustration
       • Associated women with evils of modern society
         • Ignores the complexity of their lives
       • Upper-middle class
     • Hansa Mehta
       • Delegate on UN human rights commission
       • Fought for gender equality
     • John Humphrey
       • Wrote 1st draft of declaration on human rights
   • Oil fields (1947)
     • Leduc, major crude oil discovery
       • Created boom in oil exploration and exports
   • Contradicting forms of feminism
     • Depended on class