Lives of their own, a place of their own? The living arrangements of ‘business girls’ in early twentieth-century Canadian cities

Rose, Damaris; Dillon, Lisa et Caron, Marianne (2016). Lives of their own, a place of their own? The living arrangements of ‘business girls’ in early twentieth-century Canadian cities British Journal of Canadian Studies , vol. 29 , nº 2. pp. 225-248. DOI: 10.3828/bjcs.2016.11.

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Résumé

The rise of living alone since the 1960s and women’s diversifying employment opportunities are signifiers of an accelerated individualisation of lives, with marked repercussions for urban housing markets. Yet early twentieth-century youth married later than baby boomers, and metropolitan urbanisation, combined with cultural and technological modernisation post-First World War, helped entrench single women in white-collar employment and legitimise them as urban consumers. In this article, we exploit microdata census samples for urban Canada, 1921–51, to document the living arrangements of young (15–29) single women clerical workers in these tumultuous decades of urban modernity. To what extent did they achieve residential independence by leaving their parents’ home to head their own household or share with a peer, inhabit the grey zones of boarding and lodging, or remain ‘dutiful daughters’ living at home? Comparisons with other occupations and print media coverage of the business girl’s aspirations and dilemmas assist us in interpretation.

Type de document:	Article
Mots-clés libres:	Gender; living arrangements; clerical work; twentieth century; housing; Canadian cities
Centre:	Centre Urbanisation Culture Société
Date de dépôt:	26 juill. 2017 19:11
Dernière modification:	26 juill. 2017 19:51
URI:	https://espace.inrs.ca/id/eprint/5881

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