''Rosies of the North'' (French-language title: ''Riveuses du nord'') is a 46-minute Canadian

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

made in 1999 by the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary fi ...

(NFB) and directed by Kelly Saxberg. The film recounts the story of the women at the

Canadian Car and Foundry Canadian Car and Foundry (CC&F), also variously known as "Canadian Car & Foundry" or more familiarly as "Can Car", was a manufacturer of buses, railway rolling stock, forestry equipment, and later aircraft for the Canadian market. CC&F history ...

Fort William, Ontario Fort William was a city in Ontario, Canada, located on the Kaministiquia River, at its entrance to Lake Superior. It amalgamated with Port Arthur and the townships of Neebing and McIntyre to form the city of Thunder Bay in January 1970. Since t ...

, who built fighter and bomber aircraft needed for the war effort in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. It also is the story of female engineer Elsie MacGill, who became known as the "Queen of the Hurricanes".Bourgeois-Doyle 2008, p. 157. The title of the film is an allusion to the wartime iconic image of

Rosie the Riveter Rosie the Riveter is an allegorical cultural icon in the United States who represents the women who worked in factories and shipyards during World War II, many of whom produced munitions and war supplies. These women sometimes took entirely new ...

Synopsis

In 1939, Canada joined the worldwide war effort with factories turning out war machines. At the Canadian Car and Foundry (nicknamed "Can-Car") in Fort William, Ontario, a large workforce was recruited to build the

Hawker Hurricane The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s–40s which was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. for service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was overshadowed in the public consciousness by ...

fighter aircraft, including a preponderance of women. Many of them were young, and came from as far away as the

Prairies Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...

. Of the 7,000 workers at Can-Car, 3,000 were women on the shop floor; initially, they were not treated with respect. Men typically were the "lead-hands", more experienced workers who would train, at least at first, the new women trainees. It was soon evident that women reacted much more favourably to other women as their mentors and instructors. For a while, the animosity between the men and women was palpable. One "old hand" who showed his dislike by refusing to let women sign out before him, ensured the first seats on the buses leaving the factory were then occupied by the men. They steadfastly refused to give up their seats, leaving the women "hanging on by the straps". The obstinate fellow came on board after women welded his lunchbox to a piece of steel. Eventually, the factory assigned female "matrons" to look after the women, acting as nurses, nannies and "cops". The factory called them "intelligent, likeable, friendly women," while the women knew that the matrons were there to "keep them in line," and not "tempt the men". Women still made less than the men whom they had often trained, and married women were summarily dismissed, but some of them kept their marriages secret and worked anyway. The one woman "boss" at the factory was Elsie MacGill, who was first in charge of the production of fighter aircraft, and heralded in the press as the "Queen of the Hurricanes".Wakewich 2006, p. 397. By the time the production line shut down in 1943, Can-Car had produced over 1,400 Hurricanes. Just as the factory was re-tooling for production of

Curtiss SB2C Helldiver The Curtiss SB2C Helldiver is a dive bomber developed by Curtiss-Wright during World War II. As a carrier-based bomber with the United States Navy (USN), in Pacific theaters, it supplemented and replaced the Douglas SBD Dauntless. A few surviv ...

torpedo and dive bomber aircraft for the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

, MacGill and the works manager, E. J. (Bill) Soulsby, were dismissed. It was later revealed they were having an affair (and subsequently married). The women on the shop floor continued on until the end of the war, when most of them relinquished their jobs as the men came home. At the refurbished Can-Car plant, now building rolling stock and buses, 60 years later, the women came back to the factory to remember when they "had the greatest experience of their lives". For the reunion, a highlight was the arrival of a restored Curtiss Helldiver which did a flypast with one of the original women factory workers, Margaret Cook (née Nixon) on board.Saxberg, Kelly, Director
"Rosies of the North." Documentary
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,'' 1999 via ''IMDb.'' Retrieved: October 3, 2014.

Cast

(Interview subjects) * Muriel Baily, former engineering secretary * George Bicknell, former assistant to E. J. Soulsby * Jim Carmichael, former engineer * Margaret (Nixon) Cook, former welder * Irene dePureau, former welder * Helen Gural, former engineering secretary * Lauretta Breckon Jones, former riveter * Elsie MacGill, former chief engineer * Nina (Harney) Godecki, former riveter * Dr. Lorna Marsden, MacGill family friend * Alan Norton, former engineer * Elsie Schneewind, Elsie MacGill's niece * Ann Soulsby, E. J. Soulsby's step-daughter * E. J. (Bill) Soulsby, former factory manager * Mary Sundell, former riveter * Alice Taylor, former wiring department worker

Production

Director Kelly Saxberg was able to access archival footage from the NFB wartime archives that showed not only the production effort of aviation companies, but also newsreels such as ''Night Shift'' (1942) and ''To The Ladies'' (1946) that dealt with the issues of women and men in the workforce. With the return of men from the war, women came under intense pressure to return to running households. ''Rosies of the North'' also had the benefit of gathering first-hand interviews at a reunion of Can-Car workers that coincided with the "Thunder in the Air Air Show" held on August 29, 1998, at

Thunder Bay, Ontario Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario; its population ...

Reception

''Rosies of the North'' quickly found favour with viewers and has been broadcast on at least eight networks in North America. Librarian Joan Payzant, in her review for ''CM'' magazine, observed, "Highly recommended viewing, illustrating an important side of life in Canada during the Second World War." She also indicated that seniors "... will appreciate the nostalgia in the film." In a detailed analysis of ''Rosies of the North'', Professor David Frank, noted: "The film treatment cuts back and forth between present and past as the women review the evidence of their experience and share personal observations. As such it seems very much an exercise in a visual form of oral history." He agreed that the film left it up to the viewer to decide whether the gains made in the industrial workplace were fleeting. One of the most poignant still photographs shown in the film is a postwar image, as the camera closes up on a sign that the formerly employed female workers hold up. It says: "We want work".Frank, David. "Short Takes: The Canadian Worker on Film." ''Journal of Canadian Labour Studies'', Volume 46, Fall 2000.

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* Bourgeois-Doyle, Richard I
''Her Daughter the Engineer: The Life of Elsie Gregory MacGill.''
Ottawa: NRC Research Press, 2008. . * Wakewich, Patricia. " 'Queen of the Hurricanes': Elsie Gregory MacGill, aeronautical engineer and women's advocate." in Cook, Sharon Anne, Lorna R. McLean and Kate O'Rourke, eds. ''Framing Our Past: Canadian Women's History in the Twentieth Century.'' Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2006, First edition 2001. .

External links

*

Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame
Watch ''Rosies of the North'' at NFB.ca
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosies of the North 1999 films Canadian aviation films Canadian documentary films Documentary films about military aviation English-language Canadian films National Film Board of Canada documentaries 1999 documentary films Films shot in Ontario Aviation in Ontario Documentary films about women in World War II Canadian women in World War II 1990s English-language films 1990s Canadian films English-language documentary films