November 10, 2025
The Empire Club of Canada Presents
SHE ANSWERED the CALL: How Teenage Girls that Supported the War Effort Changed Canada Forever
Chairman: Gordon McIvor, President, The Empire Club Foundation
Moderator
Adrienne Batra, Reporter, Editor-in-Chief, The Toronto Sun
Panellists
Bonnie Sitter, Author, Onion Skins and Peach Fuzz; Historical Producer, We Lend a Hand
Colin Field, Producer & Director, We Lend a Hand
Lechin Lu, Associate Director, Institute for Gender and the Economy, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto
Head Table Guests
Gilbert Reid, Writer; Founder, King and Empire Foundation
Welcome Address by Gordon McIvor, President, The Empire Club Foundation
My name is Gordon McIvor, I am the president of the Empire Club Foundation. We’re coming to you today from the amazing TMX facility in downtown Toronto, the home of the Toronto Stock Exchange. I’m here today with just over 100 students from high schools, universities, and colleges in the GTA area. We’d also like to welcome all of you who are joining us online, especially the many hundreds of students who have signed up to see our event today.
I’d like to do a couple of special shout-outs today, if I may. Special shout-out today to the students who are watching us at Glendale Secondary School, Riverdale Collegiate Institute, École Sir John Franklin High School, William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute, the Roson Academy, the Jarvis Community Christian School, Algoma University in Sault Ste. Marie and the Brampton Christian School, just to name a few of our very large audience today. I’d like to send a very special hello to the 130 students who are joining us today from Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories. We’re just delighted to welcome you today to the Empire Club Foundation, and our Remembrance Day event.
Today, we’re commemorating what was until recently a largely forgotten episode of Canadian history, the story of thousands of schoolgirls who came together to grow and harvest crops for severely rationed Canadians and our troops overseas. In so doing, these young women opened the doors to the women who came after them to do many things that in the past were viewed as exclusively the domain of men.
Before we begin our discussion, I want to acknowledge that we’re gathered on the Traditional and Treaty Lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit, and the homelands of the Anishinaabe, the Haudenosaunee, the Wendat Peoples, and I encourage you all to learn more about the Traditional Territory on which you live and work.
Also would like to just take one second and acknowledge that we have with us today the Chairman of the Board of the Empire Club of Canada, Saurabh Popat—is Saurabh with us today? Saurabh, welcome. And we also have the CEO of the Empire Club of Canada, Kent Emerson, who joins us today. Welcome, Kent. Thanks for being with us.
Today’s event would not be possible without the generous support of our partners and friends. First, a heartfelt thank you to the TMX group, our Event Partner for today’s screening and discussion. TMX’s commitment to leadership, innovation, and inclusion reflects the very values that we’re celebrating here today, and we’re deeply grateful for their continued support of the Empire Club of Canada and the Foundation. I’d also like to recognize Duncan Jackman and Richard Rooney for their personal contributions in bringing this opportunity to life. Their belief in the power of stories and in the lessons that they carry forward make today’s gathering possible. So, thank you very much, gentlemen.
Now, on to our discussion. Before I introduce you to our panel, let’s take just a moment to try and better understand what it was like being a Canadian woman in the 1940’s. So often today we try and measure what was done in the past using today’s values and parameters, and of course, that can be as dangerous as it is misleading. We’re truly lucky to have with us today a gentleman who likes to joke that he understands a lot of Canadian history because he was there for most of it—and I’m with you, brother. Ladies and gentlemen, Gilbert Reid, my good friend Gilbert Reid, historian, writer, and founding director of the King and Empire Foundation, will begin our discussion with reflections on the wartime period, and how this call to action opened doors for a generation of young women. Ladies and gentlemen, Gilbert Reid.
Gilbert Reid, Writer; Founder, King and Empire Foundation
Merci beaucoup mon cher amie, tu est toujours très gentils. He’s really wicked. He’s always insulting me. He says I’m ancient. Well, that’s true. It is strange, I think, that an old guy like me should be talking about young girls and women in the 1930’s and ’40s, but here I am. My excuse is partly yes, I was around for part of the time. I was pretty tiny, but I was around. And I can remember some of the things, particularly the post-war period. The kerchiefs called factory kerchiefs, or whatever they were, that the women wore to keep their hair from tangling up in deadly machinery. The loose cotton dresses with a very simple belt that they wore because it was cheap and easy to make, and we were coming out of austerity of the wartime. I remember the scary shows on the radio, which you listen to, and static came from afar because it was AM, not FM. And on the farm, you could tell a storm was coming because of the bursts of static.
The Farmerettes were teenagers at the end of the ’30s and going into the ’40s. Some of them, the older ones, would have been born, most of them, in the 1920’s, and I’m not sure whether we’ve got an image. The 1920’s were a frivolous time of stock market boom, we’re here in the stock market temple, and short dresses, and low top lines. But the ’20s came to an end pretty quickly, and the line went up here, and the dresses went down to there. So, girls and women found their destinies changed, even on the stylistic front.
What was life like as a teenager? Well, let’s zoom in. It was in some ways a dangerous world, because a lot of diseases, which now are not important, were deadly or dangerous and could paralyze you. I had polio, for instance, and that no longer exists. It was a small world because there was no internet, long distance telephone calls were almost impossible. If a person went away, you wouldn’t see them for five or six years, and you wouldn’t see them on a phone, or talk to them on the telephone, if they were abroad. But it was an intense world, because your friendships were with people who were around you, the kids you knew, and so on. And it was a world where, as I said, absence makes the heart grow fonder. So, emotions were very strong. If you lost somebody, you lost them forever.
Education. High school, girls graduated more than boys. University, very few girls went to university, very few boys, too. But about 38,000 university students out of a population of 11 million. Now we have 1.5 million university students. Of the 38, about 8,000, 20%, were girls. If you got a job, what sort of job could you get as a woman? Well, most jobs were excluded for most women. The biggest employment was a domestic servant serving in somebody’s house. Second one would be salesgirl, as they called them, salesgirls, in a store or a department store. Then, nurses and teachers and typists, and light industry, textiles and food. Very few professional women. It was often disapproved of. And one of the differences between the frivolous ’20s and the dark ’30s was that women were discouraged from working in the ’30s, because the work should go to the men. And a lot of professions where women were just beginning to enter in the ’20s were cut off as the ’30s opened up. If you did have a job, there was very little advancement, no career path. Your boss would almost always be a man. You would be paid less than a man doing the same work. And you’d be the first to be fired.
So, the 1930’s were not particularly happy for women. Then everything changes. September, war with Germany. Suddenly the government says, we want you to work. A million guys and 40,000 women have gone off to join the armed forces, and we have to produce food to feed the world, feed Britain, feed Canada, with much less manpower, or human power. So, women not only went to the farms, but they went into the factories for the first time. They had to learn a whole lot of skills they’d never learned before—how to weld, rivet, solder, be an electrician, work with designs, build ships, aircraft, bombers, fighters, and munitions, bombs, and shells. So, the women became, within about two or three years—the time it would take us maybe to fill the potholes in a road, I think—women became one third of the workforce in manufacturing and heavy manufacturing. This was extraordinary. How do you train hundreds of thousands of people in two or three years to take over a leading role in manufacturing?
Canada went from being zero, more or less, as an industrial military power, to being a major industrial military power in under four years. It’s a sort of miracle. It’s a sort of miracle the Farmerettes were doing on the farm. The work they were doing was really hard work. It wasn’t easy work. They made a lot of fun about it, and they seemed to be having a good time. They had the gumption, and whatnot, and they were together. But it’s backbreaking work. It’s work that Canadians don’t even like to do now, and Mexican workers mainly do it. So, Canada went from zero to being a major power.
Statistics are boring, but I’m going to give you a few, okay? Just think about it. In 1939, we had an army. How large was our army, in 1939? Five thousand guys. Five thousand guys. Four years later, 750,000, with five fighting divisions. How do you do that? The Navy had 3,500 people, and it had 10 old ships. Four or five years later, 100,000 sailors and 400 ships. The Air Force, 27 old aircraft that you hardly get off the ground. Four thousand was the total force of people. And within four years, it’s 215,000, with 80 fighting squadrons.
Now, this miracle was a miracle not only of fighting an industrial organization, but it was a miracle carried out by women. Women entered the workforce across the board, from espionage to riveters. And I’ll show you a few pictures here. This is a woman working in a munitions factory, making bombs. This is a poster which was famous in the United States and throughout the world, Rosie the Riveter. We can do it. Total difference from the ’20s and the ’30s. And here is the real Rosie the Riveter, the model for Rosie the Riveter, who is a Canadian, Victoria Foster. She was a gunsmith, and she was making Bren guns, one of the most effective allied weapons, a light machine gun.
So, women made victory possible. After the war, women were told, mostly, well, you’ve done your part, we’ve got a victory, the world is free for democracy. The boys are coming home. You’d better go home too, and become a housewife. Your destiny once again, as in the 1930’s, is a guy. And here’s a September 1948, “You marry a man’s whole family” warning. The big campaign was to put women back in the home. Child care and support was ended, so that mothers would have to return home. And all sorts of forms of encouragement were made to bring the girls back to where they should be, looking after the family, and looking after the breadwinner, which is what men were called at the time.
Like the Farmerettes, which you saw in the brilliant film, and it was moving—I was about to cry, at some points—women across the board, hundreds of thousands of them, worked, and fought, sometimes, to bring victory and to create the better part of the world that we have today. So, we owe them all, the Farmerettes, a big, big thank you, I think, for what they did, and who they were. Thank you.
Gordon McIvor
Thanks, Gilbert, for that snapshot, and for helping us set the table for our discussion today. Now, let’s move to our panel. I’d like to introduce you to our panel today, and our moderator is Adrienne Batra. She is the editor-in-chief of the Toronto Sun. A respected journalist and broadcaster, Adrienne has built a career giving voice to the stories that shape our country. She also brings a deep personal understanding of service, having served as a lieutenant in the Canadian Armed Services.
Joining Adrienne are our distinguished panellists, Bonnie Sitter, historical producer of We Lend a Hand, and co-author of Onion Skins and Peach Fuzz, whose research helped bring the Farmerettes story back into the public eye. Colin Field, producer and director of We Lend a Hand, an award-winning filmmaker who has spent his career exploring the power of storytelling to educate and inspire. Anyone watching who did not see the film today, by the way, you can get a list of all upcoming screenings by visiting welendahand.ca/events. And don’t forget that if you are in the Toronto area, you can see the film tomorrow night, or send your parents to see the film tomorrow night, Remembrance Day at the Hot Docs Cinema on Bloor Street, starting at 7 p.m. tomorrow night. Our next panelist, Lechen Liu, she’s the associate director at the Institute for Gender and the Economy at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School for Management, who brings an expertise in inclusive innovation and gender equity in the modern workforce. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming our moderator, Adrienne Batra, and our distinguished panel today.
Adrienne Batra, Reporter, Editor-in-Chief, Toronto Sun
They’ve helpfully put our names on the chairs, so we don’t mess this up. Wonderful. Well before we begin our panel, we would like to take just a few moments to rewatch the trailer from We Lend a Hand.
[VIDEO IS SHOWN]
Adrienne Batra
[Indiscernible] …this was, this genesis of all of this was from looking through old photographs after your husband passed away, sorting out some stuff. You said your house is an organized mess, you know where everything is, but you’re sorting through family photographs, old photographs, and you didn’t know who these ladies were. Tell us about how this all started.
Bonnie Sitter, Author, Onion Skins and Peach Fuzz; Historical Producer, We Lend a Hand
I decided it was time to downsize, and today was a day. It was snowing on a January day, and I thought, okay. And I barely got started when my hands picked up this tiny picture, two inches by two-and-a-half inches, and I looked at the people and thought, well, they’re not my husband’s cousins. I wonder who these people are. And turned it over, and that’s when I discovered the word Farmerettes, in about 1946. And I felt sad, indignant, a number of feelings, because I thought why didn’t somebody teach me about these girls called Farmerettes. And I thought, well, I guess I better start learning about it. And at that moment, I decided that I would do research, and I would figure it out. And as I was figuring out, I thought maybe there’s more people that would like to know this story, so I decided to write an article for a magazine. And people would say, “What are you up to, Bonnie?” I’d say, “I’m doing research on Farmerettes.” And they’d say, “Well, what’s that, a broomball team?” People did not know the story.
And you know, the more people I spoke with, the more I discovered that this was a part of history that had been forgotten. And one girlfriend asked me what I was doing, and I told her, and she said, “Would you like to meet a real Farmerette?” And I said yes. And she said, “Well, my mother was a Farmerette.” And I got to meet her, and discovered that she had written 17 letters home from St. Catharines to Toronto where her parents lived. Those letters had been saved, and they travelled with her from Toronto to Montréal, Kingston, back to Toronto, and then to Goderich, close to where I live. So, I got to meet her, and interview her, and learn her stories, and read her letters, and that was the beginning of it. And then, I found Shirley Ann, because of the magazine article. She read it after it had passed through two other women’s hands, and she was very emotional about it, and wrote a letter to the editor saying what it meant to her, and that 1942 was still the best summer of her life.
Adrienne Batra
Extraordinary. The movement to have young women—because the boys went off to pick up the guns, that was how that happened during that time. They were the ones overseas. They were on the beaches. They were holding the weaponry. But the women were asked to do another type of service, because it wasn’t just Canada’s breadbasket, it was the world. They were putting rations and food together for soldiers, and sometimes enemy soldiers—we’ll get to that. But it was such a heavy calling that I don’t—I think of it, my son is 16 years old, and I couldn’t even fathom him figuring out where his laundry is, let alone doing what these young women who were not supposed to do these sorts of things, to go do this. So, I want to know, when you were doing the stories, what motivated them? Like, what was it?
Bonnie Sitter
I think a big part of it was it was called camp, and you were going to be paid to go to camp. You were going to have an adventure, go see another part of Ontario that, you know, most girls in northern Ontario never got more than seven miles from home. The chance to go and see Niagara Falls, and Brock’s Monument, and that part of history that would have been taught. I think it was the adventure, getting out of the exams, and you know, let’s get these girlfriends together, and let’s go. And some parents said, “No, you’re not going anywhere,” and oh but Jane’s going, and Barbara’s going, you know, you’ve got to let me go. And the parents would eventually give in, and they would get to go. But long journeys, the girls that lived in Toronto, of course, could get on the SS Cayuga, cross Lake Ontario, and be home for the weekend, if they had the money to do it. But the girls that came from Fort William, and Geraldton, and Kirkland Lake, they weren’t going home. If they went home, it was because they couldn’t handle the work. They were going to be embarrassed. Their parents would be embarrassed. The communities would be embarrassed that their girls did not make it. That probably didn’t even answer your question.
Adrienne Batra
No, it was excellent. I mean, I could just listen to the stories all day. I think everybody here has now had the opportunity to see it, so it’s all contextual, so everybody is aware. Colin, I’m curious. How did you come to know about it? Perhaps, you saw Bonnie’s book. How did this happen for you to want to direct and produce this documentary?
Colin Field, Producer & Director, We Lend a Hand
It was quite by chance. I think all the good things in my life start with the banjo. So, I was learning to play the banjo when I went to a music festival in Goderich, near where Bonnie lives. I was drawn to her booth, because she sells cards, photographs of the area. She’s a very multi-talented woman, as you’ll learn. And we struck up a great conversation, and she told me she was researching Farmerettes—and like most people here, I’ve never heard the word, I didn’t know what that was, and I was intrigued. And fast-forward about three years, I went back to the same festival looking for Bonnie to buy some more cards, and I did, and I said, “How’s that research going?” And she held up her beautiful red book that she had co-written with Shirley Ann, and then she started telling me about what she just said, you know, finding the photo and writing the article. But since the book was published, it didn’t end there, like most authors. She was going out all over the place talking to groups, talking to children, talking to school groups, pushing to have a stamp to commemorate the women, a play was going to be produced—and in my head, I’m picturing a documentary film playing out. I was just listening to her, and her enthusiasm. At the end, she punctuated with, “What I really want is to find a filmmaker who could do a documentary film, because these women are in their late 90’s, and their stories are going to be gone.” And I’m thinking, “I can’t believe a story that’s never been made, this film.” Then I said, “Well, Bonnie, I just studied filmmaking.” I took a year off from my corporate job at TD, and I went to Fanshawe College. So, we exchanged information, and now, we have this beautiful film that we’ve worked on together.
Adrienne Batra
I think that just lends itself to how compelling the stories are, and we don’t want to lose that history. Lechin, let me bring you into this conversation. From your academic world, what these women did at that time—and not all the boys came home, as sad as that was, but many did, of course. And then when they came back, they went back and took those jobs. However, what we discovered through Bonnie’s excellent work and Colin’s visuals, a lot of the women stayed on the farm. A lot of women did not go back. The boys were given different opportunities to perhaps go study, and not necessarily head back to the farm. The women stayed. So, over time, Ontario was, you know, a breadbasket of the world. How did that investment of women going there and staying, how has that changed where we are in our agricultural and our innovation? From your research, and looking into these sorts of things, what was their contribution now?
Lechin Lu, Associate Director, Institute for Gender and the Economy, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto
Wow. I don’t have the top of hand, what is the percentage of women versus men in agriculture these days. I would say overall in the workforce, women’s participation in the workforce has increased dramatically, like, since World War II. And thankfully it’s part of this wall that opens up the opportunities for women to enter. And even though there was some call for them to go back home, as Gilbert has shared earlier, I think many of them have stayed. And also, it’s like, once you get a taste of freedom, independence, your agencies…
Adrienne Batra
Yeah.
Lechin Lu
…you can contain it in all of us, men, women, all genders. So, I think that it’s empowering, and it’s the silver lining of a very, very tough period. I think it’s these participations in the workforce. But I also have to point out, as we work on these issues day in and day out, many of the things that Gilbert has shared in terms of like, women back then experience, even if you had a job, likely your boss is a man, you will be—it’s very hard to progress in a career, you will pay less, even in the same job or in the same industry. Many of these experiences still stay true. Maybe the gap is slightly less, but to the most part, it’s still true. and women are earning only 89 cents of every man in Canada. So, I think there’s still a lot of work to do.
And the other thing, and as I was watching the film, I kept thinking how today we are also in a kind of a defining moment. I think we have our own generations of like challenges that we need to deal. with and the AI transitions, the technology competitions, all these STEM fields we know that women, a lot of girls were still seen as like, this is not the territory for you to get into. And we see like, for example, the AI tele pool, women’s only about 20% of the workforce and it would be even less so, less represented in the senior levels or leadership level. So, I think there are still a lot of opportunities, or also the need, like the same lessons will apply for girls and young women today, considering their careers, it’s like, maybe we don’t listen to those voices that like, even if you’re close family, like some of the family has mentioned that girls don’t do that, like don’t listen to those voices, it’s really looking at can I do that? Am I interested?
Adrienne Batra
Well, Bonnie, those women, young girls, they had no choice, right? The country was calling. Throughout the course of Colin’s documentary, we can see the old, the historical footage of when the government propaganda came out, and it was your country needs you, and you can see that on the map and they’re showing Southwestern Ontario and Southeastern Ontario, and where the farms are, where the greatest needs are, I mean, it’s extraordinary. One of the young women said I wasn’t thinking about it being patriotically, I just wanted freedom. I just wanted, you know, away from my parents, and that watchful eye. But it did become about patriotism. These women became friends, lifelong friends, probably, probably saw each other’s kids and grandkids grow up. But they defied what that, what would have been said is, you can’t do that. They had to. So, that was a different experience. Perhaps now, not so much, but it’s different.
Bonnie Sitter
Yeah. Well, Gloria Jenner, who at the end of the film says, you know, we came home proud, because we had helped our country and the farmers.
Adrienne Batra
That’s right. Yeah. They helped feed the world.
Bonnie Sitter
Yeah.
Adrienne Batra
And I don’t think, Colin, that people quite appreciated that it, the work they were doing—and it was hard work. I mean, most of us say, Oh, I’ll just go to Sobeys, and I got my cherries, or my milk, or my whatever, you know. They don’t think about the farmers, and the work, and the toil, and that they do feed the world. These young girls had to now step in and do that. But a lot of the product was going to the soldiers. A lot of the produce that was being made for their ration kits. If you don’t have strong soldiers, you don’t win wars. And so, it became just even that much more important for their tired backs, their hurt fingers, and their, you know, roughed up knees. And as you were creating the documentary, how did that come out for you?
Colin Field
Well, there was such a variety, there were 20 women that I interviewed, I had the real honour and privilege of talking to them. And sadly, six of the women that you saw in the film have passed away since we launched the film in June. But there was commonality for sure, in terms of their experience. But some of them, it was very different, right? Most of them, I wanted to get away from exams, I wanted to have an adventure. And there were some of them, it was foremost that this was a patriotic thing that they were doing, and this was important the way that they could serve. But for most of them, yeah, it’s almost like an afterthought in hindsight. when they look back and they’re surprised that even today, why are we making this film? Why is there all this attention? Because it was just something that they did. But they, I think a lot of them went down, and that’s what we tried to show in the film. They were mostly from the cities, or from Northern Ontario. They didn’t have farming experience, they didn’t even necessarily have a gardening experience. They didn’t think they were capable of doing this work. And as Bonnie says, the teachers thought this is a crazy idea, they’re going to be missing school. And the farmers were like, “Why are you giving us all these teenage girls?” And the program speaks for itself. The program went seven years after the war, and they were such a success. But I think it’s that …
Adrienne Batra
…how has that helped lay some foundation for 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago women getting into non-conventional workforce?
Lechin Lu
Well, I think one of them is showing that women can do hard work. And as Colin said, as long as you open the doors for them, and create these environments and supports for young women to do their work, and be themselves, own their agency, that’s when they can achieve great things. And I think that’s often overlooked in our workforce. And women need to work extra miles to really demonstrate that they have the capabilities, that they can do the stuff that they, like, to prove themselves. And I think maybe during the war time, because as you mentioned earlier, there was no choice. There was no other people, like the neighbours really needed. So, there’s actually the barriers for them to prove themselves to have that agency was actually lower. And that kind of gave these young women the opportunity to show that, show by doing that I can do it. It’s hard, but I could do it. And as I think Bonnie mentioned earlier, like they just stick, like even when it was hard, even their muscles were sore, there’s even some injuries…
Adrienne Batra
Yeah.
Lechin Lu
…but they still stick around and persevere. I think that resilience is like the lessons that have influenced themselves and also their next generations. And I think today, I think everyone who have heard these stories, and seen what they have accomplished, will be empowered.
The other thing I want to kind of allude to is like, they are the unsung heroes. For many years until, like, Bonnie’s book and this documentary, many, like very few people know about Farmerette. Today, there was many, many unsung heroes in like today’s economy, or actually the country. I think during the pandemic, we kind of all recognize the work that care workers are putting into making our society functions, and the economy going. And I think those are like kind of the lessons that we really need to remember, too, as there are people, like, war is not just about the battlefields, or like, and heroes doesn’t always wear a cape, or be in uniforms. I think there are many unsung heroes in our day to day life, and that we really need to recognize how critical their service is for making our country strong and resilient.
Adrienne Batra
I think people forget, or don’t know or appreciate that countries had to function and carry on and exist and still turn, even for those that weren’t on the front lines. We’ve seen some—and life has to carry on. When we talked about our, before we, when we were planning to come up here just a few weeks ago, our planning call, I brought up the movie—now a lot of you are very young so you haven’t seen it, maybe don’t realize it, but the movie A League of Their Own. It was the women’s baseball league. And it was created because the men had gone off to war, but people still wanted sports, they still wanted baseball. That is probably one of the most successful stories ever told about a period of time, a dark period in our history, but something that brought such extraordinary joy and pleasure. But the story you’re telling about the Farmerettes brought so much joy and pleasure to them. Maybe they didn’t realize just how critical their work was, I don’t know—perhaps over time they realized how important their work was, what they were doing—but those young women forged something pretty extraordinary that changed them forever, changed our country certainly forever. What were the stories that got to you the most? What stuck with you the most?
Bonnie Sitter
Oh boy.
Adrienne Batra
It’s hard, I know, because they’re all so extraordinary.
Bonnie Sitter
Yeah. I mean, the stories—and I keep finding them. I mean, people didn’t know their mother, or their grandmother, or their great aunt was a Farmerette, and now they’re learning, and it’s so important to them. A question we get almost every time we screen and do a question and answer session is, is there a list of all these girls? And there’s no list. I mean, why isn’t there a list?
Adrienne Batra
Why isn’t there a list?
Bonnie Sitter
Professor Linda Ambrose from the University of, Laurentian University in Sudbury has been given the opportunity and task, I guess you would say, to write the wording for a historical plaque that is in the process of being made. It’ll be another couple of years. But she was just at the Archives of Ontario, and she didn’t find any lists. And it’s such an important thing that’s missing, I mean these girls all filled out applications to become Farmerettes. They had to have good marks, but they had to have their parents’ permission, they had to have a doctor’s certificate, and they had to sign the form. During the war years, they actually signed that pledge that you saw the high school girls recreating. You know, there’s got to be a list, there’s a list for everything else. Why is that missing? It’s such an important thing for the Farmerettes’ children, who are now in their 70’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, and their grandchildren, that finding out this story. So, that’s why we’ve got photos with mom in a bandana, or you know, with a straw hat and a hoe. I mean, nobody talked about this story, about what these young girls had committed to do, to make sure food production continued.
One really touching story was a girl that had attended Malvern Collegiate here in Toronto, and she ended up at the Forest High School, the gymnasium was turned into a camp. She worked for a farmer just outside the town of Forest. And her son knew, apparently, that his mother had worked on a beef farm, it wasn’t fruit and vegetables, it was a beef farm. So, you know, in research I was trying to find out who had a beef farm near Forest at that time. And a picture turned up, not of where she worked, but a picture turns up that her son has with his mother, you know, with a team of horses, so she actually got to do work with horses, as well as other things. But the picture of the group of Farmerettes at that high school, I now have the names of every girl in that picture, even the ones that are missing from the day the picture was taken. It talks about, you know, there was a girl from Detroit, and there was a girl from Boston in that group. What are the stories? I mean, were these girls in Ontario visiting, and they decided to stay and be Farmerettes? Every time you find a piece of the puzzle, there’s some more that are on the floor that haven’t been picked up and found a place yet. And that particular girl, the story that went with the picture was that from her grade 13 class, 13 boys that had joined Bomber Command died within a year.
Adrienne Batra
Yeah, that was their reality. That was their fate. That was their reality.
Bonnie Sitter
So, they knew what was going on. They weren’t sheltered from it.
Adrienne Batra
Yeah. Colin, I, there are so many elements in the doc that I loved. The hitchhiking, the girls going out and hitchhiking—because you couldn’t even fathom that in this day and age. But as you said they wanted to go see Niagara Falls, they still wanted to meet boys, they still wanted to do all those things that 16, 17 year old girls are doing. But Colin, I’m wondering from your time in putting this all together, shooting it, what was the hardest, what was the biggest challenges that you faced in getting that done?
Colin Field
The challenge wasn’t getting the stories, because the women were just so generous, right?
Adrienne Batra
Yeah. Yeah.
Colin Field
And you know, you create a sense of trust. But I should say of the 20 women, there were 5 or 6, so people kind of feel guilty that you haven’t heard about this story, and we should know this history, but the families themselves, when I arrived, they didn’t know why I was there, what’s going on, is this a scammer, or whatever. And some of them didn’t even know that their mothers or grandmothers had been a Farmerette. And then they wanted to listen in on the interview, and you have to make sure that the sound is nice and clean for the film. So, I’d say, “Okay you can stay in the room, but just don’t say anything, please.” And then their mothers, you know, 95 year old woman, would be telling a story about hitchhiking over to Buffalo and buying cigarettes, and I can see the daughter’s eyes opening up. And then—she didn’t smoke, “Well why did you buy the cigarettes?” “Well, because we could bring them back to Canada, and sell them at a profit.” And I’m basically, you know, mom’s admitting to being a smuggler, and the daughter’s like laughing, and I’m like having to be “Okay, please keep it down.”
But yeah, just all kinds of, so they were very generous with sharing their stories. And that’s what I tried to get across in the film, was that in their mind, like in that instant, they were a 16, 17 year old girl. Whether it was something funny, whether it was the memory of their father, seeing their father again after the war, and that emotion being right there, they’re just, you know, they’re just in different bodies, but those memories are so rich and so strong. Telling the story in a visual way, like Bonnie and Shirley Ann did this amazing book, and the article, and the play. But as a filmmaker, I really wanted it to be visual and cinematic and, you know, to touch people’s hearts. And so, it’s just letting the women tell their stories, and then arrange the story in a way. But taking them back to the farms where they worked, finding the archival footage, those were—we’re in Toronto today, those were young girls at Lawrence Park Collegiate, who were raising their hands and asking questions. That’s footage from the NFB that we found buried in a vault…
Adrienne Batra
Incredible.
Colin Field
…for 80 years, it was mislabeled. So, there’s a whole story, in terms of how we found that. But to find this footage of the actual Farmerettes, and then they’re talking, and they’re like brushing their teeth, and they’re going and they’re picking fruit, and they’re, you know, giving their sheets of how much they picked, that was pretty exciting. So, just different ways of conveying it, and helping people feel like you were there, and then the idea of doing the reenactments with the young women that you saw, picking the apples, they’re all young farmers from Huron County. They’re not models or actresses, or whatever.
Adrienne Batra
Some of those photos, boy, they could have been models.
Colin Field
Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Adrienne Batra
Like, gorgeous. They’re beautiful women.
Colin Field
Yeah.
Adrienne Batra
Lechin, I’m interested to know what your takeaway is from telling this story about the Farmerettes.
Lechin Lu
Well, the first time I saw the film, I was expecting something, you know, you generally see about a film during World War II, about World War II, and the efforts that have put in it, the sacrifice, you know, that tone, and the solemn feeling. I was surprised by the joy, the music, the fashion that has shown, and the humour from all the Farmerettes, even when they were in their eighties and nineties, it was still very humorous. And that kind of reminds me of a conversation I had with some of the undergrad students last year, and it was another panel and one of the students asked our panellists, the world was so, sometimes so disappointing and heavy, how do you keep fighting, or working for the good, and pushing your agenda forward, even when they feel so hopeless? And when I watched the film, I was like, the Farmerettes show us the answer. It is about sisterhood, it’s about unity, about resilience, and also, finding the joy in what they do, finding the joy of day to day, be the joy from being together, being in community, from working hard. That even in dark time, that’s what propel us forward and kind of keep going. And I think that is like kind of my first reaction really was like, yeah, there was still joy, and we cannot forget about it. Especially when we’re feeling it’s hard, it’s, you know, maybe disappointed or stressed.
Adrienne Batra
I would just like to take an opportunity to mention to the audience, if you have some questions, please. There are some handheld mics, I think, floating around. So, if you do have a question, please put your hand up, and we will bring you a mic and you can, and we’ll put you on the spot, and you can ask your question.
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Audience Question
First and foremost, good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Bonjour, mesdames et messieurs—yes, I’m bilingual, it’s Canada. So, first and foremost, thank you so very much for the moderation, just the insights, the wisdom, the knowledge. I think we’re all learning something today. So, I’ll keep it very brief, but to the point. I want to ask all of you, and get your insights on this. If we’re going from the perspective legacy to the contemporary, in terms of these stories, and a hidden part of Canadian history, I would like to ask, what do you think are the key lessons that this generation should learn, in terms of what these women did, how they were omitted from the history books, and how, in many respects, what they did then still applies to now. There is a global food crisis that we have to deal with. So, with that being said, key lessons for the coming generation, in terms of food, agriculture, and patriotism for the nation. Thank you very much. Merci beaucoup.
Adrienne Batra
That’s a great question. Bonnie, put you on the spot first.
Bonnie Sitter
How many questions was that?
Adrienne Batra
I think just overall, like what can—we have a very different world of kids now, you know? Social media has taken their lives over. And I think the question is relevance of what we can ask of this generation, and these kids in this day and age, for the challenges that they were facing back then. We still have many of these issues now.
Bonnie Sitter
I truly believe that if there was a way in our education system that part of your education is spending a year on a farm, learning how difficult, and the challenges involved in producing food. I think we’ve really gotten out of touch with where our food comes from. You know, shows up either on your doorstep, or in the grocery store. And people, not just children but adults, don’t have a clue of where that food is coming from, the effort that is made to feed us. I don’t know how that system would work. But I’m sure it could be figured out that part of your education is being on a farm, and learning the lessons of what happens. It doesn’t just appear in the store. I really think that’s important.
Adrienne Batra
Yeah.
Bonnie Sitter
People don’t know. We think they know, but they don’t know.
Adrienne Batra
Even many of the young girls have never been on a farm, ever. Colin would you like to weigh in?
Colin Field
Sure, yeah. Maybe I’ll take a different angle on this. So, it was more about why are these stories forgotten, why are we not talking about how we’ve forgotten it. Maybe, it’s a bit of a challenge to each of us. I didn’t know I was connected to this story. I didn’t know about the Farmerettes. And since making the film, I’ve heard all kinds of stories that connect to me, personally. And I say go and talk to the people in your lives, the older people, the women in your lives, even if it’s just neighbours, or people in your community, and ask them to tell their stories. Because they probably have amazing stories, and they’re waiting to be told, and for someone to listen. And especially for young people to be able to hear these stories. That’s where they get the inspiration, young people who watch this. The tagline of the film is “Service comes in many forms,” and that’s how we close the film. Bonnie says that, and I put it at the end. It’s in our poster—if you ask a question, you get a poster—but in that day, and that time, that’s what service looked like in our modern world, with all the issues, and all the things that can get us down in the world. How can each of us as individuals, or as a community provide some service to our family, to our community, to our neighbourhood, to the planet, whatever the cause is. And so, these women give us that inspiration, that—they just thought they were having fun, and picking fruit, and having an adventure. They knew that they were working towards something. We look back 80 years later, and we think, wow, they changed the world and they’re there. Those are the people amongst us. It’s ourselves now. So, that’s what I would say.
Adrienne Batra
Lechin, you’re the shaper of young minds, in the world of academia. What if we needed these young people to be called upon?
Lechin Lu
Well, just going back to food, I think forget that we were very fortunate to live in Canada, in Ontario, where a lot of food is grown. And I think we have taken for granted, like, this access to food, easy access to food. And also, there’s these intersections between gender roles and agriculture, and also, like, technology that is all at play right now, that is shaping agriculture in the modern days. As we talk about young people, first of all, I think a lot of young people, especially those living in the cities, may not think about getting into agriculture. Girls may not see themselves playing a role in tech, especially tech that apply to agriculture, like Agri-tech. So, I think these are kind of the overlooked industries of where we should pay more attention to. And I encourage more young people to explore these kind of industries that are not seen maybe as hot, or like discussed as much as some of the other industries, fast growing industries that have got a lot of attention.
And also, I think these days, especially in agriculture or food supply is such a global network, and if we take a global perspective on these issues, and actually in a lot of parts in the world, agriculture of growing foods are actually women’s roles or responsibilities. A lot of them are unpaid, or really underpaid, but I think we shouldn’t overlook the fact that a lot of foods were grown by women, and continue to be grown by women. And I think as the technology transitions and affecting the agriculture, we also need to consider how this kind of trends are going to impact on the participation rates of people of all genders, and coming from different cultures and backgrounds.
Adrienne Batra
There was another question from this. I think this will be our last opportunity to have a question, so you’re the last questioner.
Audience Question
Thank you so much. My name is Tony and I’m from York University School of Public Policy and Administration. I’m just curious to know about how did women’s labour in agricultural fields challenge or reinforce gender norms of the time? Thank you.
Adrienne Batra
Can you repeat it?
Audience Question
How did women’s labour in agricultural fields challenge or reinforce gender norms of the time?
Adrienne Batra
Okay. That’s a good question. Would you like to tackle that?
Bonnie Sitter
I didn’t get it.
Adrienne Batra
How did it change gender norms for women in agriculture at the time?
Bonnie Sitter
Okay. Well, I think it was really the beginning of a major change. Agriculture today, I think the figure is 35% of farms in Canada now are run by women. Big, big changes have come with them being accepted as people that can run farms, and can keep up with the technology. There’s some great information on the web. Grain Farmers of Ontario have put up reels talking about women in agriculture. Farm and Food Care Ontario also has some great information about how the Farmerettes participated in farming. Yeah, I mean, I was surprised about the figures that it’s now 35%, but it has grown tremendously. And all areas, not just grain farming, but beef farming, you know, animal farming as well, they really are making a difference. And I think it’ll continue to grow.
Adrienne Batra
That’s incredible. I want to thank the panel for their insights, and the extraordinary work that you’ve done. I want to see a list. I’m going to see what I can do about helping you about that. So, thank you to Bonnie, Colin, and Lechin, and to your questions. Thank you.
Colin Field
Thank you.
Note of Appreciation and Closing Remarks by Gordon McIvor
Ladies and gentlemen, let’s give our panel a huge round of applause. Thank you so much. Thank you Adrienne, Bonnie, Colin, Lechin. Thank you so much. That was absolutely fascinating. And to tie that film into today, it’s not obvious when you first look at it, but certainly, the parallels are there. And thank you for joining us here in person and across the country in our school watch parties, and individual registrations at home.
This afternoon has reminded us that history often turns on quiet revolutions, moments when ordinary people are called on to do extraordinary things. The Farmerettes may not have seen themselves as trailblazers, yet their work helped feed a nation at home and at war, and redefine what was possible for women in the workplace. Their story is one of courage, purpose, and participation, and it continues to echo through new generations of young people ready to answer the call in their own time and way. To your point, Lechin, about getting more young women going into AI, it’s badly needed right now. It’s an industry that has not got enough women in it, and we definitely need to be very conscious of that.
As we move toward Remembrance Day tomorrow, may we carry that same spirit forward, to lend a hand where it’s needed, to rise when opportunity calls, and to recognize the strength that comes from working together. And in that spirit, it feels fitting that we end our event with a national symbol of connection and progress, the ringing of the closing bell of the Toronto Stock Exchange. For those of you here in the room, you’ll be part of that moment—and by the way, there’s very few Canadians that get to be part of that moment, so I hope you’re all as excited as I am. We’re going to join the TMX group, our Event Partner, in celebrating the legacy of the Farmerettes, and the leadership of women and youth across Canada.
On behalf of the Empire Club Foundation, thank you again for being part of today’s event. If your school or university would like to arrange a classroom screening, please just contact the Empire Club Foundation after this program today, and we’ll put you in touch with the film team. And to those of you in the room, enjoy the networking. By the way, please enjoy the wonderful wartime music of the Backseat Girls. We’re really lucky to have them here today, so take advantage, and get up to speed on a little bit of music that your parents and grandparents would have enjoyed.
And we will meet again, those in the room, in a few moments, for that wonderful ceremony, the closing of our Stock Exchange. To everyone who’s joined us today, thank you. God bless Canada. God bless our men and women in uniform. And may we all feel the gratitude these Canadians deserve for helping ensure that we continue to live in the best country in the world. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Happy Remembrance Day tomorrow. Thank you.
