It’s important to remember that at one time, women rarely served in the military. Most of them remained in the country while the men went off to war. They would have to keep the country running. They worked in factories producing food, clothing and weapons to be sent to the front and the Merchant Navy.

When it came to Magdalen Island women, some continued to work in local factories but many others went to work in the Nova Scotia shipyards in Pictou and Halifax. During the Second World War, one third to one half of workers at these shipyards were women.