1929 - 1945: Elsie MacGill

"Why were women ever treated differently? And did some Canadian men believe women should be treated as equal as men were being treated?"

Elsie MacGill was born on March 7 1905 in Vancouver, British Columbia. Elsie was the first woman to graduate in electrical engineering from the University of Toronto (graduated in 1927). During the 1930s MacGill worked in Montreal for Fairchild Aircraft Ltd, she worked as the chief aeronautical engineer of the Canadian Car and Foundry Co. Her job was to design the Maple Leaf Trainer aircraft. Then when WWll came around, MacGill was put in charge to engineer the Hawker Hurricane. Her job was to modify the planes to make them successful in cold conditions (skis and de-icing controls were developed to do so). Hawker Hurricane fighter plane made its first appearance on October 12th, 1937 and over two hundred of them were shipped by 1938 to the Royal Air Force. Elsie MacGill became known as the “Queen of the Hurricane”. After the war, Elsie worked privately in Toronto, she consulted as an aeronautical engineer. Elsie was also a feminist, she was the president of the Canadian Federation of Business and Professional Women’s club. She was the president from 1962 to 1964. MacGill was also a member of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women.

Elsie MacGill has contributed to making the women’s march to equality the most important theme of the twentieth century by showing the world that women in Canada and around the world are just as smart as men maybe smarter. Elsie shows this because she was the one who was put in charge to fix/build an aircraft tough enough for the harsh winters of WW2, not a man. By Elsie MacGill being successful in building the aircraft and in her field of studies (aeronautical engineering), she has paved the way for other women to strive for what they want and she has also shown women can do anything they set their minds to.

#economy