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  • A postcard showing Woodward’s department store building. Text at the bottom of the postcard reads “C. Woodward Ltd. Department Store, Edmonton, Alberta.”

    My Grandma Going Out into the World: Working at Woodward’s

    Harma-Mae Smit

    Facing boredom, depression, and loneliness, 1960s stay-at-home mother Harma Smit decided to get a job.

    In 1967, when Harma found a job at Edmonton’s Woodward’s department store, it was just becoming more common for married women to seek work outside the home.

    In this addition to ECAMP’s labour series, Harma-Mae Smit recounts her grandmother’s experience in the retail workforce. Relying on family reflections, Smit discusses community reactions to her grandmother’s decision to work, her positive experience as an employee at Woodward’s for nearly two decades, and the material and mental benefits that the added income had for her grandmother and the rest of the family.

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  • Margaret Littlewood, wearing aviation gear, steps out of a small prop plane. She is looking at the camera and grasping the hand of an air force officer dressed in a military coat and hat and wearing thick gloves.

    “Queen of the Link”: Margaret Littlewood, Canada’s Only Woman Flight Instructor during WWII

    Bruce Cinnamon

    In 1943, skilled pilot Margaret Littlewood, rejected by the RCAF for being a woman, became the only woman Link Trainer instructor in Canada. Hired by aviation pioneer Wop May at Edmonton’s Air Observer School, she trained 150 pilots, overcame sexism, and later earned Canada’s highest pilot licence—helping pave the way for future women in aviation.

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  • Four women sit at workstations in an office setting entering data on key punch machines. One worker, bent forward, appears to be resting with her head in her hand.

    Alberta’s Government, the Mainframe Computer, and Women’s Work

    Cathy Roy

    In the 1960s, Bill Rogers convinced the Alberta government to invest both computers and the training needed for their workers to program these machines, launching a data revolution. Women dominated these data entry roles under strict, often discriminatory conditions. Despite long hours and limited advancement, they powered early digital governance, pioneering computer use in western Canada and forging lasting professional bonds.

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  • Womonspace: Creating Space for Edmonton’s Lesbian Community in the 1980s

    Josephine Boxwell

    Womonspace was a social and recreational group for lesbians founded in 1981. Part of Edmonton’s LGBTQ landscape for over thirty…

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  • Nellie Carlson and the Indian Rights for Indian Women movement

    Bruce Cinnamon

    Disclaimer: Due to the importance around the legal designation of Indian status, this article sometimes uses the term “Indian” to…

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  • Mind the Gap – Working Women in Edmonton’s history

    Natalie Zacharewski

    In the book Women: Her Character, Culture and Calling published in 1890 the author writes; Woman the half of humanity, and…

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