Dossier f29 - Gibson, Margaret Eleanor, nee MacKay

File consists of a recording of Margaret Gibson. Topics of the conversation include family tradition of attendance at Queen's: expectation it would enlarge one's life. Enlistment with Women's Royal Canadian Naval Service (Wrens) in sophomore year, employment in Gunnery training Centre, training crews for target warfare. Family motivation for enlisting; Queen's as a gay, 'sheltered bubble' during wartime; consciousness of war through lack of intercollegiate sports, COTC participation; popular assumption that war would be longlasting, students most useful as trained graduates. Cold reception of first women members by male-oriented Gunnery, gradual acceptance of women's usefulness in releasing men for active duty. Lack of apparent feminist movement on campus: sense of social privilege, broad opportunity, in attending university; acceptance of protected sexual position, unthreatened by later social phenomena of widespread divorce, single motherhood; understanding that men gave more (e.g. their lives at war), paid more (on dates, etc.) without challenging motives for giving, paying. Subject's present support for women's movement objectives. Women careerists (in senior civil service, advertising) among mother's peers, Queen's Class of 1914. Women's limited appetite for unusual careers (1940s), hence limited sense of suppression; enjoyment of expanded career opportunities later, after raising children. Subject's easy entrance into naval work, journalism; feminist resentment as a symptom of the 1950s not 1940s. Elimination of some social problems by postwar rise in standard of living; benefits of unanticipated social welfare programme (comparative hardships, social cruelties of 1930s); optimistic earnest idealism of returning veteran population (no sense of 'society owes us a living'). Student obsession (1950s) with financial security, job particulars. Crinoline cupboards in women's residences. Immediate post-graduate employment as staff writer, women's department, Ottawa Citizen; coverage of thousands of summer weddings in popularity competition with Ottawa Journal. Employment as assistant to Press Attache, Netherlands Embassy, Ottawa; postwar importation of Dutch farmers: 'tulip time in Holland' films for homesick immigrants; grand reception for Prince Bernhardt and Queen Juliana (Dutch farmers pouring into Ottawa clad in farm clothes); Dutch cordiality towards Canadian liberators ('every Dutch girl wants to marry a Canadian soldier'). Employment with Canadian Homes and Gardens magazine, Toronto Globe and Mail newspaper (women's department); 'ingrown' atmosphere of magazine office, preference for newspaper pace, department autonomy. Marriage to Queen's professor, 1953.// lmpossibility of continuing non-unionized career alongside marriage; journalistic freedom of non-union Globe and Mail compared with unionized Toronto Star; long, uncertain hours for standard low pay, 'you didn't do it for the money'. Financial motivations of working women; criticism of working mothers' self-justification of providing 'quality rather than quantity' care for their children. Dangers for working women of economic recession (reduced salaries, loss of jobs, discriminatory hiring policies). Guess that women have 'slipped back' in some ways; entrance of men into traditional women's fields, women into men's; expectation that economy, relative status of sexes, will all level out. Belief in existence of masculine and feminine character traits shared by both sexes; in partly inherent, partly conditioned feminine faith in intuition, masculine faith in rational decision-making. Attempts to come to terms with feminism, having 'predated' it: 'the anger that you sense directed at men is disturbing if you were brought up at a time when you really didn't feel angry at men'. Desirability of freedom of role choice; existence of traditional roles as the result of conditioning. Role of time-limitations, contingencies, natural dictations of choice, in ordering one's life: 'women have sometimes tried to do too much'. Curious sensation of younger generation's interest in objects and styles out of subject's past. Student unrest during 1960s: disappointment of watching student rebels turn into establishment businessmen; Queen's good fortune in strong traditions of student government, small size, good communication; sufferings of idealistic students over movement's quiet death, 'it didn't carry through' for them. Queen's student feminist awareness (1970s). Feminist issues as but one area of current concern: subject's distress over other issues (circumstances not having prompted her to feminist complaint); children's educated concern for Canadian problem of national unity.