Dossier f72 - Pitt, Jean, nee McLaughlin

File consists of a recording of Jean Pitt. Topics of the conversation include travel in South America following husband's retirement (1932); surfeit of European travel, desire to witness 'Darwin country', Indian culture of Peru. Contribution of native intractability to present-day social failure. Train ride through Andes mountains; juxtaposition of old agricultural methods with new. Cultural sidelights: Indian habit of working barefoot in cold weather; Indian worship of Catholic god on Sunday, native gods on weekdays; Indian features on Catholic statues donated by natives; Brown Derby Indians, Le Pas. Five-day tour of Galapagos islands. Position as University Women's Club representative to Niagara Falls Local Council of Women (WWII). LCW aim to improve society through agitation for better laws; rejection of women's usual role as petty fund-raisers; regular representations to Cabinet members. LCW membership, skimmed from wide variety of local women's groups. Women's former lamentable devotion to social fund-raising activities, failure to grasp importance of active legislature in effecting democratic change; similar failure of today's citizens to communicate with elected representatives. Position as head of various LCW committees (e.g. Economics Committee). French/German degree at Queen's; liking for languages, belief in multilingualism, support of bilingual immersion courses at public school level (why fuss over what other countries take for granted?). Concern that people are led to socialism by need, not conviction; leaders' responsibility for making a free system work in advance of popular desperation; lack of free speech in Communist countries as a symptom of insecurity. LCW positions as Corresponding Secretary, President. LCW, YWCA Women's Forum study of Rowell-Sirois Report ('Canada's first effort at revising the Constitution'), typical of women's political concern during 1930s. Concensus of University Women's Club on practical categorization of unemployed citizens. Quarrel with post-WWII government measures requiring women to surrender paid jobs; awareness (economic injustice aside) of other avenues of fulfilment. Role of remuneration in building self-confidence, self­respect (interviewer); subject's contention that qualified women will find work, others needn't lapse into sense of victimization. Failure of subject's generation to throw off Depression attitude to role of sexes: tendency to blame women for holding jobs in time of unemployment, to hold mother responsible for children in equal-parenting relationship. WWII position as industrial personnel selector (National Selective Service); Niagara Peninsula as WWII industrial centre of Canada. Laziness factor in 1970s unemployment situation, brought out in all generations by extravagant welfare system; lack of sufficient contrast between working rewards, welfare rewards. Economic problems of high Canadian wage scale, low production rate. Benefit of health insurance programmes, despite problems of administration. Termination (by NSS work) of 10-year participation in Women's Council; University Women's Club membership dropped to accommodate retirement travel, recently resumed. Success of retirement plans; visit to newly independent New Guinea (1975, Queen's Principal Watts aiding in plan of constitution), observation of white-native relations; satisfaction over peaceful race relations (black and white policemen holding hands) in Kenya, 1973; English influence apparent in Kenyan dress, speech. Interviewer's experience in Nigeria. Subject's farm origins in Dundela (near Morrisburg), home of the Macintosh apple; relation to Maclntoshes through grandmother; plans to attend Queen's made during tight Depression years. Exclusion of women students from Sciences, permitted as options. Interviewer's interest in May Chown; subject's uwc acquaintance with nephew Lorne Pierce's sister.