Women's Double Work Day

Title

Women's Double Work Day

Description

Cannery women were also faced with the double work day, often working full time or overtime at the cannery while still expected to care for the home and family. Still, most considered cannery work a better alternative than field or orchard jobs. Working seasonally enabled them to supplement the family income or serve as the breadwinner when husbands were unemployed, while maintaining their primary roles as wives and mothers.

A major challenge for cannery women was finding appropriate and affordable childcare. During the 1940s and 1950s, CalPak operated a nursery at the Del Monte Plant #3, providing childcare during the day and second shift. However, as childcare was unavailable at most canneries, mothers left their children with family members or neighbors, while others paid for babysitters or bartered for care with co-workers. Husbands and wives who worked at the same plant might arrange complicated shift schedules.

Working mothers believed that, in easing their husbands’ responsibility as providers, they could ask for more assistance with housework. However, men often found it difficult to participate in many of these domestic chores, so cooking and childcare were often handled by older children.

Women cannery workers knew that their paychecks enabled them to provide more assistance to their children, send their kids to college, allow their husbands to attend trade school, start their own business, or have a higher standard of living, and they wanted a say in how household money would be spent. Women made time to do the necessary household chores by extending their day, staying up late or waking early.

Identifier

B4SV Exhibit Topic Three: Slide 019