The following section, will analyse Handbook of Home Economics based on how it may have been shaped by broader societal processes as well as what it represents about 1940s Canadian society. At this point in history, the Second World War was coming to an end, leaving an impact on much of the world. In North America, there were food rations and changes within the workforce as women often had to take the place of men. Furthermore, despite women’s increased societal involvement during the war, labour and human rights movements neglected to decrease their oppression. Finally, this paper will discuss a few developments in home economics, which shaped the contents within this cookbook.

The decade prior to the publication of this cookbook was marked by the Great Depression, where economic disparities resulted in issues of food affordability as opposed to scarcity. At the turn of the decade, the Second World War broke out in Europe, having impacts on Canadian society as well. For instance, during the war period nationwide rationing was introduced, particularly around food items such as, “butter and other fats, sugar, red meat, coffee, and canned goods”. The effects of this could be seen in government propaganda posters, playing into the idea of representing a personal nationalist front. The reason for these propagandas was to ensure that soldiers were ingesting enough nutrients, and as a result red meats were highlighted as especially important for the war effort. As such, these alterations to Canadian diets further impacted developments in food and nutrition policies and committees in addition to emphasising affordability. One means of ensuring healthy living was to find protein alternatives as large portions of meat were being sent to the front, with eggs being the main alternative, as seen in one of the highlighted recipes.

In relation to women during and following the Second World War, options for employment became much more available as men were off at war. Nevertheless, the roles they took on were still considered more gendered in nature. In addition to this, societal pressures made balancing the public and domestic spheres difficult. Then, as the war came to an end, women were encouraged back into the domestic sphere. Therefore, although changes were occurring in both human and labour rights during the 1930s and 1940s, the oppression of women continued. Rather, this period was marked by society’s efforts to keep women within the domestic sphere, promoting home economics as a means of educating girls about their gendered duties of cooking and homemaking. In other words, home economics was seen as a solution to certain social concerns of the time, including preserving the idea of a respectable heterogeneous household. Likewise, again, the importance of maintaining healthy lives was also incredibly highlighted as being the responsibility of women.

In conclusion, there is undoubtingly a connection between broader societal processes and the contents of The Handbook of Home Economics. Food scarcities and developments in nutritional knowledge during the interwar period changed the focus of food, in which the cookbook includes necessary information on how to construct healthy affordable meals. In connection to this, women were seen as being responsible for maintaining the health of her family, putting a lot of pressure on them. Accordingly, this begs the question, how did the target audience, young girls and women in general, received this home economics manual. From a younger audience, learning about food safety and how to fit into social norms would be seen as important because of the societal processes occurring at the time. Therefore, not only was this cookbook impacted by the broader Canadian culture, consequently shaping young girls images of gender norms, but the cookbook also represents Canadian history during the early 1940s.