Second World War caused a sharp demand for resources that shifted Canadian society away from its traditional roles. Once the Second World War began in 1939, governments had the opportunity to look back at previous mistakes from the First World War. That conflict was the first time the world had seen global systems being implemented to mobilize resources and troops. Canada experienced both labour and food shortages throughout the First World War, so policy makers were now more readily prepared to address these issues in the Second World War. Despite learning from past experiences, the policy makers would have the challenge of addressing these issues while also catering policy to Canada’s international obligations. By the onset of the Second World War, Canada was expected to support British interests. Mass mobilization for the sake of allied forces meant the rearrangement of social order because of many able bodies leaving home for the war effort. Women in particular experienced drastic changes in their domestic lives and began to be more prevalent in the public work sphere.

The cooking manual’s fixation on saving money is derived from the demand by the Allied forces for food and resources. How To Save in Your Kitchen has several solutions and methods for reusing or stretching resources, such as tobacco ashes, brewed tea leaves, or grease. This is not to suggest that every small thing was in short supply, but it could imply people’s sense that certain resources could be cut off at any moment. As the face of the Allied forces, Britain focused their production upon war manufacturing, so domestic eating relied on foreign import from allies. Canada and the US pooled resources to make the initial demand easier for both countries. One by one, though, events triggered by the war would continue to increase the demands of the Allied forces and put constraints on North American society. The 1940 German invasion and occupation of France was the first major disruption causing demand on Canadians to spike. Britain depended on France for much of its food supply, and once they were cut off from that supply, they turned to North America. In June 1941, another German invasion, this time into Russia, spiked the demand of Russian allies upon North Americans for food provisions.

How To Save In Your Kitchen helps us understand how women’s labour roles in the 1940s drastically shifted, even from the people least in demand; married women with children. It can be seen on several pages the cooking manual’s appeal towards mothers and wives. The initial mobilization of troops did pull numerous women into the labour force right away, but women who were married with children were not the target of these labour markets. Employers first looked for young women or single women. As the war went on, larger groups of men were taken from labour forces and deployed in the field, and the demand for women increased, beginning to ask more from married women, and eventually mothers. In 1943, the Canadian government implemented a campaign directed at housewives when labour demand became desperate. There was an understanding that the work done by these housewives would be an extension of the housework they already did. The campaign sought to give married mothers short shift work that could accommodate a mother who needed both money for the family and time for the children. Government labour programs and policies help to explain why a cooking manual fixated on saving time and money would have been directed at household mothers in the 1940s.