Gendered nationalism, Ontario's defence training, health and physical education curriculum and the Second World War

grantor: University of TorontoThis study examined how the Canadian and Ontario governments of World War II manipulated dominant ideologies of nationalism with respect to gender, race and class in the context of Ontario's defence training and health and physical education program in secondary schools. A balance between what the federal and provincial governments attempted to create versus how these education programs looked in practice was provided. The governments exerted a massive amount of control in training boys as soldiers and in training girls as "mothers of the nation," but the intended plans did not fully crystallize. The governments did not completely dictate people's everyday lived experiences. However, Anglo-Celtic, middle class Canadians and the state significantly impacted gender, race and class expectations for what it meant to be Canadian women and men during World War II.M.A