Christina Bates
Canadian Museum of Civilization

Many teachers and nurses were required for the new city schools and hospitals that were being built to service the growing urban population. Workers were also needed in the factories that were producing all kinds of consumer goods, from underwear to cigars. New communications technology-the telegraph and the telephone-created many new positions for women. Women worked behind the counters in department stores and banks. A few very ambitious women even went to university to become doctors and lawyers-unheard of in the 19th century!

The combination of typewriters and a willing female labour force changed the office forever. Today, we accept that most clerical workers are female, but this was not the case in 1900. Up to this time, office clerks were men. Soon they were replaced by women because managers found that they could hire women for less pay. (In 1901, female clerks earned only 53 percent of the male clerical salary). In addition, women easily mastered the new typewriter and they were willing to do any office job, however menial. All these qualities made them ideal employees.

Most women earning wages in 1900 were young and unmarried. Many of them wanted work that would tide them over until marriage. Some needed to earn money to help their families. Others needed a living wage to support themselves independently. Unlike today, married women ventured from their work in the home to take on paying jobs only when necessary.

Young women who could not afford to stay in school often worked for low wages in factories. Here they performed monotonous, exhausting tasks in badly heated and ventilated warehouses. They could barely make enough money to support themselves, and often had to live at home. Factory work was, however, preferable to domestic service, where employees had little independence and even lower wages.

Given the poor working conditions in factories and domestic work, young women preferred office work because it provided a very positive opportunity. With a minimum of training, they could earn enough to live on (if they had no family obligations) and they got to work in a clean and pleasant office environment. Moreover, the wages were much better than what they could earn in the factories. (In 1901, female clerks earned 45 percent more than the average female wage.) However, only the few young women whose families could afford to send them to school, and who were looking for a career and not just a job, became professionals.

One such young woman was Lottie Betts.

Lottie was born in Ottawa on September 25, 1889, the oldest child of Isaac and Nellie Betts. Mr. Betts worked as a boilermaker for the Canadian Pacific Railway until he lost his sight in an industrial accident. In 1902, the family moved to Toronto. Lottie probably realized early on that she would have to take on a job to help her family.

We do not know where Lottie studied for her future career, but she must have taken a business course either at her secondary school or at one of the numerous private commercial and business colleges in Toronto at that time. A complete course lasted six months, and cost around $85 for tuition and books. In the business course, Lottie would have learned to take notes in shorthand, or stenography, as it was called. However, most of the course was devoted to mastering the typewriter.