History of Saskatchewan Homemakers' Association

In honour of International Women’s Day, which is celebrated each year during the second week of March, let's take a closer look at the history of the Saskatchewan Homemakers' Club.


In the late 1880s to early 1900s, female settlers to the West were wives, mothers and homemakers. Promotional literature, travel accounts, eulogies, editorials, even women themselves, suggested that the Female Frontier was one in which women were helpmates, essential to the rural development. These sources made it clear that only marriage could end the plight of the bachelor homesteader - a woman would share the burden of work, and she would give birth to the children who once grown would work as well. A wife, mother, homemaker, then, ensured that a man would be successful in his settlement endeavours. Men themselves sometimes sought wives via “mail order” placing newspaper ads. “Getting a mate” was a theme in appeals directed towards women: Come West, fill a badly needed job like teacher or domestic servant, then find a marriage partner, thereby making an even greater contribution to developing this country. Finding mates is what inspired British women to come to Canada – the odds of finding one were much better on the new frontier as there was so much competition for male affection at home. By the eve of World War I, however, Saskatchewan’s gender imbalance was no longer an issue.

But, once these women arrived on the prairies they soon learned that life in this part of the country was hard and these “helpmates” had to be tough. The harsh climate, lack of amenities and isolation soon proved too much for many. For those who stayed, small groups started to form throughout the province as women gathered to, “promote sociability and to provide opportunities to discuss matters of mutual interest”.

From the Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan, “The Homemakers’ Clubs of Saskatchewan and the Saskatchewan Women’s Institutes, which replaced the Homemakers in 1972, have played an important part in the lives of rural women. Both were affiliated with the Federated Women’s Institutes of Canada, founded in 1919, and with the Associated Countrywomen of the World, founded in 1933, and Saskatchewan delegates regularly attended their meetings. The Homemakers and the Women’s Institutes were the first of three main streams of the farm women’s movement in the province, along with the second stream, the Women Grain Growers and its successor organizations that came into being in 1913 and 1914, and the third stream, the Saskatchewan Women’s Agricultural Network, established in 1985 and now inactive. Founded in 1911, the Homemakers’ Clubs were patterned on the Women’s Institutes in Ontario. In Saskatchewan they were affiliated with the Extension Division of the University of Saskatchewan, which was both a strength and a problem for the Homemakers: they were at times constrained by the middle-class male administrators of the University, but on the other hand benefited from their affiliation with the University”.

From their inception, the Homemakers' Club in the province was focussed on the community, especially health, education and recreation. The clubs were not affiliated with a particular political party and were multi-denominational in that they welcomed women of all religious affiliations and ethnic backgrounds. Some of the projects that these clubs undertook in communities were – contributions to hospitals, community halls, skating rinks and other recreation facilities. They were also instrumental in bringing educational films, art exhibitions and craft festivals to their communities. They were often involved the establishment of local libraries and worked closely with the Victorian Order of Nurses in the province.

From the history compiled by Bertha G. Oxner in the Saskatchewan Homemakers' Club Golden Jubilee cookbook, “Homemaker’s Clubs’ have consistently followed this policy [begin where you are with what you have] and from their modest beginnings have progressed until they can look back over a worthy record of achievement and can look forward to working on the problems that lie ahead”.