Exhibition Theme - Service

CWAC beauty parlour # 1

In September 1944 MacLeod wrote to a friend: "It is unfair enough to leave out the mothers of soldiers, the nurses, the factory girls. What an obvious flaw to neglect also the women in the armed services." In 1944 and 1945, she recorded some of the 21,600 women who served in the Canadian Women's Army Corps, both on and off duty. Images such as CWAC Beauty Parlour # 1 can be viewed as confirming the femininity of women at a time when there was public fear that women's participation in the war effort would result in a loss of their femininity by doing "men's work".

Watercolour on paper 63.2 x 48.6 cm
Painted in 1944
Beaverbrook Collection of War Art
Canadian War Museum 19710261-5749

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