This lecture will be presented in French.

A free lecture presented via ZOOM and available on Heritage Ottawa's YOUTUBE CHANNEL. 

Who were the "matchmakers" at Hull's E. B. Eddy pulp and paper mill? Exploited young women or committed union activists?

Between 1854 and 1928, the women responsible for making 90% of the country's matches worked in a backbreaking and extremely dangerous occupation involving fire hazards and toxic chemicals. The consequences were disastrous for them. These difficult conditions and low wages led to unionization and the first "women's strike" in Quebec history. 

In this presentation, historian Kathleen Durocher tells the fascinating story of this anonymous workforce, a story pieced together from Canadian censuses, government, private and parish archives, as well as from numerous articles in scholarly journals and mass-circulation newspapers.

Ms. Durocher has drawn up a demographic profile of the matchmakers, and will tell us about their daily lives; their role within the working class; their functions in the factory; their working conditions, the dangers of the job (especially those associated with white phosphorus); and their union activities, from 1918 to 1928 - when the factory left Hull.

Tragic and inspiring, the story of the matchmakers has marked the region and the country’s history for over a century but remains too little known. 

Speaker:  Kathleen Durocher holds bachelor's and master's degrees in history from the University of Ottawa and is currently enrolled in a doctoral program in history at the Université du Québec à Montréal. She is mainly interested in the condition of the Hull working class, the place of women in it, and women's activism. Her most recent research focuses on industrial accidents and poisoning.  

Cette conférence se déroulera en français. Cliquez ici pour la version française.

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