Museum Exhibition

Our Daily Bread: Trades and Professions in Peel

Although many people in Peel earned their living as farmers until the 1950s, there were many jobs in other fields as well. A visit to any of Peel’s small towns and communities would have revealed a wide array of employment opportunities. As communities grew and prosperity increased so did the number of occupations, trades and professions.

Occupation: a person’s temporary or regular employment or business. Training and education were not always required. Examples of occupations around 1900 included store clerks, factory workers and farm labourers. Contemporary examples would still include store clerks and labourers.

Trade: a skilled handicraft especially requiring an apprenticeship. In an apprenticeship a young boy would be assigned to a master craftsman for a pre-determined time, usually for very low wages. Apprentices received little formal education but a great deal of first-hand experience. On occasion an unhappy apprentice would escape his employer and the master craftsman might issue a reward for his return. Examples of trades included blacksmiths, carpenters, masons, shoemakers and boilermakers. More modern examples include electricians, plumbers, gasfitters, welders and mechanics.

Profession: a career involving some form of advanced learning. Examples of professionals past and present include doctors, dentists, lawyers, engineers and teachers. Strictly 20 th and 21 st century professions include computer programmers, airline pilots and air traffic controllers.

Women have always found employment in occupations, trades and professions. Early in Peel’s history women worked in places such as the Barber Brothers mill in Streetsville and the textile mills in Huttonville. Brampton’s Dr. Emily Irvine was one of the first females to graduate as a physician from the University of Toronto in 1890.

Early in the 20th century some professions like teaching required women to resign once they married. These rules were designed to protect jobs for men whom society viewed as the main breadwinners for their families. These rules were relaxed as time went by and jobs became more plentiful.

New technology opened up opportunities for women. Telephone systems required a skilled workforce and women dominated the switchboard as operators. When planes began flying out of the new airport in Malton in 1939, nurses were on board to see to the passenger’s needs.

After the end of the Second World War in 1945, Peel, like much of North America, experienced rapid growth. Industrial manufacturing and service sectors for the most part replaced farming as the main source of employment for Peel residents. Technology has had a tremendous effect on the way people work and will continue for years to come.