The present thesis represents the first major Canadian study to examine images of women in film. It concentrates on a body of film which was produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) in its first decade (1939 to 1949). It is postulated here that the images of women in these films will reflect the position of women in the larger socio-economic context. We begin by looking at the status of women in Canada during World War II and the post-war years (1939 to 1949). Since there has been so little research on women during this period of Canadian history, and since the NFB is a government agency, we examine the House of Commons debates of this era as an index to women's status. We then examine the role of women in the NFB itself, with particular emphasis on the influence that women had in film production during the 1940's. Finally, we examine the images of women in the NFB films. We find that there are distinct differences in the films made by men and those made by women. The major difference is characterized by the fact that the images of women in male-produced films clearly reflect the patriarchal values of the society in which the films were produced, while the female-produced films do not.

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