Grade 8 · Social Studies · Unit 10 of 15
Work, Cities & Reform
Factories, unions and people who pushed for change
What your child practises
How factories, mining and new technology changed work and cities, what working life was like for many families, how unions, reformers and suffragists pushed for change, and how life in 1900 compares with today.
Ontario Curriculum expectation: History B1.1, B1.3, B1.4, B3.3, B3.5 · industrialization and urbanization, working conditions, unions, reformers and actions taken to improve lives between 1890 and 1914
Sample questions
A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.
Question 1
J. J. Kelso founded the Children's Aid Society in Toronto in 1891 to…
- sell newspapers
- protect children from neglect, abuse and exploitation
- build railways
- train soldiers
Show answer
protect children from neglect, abuse and exploitation
Hint: Societies like it spread across Ontario.
Question 2
Why did cities grow quickly around 1900?
- People came to work in factories and new industries.
- People left for the United States.
- Farms got bigger and needed more workers.
- Factories closed.
Show answer
People came to work in factories and new industries.
Hint: Many people moved from farms and from other countries.
Question 3
What did suffragists want?
- a shorter school year
- an end to taxes
- cheaper train tickets
- the right for women to vote
Show answer
the right for women to vote
Hint: The women's suffrage movement grew strongly in this period.
Question 4
What is a union?
- a company's boss
- an organization of workers who act together for better pay and conditions
- a kind of tax
- a train line
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an organization of workers who act together for better pay and conditions
Hint: Workers have more power together than alone.
Question 5
Why were women often paid less than men for similar work?
- Women could not read.
- Employers and society valued women's work less.
- Men did not work.
- Women were given extra pay.
Show answer
Employers and society valued women's work less.
Hint: Unequal attitudes meant unequal pay.
Question 6
What did suffragists such as Nellie McClung argue?
- that no one should vote
- that taxes should end
- that women should stay out of school
- that women should have the right to vote and take part in public life
Show answer
that women should have the right to vote and take part in public life
Hint: Women's suffrage was a major reform movement.