Collections
BMO’s Corporate Archives is home to unique collections that provide a wide array of primary sources documenting our employees and the events that shaped them and their local communities over the course of 200 years.
Celebrating women in the workforce with BMO HR Ledgers
Women have a long history at BMO. The Archives has records showing that women have occupied clerical and office roles from as early as 1902. In celebration of this rich history of women in banking, the Bank of Montreal Human Resources (HR) ledger pages for women employees (dating 1902-1923) are now accessible.
These ledger pages provide valuable insight into the professional lives of women entering the workforce in the early-twentieth century. In addition to working as stenographers (one of the most common roles for women employees), they also worked as tellers, telegraph operators, and ledger keepers. These pages also show the evolution of women at the bank, especially as BMO entered war time during the First World War.
By browsing the ledger pages, you can learn about the women who occupied these important positions and read about the skills needed to perform their duties, from manually calculating ledger balances quickly and accurately to coding and decoding confidential messages. We pay tribute to the women who trailblazed for future generations of women at BMO.
Note: In keeping with privacy requirements, the records we are making public and the information they contain are more than 100 years old.
