Thoughts & Things

First Wave Feminism In Canada

The first wave of feminism took place in the 19th and early 20th centuries, with a focus on women's suffrage. Other than the struggle for the right to vote, the first wave of feminism also fought for things like women's right to own property or to leave a bad marriage. Most often when we speak of the first wave of feminism, we tend to focus on American and British feminist movements. While these are both fascinating and important, I am taking a few moments to share some of Canada's early feminist movement.

In Canada, some women gained voting rights early on during the feminist movement. In 1884, women in Ontario were allowed to vote if they were unmarried. A widow or a spinster would be allowed to cast her vote just as a man would; however, married women were not allowed to vote or own property, as they were not considered people under the law. Similar laws spread slowly across the nation, by individual province. The right to vote was given first to military nurses in 1917, and the majority of women received the right to federally vote by 1918. The last province to grant the right to provincially vote was Quebec, in 1940.

Although the majority of women could vote in provincial, municipal, or federal elections by 1940, there were still many men and women who did not have the right to vote. First Nations people in Canada were not considered to be legal citizens of Canada, and waited much longer to receive voting rights. The Inuit peoples gained the right to vote federally in 1954, and the First Nations peoples gained the right to vote federally in 1960.

Although the right to vote federally had been gained by women in 1918, women still did not receive equal rights with men, and the first wave of feminism in Canada had more work to do to achieve a semblance of political equality. A group of feminists known as "The Famous Five" worked hard on the right for women to be considered "persons" under the Canadian constitution in order for them to become senators.

The Famous Five consisted of Nellie McClung, Emily Murphy, Irene Parlby, Louise McKinney, and Henrietta Muir Edwards. On August 27, 1927, the Famous Five piled a petition at the Supreme Court of Canada to pose the question, are women considered persons under the Constitution Act? The Supreme Court answered this question with a no. They interpreted it to mean "can women be appointed to the senate?" which had strong opposition. Two years later, on October 18, 1929, the British Judicial Committee of the Privy Council overturned this ruling, declaring that women should indeed be classed as persons under the constitution and the law. This also resulted in the constitution becoming something that would be considered fluid and open to growth as the times changed.

The work of the Famous Five within the women's suffrage movement, and especially their work on the "Persons Case", has brought Canada long lasting and vital change, and it brought themselves a special honour: in 2009, the Famous Five became the first people in Canada to receive a honorary positions as senators.

The late 19th century and early 20th century brought significant change to women's rights around the world during the first wave of feminism, including within Canada. While this post focused on suffrage and personhood, the first wave of feminism brought many other changes to Canada. We've really only touched the tip of the ice berg here, but I hope this serves as an introduction for those of you less familiar with this area of history.

For further reading, please see:
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/suffrage/
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/en/article/persons-case/
http://www.famou5.ca/the-famous-five-women/
http://www.ournellie.com/womens-suffrage/

(I have committed to blogging daily with Give It 100. This is Day Thirty-Eight. Five days of leave taken total.)