Women become "persons" under the Law
10/18/2010 at 8:11 AM
On October 18th, 1929 the Judicial committee of the Privy Council in England declared that Canadian women were ‘persons’ under the law.
It is recorded that British Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald said, “The exclusion of women from public offices was a relic of days more barbarous than ours.”
In January 1916, some Manitoba Women got Voting Right’s, and the right to run for public office. In 1913 women could not Vote in elections, Women doing the same jobs as men were paid less.
In fact they were not even considered to be “persons” under the British North American Act. Marriage for women was not the ‘partnership’ we consider it today, wives did not share ownership of their houses, or land with their Husbands.
After the Suffragette movement was founded, five women of note were, Nellie McClung, Emily Murphy, Henrietta Muir Edwards, Louise McKinney, and Irene Parlby, each worked to change public perceptions of women and secured basic rights for most women.
Exempt were First Nations, and many immigrant women.
Nellie McClung in addition to her Suffragist activities was a teacher, temperance leader, lecturer, novelist, politician, wife, and mother: she grew up on her families Homestead in the Souris Valley.
She wrote:
"Our worthy opponents will emphasize the fact that women are the weaker vessel. Well I should think that a woman who cooks for men, washes and bakes and scrubs and sews for her family could stand the extra strain of marking a ballot every four years."
-Nellie McClung
A school remembers her in her name called “Nellie McClung Elementary” on 2315 Palliser Drive S.W. Calgary, a girl’s school in Edmonton, a place called, “Nellie McClung Centre”, and the Alberta College of Art, and Design.
On Monday 18th October 1999 a statue was unveiled in the Olympic Plaza in down town Calgary. It depicts Nellie McClung, Henrietta Muir, Edwards, Louise McKinney, Irene Parlby, and Emily Murphy seated at a table.
A replica stands on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, but so far a monument to Ms. McClung, or any of her associates has not been erected in Manitoba’s Capitol the birthplace of ‘Women’s Rights” even though a foundation in her name has $500,000 in trust for just a memorial.
Source:
http://projects.cbe.ab.ca/ict/2learn/jkshpur/legacies/mcclung2.html http://www.abheritage.ca/famous5/index.html