Discussions

Okay, I left it to the last minute but I pulled together some Manitoba women’s history from my files. If you think you’re up on your women’s history try the Manitoba Government Women’s Day History Quiz !  
http://www.gov.mb.ca/wd/publications/whm/cwquiz.html  
 
***Policing***  
 
December 27th, 1916 - Mary E. Dunn was the first female police constable in Winnipeg. http://winnipeg.ca/police/images/Story%20Images/story35b.jpg  
 
July 1st, 1941 - Helen Marianne Hansford 34 was the first Winnipeg-born woman to join the Winnipeg Police Service. She is also seen to be the first “real” officer as she patrolled streets. She served for 30 years.  
 
May 16th, 1960 - Helen Anita Woollard becomes the first policewoman to attend a regular recruit class of the Winnipeg Police Service (No. 56) and the first woman to wear the police uniform. She was also the first “999” supervisor when the system was set up in 1959.  
 
For more on Women in the Winnipeg Police Service http://winnipeg.ca/police/WomenInPolicing/history.stm  
 
March 3, 1975 - The first all female troop (32 of them) graduated from the RCMP Depot in Regina. For more  
http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/history/women_rcmp_e.htm  
 
***Politics***  
 
January 28 1916 - Most Manitoba women won the right to vote and run in provincial elections – aboriginals and some immigrant women need not apply. It wasn’t until May 1918 that national suffrage was achieved.  
 
1919 - Edith Rogers was first woman elected to the Manitoba Legislature in the first election after women were allowed to run for office. In 1963- Margaret Konantz, Rogers’ daughter, became the first Manitoba woman elected to the House of Commons as the Liberal Candidate in Winnipeg South.  
 
1935 - Rhoda Tenant is elected the first female city council member for the City of Brandon.  
 
1969 Pearl McGonigal is the first woman elected to Winnipeg City Council (initially it was St. James-Assiniboia council). In 1979 She would become the first female Deputy Mayor and EPC member for Winnipeg City Council.  
 
1971 - Jean Folster of Norway House became the first woman Chief in Manitoba. She served for four years.  
 
1984 - Sharon Carstairs became the first woman in Manitoba (only the second in Canada) to lead a major political party.  
 
October 1992 - Susan Thompson was elected the first woman Mayor of Winnipeg  
 
April 29, 1884 The forerunner of Middlechurch Home of Winnipeg opened its doors in Winnipeg as a temporary home for female immigrants, and also as a lying-in or maternity hospital.  
 
December 27 1899 Hilda Blake, 21, is hanged in Brandon for murdering her master’s wife. She is the only woman hanged in Manitoba. For more check here.  
 
April 8, 1927 - Lois Miriam Freeman Wilson, is born in Winnipeg. She was the first woman moderator of the United Church in Canada and the first Canadian to serve as president of the World Council of Churches. She also served as a Senator giving her the unfortunate official title of The Honourable The Very Reverend Senator Lois Wilson  
 
October 18, 1929 women were legally recognized as "persons" under British common law.  
 
1947 - Saint Boniface’s Gabrielle Roy wins her first Governor General's Awards for literature. She would win it again in 1957, and 1977.  
 
1951 Dr. Elinor Black, A Kelvin Grad !, was appointed the Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the U of M becoming the first woman in Canada to head a medical department. In 1960 she became the first woman president of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada.  
 
1952- Women were allowed to sit on juries in Manitoba.  
 
1956 Women were allowed into beverage rooms in Manitoba  
 
1971 - Maternity leave is granted in the Unemployment Insurance Act.  
 
1981- Pearl McGonigal becomes Manitoba’s first female Lieutenant Governor