Canadian Suffragettes

Extract from Ensemble

The suffrage movement started in Canada in 1876 with the creation of the Toronto Women’s Literacy Club (WLC). This group was established by the first female doctor in Canada, Emily Howard Stowe. It focused on social problems. The group later became the Women’s Suffrage Society (WSS) in 1883. The WSS sought to expand the movement into other Canadian provinces and to rally the forces of other suffragist groups.

The suffragist movement and the suffragettes in Canada and Quebec were encouraged by a wave of social reforms that swept across Canada and North America at the time. These reforms addressed problems that were the direct effect of industrialization and urbanization: poverty, child labour and alcoholism.

Wikipedia extract The Famous Five

The Famous Five were five Canadian women who asked the Supreme Court of Canada to answer the question, Does the word Persons in Section 24 of the British North America Act, 1867, include female persons? They sought to have women legally considered persons so that women could be appointed to the Senate. The petition was filed on August 27, 1927 and on 24 April 1928, Canada's Supreme Court summarized its unanimous decision that women are not such persons. The last line of the judgement reads, Understood to mean Are women eligible for appointment to the Senate of Canada, the question is answered in the negative This judgement was overturned by the British Judicial Committee of the Privy Council on 18 October 1929

Name	Born	Died	Information	Other
Edith Jessie Archibald	15 April 1854	11 May 1936	Edith Jessie Archibald was a Canadian suffragist and writer who led the Maritime Women's Christian Temperance Union (WTCU) and the National Council of Women of Canada . She was designated a Person of National Historic Significance by the Government of Canada in 1997.
Laura Borden	26 November 1861	7 September 1940	Laura Borden served as president of the Local Council of Women of Halifax, for women's right to vote until her resignation in 1901.She was the wife of Sir Robert Laird Borden, the eighth Prime Minister of Canada.
Henrietta Louise Edwards	18 December 1849	10 November 1931	Henrietta Edwards was a Canadian women's rights activist and reformer.She was one of the Famous Five,they were five Canadian women who asked the Supreme Court of Canada to answer the question, "Does the word 'Persons' in Section 24 of the British North America Act, 1867, include female persons.
Louise McKinney	22 September 1868	10 July 1931	Louise McKinney was a Canadian politician and women's rights activist. She was the first woman elected to a legislature in Canada and in the British Empire.She was one of the Famous Five who asked the Supreme Court of Canada to answer the question, "Does the word 'Persons' include female persons?
Helen Letitia Mooney	20 October 1873	1 September 1951	Nellie Letitia Mooney was a Canadian feminist, politician, she was one of five women known as The Famous Five they launched the "Persons Case," contending that women could be "qualified persons" eligible to sit in the Senate.
Emily Jamima Murphy	14 March 1868	17 October 1933	Emily Murphy was a Canadian women's rights activist, jurist, and author. In 1916, she became the first female magistrate in Canada, and in the British Empire, she is one of the Famous Five who ask the question whether women were "persons" under Canadian law
Irene Parlby	9 January 1868	12 July 1965	Irene Parlby was a Canadian women's farm leader, activist and politician.She was one of five women who became known as the famous five who asked the Supreme Court of Canada to answer the question, "Does the word 'Persons' in Section 24 of the British North America Act include female persons
Eliza Ritchie	20 October 1873	1 September 1951	Eliza Ritchie suffragist,scholar, educator, author, aesthete, Philanthropist, and feminist in Nova Scotia, Canada. She was on the executive of the Local Council of Women of Halifax.She also has a stained glass window in St. Paul's Church (Halifax) dedicated to her

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