Article by: Frances Wright
Even before International Women’s Day was established in 1911 in Copenhagen, Denmark, Canadian women were advocating for change and achieving early breakthroughs in women’s rights.
One of the earliest steps toward equality for Canadian women concerned married women’s property rights.
In 1911, thanks to the leadership of two members of the Famous 5 — Emily Murphy and Henrietta Muir Edwards — the Liberal Government of Alberta passed the Married Women’s Protection Act. This enabled wives to receive one-third of a husband’s estate upon his death, no matter what his will said. However, that did not address the disposition of matrimonial property assets if a husband was alive and things went awry.
In 1915, the act was amended giving a wife the right to file a caveat to prevent the sale or mortgage of her home without her knowledge or consent. Finally in 1916, the Dower Act stated that the sale or transfer of the ownership of land, made without the wife’s written consent, was null and void.
Years before that, in the mid-1880s, the campaign for women to have the right to vote and stand for elected office was born. All of the Famous 5 provided superb leadership in this regard. Nellie McClung was also recruited by American suffragists to speak on the topic throughout the United States.
The first act of suffrage happened with Liberal governments in 1916 at the provincial level in Manitoba, followed by Saskatchewan and Alberta, giving white European women the vote. Suffrage on the federal level was led by Conservative Prime Minister Robert Borden and began with enfranchising female relatives of soldiers, as well as nursing sisters working in the Second World War, in 1917. In 1918, all white European women were granted federal franchise. Asian and Indo-Canadians were finally included in 1948, but Indigenous Canadians were only enfranchised in 1960.
Other improvement happened, too, in terms of women being able to attend universities and colleges, enter and practice professions, have bank accounts and achieve many other equalities. Alberta can also take credit for the Famous 5’s international achievement, the Persons Case — a constitutional ruling in 1929 that allowed women to be appointed to the Senate. Incidentally, many of these changes were all made possible by male legislators, so thanks, guys!
Surprisingly, all of these and other advances were achieved without computers, faxes, scanners, phones, social media, cars, planes and other modern conveniences.
We Alberta women have historically been leaders for women’s rights and are now are the healthiest, wealthiest, best educated, most extensively travelled and tech-owning group of women in Canada.
So, what can we accomplish now, to improve women’s rights in areas of mental health, domestic violence, equal pay and other opportunities?
Currently, women earn 87 cents for every dollar a man earns with the same skills and responsibilities. As well, Alberta has the lowest number of women in senior management, on boards or in politics, but we have one of the highest rates of domestic abuse in Canada.
It’s time to pick up the torch! Sorry — pick up your phone! Use your computer, your social media platforms and your devices to significantly improve the lives of other women so that families thrive, businesses flourish and communities succeed.
It’s your turn! Happy International Women’s Day.