In part 1 of "Being Heard," we went from the empowerment of women in the Iroquois [Haudenosaunee] and the Mohawk [Kanien’keha:ka] to the disenfranchisement of Canadian women during the Victorian era.
Now let us continue our study of the history of women voting in Canada.
Being Heard
The struggle for women to achieve their democratic rights and vote in provincial and federal elections took decades. [4]
[T]he suffrage campaign...was led by many first-generation university graduates and female professionals in medicine, teaching and journalism…
Early suffragists were typically white, middle-class women, many of whom believed that suffrage would increase the influence of their class and result in a better country. Many of these suffragists were not inclusive, however, and even advocated against non-white women getting the vote. Nonetheless, there were non-white advocates who fought for woman’s suffrage such as Black abolitionists like Mary Ann Shadd…
Mary Ann Shadd, editor of the 'Provincial Freeman',...used her newspaper as a platform to discuss women’s rights, including the right to vote...
Indigenous women worked locally to improve conditions for their communities. As non-voters, they lobbied band councils, much as suffragists elsewhere pressured other levels of government….
The TWLC [Toronto Women’s Literary Club] was created in 1876-1877 by Emily Howard Stowe, one of Canada’s first female doctors. [5] [It] was the first female suffrage organization in Canada… [T]he name deliberately [hid] the purpose of the organization to deflect harassment. [2] [It was renamed the Toronto Women’s Suffrage Association in 1883.] [Dr. Howard Stowe] and her daughter, Augusta Stowe-Gullen, spearheaded Ontario’s suffrage campaign for 40 years. [5]
Groups sprang up across the country to advocate for women’s equality and their right to vote. [4] Campaigns also called for improved public health, equality in employment and education, social assistance and condemnation of violence. [5] The suffrage movement...was especially motivated and organized on the Canadian Prairies, with Manitoba leading the way… Women’s rights activism grew out of grassroots campaigns that spawned several suffrage groups and a number of dedicated leaders. The earliest women’s rights organizations in the province were formed in Manitoba in the 1890s by women who had come from Iceland. [4]
[In Iceland, unmarried women and widows had gained the right to vote in 1882. In 1894, the Icelandic Women’s Association was founded to fight for married women’s suffrage (or right to vote).] [In Canada, t]he Icelandic Women’s Suffrage Society, called Tilrum (translated to Endeavour), was founded in Winnipeg in 1908, with [journalist and social activist] Margret Benedictsson as its first president.
Margret and her husband, Sigfus Benedictsson, established the monthly magazine Freyja...in 1898...[—] the only women’s suffrage publication in Canada at the time. [6]
Thought for today...
The autumn chill in the late summer breeze is gently lulling me into a lazy, relaxed, dormant state. It gently whispers to me, "There is no need to rush. Relax. Enjoy. Be. You are enough. You are home. Be at peace.
The happiness you seek isn't out there somewhere. It is within you. It is part of you. Embrace it."
And...
as we draw closer to one of my favourite times of the year
14 Canadian Books Longlisted for $100k Giller Prize
