Herstory
"I want for myself what I want for other women, absolute equality. After that is secured, men and women can take turns at being angels."
-- Agnes Macphail, first woman member of Canada's House of Commons
In 1992, the federal government of Canada declared October as Canadian Women's History Month in response to a letter-writing campaign initiated by a Victoria, BC woman, Lyn Gough. October was chosen because it is the month in which Canadian women official became "persons" under the law, eligible for appointment to the Canadian Senate.
It is hoped that by having one month of the year devoted to women's history, we can discover the women who helped shape our nation, such as Nellie McClung, who was involved in two major constitutional changes - women's suffrage and the campaign to have women declared persons. The Person's Case, as it is known, involved four other women, all living in Alberta at that time.
Led by Emily Murphy, the first woman in the British Commonwealth to be appointed a magistrate, Nellie McClung, Louise McKinney, Irene Parlby and Henrietta Edwards challenged the Supreme Court of Canada to assert that women were persons. The women lost. They then appealed to the British Privy Council. The Council described the exclusion of women as "a relic of days more barbarous than ours", and overturned the Canadian decision.
On October 18, 1929, Canadian Women became persons at last.
Firsts for BC and Canadian Women
- 1885 First Women's Suffrage petition presented to the BC Legislature
- 1895 First woman school trustee for Victoria and for BC, Maria Grant
- 1912 First woman lawyer in BC, Mabel French
- 1917 BC women gain the vote in provincial elections (if eligible)
- 1917 First female judge in BC, Helen Gregory MacGill (Juvenile Court)
- 1918 BC's first female Member of the Legislative Assembly, Mary Ellen Smith
- 1918 Women gain the vote in federal elections
- 1921 First woman elected tot the Canadian House of Commons, Agnes Macphail
- 1921 First female cabinet minister in B.C., Canada and the British Commonwealth: Mary Ellen Smith
- 1929 The Persons Case: Women are deemed persons and can sit in the Canadian Senate after the British Privy Council reverses a Supreme Court of Canada decision. Successful petitioners were Nellie McClung, Emily Murphy, Louise McKinney, Irene Parlby and Henrietta Muir Edwards.
- 1930 First woman appointed to the Senate, Cairine Wilson
- 1949 First woman speaker of a provincial legislature and first in the British Commonwealth, Nancy Hodges of Victoria
- 1953 First woman senator from BC, Nancy Hodges
- 1957 First woman federal cabinet minister, Ellen Fairclough of Ontario
- 1965 B.C.'s first woman elected to the House of Commons, Grace MacInnis
- 1972 First black woman elected as a B.C. MLA, Rosemary Brown
- 1983 First woman, Joy Langan, elected as a Vice-President of the BC Federation of Labour
- 1989 Angela Schira became the first woman elected to one of the two top offices of the BC Federation of Labour, as the full-time Secretary-Treasurer
- 1991 First woman provincial premier in Canada, B.C.'s Rita Johnson
- 1991 BC NDP government instituted the first stand-alone Ministry of Women's Equality in Canada, with Surrey MLA Penny Priddy as its first Minister
- 1993 First female Canadian Prime Minister, Kim Campbell of Vancouver Island
- 1999 First female Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, Beverly McLachlin
- 2001 First female Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia, The Hon. Iona Campagnolo
(Women's History Month information compiled by Canadian Women's History Month Committee.)
