- by Kimberley Love
Happy International Women's Day!
On this day in 1922 – exactly 99 years ago – a determined young woman from South Grey took her seat for the first time in the Parliament of Canada.
By a stroke of remarkable coincidence, that day was already marked in many countries as International Women’s Day. In the early, tumultuous years of the 1900s, women were launching campaigns around the worldfor such basics as reasonable pay, shorter working hours, and – especially - the right to vote. By 1913, several countries were already marking a day to draw attention to the demands of women. But another issue quickly rose to the forefront and drew together women from around the world. The first widely recognized International Women’s Day was in 1914: with women around the world campaigning for peace… as the Great War was erupting around them.
It was fitting, then, that on that International Women’s Day in 1922, Agnes Macphail would find her place as the first woman ever to sit as a Member in the Canadian House of Commons.
In finding herself in the House, Agnes took a road that had never been traveled. Agnes came from a modest farm family, and although she was an excellent student, she had to fight at age 14 to persuade her parents to let her go to high school in Owen Sound. Secondary school was considered optional – and a luxury: especially for rural girls.
Throughout her twenties, as a young local teacher, Agnes became an outspoken advocate for farmers, and it was the men in the community who urged her to put her name forward as a candidate for election.
The General Election of 1921 was the first election in which women had the right to vote. Of the four women that ran as candidates in that election – generally for small, progressive parties – only Agnes was elected. She won by a landslide. It was only one small riding in an unknown corner of Ontario, but it was a political cataclysm.
As she walked through the halls of the parliament buildings, Agnes recalled thinking of the many footsteps of women that would follow her. As it turned out, however, Agnes was the lone woman in the House for fourteen years.
The flood of women, in fact, never materialized. Today, women represent 52% of the Canadian population, but just 29% of the MPs in the House: a high water mark for women. We rank a dismal 61 out of 192 countries for representation of women in government: right behind Kazakhstan (but ahead of the US, who are tied at 76 on the list).
I grew up on farm in south Proton: just a few farms from the birthplace of Agnes Macphail. I was aware of this famous Proton girl from a very young age. We knew that Agnes had done something extraordinary for women and girls like my sisters and me. Women could vote. Women could be politicians.
On this International Women’s Day, it’s worth remembering the fight of women for the right to vote - and the perseverance and strength of Agnes Macphail: who insisted on her own right to education, and her right to represent her community in the House of Commons. (Her party briefly tried to get her to stand down… after she had won the nomination.)
And we need to remember the things that Agnes stood for. Our first woman member rose to prominence as an articulate and passionate voice for farmers: especially the small farmers who comprised the communities in which she was raised. But once in Parliament, Agnes became a powerful and formidable advocate for other injustices that she saw around her. She helped to craft the Old Age Pension Act. She marched headlong into the battle for better conditions and pay for the coal miners in Nova Scotia. She supported countless farm cooperatives. She waged her own personal war on the state of Canada’s penitentiaries and championed prison reforms designed to rehabilitate - not punish - prisoners. She helped to form the Elizabeth Fry Society. She was compassionate, and she was fierce in her defense of those whom society would discard.
Some of these initiatives – the right to vote, to be treated equally, to age with dignity, to negotiate fairly, to judge humanely – were the fights of the women who came before us.
Today we honour all the women who have taken up the mantle, and who keep up the fight. In more than a century of International Women’s Day, we’ve come a long way, baby. But we haven’t come nearly far enough.
