-By Madeline Matcheski
Today, March 8th, is National Women’s day in Canada. It is hard to believe that only 104 years ago, in 1918, suffragettes all over Canada were still fighting for the right to vote in federal elections and up until 1954, Indigenous women couldn’t vote. It’s important to recognize the history and the bravery of these influential women who suffered so we could have basic human rights.
Black women in South-Western Ontario were some of the first to strive for women’s rights. Amelia Freeman Shadd and Mary Bibb planned literary and social clubs in Windsor and Chatham as early as the 1850s. Mary Ann Shadd, the first female publisher and editor of a North-American Newspaper, was a Black woman out of Windsor. She wrote articles for The Provincial Freeman reporting on Black men’s voting rights and the women’s suffrage movement in the United States.
The more well-known movement started in the 1870s however, when a group of educated women led by Dr. Emily Stowe, the first female physician to practise medicine in Canada, and later her daughter, Dr. Augusta Stowe-Gullen, decided to fight against this prejudice. She provided a community to help educate women through the Toronto Women’s Literary Club. TWLC members studied various subjects such as literature, science, music, theatre and other social and civic reform issues. This group was later reformed in 1883 as the Canadian Women’s Suffrage Association to allow for men’s involvement as well.
Owen Sound has its own piece in the history of the women’s movement. In 1874, Mary Doyle of Owen Sound founded the Prohibition Women’s League which advocated for sobriety to protect women from domestic violence, poverty and more. The movement spread in hopes to improve the lives of women all over Ontario under a new name; the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Although the WTCU didn’t originally strive to earn women the right to vote, many of the women broke ranks to support the movement and ensure better living conditions for women.
It was a slow and arduous effort of petitions, meetings and organized movements but the change was being made. The conservative and liberal parties often opposed the movement seeing it as being against God’s plan, and even the National Council of Women of Canada saw it as too controversial until 1910. In 1884, it finally became legal for married women to own property and manage it without the influence of their husbands. Liberal MPP John Waters of Middlesex North supported the cause, introducing nine bills between 1885 and 1893 in favour of women’s suffrage.
With the seriousness of World War I, women turned to war work or peace work in support. Seeing women’s war efforts allowed for a huge turning point and both liberal and conservative parties started siding with the movement. In 1916, Western Canada finally succumbed to the pressure and allowed for women to vote (excluding Indigenous women living on reserves, female prison inmates, and residents of asylums and charitable institutions) followed shortly by Ontario in 1917.
In Grey County alone, there have been several women that should be remembered for their involvement in women’s movements and politics. Alice Clement, mayor of Meaford from 1957-1961 and active member of the WCTU, Marion Calder, mayor of Durham elected in 1960, and Vera Bueglas mayor of Hanover in 1960, all made movements in inspiring other women’s rights activists and made several contributions to their community. A member of the Bluewater Women’s Institute and the first female Warden of Grey County, Lois Urstadt, was elected in 1982 with the quote, “I will do my best to uphold the image of women.” She was followed by Arlene Wright who was made Warden in 2001 and was an active member of the Grey Bruce School Board, Owen Sound Police Services Board, Zonta Club of Owen Sound and many more.
Let’s take this day to remember the fight women have made to be seen as people under the law. Take the time to recognize the misogyny that women still face in everyday life and use this time to lift up the women in your life. Realizing how unequal men and women were under the law up until recently is just one step in our goal of equality.
Sources:
Women's Suffrage in Ontario- The Canadian Encyclopedia
Pearls and Politics: Grey County's Women of Distinction
Photo Credit: Grey Roots Museum
