Artifact #7: The Famous Five

Citation: Library and Archives Canada, Prime Minister King poses with Nellie McClung, 2 senators, and "Famous Five" family members in front of the tablet unveiled commemorating the "Women as Persons" ruling.http://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.redirect?app=fonandcol&id=3193154&lang=fra

Label:

The Famous Five was a group of extraordinary women, the group was led by Judge Emily Murphy. It also included  Henrietta Edwards, Nellie McClung, Louise McKinney, and Irene Parlby. Each girl was significant in their own right as one was a police magistrate, another a legal expert who founded the National Council for Women, and three served as Members of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. Together, the five women had many years of active work in various campaigns for women’s rights dating back to the 1880s and 1890s. Throughout fighting for the rights of women they technically weren't even deemed as “persons” due to the British and North American Acts. It wasn't until 1927 that these women brought to the Supreme Court of Canada, that women were not deemed to be “persons”, which banned them from the Senate and House of Commons. They fought to prove their case and achieved victory in 1929, finally allowing women to be acknowledged as people. These women have come to represent an entire generation of political activism and feminism; becoming the faces of the women’s suffrage movement in Canada.

Bibliography:

Cavanaugh, Catherine. “Famous Five.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, 1 June 2006, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/famous-5.

Strong-Boag, Veronica. “Women’s Suffrage in Canada.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, 21 June 2016, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/suffrage.

Famou5, www.famous5.ca/the-famous-five-women. Accessed 30 Nov. 2024.