1. Women and Social Reform
7.5.4 Analyze how some women became more empowered and contributed to improving social conditions
Dr. Carrie Best

2. Organizations (p.242, 243)
Formed organizations (issues: child welfare,public health, working conditions for women, child labour)
WCTU: educated about problems drinking caused, petitioned to limit liquor stores and bars, reforms in working conditions in factories and prisons, campaigned for right to vote (suffrage)

3. Organizations (p.244, 245)
Literary Club: campaigned to get women accepted into colleges & universities, inspected factories, women’s washrooms, got university to admit women, persuaded store owners to provide stools, helped create Ontario Medical College for Women
Women’s Institutes: farm women came together to improve knowledge of child care, healthy eating and hygiene (keep clean to avoid diseases); made friends, became better educated, felt self-confident

4. Voting (p.246, 248, 251)
Suffragist Movement: pushed for women’s right to vote (speeches, protest marches, letters to the editor, petitions, and meetings with government officials); helped by media coverage
Laws: Military Voters Act (1917) gave the vote to women serving in the war; Wartime Elections Act (1917) gave the vote to women with close relatives who were fighting in the war or had been killed in the war

5. NCWC Achievements: (p.255)
Female inspectors for female factory workers
Daycare for the children of women who worked outside the home
Mother’s allowance (started 1920, widowed mother only)
Women on school boards and other local governments
Free libraries
Playgrounds and clubs for children
Home economics and skill classes
Milk programs (resulted in fewer infant deaths)
Clean water supplies in communities
Medical inspections in schools (few had doctors)