1. Women in 1920s Canada

2. Key Events 1917 – Some women receive right to vote (Suffrage)
Had to have a relative (Father, Brother, Husband) who was a soldier
1921 – First election where ALL women could vote, Agnes Macphail elected
1929 – “Person’s Case”
1931 – Cairine Wilson appointed first female Senator in Canada

3. Arguments against giving Women the Right to Vote
Politics is too corrupt for women
Allowing women to vote will cause arguments in the home
Women will vote the same way as their husbands
It is not “womanly” to express political opinions
Women are too emotional to vote

4. Agnes Macphail First woman elected to the House of Commons, 1921
Fought for Senior’s pensions and worker’s rights
Also worked at reforming the corrections system in Canada

5. Fashions
Up until this point, women’s clothing had been very conservative.
Some women (mostly young women) began to rebel against old ideas of how they should behave

6. Wore radical new dresses, which came down to just below their knees.
cut their hair in “bobs” or “shingles”.

7. Flappers
- The term “flapper” in the 1920s was used to describe bold young women who dressed and acted in an unconventional manner

9. Attitudes
Many of these “flappers” were also challenging gender stereotypes by going to jazz clubs, smoking, and drinking alcohol.

10. Divorce Laws
At the beginning of the 20s, men had the right to divorce if their wives had an affair.
Women, on the other hand, could not divorce their husband no matter how many affairs he had.
Women also surrendered all their property rights to their husbands when they got married
Many widows were not provided for in their husband’s will

11. In 1925 this law was changed so that women could also ask for divorce in the case of adultery.
In 1930, women would also gain the right to divorce if their husband had abandoned them for over 2 years.

12. Birth Control Forget it!
Birth Control was illegal, as was the selling, advertising or publication of any medicine, drug, or article intended to aid in preventing conception or causing an abortion.
Women like Nellie McClung begin to draw attention to this issue, but it would go unresolved for a long time.

13. Rules for a Female Schoolteacher
You cannot get married or keep company with men.
You must be at home between 8 pm and 6 am unless at a school function
You cannot loiter downtown in ice cream parlours
You cannot smoke or drink any alcohol
You cannot ride in any carriage or automobile with any man except your brothers or father
You cannot dress in bright colours or wear dresses more than 2 inches above the ankle

14. The Famous Five Louise McKinney Emily Murphy Nellie McClung
Irene Parlby
Henrietta Muir Edwards

15. The Persons Case:
The Famous Five were fighting for the right for women to sit in the Canadian Senate
While women now had the vote, they were still not legally deemed “persons” and therefore could not sit on the Senate
The Famous Five sent a petition to Ottawa asking if the word “persons” in the laws included female persons in 1927

16. The Supreme Court decided that, in fact, under Canadian law, women were not persons.
The Five appealed this decision to the Privy Council in London, supported by William Lyon Mackenzie King
The London Court agreed with the Five and ruled that women were included in the term “persons” 1929.

17. Cairine Wilson: The first female Senator. (Elected 1931)