Huntsville Public Library

The first International Women’s Day was launched on March 8, 1911 in Copenhagen by Clara Zetkin, a leader of the Women’s Office for the Social Democratic party in Germany. It has become a global day of celebration connecting all women around the world, inspiring them to achieve their full potential.

It is interesting to note that although New Zealand became the first self-governing nation in the world to give women the vote in 1893, it was not until the federal election of 1921 that Canadian women could vote under universal franchise.

In her book Huntsville With Spirit and Resolve, Susan Pryke describes the women of Huntsville as having “a certain militant streak when it came to issues of family, health, and welfare.”  The Huntsville Women’s Christian Temperance Union had been a force in influencing public opinion in the town since before 1900.  

They were responsible for many acts of charity including in 1903, raising the sum of $300 to purchase a water fountain for “thirsty horses, cattle and dogs,” which was located at the corner of Main and West Streets in front of what is now Trinity United Church. By 1915 the women had developed a zeal for their own cause and formed the Equal Franchise Club to lobby for women’s right to vote.

They succeeded in getting the town council to include a referendum on women’s suffrage in the December 1915 election.  The results were 99 votes in favour and 75 against. This encouraged them to begin directing their lobbying activities toward the provincial government.  Ontario did not grant women the right to vote until 1917.

By 1921 women were given the right to vote federally under universal suffrage and to run for Parliament, but there was still an important issue to be resolved. One little word, persons, in the British North America Act, of 1867, was construed to apply only to men.  Emily Murphy had been appointed the first woman police magistrate in 1916.  On her first day in court, she was challenged by a defense lawyer who argued that since she was not even a “person” under British law, she could not presume to sit in judgment against his client.

So began a movement toward reform, led by the Famous Five – Emily Murphy, Henrietta Muir Edwards, Louise McKinney, Irene Parlby and Nellie McClung. For many years individuals and associations had been calling for the appointment of women to the Senate.  

Until the 1970s it was the Senate that granted divorces, among other things, and it was believed that women should have a voice in such decisions on family matters. However, as women were not considered “qualified persons” they were excluded from appointment. The “persons” argument was being used to challenge women’s right to hold other offices and to participate equally with men in politics and affairs of state.

In 1927 the Famous Five petitioned the government asking the Supreme Court to examine the issue.  Six weeks later the court came to a negative decision. Not to be deterred, the women took their appeal to the Judicial Committee of England’s Privy Council, the highest court of appeal in Canada at the time. On Oct. 18, 1929, the five Lords of the Judicial Committee came to the unanimous conclusion that “the word persons’ in Section 24 includes both the male and female sex,” noting that the exclusion of women from public office was “a relic of days more barbarous than ours.” On Feb. 15, 1930 Canada’s first woman senator, Cairine Wilson, was sworn in.

On Saturday, March 8 the Huntsville Grandmothers to Grandmothers Group will be presenting a special program in the library meeting room from 2 to 4 p.m. in celebration of women.  The Grandmothers to Grandmothers campaign was launched just before International Women’s Day in 2006 by the Stephen Lewis Foundation to raise awareness and mobilize support for Africa’s grandmothers and their struggle to secure a hopeful and healthy future for themselves and their orphaned grandchildren.  

The Huntsville group was formed in October, 2006 after a volunteer speaker from the foundation gave a talk at Trinity Church. Two films will be shown, A Generation of Orphans and Grandmothers: the Unsung Heroes of Africa. All are welcome.