Women’s Rights in Canada
Developed by Amy Bridges
Table of Contents:
Identifying desired results
Essential question
Course information
Curriculum Expectations Addressed
Rationale
1
1
1
1
2
Evidence of Learning
Diagnostic Assessment
Formative Assessments
Culminating Assessment
3
3
4
6
Learning Experiences: Appendices
1. Women’s Role in Society Post WWI
2. The Famous 5 (completed lesson plan)
a. Resources for lesson
3. Heroes and Villains – contextualizing suffrage
4. Person’s Case
5. The progression of Women’s Rights
Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C
Appendix D
Appendix E
1
Women’s Rights in Canada
Course: Canadian History since WWI (CHC2D)
Unit: Women’s Rights in Canada
Level: Grade 10 Academic
Essential Question:
How has the advancement of women’s rights in Canada shaped contemporary Canadian
society?
Overall Expectations Addressed:
Citizenship and Heritage:
 Analyze the contributions of various social and political movements in Canada
since 1914.
 Assess how individual Canadians have contributed to the development of
Canada and the country’s emerging sense of identity.
Social, Economic, and Political Structures
 Analyze the changing responses of the federal and provincial governments to
social and economic pressure since 1914.
Methods of Historical Inquiry and Communication
 Interpret and analyze information gathered through research, employing
concepts and approaches appropriate to historical inquiry.
 Communicate the results of historical inquiries, using appropriate terms and
concepts and a variety of forms of communication.
Specific Expectations Addressed:
Citizenship and Heritage:
 Analyze the impact of the women’s movement in Canada since 1914.
 Assess the contribution of selected individuals to the development of Canadian
identity since 1914.
Methods of Historical Inquiry and Communication
 Analyze information, employing concepts and theories appropriate to historical
inquiry.
 Draw conclusions and make reasoned generalizations… on the basis of relevant and
sufficient supporting evidence.
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Rationale:
The essential question for this unit addresses the enduring understandings that
students should be imparting from the unit. For this unit, the specific enduring
understanding that students should discern is the analysis of the impact of the women’s
movement in Canada since 1914, which directly correlates to the overall curriculum
expectation that students analyze the contributions of various social and political
movements in Canada since 1914.
The question is effective because it is open-ended and can be regarded through
a variety of lenses for a more complex understanding of both contemporary Canadian
society and the historical realities of Canada. Furthermore, the question implores
students to find links between past and present, analyzing where contemporary issues
and thoughts originate in our past; it encourages historical thinking, which is vital to the
study of history.
The question is centered around the issue and impact of the extension of human
rights, which has enduring relevance for citizens of Canada. It draws attention to the
ways in which social change is enacted through time, via the influence of individuals and
collectives, which gives students a historical perspective on how to mobilize on social
justice issues in the present.
Analyze the impact of the women’s movement
in Canada since 1914.
Enduring
understanding
Assess how individual Canadians have
contributed to the development of Canada.
Analyze the changing responses of the
federal and provincial governments to social
and economic pressure.
Important
Familiar
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Evidence of Learning
Diagnostic Assessment:
Slide show round robin:
 At the beginning of the first class of the unit, students will be presented with
questions and images intended to pique their curiosity about the subject
matter. The images and questions may be discrepant or counter-intuitive.
Students will be asked to answer questions and ask questions. Their answers
will inform the teacher about what subjects need to be covered further and
what concepts and knowledge is already grasped by students.
This
assessment can occur in either written or oral form.
Rationale:
This assessment strategy informally assesses student learning to date. It is an
engaging opening for students and gives them a chance to showcase their particular
knowledge on a subject without having them lose interest in the subject through a more
formal testing situation. The situation allows for play and encourages curiosity in the
subject at hand. This strategy would also identify any students in the class with a
passion for the subject and/or a personal connection to the material before beginning.
This diagnostic assessment will introduce the concepts that students will need to
become familiar with to answer the essential questions for the unit.
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Formative Assessments:
Group Super Hero Presentations
 Groups will present their representations of one of the famous 5 as a super hero.
\\\\
Must include: their super hero name, super powers, weaknesses, arch-nemesis,
and slogan. Students must also discuss why this superhero is vital to society.
Rationale:
The first form of formative assessment used in the unit, aside from
ongoing observation and feedback provided to the students, will be occur through
the task of creating superhero depictions of the Famous 5. This assignment will be
assessment for learning because the assessment will determine how well students
are grasping who these women were, what they were accomplishing and how
their activism was significant. The assignment helps students to answer the
essential question for the unit by nurturing in them the knowledge of how
Canadian society was changed by the women’s movement. The task directly links
to the curriculum expectations to:
 Assess how individual Canadians have contributed to the
development of Canada.
 Communicate the results of historical inquiries, using appropriate
terms and concepts and a variety of forms of communication.
The activity will be presented informally and the students will be assessed and given
feedback based on how well they are grasping the overall content. No marks will be
assigned, but comments regarding their work’s strengths, areas for improvement, and
content awareness will be given to the students to guide the teacher and learners to
bridge any gaps in understanding.
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Critical Historical Thinking Written Assignment:
 Students will be asked to analyze the politics of Emily Murphy, and create an
argument (based on evidence and criteria) as to whether she was a human
rights hero or villain in Canadian history.
Rationale:
The second assessment will be more formal. Students will be given information
and asked to evaluate a question based on a set of criteria and evidence. The students
must employ historical perspective and critical thinking to determine the answer that
they provide; they then must justify this answer using historical evidence. The format
will be a written product of a few paragraphs. This assessment tool directly links to the
curriculum expectations for students to:
 Draw conclusions and make reasoned generalizations… on the basis of
relevant and sufficient supporting evidence.
 Interpret and analyze information gathered through research,
employing concepts and approaches appropriate to historical inquiry.
 Communicate the results of historical inquiries, using appropriate terms
and concepts and a variety of forms of communication.
 Assess how individual Canadians have contributed to the development
of Canada
The reading required to make judgments in the assignment furthers the students
understanding of Canadian society at the time that the women’s movement was
advocating for the advancement of human rights. This gives them perspective to be able
to answer the essential question for the unit as well as answer to answer the question
posed in the assignment. This assessment is designed as a learning activity that will
coincidentally provide the teacher with information as to how well students comprehend
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the social climate at the time of the women’s movement. The assignment also
problematizes the idea of putting value judgments on people in history outside of their
historical context. The assignment stresses the need to contextualize ideologies in
history; this will also enable students to see how lasting social change can be enacted
by challenging social ideologies.
Culminating Task:
Encounters through Time:
 Students will choose an influential female Canadian. This person has to have
made a positive contribution to Canadian or global society. Students will then
write a movie or graphic novel depicting a conversation between their chosen
Canadian and one of the Famous 5. This hypothetical conversation has to
answer the following questions:
What did your historical figure accomplish?
How has Canadian Society changed since the suffragist’s time?
How did the suffragist’s work influence Canadian Society?
How were your historical figure’s accomplishments made possible by
this suffragist’s work?
 How were your historical figure’s accomplishments made possible by
the women’s movement of which your suffragist was a part?




Rationale:
This assignment directly answers the essential question of the unit: ‘How has the
advancement of women’s rights in Canada shaped contemporary Canadian society?’
Students are asked to examine how much heritage Canadians inherited from the
women’s movement. By giving students the opportunity to choose any influential
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Canadian, students will demonstrate knowledge of how the women’s movement
impacted different areas of Canadian society. By asking students to identify how the
women’s movement impacted later achievements in Canadian history, they will be able
to determine the impact of the movement throughout history, making rich connections
between what is possible today and why.
The skills involved in performing this assignment correlate to the curriculum’s
overall expectations in the strand of Historical Inquiry and Practice to:
 Interpret and analyze information gathered through research,
employing concepts and approaches appropriate to historical inquiry.
 Communicate the results of historical inquiries, using appropriate terms
and concepts and a variety of forms of communication.
The knowledge and understanding that will be assessed through this rich performance
task address the curriculum expectations to:
 Analyze the contributions of various social and political movements in
Canada since 1914.
 Assess how individual Canadians have contributed to the development
of Canada.
Particularly the assignment assesses student’s comprehension of how the women’s
movement impacted Canada and created the society we have today, which is the
enduring understanding that students are hoped to impart from this unit.
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Appendix A
Title: Women in Society Post WWI
Unit: Women’s Rights in Canada
Subject/Course: CHC2D Canadian History since WWI
Grades: 10 Academic_
Time: 75 minutes
Lesson Description
Students will be investigating the role of Women in Society since WWI. Students will examine the rights and
responsibilities of women in society and how those roles were changing because of women’s contributions to the war
effort. They will examine some of the causes of the social movement advancing women’s rights in society.
This helps to answer the essential question for the unit by providing context to determine what kinds of social changes
occurred during this period. Students will be able to identify how the women's movement shaped Canada, by
discovering how soceity was arrange before the mobilization of the Women’s Movement in Canada.
Stage 1: Desired Results
Big Ideas/Essential Question for the Lesson
 What was the role of women in Canadian society after WWI; why was this role no longer sufficient for women
in Canada?
Ontario Curricular Overall Expectation
 Analyze the contributions of various social and political movements in Canada since 1914.
 Assess how individual Canadians have contributed to the development of Canada.
Ontario Curricular Specific Expectation
 Analyze the impact of the women’s movement in Canada since 1914.
 Assess the contribution of selected individuals to the development of Canadian identity since 1914.
Lesson Goals
By the end of the lesson students will:
 Understand the social conception of the role of women before WWI and during.
 Empathize with the idea of being held accountable by a decision without having agency in making the decision.
Skills:
 Questioning
 Reflection
 Discussion.
Background Knowledge:
 Students will have completed the unit on World War I and will have studied the role of women on the home
front and abroad.
Stage 2: Planning learning experience and instruction
Student Groupings
•
•
Individual work
Groups of 4
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Instructional Strategies
•
•
•
•
Group discussion
Lecture
Simulation Individual work
Collaborative learning
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Materials
• Computer and projector
Considerations
I
f
•
Stage 3: Learning experience and instruction
Motivational Hook (10 MINS.): Slide show round robin
 Students will view a slide show with trivia questions and incongruent images. Students will answer the
questions on the slide show and pose questions about the discrepant images. Student answers and reflections
will demonstrate to the teacher the extent of students’ prior knowledge on the subject of women’s rights in
Canada.
The slide show will be interactive and high energy, as the function of the slideshow is both diagnostic
assessment and engagement.
Open (10 MINS): Class election
 Select students will be given a voter card to indicate their eligibility to vote in a class election. The results of
which will determine how students are going to be ‘graded’ for their participation in class today. The issue will be
framed in such a way that the class is a democracy, therefore, students should have some input into how they
are going to demonstrate their learning.
Students who are given the right to vote will also be given handouts with two assignments on them. One
assignment is to have students sing a song about voting and why it is “awesome”. The other assignment is to
create a short skit in pairs about the delights of voting.
The teacher will organize the voting procedure and the winning task will be incorporated into the student’s work
for the class.
Body (45 MINS): Who gets to vote?
 Lecture (20 Minutes)
Students will learn about the role of women in pre WWI society and how those roles were being challenged prior
to and during WWI. There will be information about women mobilizing in the workforce and in the war effort.
The changing role of women will be examined.
Students will be shown a short clip from the CBC’s archives regarding women prior to the vote. The narrator is
Beatrice Brigden, who was at Nellie McClung’s Mock parliament, discussing the social conception of women prior
to suffrage: http://archives.cbc.ca/politics/rights_freedoms/topics/1450/ (CBC Digital Archives. 2010)
 Group Work (25 Minutes): Students should then get into groups of 4 wherein they will prepare their skits/songs
about the privilege of voting. They will present their work to the class the following day.
Close (10 MINS)
 Was it fair? Have the students discuss how it felt to be held responsible for the decisions of others.
 Should voting be a privilege, right, or responsibility?
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Link to Future Lessons
 Students will be presenting their skits/songs the following week. The next lesson will introduce the concepts of
suffrage.
Assessment
 Diagnostic assessment will be made regarding the student’s previous knowledge on this topic.
 The teacher will observe and give feedback to students as they work in groups.
 Diagnostic assessment can also be made during the class discussion.
Reflective notes:
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Appendix B
Subject/Course: CHC2D Canadian History since WWI
Title: The Famous 5
Grades: 10 Academic_
Unit: Women’s Rights in Canada
Time: 150 minutes (2 Classes)
Lesson Description
Students are going to be introduced to activists in Canadian History who sought to enfranchise women and extend their
rights within society.
Students will be able to use this lesson as a background for answering the essential question of the unit, by
comprehending how the women’s movement occurred, thereby helping them to answer how the women’s movement
influenced Canadian history and culture. This lesson also begins the study of how the women’s movement contributed
to Canadian Society, which is the enduring understanding that students should be taking from this unit.
Stage 1: Desired Results
Big Ideas/Essential Question for the Lesson
 Who were the Famous 5 and what did they accomplish?
Ontario Curricular Overall Expectation
 Analyze the contributions of various social and political movements in Canada since 1914.
 Assess how individual Canadians have contributed to the development of Canada and the country’s
emerging sense of identity.
 Analyze the changing responses of the federal and provincial governments to social and economic
pressure since 1914.
 Communicate the results of historical inquiries, using appropriate terms and concepts and a variety of
forms of communication.
Ontario Curricular Specific Expectation




Analyze the impact of the women’s movement in Canada since 1914.
Assess the contribution of selected individuals to the development of Canadian identity since 1914.
Analyze information, employing concepts and theories appropriate to historical inquiry.
Draw conclusions and make reasoned generalizations… on the basis of relevant and sufficient supporting
evidence.
Lesson Goals
By the end of the lesson students will:
 Know who the Famous 5 are and be able to identify what they achieved.
 Understand the significance of these women and their activism.
 Understand that the work of the Famous 5 was emblematic of the work of the Women’s Movement, but that
there was a whole movement of people involved and not just 5 heroic women advancing women’s rights.
Skills:
 Have practices analyzing texts and pulling out relevant information to draw conclusions in historical research.
Background Knowledge:
 Students have studied the social conception of women for this period. They are also aware that suffrage was
being advanced prior to WWI.
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Stage 2: Planning learning experience and instruction
Student Groupings
•
•
Groups of 3
Groups of 5
Materials
• Paper, art supplies
Instructional Strategies
•
•
Collaborative learning
Jigsaw Collaborative learning.
Considerations
I
f
Accommodations
 Students within groups will take on roles that accommodate their strengths. Their weaknesses can be aided by
peer support.
Stage 3: Learning experience and instruction
Motivational Hook (5 MINS.): Presentations
 Students will watch a clip from Mary Poppins, the song “VOTES FOR WOMEN!”
Open (20 MINS): Presentations
 Students will present their skit or song about the value of voting.
Body ( MINS): The Famous 5
 (50 Minutes) Group Investigations
Play the beginning of “I need a Hero” By Bonnie Tyler and post this challenge on the board:
VOTES FOR WOMEN!! There is a movement afoot to extend the right to vote to women…
Who are the heroes that can bring EQUAL RIGHTS TO WOMEN?!?!?!
Students will be provided with information packages. They will organize themselves into groups of 3 and
each team member will have particular instructions. Their task is to create a super hero character based
on one of the Famous 5. Must include: their super hero name, super powers, weaknesses, arch-nemesis,
and slogan. Students must also discuss why this superhero is vital to Canadian society.
End of day one… Beginning day two
 (20 Minutes) Groups will present their super heroes to the class.
 (50 Minutes) Jigsaw sharing of Superheroes
 Students will reorganize into groups of five. One of the Famous 5 should be in each group. The
students will look at the characteristics of their newly formed WOMEN’S JUSTICE LEAGUE!!!

In their groups, the WOMEN’S JUSTICE LEAGUE will design a comic strip that illustrates the
achievements of their historical counterparts. There should be an opening strip where the WOMEN’S
JUSTICE LEAGUE is shown together and then each hero should have its own strip.
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Close (5 MINS):
 Listen to the radio minute about Nellie McClung: http://www.histori.ca/minutes/minute.do?id=13558
(Historica Dominion Institute. 2005)
 Ask students to consider what Canada would be like today if Canada hadn’t had its Women’s Justice
League.
Link to Future Lessons
 Students will be building on the idea of heroism in the following lesson, where the idea will be contextualized.
Assessment
 The activity will be presented informally and the students will be assessed and given feedback based on how
well they are grasping the overall content. No marks will be assigned, but comments regarding their work’s
strengths, areas for improvement, and content awareness will be given to the students to guide the teacher
and learners to bridge any gaps in understanding.
Reflective notes:
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Emily Murphy
1868-1933
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Born in Cookstown, Ontario in 1868, Emily Ferguson Murphy was the third of six children
of Isaac Ferguson, a wealthy landowner and businessman. Her maternal grandfather,
Ogle R. Gowan was a newspaper owner and politician who had founded a local branch of
the Orange Order in 1830. Emily grew up in a household where lively discussions of law
and political events were frequent dinner conversations. Her uncles included a Supreme
Court justice and a senator. One of her brothers became a lawyer and another, a
member of the Supreme Court. Emily was sent to Bishop Strachan School, an exclusive
Anglican girls' private school in Toronto and, through a friend there, she met Arthur
Murphy, a theology student several years her senior.
In 1887, Emily married Arthur Murphy an Anglican minister, and they moved west. Emily
was a natural leader and had a strong interest in the protection of women and children.
The experience of an Alberta woman, who, after years of hard work supporting the family
homestead was left with nothing when her husband decided to sell the farm, motivated
Emily to study the legal implications of this injustice. Her work for women's rights was
strongly supported and encouraged by many rural women, and after several setbacks,
she pressured the Alberta government into passing the Dower Act in 1911. This Act
protected a wife's right to a one-third share of her husband's property.
Emily Ferguson Murphy actively organized women; she founded the Federated Women's
Institute for rural women and later became a member of the Equal Franchise League,
where she worked with activist Nellie McClung to obtain the vote for women.
Her dedication to the protection of women and children frequently brought Emily Murphy
before the courts which was unusual for a woman in the early part of the 20th century.
Despite facing disdain and ridicule from men, she was appointed the police magistrate for
the city of Edmonton in 1916, becoming the first woman magistrate in the British Empire.
In the courts, she was frequently exposed to the evils of drugs and narcotics, resulting in
her writing copious articles advocating changes to the laws. These articles were published
in 1922 as The Black Candle, under her pen name, Janey Canuck. Her writings led to
legislation governing narcotics that was not changed until the 1960s.
A member of what is now known as the "Famous Five" (together with Irene Parlby,
Louise McKinney, Nellie McClung, Henrietta Muir Edwards) carried the Persons Case to
the Privy Council in England where, on October 18, 1929, the decision was handed down
that women were persons qualified to become members of the Senate of Canada. Emily
Murphy was still involved in social activism and research when she died in 1933.
(Library and Archives Canada. September 16, 2010)
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Henrietta Muir Edwards
1849-1931
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Henrietta Muir Edwards, a modern woman, used her determination, perseverance and
dedication to help improve the plight of the women of her time. Throughout her career,
her concerns were transformed into direct involvement in women's rights.
Born in Montreal in 1849, in her early years Henrietta Louise Muir developed an interest
in women helping women. Raised in an affluent, cultured and religious family, Henrietta
joined the women's movement, becoming actively involved in different religious
organizations and coming face-to-face with the injustices of old traditions, where the
exclusion of women was widely accepted. In Canada, the United States and Europe, she
pursued studies in the field of arts, which strengthened her determination to ensure
recognition for women in activities to which little consideration had previously been
given.
Her involvement in women's causes took root in Montreal, where, in 1875, she and her
sister Amélia founded the Working Girls' Association (the precursor to the YWCA). During
the same era, she launched the first Canadian magazine for working women, aptly
entitled Working Woman of Canada, which she and her sister edited. She financed the
magazine with the proceeds from her artwork, which consisted of paintings and
miniatures. Following her marriage to Dr. Oliver C. Edwards and the birth of their three
children, the Edwards family moved to Saskatchewan. There, Henrietta discovered her
true passion for women's rights, and became even more involved in feminist
organizations.
In 1893, Henrietta Muir Edwards, together with Lady Aberdeen, founded the National
Council of Women, and for nearly 35 years served as chair for Laws Governing Women
and Children. Also in collaboration with Lady Aberdeen, she founded the Victorian Order
of Nurses and was appointed chair of the Provincial Council of Alberta, serving in this
capacity for many years. Throughout these experiences, Henrietta Muir Edwards
championed many of the accomplishments of different feminist organizations and was an
avid supporter of equal grounds for divorce, reform of the prison system, and allowances
for women. Her major contribution to the review of provincial and federal laws relating to
women earned her a reputation for knowing more about laws affecting women than even
the chief justice of Canada.
In 1927, she joined forces with Emily Murphy, Nellie McClung, Louise McKinney and Irene
Parlby to sign a petition requesting that the Supreme Court of Canada reinterpret the law
concerning the term "person" in the British North America Act. It was not until October
18, 1929, after taking their cause to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in
London, that a reversal of the Supreme Court decision granted Canadian women the right
to be appointed to the Senate. By joining the "Famous Five", Henrietta Muir Edwards
brought to the cause of "women not officially recognized" her determination, extensive
knowledge of the Canadian legal system and the prestige of having fought so many
battles aimed at re-defining the position of women in Canadian society.
(Library and Archives Canada. September 16, 2010)
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Irene Parlby
1868-1965
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Irene Parlby was born in England in 1868, the eldest child of a British Army Colonel.
Because of her father's profession, she lived in India for part of her childhood and later in
Ireland. Although encouraged by her father to become a doctor, Irene was more
interested in acting or writing. She travelled to various parts of Europe and came to
Canada in 1897 when a family friend who had settled in what is now Central Alberta
invited Irene to come for an extended visit. Irene found the frontier life an exciting
change from the restrictions of Victorian English society. In Canada, she met and married
Walter Parlby, an Oxford-educated Englishman who had come to Canada to become a
farmer. He and Irene became the first settlers near the town of Alix and, in 1899, their
son Humphrey was born.
The ranching life to which Irene and her husband became accustomed, changed rapidly
with the arrival of waves of immigrants and the railway. In 1905, Alberta became a
province and, in 1909, Walter Parlby became the president of the Alix local of the United
Farmers of Alberta (UFA), an organization dedicated to improving agricultural prices,
markets, transportation and legislation. From 1916 to 1919, Irene was president of the
United Farm Women of Alberta. In that capacity, she worked for the improvement of
public health and the establishment of municipal hospitals and travelling medical and
dental clinics. In 1921, she was elected to the provincial legislature as a member of the
UFA and appointed Minister without Portfolio in the new UFA government. The second
woman in Canada to become a provincial cabinet minister, Irene studied international
examples of education systems for rural areas and supported all programs which would
benefit the welfare of women and children.
Despite the presence of many competent and successful women in public life in Alberta,
their legal right to hold these positions was challenged based on section 24 of the British
North America Act which stated that women were not "persons" with rights and
privileges. In 1921, the Alberta Supreme Court decided that women were qualified to
hold public office but three Canadian Prime Ministers declined to name a woman to the
Senate and thereby settle the same matter federally. Emily Murphy, Henrietta Edwards,
Nellie McClung, Louise McKinney and Irene Parlby became the five interested persons
required by law to take the question to the Supreme Court of Canada in 1927 and then
on to the Privy Council in England. The decision that women were persons eligible to be
named to the Senate of Canada was handed down on October 18, 1929.
Irene remained in the Alberta Cabinet until 1935 but also represented Canada at
international gatherings of women's groups. In 1930, she travelled to Geneva as one of
three Canadian delegates to the Assembly of the League of Nations and in 1935, became
the first woman to receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Alberta. She
retired from politics in the same year but continued to be in demand as a speaker both in
person and on the radio. She died in 1965, at the age of 97. Throughout her long political
career, Irene Parlby was an idealistic and eloquent advocate for the betterment of rural
Canadian women and children.
(Library and Archives Canada. September 16, 2010)
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Louise McKinney
1868-1931
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Louise McKinney attended normal school in Ottawa and taught for seven years in Ontario
and then in North Dakota prior to moving with her husband, in 1903, to a homestead
near Claresholm, Northwest Territories (later Alberta).
While in North Dakota, she became involved in the Women's Christian Temperance Union
(W.C.T.U.). In Claresholm, she founded a local chapter and subsequently served for over
20 years in a prominent role as an officer at the local, provincial, and national levels. Her
participation culminated in 1931 when she became acting president of the national
organization and vice-president of the world organization. She particularly championed
the cause of temperance education in schools and throughout her service, she travelled
to conventions held in America and in Europe.
As a leader, activist and organizer, she contributed to social reform and education
through her long involvement in the W.C.T.U., the Imperial Order Daughters of the
Empire (I.O.D.E.) and the Methodist church. As a supporter of church union, she was the
only woman to sign the Basis of Union of the United Church of Canada in 1925.
In the Alberta General Election of 1917, she was nominated as a Non-Partisan League (an
agrarian movement) candidate, running and winning on a prohibition ticket. With Roberta
MacAdams (also elected in Alberta in 1917), she shares the distinction of being the first
female elected to a legislature in the British Empire, but she was sworn in first and so
took her legislative seat first. After being defeated in 1921, she did not run again.
By all accounts an excellent legislator and public speaker, in public service she fought for
laws to aid immigrants, widows, separated women and other parts of society she also
fought for stricter liquor control laws. She was chosen as the second person to sign the
petition for the judicial appeal (known as the "Persons Case"), after Emily Murphy, which
ultimately gave women the right to sit in the Canadian Senate.
Amongst other remembrances, the name of this Alberta pioneer settler, suffragette,
prohibitionist and legislator has been honoured with an Alberta Post-secondary
Scholarship as well as on a plaque (located at the entrance to the Canadian Senate)
which is dedicated to the "Famous Five" Alberta women connected with the "Persons
Case".
(Library and Archives Canada. September 16, 2010)
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Nellie McClung
1873-1951
Nellie McClung was born in 1873 in Ontario, but her family moved to Manitoba in 1880 as
pioneer homesteaders. She was a pioneer teacher, author, suffragist, social reformer,
lecturer and legislator who lived in the West (Manitou, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and
Victoria) until her death in 1951.
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A well-rounded and capable woman, her various careers cannot be described separately,
as her teaching, writing and public speaking abilities all fueled her desire to improve the
rights of Canadian women. This desire, combined with her true activist nature, Christian
faith and sense of duty, meshed perfectly with the social and moral reform movements
arising in the West in the early 1900s and produced one of Canada's great social
activists. Rural life, the plight of immigrants, conditions in cities and factories, the
movements for prohibition and women's suffrage, World War I, the Depression and World
War II provided the historical context for Nellie, both as a writer and a social reformer.
Although some call her a crusader, it is said that she was a practical and realistic leader
who put words into political action.
While a young mother in Manitou, she started working with the Women's Christian
Temperance Union (WCTU). She founded many organizations: the Winnipeg Political
Equality League, the Federated Women's Institutes of Canada and the Women's Institute
of Edmonton, for which she was also the first president. She was also active in, among
others, the Canadian Authors Association, the Canadian Women's Press Club, the
Methodist Church of Canada and the Calgary Women's Literary Club.
Although she was an advocate of a broad range of issues, her successful leadership was
applied to her constant causes: women's suffrage and prohibition. She started public
speaking by giving readings (called recitals), as an author. However, she soon developed
into a lecturer, accepting speaking engagements on suffrage and temperance. She was a
prominent speaker for the Liberal Party in the Manitoba provincial elections of 1914 and
1915. Her effort was rewarded in 1916 when Manitoba became the first province to give
women the right to vote and to run for public office. After moving to Edmonton, she
continued the campaign for suffrage in Alberta. In 1916, the fight was won at the federal
level. She was one of "Famous Five" (Irene Parlby, Henrietta Muir Edwards, Emily Murphy
and Louise McKinney) who, in 1927, submitted a petition for an interpretation of the word
"Person" in section 24 of the British North America Act, 1867. The decision on October
18, 1929, (Persons Case) found that "Person" includes female persons, thereby making
women eligible for appointment to the Senate of Canada.
She was elected as a Liberal (Opposition) member of the Alberta legislature 1921 to 1926
but was not re-elected in 1926. "...She sponsored such social legislation as dental and
medical care for school children, married women's property rights, and mothers'
allowances" (Matheson and Lang p. 15). An independently-minded member, she spoke
out about her own party's measures or supported government initiatives to improve the
rights of women and children such as old age pensions, amendments to the Dower Act,
public health nursing services and better conditions in factories.
Some precedent setting positions Nellie McClung attained were: delegate to the Women's
War Conference in Ottawa, 1918; sole woman delegate of the Methodist Church of
Canada to the Eucumenical Conference in London, England, 1921; only woman member
of the Canadian delegation to the League of Nations, Geneva, Switzerland, 1938; and
first woman member of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) Board of Broadcast
Governors in 1936, serving until 1942. She made extensive speaking tours of Canada,
the United States and England either as an author or activist.
An eight cent postage stamp was issued in honour of Nellie McClung on August 29,
1973 and her name appears on a plaque outside the Senate chamber placed in
honour of the five women who initiated the "Person's Case" (Library and Archives
Canada. September 16, 2010).
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Appendix C
Title: The Problem with Heroes… Subject/Course: CHC2D Canadian History since WWI
Grades: 10 Academic_
Unit: Women’s Rights in Canada
Time: 75 minutes
Lesson Description
Students will come to terms with the realities that human rights are issues that we tend to take for granted. In history
and regions, human rights philosophy is not understood as we understand it. Contextualizing the women’s movement in
terms of the mindset of the time is imperative to recognizing how social change can be evoked today. Students have
already discussed the political resistance to the idea of women’s suffrage, but ideas of equality and human rights were
extended much farther.
This lesson asks students to investigate the politics of Emily Murphy and, using a set of criteria and a body of evidence,
discern whether she is a human rights hero or villain. This lesson is designed to encourage students to think critically
and use historical perspective.
Stage 1: Desired Results
Big Ideas/Essential Question for the Lesson
 Was Emily Murphy a Human Rights HERO or Villain!?
Ontario Curricular Overall Expectation
 Interpret and analyze information gathered through research, employing concepts and approaches
appropriate to historical inquiry.
 Communicate the results of historical inquiries, using appropriate terms and concepts and a variety of
forms of communication.
 Assess how individual Canadians have contributed to the development of Canada and the country’s
emerging sense of identity.
Ontario Curricular Specific Expectation
 Analyze information, employing concepts and theories appropriate to historical inquiry.
 Draw conclusions and make reasoned generalizations… on the basis of relevant and sufficient supporting
evidence.
 Assess the contribution of selected individuals to the development of Canadian identity since 1914.
Lesson Goals
By the end of the lesson students will:
 Be aware that the women’s movement was not an all encompassing human rights movement. There were
people left out of the extension of human rights
Skills:
 Students should be developing tools to do historical thinking and determine historical perspective.
Background Knowledge:
 Students are aware of the Women’s Movement after WWI.
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Stage 2: Planning learning experience and instruction
Student Groupings
•
•
Small groups
Individual work
Materials
Instructional Strategies
•
Teacher lead investigation.
Considerations
•
Some students may be disturbed by the
realities of how people of the time understood
people with disabilities.
Accommodations
Stage 3: Learning experience and instruction
Open (5 MINS.): Emily Murphy
 Arrange the student’s in their WOMEN’S JUSTICE LEAGUE.
 Ask all the Emily Murphy’s to stand up… and announce “You are official and irrevocable members of the
WOMEN’S JUSTICE LEAGUE… HOWEVER! It has come to our attention that you are accused of attacking other
vulnerable members of the community. We are considering expelling you from the HUMAN RIGHTS HALL OF
FAME for actions that threaten the human rights of marginalized people.
Body (60 MINS): Committee meeting.
 Students then sit back in their groups. For now, they are not the justice league anymore, but the commission
investigating the suitability for Emily Murphy’s induction into the HUMAN RIGHTS HALL OF FAME.
 (10 Minutes) Students begin by reading through a package of information regarding how Emily Murphy
defended women’s rights. Ask committees how they would vote at the moment?
 (10) Students then are provided through a package of information that Emily Murphy supported Eugenics and
the forcible sterilization of people with mental impairments. How would the committee vote?
 (15) Students will then be provided with a package of information regarding the contemporary scientific/medical
thinking and social attitudes towards mental impairment at the time. How would they vote?
 (10 minutes) Provide a set of criteria by which students should make their final choice as to whether or not to
induct Emily Murphy into the hall of fame. Have them give their final reasoned votes.
 Open the class up to discussion (15 Minutes)
Close (5 MINS):
 Encourage students to think about people in history being part of a foreign culture; people who think in ways
very different than we do. Their decisions may seem to us to be cruel or illogical, but they are coming from a
very different knowledge and experience frame of reference than we are. Human Rights are IMPORTANT, but
stress the need to contextualize historical events by understanding how people understood their world
differently than we do today. Change is enacted in an evolutionary way; we still have changes to make to
advance Human Rights. Where do we need to change our thinking?
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Link to Future Lessons
 Students will be learning about the advancement of women’s rights. This lesson will hopefully problematize the
oversimplified ideas about gender roles that we impose upon the past, and deepen the sense of how difficult it
was to change the way that society thought about women.
Assessment
 The teacher will be observing throughout the class discussion and assessing how learning is occurring.
Reflective notes:
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Appendix D
Subject/Course: CHC2D Canadian History since WWI
Title: The Famous 5
Grades: 10 Academic_
Unit: Women’s Rights in Canada
Time: 75 minutes
Lesson Description
In this lesson Students will investigate the Person’s Case. The extension of legal personhood to women in Canada, will
provide the foundation to begin to answer the essential question of the unit. The Person’s Case was the direct extension
of suffrage, so students will begin to understand the progression of the extension of rights in Canada.
Stage 1: Desired Results
Big Ideas/Essential Question for the Lesson
 What does the Person’s Case mean for Canadians?
Ontario Curricular Overall Expectation
 Analyze the changing responses of the federal and provincial governments to social and economic
pressure since 1914.
 Analyze the contributions of various social and political movements in Canada since 1914.
Ontario Curricular Specific Expectation
 Analyze the impact of the women’s movement in Canada since 1914.
 Assess the contribution of selected individuals to the development of Canadian identity since 1914.
Lesson Goals
By the end of the lesson students will:
 Understand the impact that the Person’s Case had for Canadian women.
Stage 2: Planning learning experience and instruction
Student Groupings
•
•
•
Individuals
Pairs
Whole class together
Materials
• Computer and projector
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Instructional Strategies
•
•
•
Think, pair, share
Teacher lead instruction (Lecturing)
Class discussion.
Considerations
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Stage 3: Learning experience and instruction
Motivational Hook (5 MINS.):
 The Person’s Case Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HZJD-MnsEE
Body (65 MINS): The Person’s Case

The Persons' Case (1929)
The 1929 Persons' Case is one of the major achievements by Canadians for
Canadians. The Famous 5 succeeded in having women defined as "persons"
in Section 24 of the British North America Act and thereby, eligible for
appointment to the Senate. This victory symbolized the right of women to
participate in all facets of life, to "dream big" and to realize their potential.
October 18, 1927, the Minister of Justice submitted a report to the Governor
General of Canada regarding a petition submitted by Henrietta Muir Edwards, Nellie
McClung, Louise McKinney, Emily Murphy and Irene Parlby. The Famous 5's petition
requested the Governor General to direct the Supreme Court of Canada to consider
whether women were eligible to become Senators under the British North America
Act, the Act of British Parliament which governed the country at this time. The
Minister's report to the Governor General stated that while the government was of
the view that only men were eligible to become Senators, it would nevertheless be
"an Act of justice to the women of Canada to obtain the opinion of the Supreme
Court of Canada upon the point." The Minister put forward the following question
for the Court's consideration:
Does the word "Persons" in section 24 of the British North America Act
1867, include female persons?
Prior to the mid-1800's, legal language distinguished when the law applied to male
persons and female persons and when the law applied to one sex only. However,
sometime between 1822 and 1878 there was a decision made to stop referring to
both sexes expressly. Male terms such as "he" would be sufficient to include
women when the law applied to both sexes. The language no longer made it clear
when "person" meant only male persons. From 1850 on, "person" became
synonymous with male person. This was the reason that Canadian women had to
put forward the above question in the first place.
The Supreme Court of Canada replied that the word "person" did not include
female persons. Fortunately for Canadian women, the Famous 5 were able to
appeal to an even higher court, the British Privy Council. The question was duly
submitted to them and on October 18, 1929 they overturned the decision of the
Supreme Court by deciding that the word "person" did indeed include persons of
the female gender.
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The word "person" always had a much broader meaning than its strict legal
definition, and it therefore had been used to exclude women from university
degrees, from voting, from entering the professions and from holding public office.
The definition of "person" became a threshold test of women's equality. Only when
Canadian women had been legally recognized as persons could they gain access to
public life. After 1929, the door was open for women to lobby for further changes
to achieve equality. As women across Canada can confirm today, that struggle
continues. (University of Calgary. n.d.)
 Open to class discussion (40 minutes):
Being recognized as legal "persons" was an important issue in Murphy's time. What are some of the issues
that are important to women today, and why? Do students have opinions about these issues, and are their
opinions divided along gender lines?
As the realities of women's lives become the subject of public discussion, and as women take more
prominent places in society, laws concerning women also change. New laws are introduced for their
protection, to guarantee their rights, and to recognize their special concerns. What are some of the laws
that especially concern women? Consider issues of family violence and "stalking," abortion and genetic
research, affirmative action and gender equity. Do laws reflect social changes, or can they actually create
changes in public attitudes? (Historica Dominion Institute. 2005)
What effect did the Person’s case have on Canadian society?
Close (5 MINS):
 Play Heritage Minute: http://www.histori.ca/minutes/minute.do?id=10205 (Historica Dominion Institute. 2005).
Link to Future Lessons
 Students are going to be able to take the question from this lesson and apply it in the next lesson which directly
addresses the essential question for the unit.
Assessment
 Informal assessments can be made during the discussion to see if there are any gaps in understanding.
Reflective notes:
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Appendix E
Title: Contemporary Canadian Society
Unit: Women’s Rights in Canada
Subject/Course: CHC2D Canadian History since WWI
Grades: 10 Academic_
Time: 75 minutes
Lesson Description
This lesson is designed to have students make the connection between the material they have been studying and the
essential question for the unit.
Stage 1: Desired Results
Big Ideas/Essential Question for the Lesson
 How has the advancement of women’s rights in Canada shaped contemporary Canadian society?
Ontario Curricular Overall Expectation
 Analyze the contributions of various social and political movements in Canada since 1914.
 Assess how individual Canadians have contributed to the development of Canada and the country’s
emerging sense of identity.
 Interpret and analyze information gathered through research, employing concepts and approaches
appropriate to historical inquiry.
 Communicate the results of historical inquiries, using appropriate terms and concepts and a variety of
forms of communication.
Ontario Curricular Specific Expectation




Analyze the impact of the women’s movement in Canada since 1914.
Assess the contribution of selected individuals to the development of Canadian identity since 1914.
Analyze information, employing concepts and theories appropriate to historical inquiry.
Draw conclusions and make reasoned generalizations… on the basis of relevant and sufficient supporting
evidence.
Lesson Goals
By the end of the lesson students will:
 Make connections between the women’s movement and Canada’s current society.
Skills:
 Students will be called upon to process information from texts and draw conclusions and connections.
Stage 2: Planning learning experience and instruction
Student Groupings
•
•
Individual
Pairs
Materials
•
Computers for students
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Instructional Strategies
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Student research
Considerations
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Stage 3: Learning experience and instruction
Motivational Hook (20 MINS.): Now it’s personal

Have everyone stand up and name a female relative whom they admire. Have them explain why.
 Ask students to consider whether that relative would have the ability to do what she does if not for the activism
of early women’s advocates?
Body (45 MINS): Making connections.
 Have students go to the computer lab and go to the website:
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/women/030001-1100-e.html (Library and Archives Canada. 2010).
 From this website they will choose and influential female Canadian. They will be asked to identify what that
Canadian has done and apply this research in the culminating assessment.
 Using this research and further investigation, students will make the connection between the Women’s
Movement and the advancement of Canadian society.
Close (10 MINS):
 Get students to brainstorm about concrete ways that the women’s movement shaped contemporary Canada.
 Students are to continue their work on this assignment over the next few classes and at home.
Assessment
Encounters Through Time:
 Students will choose an influential female Canadian. This person has to have made a positive
contribution to Canadian or global society. Students will then write a movie or graphic novel depicting a
conversation between their chosen Canadian and one of the Famous 5. This hypothetical conversation
has to answer the following questions:
 What did your historical figure accomplish?
 How has Canadian Society changed since the suffragist’s time?
 How did the suffragist’s work influence Canadian Society?
 How your historical figure’s accomplishments were made possible by this suffragist’s work?
 How were your historical figure’s accomplishments made possible by the women’s movement of which
your suffragist was a part?
Reflective notes:
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Works Cited
CBC Digital Archives. (2010) Voting in Canada. Retrieved on October 28, 2010, from
http://archives.cbc.ca/politics/rights_freedoms/topics/1450
Historica Dominion Institute. (2005). Emily Murphy: Secondary. Retrieved on October 28, 2010,
from http://www.histori.ca/minutes/lp.do?id=10691
Historica Dominion Institute. (2005). Nellie McClung. Retrieved on October 28, 2010, from
http://www.histori.ca/minutes/minute.do?id=13558
Library and Archives Canada. (September 16, 2010). Celebrating Women’s Achievements.
Retrieved on October 28, 2010 from http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/women/
030001-1100-e.html
University of Calgary. (n.d.) Global perspectives on Personhood: Rights and Responsibilities.
Retrieved on October 28, 2010 from http://people.ucalgary.ca/~gpopconf/person.html
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