Women's Movement In Canada Essay

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Canada had huge developments in the 20th century, such as increasing its population, economy, and industries (S. C. Government of Canada). However, equality had a huge impact in making Canada the safe, and free country it is today. The first women's movement played a huge role in brining equality into Canadian society. However, there is no exact ‘defining moment’ in the movement because it is built off of smaller but still important events. Examples of this include laws that were made which changed traditional gender roles, such as the Married Women’s Act, as well as old laws that were modified to include equality, such as the British North America Act. Therefore, without the first women's movement, women would not have the rights and opportunities …show more content…

Although, the suffrage acts only affected white/caucasian women and it would take women of colour more than 50 more years before they received full suffrage in Canada (Canada had full suffrage around the 1960s) (Strong-Boag). First and foremost, the Political Equality League (PEL) had a huge impact on suffrage in Manitoba. The PEL was founded in March of 1912 and was originally founded by a group of women and a man. The group's main goal was to win over women's suffrage in Manitoba, but according to the Nellie McClung Foundation, “they were also concerned about a number of social and educational issues, including the working conditions in factories”. The group organized a variety of events in order to spread awareness about women's suffrage and fight for equality. But one most important moment was in 1913 when the Manitoba Liberals were presented with a petition signed with over 20,000 signatures. This was after Tobias Norris (the premier), told the public that his government would give women suffrage if they received a petition with at least 17,000 signatures (“Women’s Suffrage in Manitoba | the Canadian Encyclopedia”). The PEL took this as a challenge and on December 23, 1915, they presented him with a petition signed with almost 40,000 signatures. With that, on January 28th, 1916, Manitoba became the first province to enable women's suffrage. Manitoba gaining women's suffrage was an essential moment as it created a chain reaction, which led to Canada having full suffrage in 1960 (if you count women of