"Canada women continued to extend their best energies towards the solution of political and economic problems of the nation" was the conclusion of a writer in December 1936. The Globe and Mail (Dec. 26, 1936) detailed the status of women at that stage in our history.
Suffrage had a double setback. The proposal to extend franchise to women in Quebec was defeated twice in one year and by two different governments. The last session of the Taschereau Liberal regime and the first of the Duplessis Union Nationale both were indifferent to the claims of Quebec women for the privilege of the ballot enjoyed by members of their gender in other provinces and in federal elections.
But recognition of Canadian women generally as capable of assuming responsibility in administration of the country's affairs was evidenced in many recent appointments.
Nellie McClung was named to governor of the CBC, ...
Charlotte Whitton CBE has been attachd to the National Employment Commission to co-ordinate government and voluntary agencies dealing with relief.
Miss Agnes Macphail MP for Grey-Bruce, Mrs. George Black MP for the Yukon, and Senators Cairine Wilson of Ottawa and Iva Campbell Fallis of Peterborough continued their active participation in Parliamentary affairs.
Canada's five women members of provincial legislatures are at present a monopoly of the West:
Miss Salome Henderson SC St. George Manitoba
Mrs. Edith Rogers SC Ponoka, Alberta
Mrs. Edith Gostick SC Calgary, Alberta
Miss Helen Douglas Smith Lib Vancouver-Burrard, BC
Mrs. Dorothy Gretchen Steeves CCF Vancouver North, BC
The Ontario Legislature lacks a women member.
There are many women in municipal councils.
Mrs. Barbara Hanley of Webbwood was elected mayor of that town in January, the first of her gender to occupy a mayor's chair.
Recent civic election for 1937 councils in Ontario resulted in the election of three women councillors:
Mrs. H.A. Aelaide Plumptre Toronto
Miss Olive Jane Whyte, Windsor
Mrs. Clara Twidale Niagara Falls
and one controller, Miss Nora Frances Henderson, Hamilton, four town councillors and one deputy reeve.
Manitoba has one woman alderman: Miss Margaret McWilliams Winnipeg [see other blog on her]
Saskatchewan two: Mrs. Harold D. Hedley OBE Moose Jaw and Mrs. Ella Muzzy Prince Albert
Alberta two: Margaret Crang Edmonton (who headed the poll) [see other blog on her] and Mrs. Rose Wilkinson Calgary
Nova Scotia one: Mrs. M.T. Sullivan, Halifax.
There were at least 30 women members of school and collegiate boards through the Dominion.
Charlotte Whitton represented Canada at the League of Nations Assembly at Geneva in the summer. she was made a member of the League Commission on social questions this year, on which for some years she had acted as assessor.
Canadian women were prominent in literary activities in 1936. Margaret Lawrence's "School of Femininity" aroused wide interest. Other Canada women writers whose production were given a high place included Ethel Chapman, Nellie L. McClung, Audrey Alexandra Brown, Kathleen R. Strange, Ethel Hulme Bennett and Mazo De la Roche. (see footnotes for info on these women)
As new writers appear, other pass. Agnes Christian Laut passed, a distinguished historian, biographer and former newspaperwomen.
Mrs. Ruth Collie "Wilhelmina Stitch," who spent many years in newspaper work in Winnipeg, died in England.
Mrs. Kate S. Massiah of Montreal, first woman reporter to cover the session of the House of Commons, and Mrs. J.N.E. "Faith Fenton" died during the year. [Faith Fenton as an enterprising newspaperwomen had trekked to the Yukon during its gold rush.]
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It would be interesting to see a similar year-end round-up nowadays in the 21st Century!
Thanks for reading.
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Footnotes:
Born in Halton County, Ethel Chapman began her career as a teacher in Richmond School. She graduated from Macdonald Institute in 1912 and took a position with the Women’s Institute Branch of the Ontario Department of Agriculture for 15 years. In 1927 she became editor, Homes Section, of Farmers Magazine, and in 1952, editor of Home and Country for the Federated Women’s Institutes of Ontario.
Ethel Chapman authored five books, each in keeping with her inspirational influence on rural women. These include Humanities in Homespun, From a Roadside Window and With Flame of Freedom (1938).
Mazo De La Roche (1879-1961) was author of the 16 volumes of the popular Jalna series presenting the story of the Whiteoaks family from 1854 to 1954.
Audrey Alexandra Brown was highly regarded Canada poet pre-WWII. In 1944, she was the first female poet awarded the Royal Society of Canada's Lorne Pierce Medal. But her poetry slipped from wide appeal after 1950.
She was a freelance journalist for the Nanaimo Free Press starting in 1926 and often used the pseudonym the Khoji.
Brown was a 2018 Culture & Heritage Award recipient for Lifetime Cultural Achievement from the City of Nanaimo. (Wikipedia page - Audrey Alexandra Brown)
Ethel Hulme Bennett
By 1936 she was author of these books:
Judy of York Hill, 1922
Camp Ken-Jockety, 1923
Judy's Perfect Year, 1925
Camp Conqueror
A Treasure Ship of Old Quebec.
Kathleen R. Strange
Born 1896. Emigrated from England to Canada with her husband Henry George Latimer Strange. They won the world wheat championship in 1923 while living in Fenn, Alberta Author of With the West in her eyes The story of a modern pioneer, 1937. [although apparently this was published in 1936 as it seems to be her literary claim to fame in the 1936 round-up.] (Peel's Prairie Provinces website; Canadian who's who, 1967-1969)
Nellie L. McClung, being one of the Famous Five, should need no introduction.
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