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Tom Monto

The Famous Five – Five Women Who Changed Canada (Millwoods Mosaic)

Five Edmonton parks bear the names of a group of women known as the Famous Five. They achieved a breakthrough for Canadian women back in 1929. Who were they, and what did they do? The women of the Famous Five were all immigrants to Alberta. Three were Ontario-born, one was Quebec-born, and one was English-born. One had lived in India before settling in Alberta; another had lived in the U.S. Each of the five had long been prominent in the women's movement and other public initiatives. Three of them had even served as Alberta MLAs. Although pushing for social change is usually conducted by young people, none of the Five could have been called young in 1929. Four of them were in their 60s. Henrietta Muir Edwards was in her 80s in 1929. She is also the only woman among the Five who kept her maiden name, even as an additional middle name. Emily Murphy, the initiator of the Famous Five, was actually sometimes called "Mrs. Arthur Murphy." Emily Murphy was born in Ontario in 1868 as Emily Ferguson. She married Arthur Murphy in 1887. They moved to Manitoba in 1903 and to Edmonton in 1907. In 1908, with her children grown up, she devoted herself to public endeavours. Her fight for the rights of married women led to her being named a magistrate in 1916, becoming the first female judge in the British Empire. Shortly after that, Alberta women won the right to vote and to serve in the Legislature, and women won the right to vote in federal elections and to serve in the House of Commons. However, the Senate, the "upper house" of the Canadian Parliament, was still a male preserve. Senators are appointed, not elected, but no governments were appointing women. They said by the Constitution they could only appoint "persons" and women were not included under that term. The Senate was the last area in which women were not on an equal footing with men in the federal sphere. (But not all women had the vote back then. Like their male counterparts, women with Indian Treaty status and female Asians were denied the vote. These restrictions were finally abolished in the 1960s.) Not surprisingly, Emily Murphy, a person of decided person-hood, did not agree with the government’s definition of the term “person.” So in 1929 she got four other women to join her in submitting a constitutional question on the term “persons.” The other four women were activists of long standing and considerable achievement. Nellie McClung was born in Ontario in 1873 as Nellie Mooney. In 1880 as a child she moved west to Manitoba. She married Robert McClung in 1896 and started a family of her own and worked to support the family with her writing. Her book Sowing Seeds in Danny was a bestseller in 1908 and made her a small fortune. The family moved to Edmonton in 1915. She served as an MLA 1921 to 1926. Her family moved to Calgary. Louise McKinney was born in Ontario in 1868 as Louise Crummy. She became a teacher. She moved to North Dakota, where she married James McKinney in 1896. Louise was prominent in the Women's Christian Temperance Union. In 1903 they moved to Alberta to farm near Claresholm. Louise’s leadership in the Alberta WCTU helped lead to the passage of a liquor-prohibition law in 1915. Believing the Liberals and Conservatives did not represent her interests, she ran as a candidate for the Non-Partisan League in 1917. She won the Claresholm seat, becoming the first woman to serve in a legislature in all of the British Empire. Irene Parlby was born in England in 1868 as Irene Marryat. She travelled to India, then came to Alberta in 1896. In 1897 she married a former British soldier/Oxford graduate farming at Alix. She found a place for herself on his farm and became active in the United Farm Women of Alberta. She was elected an MLA in 1921. She was still an MLA and a cabinet minister in Alberta's Farmer government when she met with the other four at Murphy's house that day in 1929. Henrietta Muir Edwards was a generation older than the rest. She was born in Montreal in 1849, as Henrietta Muir. She married Dr. Oliver Cromwell Edwards in 1876. They came west in 1883, then in 1890 moved to Ottawa. There she worked with Lady Ishbel, wife of the governor-general of Canada, to found the National Council of Women. In 1901, she and Oliver again came west and Oliver attended to the medical needs of the Piikani (Peigan) Nation. Henrietta was the legal expert among the Famous Five. Her ground-breaking book Legal Status of Women in Canada helped set the stage for their fight in 1929. Louise McKinney and Irene Parlby were also political communicators. They contributed articles and speeches in the heyday of the "old left" in the 1910s and 1920s. This was when Alberta farmers, workers and socialists were pursuing redress of their specific needs, which they thought were not being properly addressed by Liberals and Conservatives. Many women felt they also needed direct representation, to push for respect for women’s work in the workplace as well as for their work as wives, mothers, sisters and daughters. This included representation in the Senate. In 1929 Murphy gathered the Five together at her home, which still stands at 11011 - 88th Avenue. They signed a request for the Privy Council in London, England to rule on the meaning of the term "persons" used in the Constitution. The ruling when it came was simple - in some places in the Constitution "persons" meant men and in other places it covered members of both genders. So the judges said the word could mean whatever the government wanted. Thus, the last obstacle to political equality between men and women was abolished. Within a few months of the ruling, the first woman Senator was appointed. Five parks in Edmonton bear the names of the Famous Five. Emily Murphy Park is located along the river near Hawrelak Park. The other four parks are grouped near the Low Level Bridge, two on the north side of the river and two on the southside; two east of the bridge and two west of the bridge. Louise McKinney Riverfront Park is near the Edmonton Convention Centre east of the bridge. Henrietta Louise Edwards Park is on the south side of the river east of the bridge. Nellie McClung Park is west of the bridge along Scona Road. Irene Parlby Park is in Rossdale across the river from McClung's park. The City of Calgary has a group of statues of the Famous Five, but the parks are their only memorials in Edmonton. Just the parks - and the forty-four women who are now serving in the Senate. These women also stand as memorials to the Famous Five's valiant endeavour in 1929. Additional reading: Nancy Millar, The Famous Five (2003) MacEwan, Grant, And Mighty Women Too, Stories of Notable Western Canadian Women (1979) Byrne Hope Sanders, Emily Murphy - Crusader (1945) Barbara Villy Cormack, Perennials and Politics. The Life Story of Hon. Irene Parlby (1970) Charlotte Gray, Extraordinary Canadians - Nellie McClung (2008) Louise McKinney, "The Farmers Opportunity. Mrs. McKinney's Great Speech, Edmonton Jan. 22, 1919", in the pages of The Alberta Non-Partisan, Jan. 30, 1919 (available online - Peel's Prairie Provinces) Irene Parlby, Progress or reaction? (1921) (available online - Peel's Prairie Provinces) =========================================

(origiinally published in Millwoods Mosaic April 2023)

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