Oil Sands

A History of Great Canadian Women (Blog)

Women’s rights have come a long way, in large part from the efforts of our predecessors–women not content with the status quo who were pioneers in their fields and leaders in the fight for equality. International Women’s Week (March 7-11, 2011) and International Women’s Day (March 8, 2011) honour the past efforts of women and look to the present and future to ensure that all women in Alberta and around the world have equal rights, opportunities and a life free from violence. In honour of International Women’s Week, here are some of Canada’s most interesting and influential women:

1. One of Canada’s most famous women, Laura Secord, made her mark in history in the War of 1812, when she walked alone and defenseless, through occupied and dangerous territory for a distance of 32 kilometers to warn British forces of an impending American attack.

2. Dr. Emily Stowe was the first woman in Canada to practice medicine. Universities in Canada refused her admission, so she had to receive her medical training in the United States. When she returned to Canada to become a doctor, she also became a passionate crusader for women’s rights, creating
Canada’s first suffrage group in 1876.

3. Carrie Matilda Derick was the first woman to attain the rank of professor at a Canadian university, with her appointment to the Department of Botany at McGill University in 1912. She worked tirelessly to promote her far-reaching vision of political and educational equality for women.

4. Agnes Macphail was the first woman elected to the House of Commons in 1921–the first
Canadian federal election in which women had the vote.

5. In 1928, Canada’s Olympic team included women for the first time. The women who represented our country went on to became household names in the 1920s: Fanny “Bobbie” Rosenfeld, Ethel Smith and Ethel Catherwood.

6. In 1929, women were legally declared “persons” under the law. We can thank Alberta’s Famous Five–Emily Murphy, Louise McKinney, Nellie McClung, Irene Parlby and Henrietta Muir Edwards–and the Persons Case for this feat.

7. The name Emily Carr is synonymous with Canadian art and writing. Carr became most famous in the 1930s for her compelling canvases of British Columbia’s landscape and her documentation of Native villages.

8. In 1982, NDP MP Margaret Mitchell was openly laughed at in the House of Commons when she raised the issue of violence against women. The outcry from women brought national attention to the issue.

9. Thanks to Sandra Lovelace’s successful appeal in 1985, to the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations, Aboriginal women in Canada no longer lose their status under the Indian Act through marriage to a non-Aboriginal man.

10. It was January 1992, on NASA’s space shuttle Discovery, that Roberta Bondar became the first neurologist in space and Canada’s first female astronaut.