The Famous Five
In 1927, Emily Murphy brought together five women activists from around Alberta to fight for change. In 1927, she sent two questions to the Supreme Court of Canada asking to clarify whether women could hold a position in elected office along with Louise McKinney, Nellie McClung, Henrietta Muir Edwards, and Irene Parlby. [13] All four of these women had previously been women's rights activists, being influential in their own way. Emily Murphy was a suffragist, reformer, writer, and became the first female magistrate in the British Empire in 1916. Louise McKinney was an organizer and supporter of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, and was elected to the Alberta Legislature in 1917. This made her the first woman elected to sit as a member of any Legislative Assembly in the British Empire. Nellie McClung was an inspirational novelist, journalist, reformer and suffragist. Henrietta Muir Edwards was an artist, a legal expert, and helped to found both the National Council of Women of Canada and the Victorian Order of Nurses. Finally, Irene Parlby was the first President of the United Farm Women’s Association in 1916, and was elected to the Alberta Legislature in 1921, becoming the second female cabinet minister in the British Empire. [14]
The Problem
In British Law before 1929, it had not been made very clear whether women were able to hold a position in any elected office. For Emily Murphy, this posed a problem to becoming a Senator, so she planned to ask for clarification on this. [15] However, for a question to be considered by the Supreme Court, she needed at least five citizens for the question to be submitted as a group. She brought together the women known later as the Famous Five, and asked two questions that were later narrowed down to one: "Does the word 'person' in Section 24 of the British North America Act include female persons?" [16] In Section 24, it is provided that "The Governor General shall from time to time, in the Queen's name, by instrument under the Great Seal of Canada, summon qualified persons to the Senate ; and, subject to the provisions of this Act, every person so summoned shall become and be a Member of the Senate and a Senator." [17] That meant that if the word "persons" did include women, then they would be able to run for Senate and any other elected office. This showed a fundamental flaw in the law: that the word "persons" did not have a proper definition. When Emily Murphy put her name down to become a Senator in 1917 and Eardley Jackson challenged her position, he claimed that women were not considered "persons" by an 1876 British Common Law saying that "women were eligible for pains and penalties, but not rights and privileges." [18] This added even more complexity to whether women were considered "persons" or not.
People Against the Movement
During the time that the Political Equality League of Manitoba was trying to gain suffrage and representation rights, Sir Rodmond Palen Roblin was Manitoba's premier. He was strongly opposed of the idea to allow women to vote and run for office, and had a very public feud with Nellie McClung and the Political Equality League. [19] The Political Equality League did not succeed in changing the law in Manitoba to allow women to vote and run in provincial elections until after Rodmond Roblin resigned in 1915, showing how much of a block he was to the movement. Another man who was against the movement and was successful was the lawyer Eardley Jackson. In 1917, when Emily Murphy put her name down for the Senate, Eardley Jackson had been the first one to successfully challenge her position, preventing her from becoming a Senator. [20] He was not the first to challenge her, however, and many other men had challenged her unsuccessfully. Although these men might be the strongest oppositions to the women's rights movement, there were many men, including mostly every woman's husband or father, that went against it. This made it very hard for women to defeat them, or even have the courage to go up against them. It took five of the most influential women in Alberta to finally gain the right to represent the people, and it was no easy task.