WOMEN OF CANADA

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 125, 30 May 1930, Page 10

WOMEN OF CANADA

PUBLIC ACTIVITIES

ENTRY INTO POLITICS

FIRST WOMAN SEtfATOS

(From "The Post's" Representative) VANCOUVER 30th April. The women of Canada reflect in a larg» measure the activity of their sisters of the south in the search for culture and the betterment of their sex.: It might, evea be said that they are, proportionately, more active, for, besides subscribing to the same patriotic organisations that exist in the United States, the influence of Great Britain and the overseas portions of the British Empire finds its expression in a number of social gatherings perpetuation the traditions of the stock whence they are sprung. All the well-known clubs—Elks, Moose, Lions, Gyros, etc. —have their women's auxiliary. Similarly with the organisations representing the public activities of their menfolk. They have the National Council of Women, which, I think, is gradually establishing an entente with its sister organisation in the United States. The Women's Canadian Clubs, established; in every city, town, and village, perhaps take the lead, as they are the most representative. The Daughters of the Empire and Native Daughters are associated with the objects implied by their name. Social betterment for women and children, girls in. industry, etc., is a very active agency, as it is in the south. Again, there is a Canadian women's auxiliary of all the international organisations that from time to time hold their conferences in Canada, whose object is to wcicome the wives, sisters, and daughters of American delegates. ADMISSION TO SENATE. The outstanding event in post-war years, as far as women's activities are concerned, has been tlie movement to secure permission for women to sit in tlie Senate of Canada at Ottawa. The issue hung on the wording of the British North America Act, which is the constitution of Canada. The qualification for admission to the Senate was" protected by. the word "persons" in the preamble to the Senate portion of the Act. Was a woman a person? The framers of the constitution did not doubt that she was a person, but they certainly did not contemplate that women would ever aspire to the exclusive Red Chamber. Women were different then. They had no vote; they did not go into public life. . When their time came, when, one by one, they battered down the barriers that prevented them taking a hand injnanaging the affairs of the nation, they secured ad- • mission into the House of Commons at Ottawa and the Parliaments of the nine provinces. Why not the Senate? They took the case to the Government, who said it was a matter of eligibility, which the Courts must determine. They went to the Supreme Court—and lost. Not satisfied, they set about for means to approach the highest Court of reference and appeal in. the British Empire—the Privy Council. The Government of Canada was quite honest about it;, they paid the cost of the appeal. The appellants were known as the Five Women of Alberta, which is the youngest, the Cinderella of the provinces of Canada. The Privy Council, without hesitation, granted their request. ILLUSTRIOUS QUINTETTE. The five Women of Alberta were an illustrious quintette. One was the Hon. Iren* Parlby, member of the Alberta Cabinet, the first woman Cabinet Minister .in the British Empire. Another was Judge Emily Murphy, of, the Edmonton Children's Court, a noted writer on Canadian-women's topics, under the--pen-name of "Janey Canuck." The others were all active in their particular sphere of women's betterment. Mrs. Parlby lias an interesting career Thirty years ago, as a young girl, she came to the Canadian prairie from England, to visit a school chum who had married and settled down forty miles beyond the edge of steel, when the prairie was beginning to attract immigrants from all-parts of Europe. ;:i ■ ,; -■'■■■-■ Over yonder, 'on'-a neighbouring iarui, wns a young graduate of Cambridge University. . They were married, and Mrs, Parlby, after, raising a small family, began to interest herself in the activities of the farmers round about. She did not confine herself to women's affairs, though she was the first provincial president of the women's council, but she was so.well versed in tlie efforts uf the. wheat farmers to organise their industry that she Was elected by a majority of 3000 votes as member for her district in the Parliament of Alberta. In British Columbia, Mrs. -Mary Ellen Smith, known all over Canada as "Mary Ellen," also entered the Cabinet, after her husband, the Hon. Ralph Smith, died. She was later appointed president of the Liberal Association, a men's organisation, for British Columbia, and is president of tho Women's: Liberal Association of Canada. Mrs. John Scott, of Montreal, is a great women's leader in Eastern Canada,; being closely associated with most of their activities, socially and politically. Dr. Helen MaeMurchy, of Ottawa, is the head of the Women's and Children's Welfare Division of the Government, corresponding with the position occupied by Mary -Anderson at Washington. THE MOTHER OF EIGHT. The Hon. Senator Cairene Wilson, firsfe woman to enter the Canadian Senate, has much in common with Ruth Hanna M'Cormick, first woman to enter the American Senate. Both are wealthy in their own right. Mrs. Wilson has eight,children, Mrs. M'Cormick has- three. Mrs. Wilson, as a girl, was a protege of Sir Wilfred Laurier, one of Canada's noblest sons. Mrs. M'Cormick was a protege of Roosevelt. Mrs. Wilson's father was a distinguished member of the Canadian Senate; her husband v still living, was a member of the House of Commons. She inherited a fortune from her father, a financial magnate of Montreal; her husband brought her a fortune from lumber. She is an able public speaker, in both the French and English languages, which are spoken in the Canadian House of Commons and Senate. She has been rather more associated with men's affairs, chiefly politically, than women's, though she is an office-bearer of many women's clubs. Her first public act was to refuse to "sit as a member of the Divorce Committee of the Canadian Senate, which acts as Divorce Court for Quebec and Ontario. One can readily understand this. : Her eldest. child is 17, her youngest i. Her family is an ideally happy one. ...-.: -:.