6 December 1921

Women Get the Vote

The purpose of a woman’s life is just the same as the purpose of a man’s life: that she may make the best possible contribution to the generation in which she is living.

In the last decades of the 19th Century, groups of Canadian women began to insist on obtaining the right to vote, then reserved for male British subjects over the age of 21; excluded were Indigenous peoples and Asians. Most of these activists for female enfranchisement, or suffrage, belonged to the urban middle class and resided in English Canada. Initially, they focused on municipal enfranchisement in order to influence what happened in their communities.

Many of these female suffrage advocates also wished to pursue a campaign of social reform that included matters of public health, workplace safety, child labour, and temperance, the prohibition of alcohol. Obtaining the franchise was a means of advancing these causes as well as demonstrating gender equality and social independence. In the 1910s, more women began to agitate for provincial and federal voting rights. Suffrage societies, like the Political Equity League and Women’s Christian Temperance Union, held rallies and lectures, petitioned and lobbied politicians to convince them of women’s right to vote.

Small newsprint advertisement. — A Women's Parliament

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Nellie McClung, a prominent Canadian suffragette, organized a Mock Parliament in 1914 to point out the absurdity of men's arguments for denying women the vote. Seats at the Walker Theatre, "Canada's Finest," sold for 50¢ and 23¢ for the "Comedy Success: How the Vote Was Won, Followed by A Women's Parliament," put on by the Winnipeg Political Equality League.
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Black and white photograph. A pile of empty barrels sit at the shore of a lake. Slightly up hill, men are crowded around more barrels, moving them towards the lake for emptying. — Getting Rid of Alcohol

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Many suffragettes also supported temperance, or banning the sale of alcohol. They believed that alcohol was the cause of social ills like poverty, addiction and marital break-down, and should be banned for the good of society. In this photo (circa 1925), liquor barrels are being emptied into Elk Lake, Ontario, during prohibition.
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The onset of the First World War provided a catalyst for change. The large number of women joining a workforce left vacant by men serving overseas meant increased public and economic profiles of women. Many worked in war industries or on farms, proving not only their patriotism but also that they were as capable as men. Women also took on high-profile leadership roles in wartime fundraising, voluntary service, and in sending much-needed comforts to men serving overseas. Several thousand women served in uniform as military nurses whose professional bearing and conduct demonstrated that women had taken their place alongside men in wartime. So why not in times of peace?

A munitions pamphlet with little text. The photos are various views of women in the workplace, primarily on factory floors but also in spaces such as lunchrooms. — Women Work in Factories

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After the outbreak of war, factories converted to making munitions, employing women in lieu of men who had gone to France to fight. This pamphlet, published by the Imperial Munitions Board of Canada in 1916, is made up of photos highlighting women at work. The images cover a wide range of factory work: from the production of 18-pounder shells to the inspection of cartridge cases and more. In addition to photographs, the pamphlet’s text emphasizes the competency of women as labourers. Munition production was often physically demanding, but as the pamphlet states: “there is no operation on shell work that a woman cannot do and, as a matter of fact, is not doing” (Canada, Imperial Munitions Board, 27). Please find partial transcription below.
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Black and white photograph. Interior of a large wooden building. Women in work clothes, overalls, are performing different tasks constructing wooden boats. — Building Boats

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In addition to munitions factories, women also performed other "non-traditional" roles during wartime when men weren't available to fill them. These women are building lifeboats at the Bell Boatyard, circa 1914-1918. The boatyard was owned by Alexander Graham Bell and his wife Mabel. Though the Bell's often employed local women (from Baddeck, NS) during the First World War, they also ran a program which providing housing and work for women from out of town.
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The critical wartime role assumed by women as agricultural workers and sometimes farm managers helped convince the western provinces of women’s worth as citizens. The decision was not without its critics, but Manitoba became the first province to allow women to vote in provincial elections and to hold office, passing the Suffrage Bill on 28 January 1916. Saskatchewan and Alberta followed suit within months, with Ontario and British Columbia granting women the vote in early 1917. Nova Scotia and New Brunswick did the same in 1918. Prince Edward Island (1922) and Quebec (1940) waited while Newfoundland, then a separate Dominion, granted women the vote in 1925.

Women were partially enfranchised federally in 1917. The Government of Sir Robert Borden passed the Military Voters Act enabling nurses to vote in the election in December, while the Wartime Elections Act allowed the mothers, wives, widows, sisters, and daughters of servicemen to vote. In the House of Commons, Prime Minister Borden claimed that he had put the bills forward because he wanted to acknowledge women’s contributions to the war effort. However, the Government calculated that women on active service or whose family members were already overseas would be more willing to vote in favour of compulsory military service, or conscription, which is what Borden sought and which was the main election issue. Nevertheless, a precedent had been set at the federal level.

Black and white illustration. A foul looking man, portrayed in dark colours against a dark background, slumps in a chair in front of a large liquor bottle. In a thought cloud above, a woman scrubs a floor on her knees, white background. — He Can Vote, She Cannot

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Black and white photograph. Nursing sisters in their uniforms line up at poll tables to vote near a tent. — Nursing Sisters Vote

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Black and white illustration, sepia tone background. A matronly woman in an apron has her hands on a soldier's shoulder; she looks at him with admiration. — The Canadian Mother, Vote Union Government

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Canadian women aged 21 years or older, who were British subjects, became permanently enfranchised federally in May 1918, although Indigenous, Asian, and other women who did not have British citizenship remained excluded. It remains unclear to what degree politicians and political parties at all levels of Government were sincere in their views that women were the political equals of men. But whatever the case, women had finally obtained the right to vote and exercised it in the 1921 election, which ousted the Union Government and brought to power the Liberals under Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King. The first female Member of Parliament, Agnes MacPhail, from Ontario, was elected that year.