Women in the 1920s CHC 2DI S. Todd

British North America Act 1867

• • • The BNA Act of 1867, created the Dominion of Canada and provided many of its governing principles. The BNA Act used the word "persons" to refer to more than one person, and "he" to refer to one person. A British ruling 1876 emphasized the problem for Canadian women by saying, "Women are persons in matters of pains and penalties, but are not persons in matters of rights and privileges."

1917

• • • Emily Murphy is the first woman to be appointed a judge in the British Empire She faces opposition from some lawyers who stated that she was not a person under the law and should not sit as a judge. She begins a long struggle to have women legally defined as “persons.”

1918

• • Women have the right to vote in Federal elections (with certain Provincial requirements and not “alien-born”) Women can now sit in the House of Commons

1925

• The federal divorce law is changed allowing women for the first time to obtain a divorce on the same grounds as men.

The Famous Five

• In August, Emily Murphy, invites four women, Irene Parlby, Nellie McClung, Henrietta Muir Edwards and Louise Crummy McKinney, to help her petition the Supreme Court for a decision on the question of whether woman are persons according to the British North America Act of (1867)

The Persons Case

• The Department of Justice recommends to Prime Minister King that the best question to present to the Supreme Court is,

“Does the word "persons" in Section 24, of the British North America Act, 1867, include female persons?”

The Persons Case

• • The Supreme Court of Canada decides that a woman is not a "qualified person" and therefore cannot be appointed to the Senate of Canada Today, the Supreme Court is the highest court in Canada but...in 1928, there was one last place for the Famous Five to take their case

1930

• Cairine Wilson becomes the first woman appointed to the Senate

The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council

• • • This was Canada’s final court of appeal at the time 1929: The Privy Council overturns the decision of the Canadian Supreme Court’s “Persons” case and recognizes Canadian women as persons under the law As a result, women are eligible to serve in the Senate!