Calgary & Southern Alberta

Irene Parlby: Courtesy of the Glenbow Collection

In the 1920s women in Calgary and southern Alberta came to terms with political realities. Where they had once shared common goals, they now entered the public scene from diverse backgrounds and concerns. While rural women tended to view the local Councils of Women as urban and upper class, urban women affiliated with traditional political parties. In Calgary several women in the labour movement served on school boards and the city council. Marion Carson, Amelia Turner, and Edith Patterson all ran successfully as candidates. Provincially, Nellie McClung served as a Liberal MLA and Irene Parlby served as an UFA cabinet minister. Parlby addressed herself to issues of importance to women, especially women who belonged to the United Farm Women of Alberta: minimum wage for women, mother’s allowances, homesteads for women, married women’s property rights, and children’s welfare.

Women’s social status likewise changed with the "Persons Case" which was spearheaded by Alberta women. This issue hinged on the question of whether or not women were legally "persons" and eligible to serve in the Senate. The issue emerged after Alice Jamieson was appointed a judge of the juvenile court in Calgary. Male lawyers challenged her presence on the bench because she was not a "person." Although the Alberta Supreme Court ruled against Jamieson’s male colleagues, the issue of female personhood continued at the federal level when, in 1919, women pressed for the appointment of a female to the Senate. When the government refused, Emily Murphy discovered a legal provision that allowed five people to petition the government for a constitutional ruling. Murphy turned to Henrietta Muir Edwards, Nellie McClung, Louise McKinney, and Irene Parlby. In 1928, however, the Supreme Court declared women not legally "persons" because at the time that the BNA Act was written they were not considered so. The "famous five" appealed the case to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in Britain, which in 1929 reversed the Supreme Court’s ruling.

Agnes Macphail, William Lyon Mackenzie King, and Nellie McClung
at the "Persons" Ceremony in Parliament, 1935: Courtesy of the National Archives of Canada

The "Persons" Case