1921- Agnes Macphail
became first female Member of Parliament.
-Nellie McClung
won a seat in Alberta
in 1921 and was the 3rd woman to sit in the province’s legislature.
1927- Emily Carr
was known as a painter of first rank.
-Mazo de la Roche-
very successful writing career.
-Edmonton
Grads- best woman’s basketball team in the world, turning back all challengers year after year.
1928-
Olympic games-great female athletes like Ethel Catherwood and Bobby Rosenfeld won gold medals for Canada.
-Canada
in the 1920s remained very much dominated by men, and women were denied all sorts of rights and privileges.
-Men had all sorts
of organizations- ex. Kiwanis and lay organizations of church where woman were allowed to participate only in limited ways.
-They held traditional jobs such as domestic servants,secretaries,salesclerks,or factory workers,nurses
and teachers.
-Women doctors and
lawyers were admitted to practice rather grudgingly.
-No man in his right
mind would put himself under a scalpel wielded by a woman nor put his personal and business affairs in the hands of a lady
lawyer.
- Women drinkers
were unthinkable.
- Even if women
did manage to break through sexist barriers, they often found themselves forced to adapt to working conditions designed by
and for men-ex. No woman’s washrooms.
- More and more
woman were being employed as sales help in stores, as filing clerks, and stenographers
in business offices and as factory workers because they could perform such duties as well as men at much lower wages.
-They earned just
over $8 a week (55hrs)
-They gained 54%-60% of what men did.
-A woman’s
real place, it was universally agreed, was in the home.
-Women fought for
their rights through campaigns, and by groups of intellectually tough dedicated woman who met regularly to compose letters
to the government and study the BNA clause by clause.
-They organized
protests.
-One of these groups
was the “famous five”.
-the flapper era
was another kind of declaration of independence.
