The fight for the vote
For most of history, women could not vote, run for office, own property in their own name in many places, or attend university. In the 1800s and early 1900s, women organized to demand suffrage: the right to vote.
New Zealand became the first self-governing country to give women the vote in national elections, in 1893.
Women’s suffrage in the United States
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1848 | the Seneca Falls Convention in New York, organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, issues the Declaration of Sentiments: "all men and women are created equal" |
| 1869 | Wyoming Territory grants women the vote |
| 1872 | Susan B. Anthony is arrested for voting |
| 1913 | a huge suffrage parade in Washington, D.C., led by Alice Paul |
| 1917 | "Silent Sentinels" picket the White House; many are jailed |
| 1920 | the Nineteenth Amendment is ratified: "The right of citizens… to vote shall not be denied… on account of sex" |
Not all women gained the vote equally. Black women in the South were kept from voting by poll taxes, literacy tests and violence until the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Native American women were not recognized as citizens until 1924, and some states blocked their votes for decades after. Activists such as Ida B. Wells fought both sexism and racism.
Women’s suffrage in Canada
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1916 | Manitoba becomes the first province to give women the vote, followed by Saskatchewan and Alberta |
| 1917 | the Wartime Elections Act gives the federal vote to women related to soldiers; military nurses could also vote |
| 1918 | most women aged 21 and over who were British subjects win the federal vote |
| 1921 | Agnes Macphail becomes the first woman elected to the House of Commons |
| 1940 | Quebec becomes the last province to give women the provincial vote, after campaigns led by Thérèse Casgrain |
Canadian suffragists included Nellie McClung, who staged a famous "mock parliament" in Winnipeg in 1914, where women debated whether men should get the vote.
Again, the vote did not reach everyone at once. Asian Canadians were excluded from the federal franchise until 1947–1949, and status First Nations people could not vote federally without giving up their status until 1960.
The Persons Case
In 1927, five Alberta women, the "Famous Five" (Emily Murphy, Nellie McClung, Irene Parlby, Louise McKinney and Henrietta Muir Edwards), asked whether women were "persons" who could be appointed to the Senate. The Supreme Court of Canada said no. In 1929, Britain’s Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, then Canada’s highest court of appeal, overturned the decision in the Persons Case, ruling that women were persons. It called the constitution "a living tree capable of growth."
Strategies of the movement
- petitions, letters and speeches
- parades, picketing and public meetings
- newspapers and pamphlets
- humour and satire, like the mock parliament
- militant tactics in Britain, where some suffragettes broke windows and went on hunger strikes
- connecting suffrage to other causes, such as temperance and wartime service
Some early suffragists also held views we now recognize as racist or supported eugenics, which is part of a fuller understanding of the movement.
Beyond the vote: equality movements
Feminism continued after the vote was won.
| Wave | Period | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| First wave | 1840s–1920s | the vote and legal rights |
| Second wave | 1960s–1980s | equal pay, workplace rights, reproductive rights, ending discrimination |
| Third and fourth waves | 1990s–today | diversity among women, intersectionality, sexual harassment (#MeToo, 2017), online activism |
Milestones
- U.S.: Equal Pay Act (1963); Civil Rights Act’s ban on sex discrimination (1964); Title IX (1972) for equality in education and sports
- Canada: Royal Commission on the Status of Women (1970); Charter sections 15 and 28 (1982) guaranteeing equality; Kim Campbell became the first woman prime minister (1993)
Ongoing issues
- Pay equity: women still earn less than men on average, and the gap is larger for many racialized, Indigenous and disabled women.
- Underrepresentation in politics and leadership
- Violence against women, and the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Canada
- Balancing paid work and caregiving
Try it yourself
- Compare the timelines of women’s suffrage in Canada and the United States.
- Explain why the Persons Case was important, and what "living tree" means.
- Analyze why some women gained the vote much later than others.
- Research one current equality issue and propose a solution.
Quick recap
- Suffragists fought for decades for women’s right to vote.
- The U.S. ratified the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920; most Canadian women won the federal vote in 1918.
- Many women of colour and Indigenous women were excluded much longer.
- The 1929 Persons Case recognized women as persons under the law.
- Movements for equality continue today.