Nellie McClung: Canada's First Feminist and Suffragist

Introduction

Many women and children live in substandard and marginal conditions in many parts of the world, and they need a voice to transmit those conditions — and voting power to correct them. Too much masculinity lies behind this contagion, and chivalry cannot substitute for true justice. Nellie McClung, one of Canada's foremost social activists and its first feminist, waged a political battle for Canadian women's rights, specifically the right to vote. In her time, women were not considered "persons" under the British North America Act but were regarded as mere appendages to men. She and the rest of the Famous Five fought to secure that right — and won.

Women's rights and women's movements are expressions of the best instincts of womanhood: to serve and help the human race. Women, like men, think — and think just as dynamically. If women's thoughts are ignored or repressed, evolution is blocked and similarly suppressed. Revolution can be an unfortunate alternative.

Early Life and Education

Nellie was born in Chatsworth, Ontario, Canada on October 20, 1873, to John Mooney and Letitia McCurdy Mooney (Dugas, 2000). She was named Helen Letitia, and her siblings were Will, George, Elizabeth, Hannah, and Jack. Nellie was the family favorite. In 1880, the family emigrated to the Canadian West to homestead south of Brandon, Manitoba, where Nellie attended school from ages 10 to 16. At 16, in 1889, she finished Normal School, or teacher training (Dugas, 2000).

At birth, neither Nellie, her mother, nor any of her sisters was recognized as a "person" under Canadian law (Bridgeman, 1999). They and other women of the time did not share certain rights with men. Women were economically dependent on their father or husband. A woman's inherited property passed to her husband, and when he died, she was often left penniless, raising her children in poverty. Women were barred from certain careers — including politics, law, and medicine — and, most importantly, they were not allowed to vote or to help determine the future of society.

As young as nine, Nellie questioned traditional women's roles. At her first small-town public picnic, she looked forward to joining a race for girls (Dugas, 2000) and found none. Society at the time did not favor girls racing, showing their legs, and having their skirts fly. That early, she wondered — and was silenced. At 16, she began teaching at a rural school, where she would play football with students at break time, wearing a long skirt and a stiff, starched blouse. Opposing parents viewed physical sports as unladylike, but Nellie eventually won them over through tact and good sense (Dugas, 2000).

As a hired teacher in the small town of Manitou in 1890, Nellie boarded with the Methodist minister, Reverend James McClung, and his wife, Annie (Bridgeman, 1999). Annie was the president of the local chapter of the Women's Christian Temperance Union. Nellie became involved in social reform and joined the Union, which addressed social and health problems stemming from alcohol use and other causes that affected women and children. In time, the Union initiated the campaign for women's suffrage in many parts of Canada. Nellie eventually married the minister's son, Robert Wesley, a druggist, and had five children with him. Their family moved to Winnipeg in 1911 and then to Vancouver in 1933. Her mother-in-law Annie encouraged Nellie to develop her first novel, Sowing Seeds in Danny, from a magazine short story — the first of 16 novels she would write. Annie also helped organize Nellie's first speaking engagement at a Winnipeg church. It was through the Union's prodding that Nellie discovered her remarkable talent for public speaking (Historica, 2005).

Social Reform and the Suffrage Movement

In Winnipeg, Nellie continued her commitment to social reform, coinciding with the start of the women's suffrage movement. She joined the Winnipeg Political Equality League, which supported the cause of female wage earners in the city, and the Canadian Women's Press (Historica, 2005). She brought Premier Rodmond Roblin to witness firsthand the working conditions of many women in sweatshops. Roblin was strongly opposed to women's suffrage and believed that "nice" women were against it too. Nellie countered his perception of "nice" women — those who did not care about the underprivileged and overworked — and stressed that she was, therefore, not one of them.

Nellie and her fellow reformers wanted to defeat Roblin by staging a satirical play entitled The Women's Parliament, which addressed the dangers of male suffrage. Roblin was re-elected, but his triumph was brief. Pro-suffragist candidates defeated him the following year, and in 1916, the new Liberal government allowed Manitoba women to vote. The succeeding year, women's right to vote spread through Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, and other provinces. It was a clear victory for the suffragists, and major credit went to Nellie (Historica, 2005).

Her unforgettable initiative, a Mock Parliament, staged as leader of the Political Equality League on January 28, 1914, took the form of a debate on whether men should be allowed to vote. Nellie connected politics and unsteady men to broken vows and divorce, and her argument provided the energy and momentum that the League needed for its campaign. In the initiative, she mimicked the Premier with dialogues that revealed the ridiculous grounds for suppressing women's suffrage (Bridgeman, 1999). With stirring wit and humor, Nellie drove home the point that bias against women blocked and suppressed evolution, which in turn could lead to revolution — though she discounted the necessity for one. Shortly after the staged initiative, the government resigned, eventually leading to the defeat of Roblin's Conservative government on charges of corruption in 1915 (Dugas, 2000).

At that time, the whole world was already plunged into a war in Europe. A new surge of patriotism swept through the new Canadian legislature, which passed measures recognizing women's right to vote and hold public office. Manitoba became the first Canadian province to grant women's suffrage on January 29, 1916. The combined efforts and hopes of the League — prominently Nellie's — gradually shifted hard tradition toward accepting and recognizing the equality of the sexes (Dugas, 2000).

At the time, women's suffrage was a weak issue in Canada. Many people were troubled by the idea that women's rights threatened the breakdown of the home and family (Dugas, 2000). Nellie assured the public that these apprehensions were unwarranted through reasoned discussion, personal charm, striking humor, and even creative hats. She noted that the world suffered from "an excess of masculinity," pointing to the 60,000 young Canadian men killed in World War I. Moved by the vastness of that suffering, she urged everyone to reject masculine values that had brought such carnage and misery, and to embrace feminine values that create and celebrate life. At the same time, she asked women never to retreat, never to explain, never to apologize — and simply to get the thing done (Bridgeman, 1999).