The Famous 5
Five Alberta women, Emily Murphy, Louise McKinney, Nellie McClung, Henrietta Muir Edwards, and Irene Parlby - later known as the Famous 5 - opened the doors of the Senate of Canada to women. The Famous 5 achieved not only the right for women to serve in the Senate, but they and their many contributions paved the way for women to participate in other aspects of public life. Their efforts represent a model of courage, integrity, solidarity and perseverance for all Canadians in the quest for women's equality in Canadian Society - today and yesterday.
"'Having done all -- stand.' We lose so much, both in private and public life, by receding from the ground we have won, either from indolence or some other cause." Emily Murphy.
October 18, 1999 marked the 70th anniversary of the "Famous Five" Alberta women who fought to have women constitutionally declared "persons" and therefore eligible to sit in the Canadian Senate. In 1928, the Supreme Court of Canada had rejected their request, but a year later, the Judicial Committee of the British Privy Council granted their appeal and found in their favour. Thus can be read at the end of a formal 14-page decision "that the word 'persons' in section 24 [of the British North America Act] includes members both of the male and female sex... and that women are eligible to be summoned to and become members of the Senate of Canada. Emily Murphy, the instigator and leader of the movement to have women admitted into the Senate, had stood firm, giving up not one inch of ground.
For more information about the Famous 5 visit:
Library and Archives and
Famous 5 Foundation
Louise McKinney (1868-1931), politician and temperance campaigner. She was president of the Dominion Women's Christian Union and elected to the Alberta legislature in 1917 as representative of the non-partisan league. "The purpose of a woman's life is just the same as the purpose of man's life-that she may make the best possible contribution to the generation in which she is living." -Louise McKinney |