1. The Roaring 20s: The Person’s Case
Having made a strong contribution to victory in the war, women had won the right to vote and hold public office
But they would have to go all the way to Britain to demand legal recognition as “persons”
Women for instance did not have property rights;

2. The Roaring 20s: Suffragists
Canada’s women joined their counterparts in Britain, and elsewhere, in the struggle for their rights
protests to draw attention to existing inequalities were sometimes met with violent reprisals by the male establishment
Horse track photo: Emily Davison, militant suffrage activist, killed attempting to attach suffragette poster to King George’s horse at Epsom Derby in 1913 (actually hurt the cause with irrational, horrific act)

3. The Roaring 20s: Emily Murphy
in 1916, the City of Edmonton appointed Emily Murphy as Judge of the Juvenile Court
within a year, the province of Alberta would make her a provincial magistrate
Murphy was the first female judge in Canada

4. The Roaring 20s: the challenge
her first day in court was eventful because a male lawyer challenged the legality of Murphy’s appointment, claiming that only a “qualified person” could preside on the bench
British law considered only men to be persons; women were not even mentioned

5. The Roaring 20s: the counter challenge
Canada’s constitution (the BNA Act) stated that Canadian senators must be “qualified persons”
So women could not be senators?
in 1921, the Montreal Women’s Club asked Prime Minister Borden to appoint Emily Murphy to the nation’s Senate
women now posed their own challenge and wanted to test the law

6. The Roaring 20s: discrimination
many people though that Emily Murphy would make an excellent Senator
she worked for poor people, new immigrants, Aboriginal Canadians, children, and her fellow women
Prime Minister Borden thought otherwise
he claimed it was impossible for him to appoint a female to the Senate
women’s groups believed Borden’s decision was discriminatory

7. The Roaring 20s: the Persons Case
by 1927, Emily Murphy had had enough of the government and its condescending attitude toward women
Irene Parlby had been elected to Alberta legislature in 1921; (Agnes Macphail was only women elected to parliament in Ottawa: she was from Grey County in ON and member of provincial farmers’ party);
she teamed up with Nellie McClung, Louise McKinney, Irene Parlby, Henrietta Muir Edwards to fight the “Persons Case” in the courts

8. The Roaring 20s: Alberta’s “Famous Five”
“As persons interested in the admission of women to the Senate…”
“Does the word ‘Persons’… include female persons?”
1928 letter sent to the Governor-General; Parlby, Irene pictured;

9. The Roaring 20s: a new era
the government won round one when the Supreme Court ruled women were not persons, basing its decision on social conditions at the time of Confederation in 1867
however, by 1927, a new century had dawned and times were now markedly different

10. The Roaring 20s: victory
the women appealed their case all the way to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in England, the final court of appeal for all members of the British Empire
The Privy Council ruled on October 18, 1929, that women were indeed ‘persons’ and that “the exclusion of women from all public offices is a relic of days more barbarous than ours”

11. the Alberta Five had triumphed but Emily Murphy never did become a Senator
in 1930 Liberal Prime Minister Mackenzie King appointed another Liberal, Cairine Wilson from Montreal, as the first female representative to the Canadian Senate
some people believed the Prime Minister passed over Murphy, not because she was a conservative, but because she had caused the government too much trouble
Wilson joined Macphail as only women in federal parliament (Commons and Senate);