Women get the vote

When Confederation took place, only adult white men who owned property could vote. This was the normal practice in the majority of democracies. The women’s suffrage movement attempted to change that. This movement was founded in Canada by Dr Emily Stowe, the first female Canadian medical practitioner. Manitoba was the first province to allow women the vote in 1916.

Due to the work of Dr Stowe and her fellow suffragettes, in 1917 Sir Robert Borden’s government agreed to allow females to vote in federal elections; initially only nurses working on the frontline, then women who had relations fighting in the war. The majority of Canadian women aged 21+ were given the federal vote in 1918. The first woman MP was the farmer and teacher Agnes MacPhail, in 1921. Quebec did not grant women the vote in provincial elections until 1940.