Student Information Sheet: Women's Suffrage Patriarchy Know that patriarchy is a social system based on the principles that: - the father is the supreme authority in the family and wives and children are legally dependent upon him;
- men should control matters of finance, law, politics, and religion; and,
- men are the providers, protectors, leaders, and representatives of women and children.
Equality Know that Canadian political culture had accepted egalitarian value such as: - the equality of all citizens before the law;
- equal access to education; and,
- accepting people on the basis of competency and merit.
Womens Rights Over centuries, a set of attitudes and norms evolved relating to the role of women and became a part of political culture. The Common Law of England stated that "A woman is not a person in matters of rights and privileges, but she is a person in matters of pains and penalties." This was an explicit statement of inequality which became part of the Canadian constitution. The Canadian Election Act until the early twentieth century stated that "No woman, idiot, lunatic or criminal shall vote." Women have had a long struggle to change these kinds of attitudes in the political culture. In general women were not given many rights. In 1900 the prevalent societal view was that women should be in the home raising the children and serving her husband. It was assumed that men were the wage-earner of the family. During this era, the temperance society was part of the womens movement (temperance meant abolishing alcohol). Higher education was not available to women; in 1884 McGill University admitted women students. The first suffrage movement (the right to vote) in Toronto was established by Dr. Emily Howard Stowe in 1877. Nellie McClung also worked diligently to give women the right to vote. It seemed unacceptable that men who immigrated into Canada after 1896 received the right to vote while women did not. Women worked as domestics, in textile factories and in clerical positions. | |
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