The Fight for Women's equality in Canada

One of the best ways to judge the different political arguments in Canada from the early 20th century, is by reviewing the different political cartoons that were released. These were an effective way of educating the masses because it did not require an advanced education or vocabulary to understand where each side was debating. One of the more popular conflicts that were ongoing in the first years of the 1900’s was the fight for women’s equality. This included the right to vote and the right to participate in government. By comparing political cartoons from before, during, and after the First World War the changing context of Canadian society also affected the public opinion and the power balance towards the evolution of Women’s equality.

The first set of political cartoons that will be analyzed are ones from Canada in 1910 and 1912. A common characteristic that these cartoons have is the extreme male dominance that was apparent in politics and how dirty the field had become. To start off, the cartoon “The Door Steadily Opens” from The Grain Grower’s Guide is written from a pro-suffragette perspective. It shows a group of men in a dark, dingy room surrounded by cigar smoke, bags of money between them, and the devil serving alcohol. Some of the men are labeled with bad practices like “Monopoly”, “Drink”, “Graft”, “White Slavery”, “Corrupt Press”, and “Combine”. At the door to the room, a woman is fighting hard to get in with a broom labeled with “Women’s Suffrage”, but is stopped by a heavy defense system labeled with “Special Privilege”. This cartoon shows what men were up to behind the closed doors of offices and the employment levels that women were not allowed to participate in this time period. Some of the influences like...

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...he right of participating as jurors in criminal cases until 1972. By analyzing the Political cartoons of each of these eras, it creates a visual idea of what the popular opinions of the periods were like either for or against women’s equality.

Works Cited

1. Gilbert E Barrera, The Lady Justice Story. (working paper., 2008),

2. Brian Donovan, "White Slave Crusades: Race, Gender, and Anti-vice Activism, 1887-1917," Canadian Journal of Sociology Online

3. Hou, Charles & Cynthia, 1997, Great Canadian Political Cartoons, 1820 to 1914

4. McMaster University, "Keeping Up Morale War Songs from the first half of 20th century." Accessed March 5, 2014.

5. Parliament of Canada, "Women's Right To Vote In Canada." Accessed March 5, 2014.

6. Joy Parr, "Rethinking Work and Kinship in a Canadian Hosiery Town, 1910-1950," Feminist Studies, 13, no. 1 (1987): 137-162,