Essay On Nellie Mcclung

In the early 20th century, in many parts of the world - including Canada - women were not seen as equal to as men. Women were seen as weak and unable to take on the same labour intensive jobs as men. Furthermore, women were portrayed as too emotionally frail to vote for certain issues in their cities/towns. Despite all the dilemmas surrounding women equality and rights, many men had to go through similar hardships. If men could not live up to the stereotypes surrounding them, it could lead to a lack of self-confidence or ability. However, whether it may be because of the fact that women went through tougher problems, or the fact that men chose not to speak up about their problems, there is no historical figure that stood up for the rights

of men. That is why we chose to use Nellie McClung as our historical figure.

Nellie McClung was born in Chatsworth, Ontario in 1873.

She was the youngest of six children and only received six formal years of education. She didn’t learn to read until she was ten years old. At the age of 7 years old, Nellie moved to Manitoba where she would start her fight for women’s rights. At the tender age of sixteen years old, Nellie became a teacher at a school near Manitoba and through her personal connections at her job, she became involved in several social justice groups. When Nellie was 23 years old, she married Wesley McClung and proceeded to raise 5 children of her own. In 1911, her family moved into Winnipeg where she would continue to fight for social change and reform. Nellie joined the Women’s Christian Temperance Union which fought to help stop problems associated with alcohol abuse. It was from this job that Nelly’s fierce interest surrounding women’s suffrage arose. Nellie continued to join several other social reform groups, this time choosing to focus on advancing the fight for equality for women. She proceeded to become a founding member of the Political Equality League. Nellie McClung was a political activist and from 1911-1915, Nellie McClung fought for women’s suffrage. Throughout her life, Nellie McClung worked as an author, a women's suffragist and a

teacher.

Nellie is perhaps best remembered for her fight to get women the right to vote. In 1912, she and other members of the Political Equality League orchestrated a mock parliament, in which the group outlined the dangers of allowing men the right to vote. The play was entertaining and highly effective as it started a change in political acts from the government. In 1916, Manitoba was the first province to grant women the right to vote. After this victory, Nellie continued to fight for social reform, including human and women's rights. She even campaigned for the rights of Aboriginal and Asian women. She petitioned to the government to accept European immigrants affected by World War 2. Nellie remained an important figure in Canadian politics until her death in 1953.

Nellie McClung comes to great importance to our topic because she’s one of the many reasons why women are able to vote for the many important topics in Canada.

In the 1914 and 1915 Manitoba provincial elections, Nellie campaigned for the Liberal party. Nellie was portrayed as an effective speaker with a sense of humour, used to win over many people. McClung played the leading role in a very successful Liberal campaign in 1914. Nellie McClung started to write fiction, focusing on women’s suffrage. She used these novels to help spread awareness around women’s suffrage. Her performance portrayed the ridiculous arguments opposed to giving the power of voting to women. Her campaign was successful, but she moved to Edmonton, Alberta just before Manitoba became the first province in Canada to grant voting privileges to women. This historic act took place on January 28th

1916.

Nellie was a member of Alberta’s “Famous Five”, who were petitioners in the fight for women’s suffrage. Led by judge Emily Murphy, the group consisted of four other women; Henrietta Muir Edwards, Nellie McClung, Louise Crummy McKinney and Irene Parlby. These five women had many years of activist work in various campaigns for women’s rights in the 20th century. In Canada, Senate seats were only eligible to “persons” under the law. This only included men. Nellie McClung and several other women campaigned against this rule in a case known as the “Persons Case.” Because of the fight led by Nellie McCLung, amongst others, the Supreme Court reversed this law and allowed women to take seats upon the Senate.