THE BRITISH COLUMBIA WOMAN SUFFRAGE

MOVEMENT 1890 - 1917

by

LINDA LOUISE HALE

B. A., University of British Columbia, 1971

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF

THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF

MASTER OF ARTS

in

THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES

(History)

We accept this thesis as conforming

to the required standard

THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

October, 1977

©Linda Louise Hale, 1977 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study.

I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission.

Department of History

The University of British Columbia 2075 Wesbrook Place Vancouver, Canada V6T 1W5

Date October 3, 1977 Abstract

This thesis focuses on the examination of the motives

and tactics of the British Columbia suffragists in their

campaign from 1890 to 1917 to secure political equality

with men. Also investigated are the nature of the leadership

and membership of the movement and the perspectives of the

suffragists' allies and opponents. Additionally, the

British Columbia woman suffrage movement is studied in the

context of the general reform impulse in the province,

Canada and other western nations during the late nineteenth

and early twentieth centuries.

The British Columbia woman suffrage campaign was

closely linked throughout its duration to a general

campaign to remedy the subordinate legal status of women

in the province. Yet, while united by this common theme,

the campaign can be divided into two distinct phases.

Prior to 1910 efforts to secure the school board, municipal,

provincial and federal franchises were conducted primarily by suffragists who subscribed to the view that women were

naturally endowed to exercise a beneficent influence within

the home, the local community and the nation as nurturers,

preservers of virtue and purifiers. They argued that by

participating in government women could activate the moral

regeneration of society and thereby combat what they

perceived to be the adverse effects of industrialization, iii

urbanization, immigration and the persistence of frontier

social institutions such as the saloon. By 1910, however,

the social reformers were joined by a group of new suffragists who emphasized that women should be granted political equality

as it was the democratic right of all citizens. Demanding a wider scope for women's activities than the majority of the

first generation of suffragists, these women maintained that

they should be able to utilize the vote on behalf of their various and sometimes divergent interests as homemakers,<

consumers, wage-earners, philanthropists and professionals.

Despite these differences of perspective, all the

suffragists maintained that the problem of women's sub•

ordinate status could be solved by legislative means. They believed that an equal partnership between men and women in public and private life would occur automatically following the winning of the ballot. Similarly, the suffragists principally interested in social reforms thought that they could be most effectively enacted by legislation. The

suffragists also viewed state intervention in the form of legislation as necessary to preserve the liberty of the

individual, either by granting him specific rights such as

the ballot or by restricting the social behaviour of persons not conforming to the general norm. In this respeet the

British Columbia woman suffrage movement can be characterized as a liberal movement. TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract ii

Acknowledgement v

Preface vii

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 The British Columbia Woman

Suffrage Movement 1890 - 1909 9

Chapter 2 The British Columbia Woman

Suffrage Movement 1910 - 1917 52

Chapter 3 Community Reaction to the

British Columbia Woman Suffrage

Movement 1890 - 1917 96

Conclusion 121

Selected Bibliography 128

Appendix I Biographies of the British

Columbia Woman Suffrage Leaders

1890 - 1917 1^5

iv Acknowledgement

The completion of this study is, in large measure,

due to the ongoing support offered by my supervisor,

Dr. Wm P. Ward. His interest in the project either in

the form of provocative discussion or considered

criticism helped me throughout the exercise. To him I

express my sincere gratitude.

Assistance of a more general nature was also forth•

coming from other members of the History department. In

particular, I am indebted to Dr. C. Humphries for his

initial sponsorship of the thesis and for his determined

efforts to communicate his enthusiasm for social history

to his students.

The staff of the Special Collections Division of

the University of British Columbia Library consistently

offered encouragement and aid throughout the course of my research. Especially helpful were Anne Yandle, the division head, George Brandak, the manuscript archivist

and Frances Woodward, an expert on the division's

British Columbia holdings. All of these individuals

gave freely of their time and knowledge and provided me with useful suggestions concerning obscure or uncatalogued material.

The archivists at the British Columbia Provincial

Archives also greatly facilitated my research. Leonard

Delozier's kindness in offering me his handwritten index v vi of the premiers' papers was very welcome as were Terry

Eastwood's initiatives in locating sources. The archivists at the City Archives of Vancouver cordially assisted me.

The contribution of my colleague and friend,

Allan Salo, remains immeasurable.

To all of these persons and to my parents I offer my thanks. Their efforts have enriched the thesis while its shortcomings are, of course, solely attributable to me. Preface

This study of the British Columbia woman suffrage movement was largely prompted by the growing interest of historians and students in Canadian social history.

Particularly relevant to this project is the expanding body of new literature addressing various aspects of the activities of Canadian women and their position in society.*

This thesis is most directly linked to those studies 2 investigating the motives of the Canadian suffragists, but it is also closely related to other areas of historical research concerning women. The examination of British

Columbia women's organizations undertaken here was facilitated by the forays of several authors into the previously unexplored areas of the national women's club movement and women's philanthropic activities. Similarly, the investigation of the attitudes of British Columbia feminists towards the family, the workplace and community life is connected to the recent work of several scholars. In its concern with leadership, as well, this paper participates, to some extent, in the current inquiry into the nature of the leadership of the Canadian women's movement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

While the history of the British Columbia woman suffrage movement can be viewed within the context of women's history, this classification is insufficient as it overlooks the fact that the campaign to extend the franchise vii viii to women was an integral part of a more general social reform movement. As a result of this relationship, the literature exploring various aspects of the other reform movements suggests why their members often supported the suffragists and why all the reformers frequently confronted similar opponents. The literature on the social gospel movement, the prohibitionists and the urban reformers^ is particularly valuable in this regard. The reverse process applies as well, for the study of the woman suffrage movement con• tributes to the comprehension of other reform movements and to an interpretation of the nature of the general reform sentiment.

Broadening the perspective offered by research in

Canadian social history is the larger body of literature which examines the corresponding British and American social reform movements which influenced, in varying degrees, their Canadian counterparts. Useful for comparative purposes are the numerous works which evaluate the 7

British and American woman suffrage campaigns.' In addition, more general studies of the contemporary reform persuasion clearly indicate that the coalition of reformers 8 found in British Columbia was found elsewhere. This body of literature also demonstrates the pervasiveness of the traditional stereotype of women confronted by British

Columbia feminists and the variety of feminists' and their o opponents'responses to these attitudes. Footnotes

1. With the exception of some biographies of prominent women, the interest of historians in Canadian history has only recently been directed towards women's history. As a result of this situation, most of the literature currently available is in the form of articles, unpublished papers, theses and reprints of early feminist authors. For discussions of why the activities and attitudes of women have been largely neglected by Canadian historians see S. Mann Trofimenkoff and A. Prentice, eds., The Neglected Majority*• Essays in Canadian Women's History (Torontot McClelland and Steward, 1977), 7-13? G. R. Cook, "Introduction," to The Canadian Woman Suffrage Movement by C. Cleverdon (1950 rpttr Toronto» University of Toronto Press, 197*0» viii-ix and J. Acton et al., eds., Women at Work* Ontario 1850-1930 (Torontot Canadian Women's Educational Press, 1974), 1-4.

2. Considerable interest has recently been expressed by several authors in various aspects of the Canadian woman suffrage movement. Few, however, are primarily concerned with the motivations of the suffragists. The most effective study in this group is C. L. Bacchi-Ferraro, -The Ideas of the Canadian Woman Suffragists, 1890-1920" (M.A. thesis, McGill University, 1970). She focuses primarily on the Ontario situation.

3. See, for example, V. Strong-Boag, The Parliament of Women, the National Council of Women of Canada 1893-1929. National Museum of Man Mercury Series, History Division, Paper no. 18. (Ottawai National Museums of Canada, 1976)j W. Mitchinson, "The Woman's Christian Temperance Unioni A Woman's Reform Organization, 1874-1900," paper presented at Mount Saint Vincent University, April 1976 and J. Stoddart and V. Strong-Boag, "... 'And Things Were Going Wrong at Home'," Atlantis I (Fall 1975)» 138-144.

4. See, for example, T. Morrison, "Their Proper Spherest Feminism, the Family and Child-Centered Social Reform in Ontario, 1875-1900," Pt. I Ontario History LXVIII (March 1976)i 45-64; N. Sutherland, Children in English-Canadian Societvt: Framing the Twentieth Century Consensus (Torontoi University of Toronto Press, 1976)» Trofimenkoff and Prentice, ibid, and Acton et al., ibid.

5. See, for example, V. Strong-Boag, ibid.j Mitehinson, ibid.» W. L. Thorpe, "Lady Aberdeen and the National Council of Women of Canada" (M.A. thesis, Queen's University, 1973) and R. Stamp, "Adelaide Hoodless, Champion of Women's Rights" in Profiles of Canadian Educators, eds. R. S. Patterson et al. (n. pl.t D. C". Heath Canada Ltd., X 1974), 213-232.

6. See, for example, R. Allen, The Social Passion. Religion and Social Reform in Canada 1914-1928 (Toronto» University of Toronto Press, 1971)t S. Mosher, "The Social Gospel in British Columbia* Social Reform as a Dimension of Religion, 1900-1920" (M.A. thesis, University of Victoria, 1974)j P. Rutherford, "Tomorrow's Metropolis* The Urban Reform Movement in Canada, 1880-1920," Canadian Historical Association Historical Papers 1971, 203-224$ J. H. Thompson, "'The Beginnings of Our Regeneration'* The Great War and Western Canadian Reform Movements," Canadian Historical Association Historical Papers 1972, 227-245.

7. See, for example, M. Ramelson, The Petticoat Rebellion* A Century of Struggle for Women's Rights"" (London* Lawrence and Wishart. 1967)* C. Rover. Women's Suffrage and Party Politics in Britain 1866-1914 (London* Routledge and Kegan Paul. 1967)* A. Kraditor. The Ideas of the Woman Suffrage Movement 1890-1920 (Garden City, New York* Doubleday and Company 1971 ed.) and A. Grimes, The Puritan Ethic and Woman Suffrage (New York: Oxford University Press, 1967). In particular, Kraditor's examination of the American suffragists' contribution to American intellectual history suggested a worthwhile approach to the study of the British Columbia suffragists while Grimes' emphasis on the political self-interest of the grantors of political equality for women provided a caution readily applicable to the British Columbia situation.

8. Most useful in this category were R. Hofstader, The Age of Reform (New York* Random House Inc., I960) and H. Wiebe. The Search For Order. 1877-1920 (New York* Hill and Wang, 1967).

9. See, for example, M. Vicinus, "The Perfect Victorian Lady" in Suffer and Be Still. Women in the Victorian Age, ed. M. Vicinus (Don Mills, Ontario* Fitzhenry and Whiteside Limited, 1972), viii-xv* B. Welter, "The Cult of True Womanhood, 1820-1860," American Quarterly XVIII (Summer 1966)* 151-174 and J. Conway, "Women Reformers and American Culture, 1870-1930," Journal of Social History •V (Winter 1971-1972)«: 164-177. Introduction

The British Columbia woman suffrage movement formed an integral part of the general reform impulse in Canada and other western nations during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This reform impulse or progressive movement was motivated by a desire on the part of numerous groups and individuals to correct what they perceived to be

social problems created by industrialization, urbanization

and immigration. In order to achieve their proposed ends

the reformers, including the suffragists, launched a

variety of campaigns designed to tackle specific problems

such as drunkenness, gambling, overcrowded housing, political

corruption, prostitution, contagious diseases and crime.

Linking many participants in these diverse activities was

the notion of a Christian social conscience as expressed

through the social gospel movement. As a result of its

influence the various reform campaigns were frequently

interconnected by shared aspirations and personnel.

Within the context of the various forms of reform

activity during that period, the British Columbia woman

suffrage movement was most closely connected to the

international campaign to enfranchise women.1 This campaign

was at the forefront of a general attempt in several

western nations to secure equal rights for women in social, 2 economic and political affairs. The British Columbia 1 suffragists were comparative latecomers to this arena as

American, English and other European feminists had been

fighting for equal access to the ballot and other rights

for at least the previous sixty years. Some feminist

agitation had also occurred in Canada prior to 1890,

although it had been confined primarily to expanding the

educational opportunities for women and guaranteeing married women access to their property. Thus, as a result of the efforts of other women, the British Columbia suffragists became heirs to a tradition of women's activism and debate concerning the appropriate social role for women particularly as it was expressed in English-speaking countries. The knowledge that they were participants in both a national and an international women* s movement also provided an important support for their morale in the long struggle for political equality.

Yet, while the British Columbia woman suffrage movement was linked to the national and international drive for social reform and shared many of the concerns of suffragist elsewhere, the British Columbia campaign for the enfranchis ment of women was generated largely by conditions within the province. Women residing in British Columbia addressed the problems of the social, legal, economic and political status of women and children in their home province because they were dissatisfied with these conditions, not because they were artifically attempting to emulate the activities . 3 of others. Similarly, the social reforms proposed by the

suffragists were necessitated, in their view, by local

circumstances including .widespread drunkenness, to

choose only one example.^ As a result of this situation the

British Columbia drive for women's political equality was

characterized by an amalgamation of local and imported

concepts and taeties.

The woman suffrage movement became the central focus

of reform energy for early women activists in British

Columbia primarily because they believed that the social

reforms they envisioned could be most effectively achieved by legislative action. They also recognized that the

legal inequalities which restricted women's rights in

several areas including the family, the workplace and

government could only be rectified by legislation. As a result of this perspective they thought it imperative that women participate directly in the political process as

voters and candidates in order to influence the nature of

the laws adopted. In addition, the campaign for access

to the franchise at all levels assumed central significance because feminists regarded the right to vote as the most

important symbol of equality and citizenship.

The British Columbia suffragists' concentration on

a provincial rather than a national campaign to secure the

enfranchisement of women derived from the allocation of

legislative powers in the British North America Act. 4

Under this act the provincial governments obtained juris• diction in most Of-the areas directly affecting the civil

status of its residents. Thus, women desiring the revision

of laws relating to areas such as the care and guardianship

of children, the solemnization of marriage, property rights,

estate procedures, municipal affairs, working conditions,

education, the treatment of provincial prisoners, or the provision for the care of the sick necessarily addressed 7 themselves to the provincial government. Consequently, the suffragists viewed access to the provincial ballot as especially valuable. This emphasis was reinforced by

the 1898 Revision of the Dominion Elections Act which abolished the uniform national franchise for federal

elections and proclaimed that henceforth the provincial

electorate would also be the federal electorate within the o boundaries of that province. As a result of this situation

the British Columbia suffragists, like their counterparts

in the other provinces, campaigned principally within one

province.^ Because of this focus the various woman suffrage

campaigns in Canada reflected to a considerable extent

the social, economic and political characteristics of the

area in which they were conducted.

As well as being an integral part of the impulse for

social reform, the woman suffrage movement in each of the

Canadian provinces constituted the last phase of the

nineteenth century trend in Great Britain and her former colonies to expand the franchise to include the majority

of the adult population. Like many other developments in

Canada, the expansion of the male franchise was a product

of Canada's colonial relationship to Great Britain and her proximity to the United States. The original British definition of the franchise as "a privilege bestowed on the citizen by the state in its wisdom and magnaminity" was moderated in British North America by a more democratic

American interpretation of the suffrage as a "right inherent in each man from his very nature".10 The amalgam of these two interpretations resulted in a view that the right of access to the franchise should be tempered by "an emphasis on the worthiness of the individual as demonstrated through property — visual indications of the self-reliance of their possessors".11 The initial availability of land in British

North America meant that the great majority of men in the nineteenth century were able to qualify as freehold electors, if not as candidates (which required greater holdings). The precedent of virtual manhood suffrage was not reversed as inexpensive or free land became less available. Rather, "in every case where this happened the 12 franchise was extended" to meet new occupation and residency patterns. Reflecting these attitudes, the

British Columbia legislative assembly enacted manhood suffrage in 1872 but retained property-based municipal and school board franchises. Under the 1873 Municipal 6

Elections Act women were permitted to qualify as feme sole

voters in municipal elections provided they possessed the required property in their own name.1-^ Women householders were granted the urban school board franchise in 1889, but

this right was revoked in 1892.^ The suffragists

challenged the basis of the franchise insofar as they demanded the termination of the exclusion of women from

the provincial and, after 1892, the school board franchises.

In addition, they requested the expansion of the inter• pretation of the property qualification in municipal and

school board elections to include the wives of propertied men. They also objected to the exclusion of women from contesting any elections. Their motives and methods for securing woman suffrage form the ^central focus of this investigation. 7

Footnotes

1. See, for example, I. M. Aberdeen, ed., International Council of Women Report of Transactions of the Fourth Quninquennial Meeting (Londoni Constable and Co., Ltd., 1910)t A. Kraditor, The Ideas of the Woman Suffrage Movement, 1890-1920t E. S. Pankhurst. The Suffragette (Londoni Gray and Hancock Ltd., 1911) and C". Rover, Women's Suffrage and Party Politics in Britain l666-19lh~".

2. See, for example, A. Kraditor, ed., Up From the Pedestal (Chicagoi Quadrangle Books, 1968)j T. Lloyd, Suffragettes International. The World Wide Campaign for Women's Rights (Londoni BPC Unit 75» 1971) and M. Ramelson, The Petticoat Rebellion.

3» M. MacLellan, "History of Women's Rights in Canada" in Cultural Tradition and Political History of Women in Canada, M. Dumont-Jbhnson et al. Studies of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canada, no. 8 (Ottawai Information Canada, 1972), 4 and 6-8.

4. See, for example, J:. S. Mill, The Subjection of Women (1869 rptt Londoni Longmans, Green and Co., 1909); K. Millett, "The Debate Over Women" in Suffer and Be StilL Women in the Victorian Age. 121-139 and B. Welter, "The Cult of True Womanhood, 1820-1860".

5. See, for example, E. Phillips Edge, "Report of the Vancouver Local Council, " National Council of Women of Canada Report (1904)» xv. "Here in Vancouver, we may have been looked upon in the past, as a somewhat insignificant, and overambitious band of women, but those of us, who understand even in a small degree, the importance of this work at the present time, and still more the possibilities of its future, are already conscious, that in all civilized countries, some of the greatest women of the age are with us, or rather we should say we are honoured in feeling that we are with them and through the National and Inter• national Councils, are associated with the true aristocracy of Womanhood, whether of noble birth, as many of them are, or of more humble origin."

6. In 1891 British Columbia had the highest alcohol consumption per capita of all provinces. See R. Popham and W. Schmidt, Statistics of Alcohol Use and Alcoholism in Canada 1875-1956 (Toronto» University of Toronto Press, 1958), 15-23.

7. British North America Act, 1867, s. 92 as cited in Canadian History in Documents, 1763-1966, J. M. Bliss, ed. (Torontoi Ryerson Press, 1966;, 137-139. 8

8. Canada, Revised Statutes. 6 Ed. 7» c. 6, s. 6 and 10.

9. The British Columbia woman suffrage movement has been characterized as the most insular or self-contained one in Canada. See Cleverdon, The Woman Suffrage Movement in Canada, 84 and Bacchi-Ferraro, "The Ideas of the Canadian Suffragists, 1890-1920," 27.

10. J. Garner, The Franchise and Politics in British North America, 1755-1867. Canadian Studies in History and Government, no. 13(Torontoi University of Toronto Press, 1969), 6.

11. Ibid.

12. Ibid., 3» For a discussion of the preconfederation British Columbia and Vancouver Island franchises see ibid., 118-126.

13. For the provincial franchise see British Columbia, Statute^,. 35 Vict., c. 39. The major groups of men prohibited from voting were Native Indians and Asians. See ibid., 58 Vict., c. 20, s. 2 and ibid., 7 Ed. 7, c. 16, s. 3. For the municipal electorate and women's voting rights see ibid., 36 Vict., c. 5» s. 1, 2 and 6. For the school board franchise see ibid., 49 Vict., c. 30, s. 23. 14. Ibid., 52 Vict., c. 25 and Ibid., 55 Vict., c. 40. Chapter 1 The British Columbia Woman Suffrage

Movement 1890 - 1909

Prior to 1910 efforts to secure woman suffrage in

British Columbia were conducted primarily by women's organizations whose objectives were broader than that of simply achieving woman suffrage. For each of these organizations, access to the franchise was viewed as necessary to achieve the reformed society it envisioned.

The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) initially

championed the cause of woman suffrage in the hope of

strengthening the prohibition cause by adding large numbers of temperance women to the electorate. Augmenting

the franchise efforts of the WCTU, the local branches of

the National Council of Women of Canada in Victoria,

Vancouver and New Westminster began to advocate the

enfranchisement of women as part of their overall program

to alter the economic, legal and social status of women

in the province. After the turn of the century women

supporters of the Socialist Party of British Columbia

endorsed woman suffrage as a recognition of women's

equality with men. Sharing many of the goals of the

local councils, the University Women's Club also

investigated the links between woman suffrage and legislation

regarding women's lives. For the three most active of

9 these groups, the WCTU, the local councils of the National

Council of Women and the University Women's Club, woman suffrage constituted "not only a reform in itself but an instrument for further reform within the prevailing political conception of social goals."* For the far less influential socialist women, woman suffrage was regarded as a tool to help overthrow the prevailing political order.

The ongoing WCTU support for woman suffrage, from the

Union's inception in the 1880s until 1918, derived from its membership's essentially conservative and partially defensive reaction to the rapid alterations occuring within society at both the provincial and national levels during this period. WCTU members were intensely concerned about the ramifications for family life and women's position in society occasioned by urbanization, industrialization, immigration and, in some cases, by the persistence of frontier social institutions such as the saloon. Fear of the ill-effects of these influences recurred throughout the literature of the WCTU. The imminent moral decay of

society rapidly emerged as a dominant theme which is

constantly reinforced by references to the prevalence of

alcoholism, prostitution, venereal disease, gambling,

drug addiction and a host of lesser 'evils' including

cigarette smoking, swearing, distribution of obscene 2 literature and lack of curfew laws. Operating from the 11 premise that "the power next to prayer is the ballot" several

WCTU women decided in 1888 that woman suffrage would be the most effective way to grapple with the "strongholds of

Satan"^ generally and alcohol particularly.

The WCTU suffragists* faith in the power of woman suffrage to activate the moral regeneration of society derived directly from their belief that women were the natural moral superiors of men. Working from this supposition, they claimed that women's participation in government would exert a "beneficent influence ... in the uplifting of humanity. "-* Initially, the WCTU suffragists did not aspire to exert women's purifying influence by holding office but rather sought to ensure the election of "men who are not only intellectually, but morally capable to fill their office. Men whose principles are pure, whose lives are upright and whose word is sacred."^

With the securing of the right for women to contest urban school board elections in 1895^ the WCTU suffragists altered this attitude to include the sponsorship of women candidates wherever qualified women could be found.

Laudatory descriptions of the beneficial effect of woman suffrage in jurisdictions outside Canada eneouraged an idealistic attitude regarding the potential of enfranchising women. Residents of Wyoming, for example, were portrayed as living in a reformed community as changes proposed by women voters allegedly resulted in the elimination of poverty and crime, "except by strangers." Implicit in the

suffragists' argument that the standards of conduct in

public life required raising was the contention that the

all male provincial electorate had either deliberately

lowered them or simply acquiesced in their decline. These

suffragists saw women's enfranchisement as a way to correct

the imbalance of moral forces in politics and therefore

in the community.

A direct corollary of the WCTU suffragists' position regarding women's moral superiority was their endorsement

of the notion of divinely ordained separate spheres of

activity for men and women. Cecilia Spofford, a long•

time executive member of the Victoria and Provincial WCTU

and an active suffragists, clearly summarized their shared

perspective, "to subdue the physical was man's work, to Q

subdue the moral and spiritual was women's work."^

According to this division of labour, women's work should

focus on domestic affairs to create harmonious, moral and

pleasant homes for their husbands and children. By the

late nineteenth century, however, several WCTU suffragists

felt that their efforts to nurture and educate their

children to become "intelligent and enterprising" with

"right principles and pure thoughts in their hearts"*^

were being increasingly subverted by the environment

outside the home, over which women had little control.

This perception that the home or family, "the important institution in the country" and women's rightful domain, was being threatened by sinister forces formed the basis for the WCTU women's defensive reaction which has been characterized, in connection with another women's group, 12 as "maternalistic activism". WCTU suffragists demanded the vote so that "the home and the domestic side of things could count for more in politics and in the administration of public affairs than they do at present."1-^ Thus women needed the vote, not because they saw themselves as the peers of men in all aspects, but because of fundamental differences between the sexes» If men and women were exactly alike, the representation of men would represent us? but not being alike^ that wherein we differ., is unrepresented under the present system. These differences, however, were confined to the moral sphere as women were constantly asserted to possess "as much refinement, education and wealth, as many of the sterner sex".1^

As guardians of domestic life, WCTU suffragists considered themselves well-qualified to enter public life.

Skills developed while managing the home economy, adjudicating family disputes, raising children and creating a healthy environment were regarded as readily transferable to the public arena.^ Federal, provincial and municipal affairs, they contended, could be far more efficiently managed by the application of 'good housekeeping' techniques which would eliminate corruption, waste, the setting of false priorities and mismanagement. In this way, any negative side effects of industrialization and urban• ization could be removed by appropriate legislative action.

Anti-social behavior was, in their estimation, due to personal failure and not symptomatic of a larger malaise in the overall organization of society. Accordingly, drunkenness could be largely eliminated by the strict control of liquor licensing and the eventual securing of prohibition. Prostitution, gambling and drug addiction could be stopped by the active enforcement of laws prohibiting these practices. Similarly, the activities of juveniles

could be controlled by restrictions. By applying their

standards for domestic life to the community through political action, the WCTU suffragists hoped to remove what they regarded as moral blights.

The WCTU suffragists' attempts to extend the influence

of women from the home into the community was motivated by

a desire to exert a form of social control over others.

They sought to impose their way of life upon what they regarded as the increasingly heterogeneous population of

the province by enshrining their viewpoints in law. By

systematically banning activities such as the sale of

liquor, Sunday sports and gambling they hoped to force

residents and newly arrived immigrants to accept their

pattern of life which focused on the prohibitionist, self-

supporting, English-speaking, Protestant, Anglo-Canadian family. Anyone who did not conform to this norm was regarded by the women as a potential threat to the nation, the institution of the family and subsequently to themselves since they defined their own identities in terms of family roles — as wife, mother, sister and daughter. In defence of their position, WCTU suffragists launched nativist and racist attacks at the most vulnerable member of society, the new immigrant

who perhaps can neither read or write, but who by residing on Canadian soil one year and taking the oath of allegiance, though he may know nothing of our laws, nothing of the men who aspire to office, perhaps he cannot speak one word of English, and yet he can say, who shall be our legislators, while we women are placed side by side with idiots, lunatics and children.17

Woman suffrage, by enfranchising family women, would help to minimize or control the influence of 'undesirable' persons, particularly single non-temperance men.

While concerned about the moral qualities of other persons, the WCTU suffragists expressed no doubts about the morality of their aspiration for social control. Dedicated 19 to "God and Home and Native Land", these women saw themselves as Christian patriots charged with the task of

injecting Christian standards into everyday life. Drawing

from the nineteenth century evangelical sentiment which 20

emphasized "a restrictive personal and social morality"

they viewed as religious reforms those secular changes which coincided with their moral proscriptions. Thus, they defined as Christian laws measures which prohibited the consumption of alcholic beverages, gambling, prostitution and cigarette smoking. As a result of this perspective, they viewed the ballot as their weapon in a holy crusade which they optimistically argued could not fail since it 21 was divinely authorized.

The WCTU suffragists* endeavour to inject their version of Christianity into the secular world was closely allied to the social gospel movement in some Protestant churches in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The temperance women shared with social gospel ministers the belief that "Christianity was a social religion concerned 22

. . . with the quality of human relations on this earth."

As a result of the common perspective of the social gospellers and the WCTU suffragists, the efforts of the two groups to seek solutions within the context of Christianity to the urban and industrial problems confronting the provine were often mutually supportive. They shared with the proponents of social gospel "a generalized sense of progress 23 and were influenced by "evolutionary concepts" J which they interpreted as jointly indicating the eventual triumph of their world view. Also commonly held with the social gospellers was the "belief in the possibility of personal 24 perfection beyond the temptation of sin", particularly if the environment in which people lived was improved.

Consequently the WCTU suffragists did not strive to alter 17 fundamentally the role of women in society but rather sought to modify and enlarge the environment within which women performed their functions as mothers and wives. They argued that as the activities of the home moved into the community so too must the activities of women, the guardians of the home and public morality. This interpretation of the function of women was supported by social gospel ministers, J

During the mid 1890s the reform efforts of the WCT¥~ were greatly strengthened by the formation of local councils of women in Victoria (1894), Vancouver (1894), New Westminster

(1898), Vernon (1895) and Nelson (1900). The local councils attempted to attract all organizations of women within their communities to join together in a loose federation which could speak authoritatively, on behalf of women, on local issues. The local councils were in turn affiliated to the National Council of Women of Canada and through this body to the International Council of Women. The

National Council of Women of Canada, founded in 1893, strove to represent the consensus of opinion of the majority 26 of Canadian women on issues affecting their lives. The

favorable reception accorded the formation of the National

Council of Women of Canada and the local councils reflects one aspect of the increasingly public role of women in

Canada in the late nineteenth century as numerous clubs were formed by women for social, philanthropic and economic 18 purposes. Seeking solutions to the problems confronting them, activist women, like many other groups, adopted an

increasingly collectivist approach in the hope of maximizing their influence on legislators.2'' The founding of the

National Council of Women of Canada and its locals is also indicative of the advancing secularization of Canadian society and, correspondingly, of Canadian women's groups.

The women's councils strove to eliminate factionalism by welcoming all women irrespective of faith, occupation, class, age, marital status, racial or ethnic origins and political viewpoint. Their policy of nondenominationalism was particularly important as it attracted large numbers of Canadian women not closely aligned with the once predominant, religiously-based reform groups such as the

WCTU or the women's missionary societies of the various

Christian churches. Encouraged by the possibilities of joint action British Columbia women activists responded enthusiastically to the National Council of Women of Canada recruiting campaigns for local councils in several locations throughout the province.

Although the women in the small local councils in

Vernon and Nelson confined their activities primarily to volunteer work for their local hospital or library, members of the larger Victoria and Vancouver Island Local

Council of Women, Vancouver Local Council of Women and New

Westminster Local Council of Women submitted to no such restrictions. Sharing the WCTU women's belief that social

improvement could best be brought about by legislated

social controls, the councils began to undertake a re-

evaluation of numerous laws, particularly those relating to women and to children. Echoing Maria Grant's 1888 plea for "protection" for women, children and the home, each council established a Committee on Laws for the Protection 30 of Women and Children. Under the auspices of this committee, ongoing investigations were conducted in four general areas* the legal status of women as individuals and as family members, the situation of women in the work• force, the care and custody of children and the treatment 31 of women and juvenile criminal offenders. Having thus accumulated evidence which they interpreted as indicating that the interests of women and children were insufficiently represented in the province, the local councils initiated a series of campaigns to alter some aspects of family law, factory regulations and the treatment of juvenile and 32 women offenders.

On the whole, the members of the local councils of women in British Columbia shared the WCTU women's conviction that the quality of family life closely affected the fate of the nation. As an affiliate of the National Council of

Women of Canada, each local council of women pledged itself to defend the hbme and the family. This position was stated in the constitutional preamble which declared* 20

We, Women of Canada, sincerely believing that the best good of our homes and nation will be advanced by our own greater unity of thought, sympathy, and purpose, and that an organized movement of women will best conserve the greatest good of the Family and the State, do hereby band ourselves together to further the application of the Golden Rule to society, custom and law. 33

Thus, in common with the earlier religiously-based women's reform organizations the National Council of Women of Canada and the local councils accepted the prevailing notion that women were naturally (although not necessarily divinely) endowed to exercise a beneficent influence within the home, community and nation as preservers of virtue and purifiers.

As a result of this general coincidence of perspective, the WCTU and the local councils of women in British

Columbia frequently joined forces in pursuit of common goals.

One of the first manifestations of this point of view was the campaign undertaken by the Victoria Local Council of Women to expand women's influence in government at the most elementary level, the school board. In January 1895» only two months after the formation of the Victoria Local

Council of Women, its executive "on behalf of twenty ladies' societies'* successfully petitioned the provincial government

"to allow women to become members of the School Board of

Trustees" in urban areas. Their subsequent nominee, Maria

Grant (chosen in conjunction with the WCTU which had 3 < petitioned the government on this matter in 189*0, and her successors secured one and sometimes two of the four seats on the Victoria School Board for the next quarter century. Similarly, the Vancouver Local Council of Women and the New Westminster Local Council of Women successfully 36 fielded candidates for their respective school boards.

This act also granted women householders and freeholders the right to vote in school board elections.

Although the local councils of women in the province frequently collaborated with the WCTU in the advopacy of specific legislation, the two organizations differed

considerably in the priority each accorded the attainment of provincial and consequently federal woman suffrage.

While the provincial WCTU organized a large petition 37

favouring woman suffrage in 1885 and passed a woman

suffrage resoltuion at its annual convention as early as

1889"^ none of the local councils of women actively

advocated a provincial woman suffrage platform prior to

1908, when the Victoria Local Council of Women first passed 39

such a resolution. This discrepancy can be partially

attributed to differences in the motivation and goals

of the two organizations. Having designated woman suffrage

as a probable prerequisite for achieving prohibition, their

primary goal, the WCTU consistently lobbied for the women's

franchise. The local councils of women, however, were not

dedicated to achieving one specific goal but rather sought

to improve women's economic, legal and social position 22 through a variety of legislative changes. This generalist approach and the passage of some women's legislation delayed for a time an awareness on the part of some local council of women members of the political impotence of nonvoters.

Political activism on the part of the local councils of women was also retarded by the lack of unanimity on this subject since some members held religious and political beliefs which did not sanction women's involvement in politics.

The coincidence'- between the revocation of the municipal franchise from women in Victoria in 1908, only two years after it had been inadvertently enlarged to include most women, and the local council's official endorsement of provincial woman suffrage suggests that the government's action prompted the Victoria Local Council of Women to adopt the

WCTU's contention that political pressure was more effective when exerted within the political system. By June 1908 the local councils of women in the lower mainland and on

Vancouver Island agreed with the WCTU that women's position in the province was insecure as long as they 40 remained disfranchised.

The difference in timing between the WCTU and the local councils of women also derived from the dissimilarity of their parent organizations' viewpoints on woman suffrage.

Both the Dominion WCTU and the American WCTU worked for woman suffrage in conjunction with their prohibition efforts.^1 Conversely, the National Councils of Women of 23

Canada consistently refused to sponsor a prohibition platform and therefore never linked woman suffrage and prohibition.

From its inception under the leadership of Lady Aberdeen, the National Council of Women of Canada clearly disassociated itself from the advocacy of specific causes such as woman 42 suffrage and only gradually adopted a supportive position with respect to certain demands for women's rights such as equal access to educational institutions, J Dominated by a conservative hierarchy and composed of a larger hetero• geneous membership, the National Council of Women of Canada attempted to avoid issues as controversial as woman suffrage.

As a result of this reticence to tackle disputed issues, the disparity between the positions of the National Council of Women of Canada and the three main British Columbia locals was occasionally considerable. Their involvement in school board elections remained unrecognized for seven years until the National Council of Women's formation in 44

1902 of a Standing Committee on Women on School Boards.

The efforts of the Victoria and Vancouver local councils to secure the municipal franchise for women on the same basis as that granted to men remained unsanctioned by the National

Council of Women until the narrow passage of a woman suffrage 45 resolution by the National Council of Women m 1910. J

Thus, although the British Columbia local councils of women were slower to engage actively in woman suffrage campaigns than the WCTU in the province, they were 24 considerably in advance of the National Council of Women of

Canada's policy.

Closely allied with the women's reform groups were the professional women's clubs which began to appear in the province in 1908. The first of these organizations, the

University Women's Club with branches in Victoria and

Vancouver, immediately undertook a joint study with the local councils on the legal status of women and children

in the province. Like the local councils of women, the members of the University Women's Club interested themselves in the campaigns to secure better working conditions for women and sponsored the first debate in the province on a 46 minimum wage for women. The club also organized itself as a gathering and clearing house for information on legislation in the United States, Great Britain, Australia 4 and New Zealand regarding the treatment of women offenders.

According to Helen Gregory MacGill, a founding member of the Vancouver University Women's Club, the "backward

state of the local legislation brought home to most 48 university women the need of woman suffrage." Although

the University Women's Club did not become a suffrage

society, its efforts lent an aura of respectability to the

cause. Many of its members became important leaders in the

second phase of the woman suffrage campaign in the province 25 commencing in 1910.

The fourth group of women interested in the British

Columbia woman suffrage movement prior to 1909 was the women members of the Socialist Party of British Columbia.

Unlike the other suffragists, these women expressed a desire for political equality with men in order to overthrow rather than reform the government. Despite this revolution• ary orientation, however, many of the claims and complaints made by these women were very similar to those uttered by the more orthodox WCTU, local councils of women and

University Women's Club suffragists. They subscribed to the notion that women as mothers had particular talents to offer government. Like the WCTU and the local councils

of women members, their spokeswoman asserted*

Only a mother can properly sympathize with the •growing pains' of developing youth, and women should have an equal voice with men in the management of all our educational institutions. To that end they should be interested and informed on world events as well as on city or village happenings; on foreign affairs as well as domestic tattle; on matters of state as well as on matters of stewing. . . in cleaning the door- yards of civilization as well as in brushing the litter from her own little premises.49

Just as the woman suffragist reformers chaffed at their

exclusion from politics, the woman socialist suffragists

worried about the ramifications for socialism and for

women socialists of the male domination of their party.^°

The women socialists' insecurity about the possible result of woman suffrage, however, found no parallel among the woman suffrage reformers. Sure of their cause and goals, the reformers were convinced that woman suffrage would bring about their desired reforms. Socialist women, on the other hand, expressed qualms that woman suffrage could merely multiply the number of opponents of socialism.-*1

These doubts combined with the small number of women socialists, their loose organization, their limited access to persons of power and the lack of public receptivity to socialism to rerider the socialist women peripheral to the main woman suffrage movement.

Leadership in the woman suffrage movement in British

Columbia prior to 1910 was exercised by a small relatively 52 homogeneous group of nine women. Each of these women, working under the auspices of either the WCTU or a branch of the local council of women, actively campaigned for woman suffrage in a variety of ways including circulating petitions, lecturing, contesting school board elections and forming delegations to confront government authorities.

All of the suffragist leaders were members of the local

councils of women in their communities, frequently serving

as executive officers or chairmen of the Committee on Laws

for the Protection of Women and Children. In addition,

seven of the nine women were also active WCTU members

working in various capacities including management, 27 recruiting, operating the WCTU Refuge Home and superintending the Department of Legislation, Petition and Franchise.

Reflective of their organizations' activities and their own outlooks, all of these women pursued the goal of woman suffrage while simultaneously working for other reforms.

Since the suffragist leaders were all dealing in similar ways with the problem of women's secondary status as epitomized by their restricted access to various franchises, it is not surprising that they shared, to some extent, similar ways of life. All of these women were urban residents, cognizant of the problems of city life in

Victoria, Vancouver and New Westminster. Most of the suffragists conducted their lives within a family context, either as wives, sisters, or daughters. Of the five married leaders at least four were mothers. Maria Grant and

Margaret Jenkins, long-time suffragist campaigners, had particularly large families of seven and sixteen children respectively. Of the four unmarried suffragist leaders, at least two resided with their relatives, Edith Perrin managed the household of her brother, Bishop Perrin, while

Susan Crease lived with her sister and brother at her family's home, Pentrelew. With the exception of Agnes

Deans Cameron, school principal and journalist, none of the suffragist leaders engaged in paid employment outside of their homes during the period of their personal suffrage activism. Rather they lived on private personal incomes or 28 relied on their male relatives for support in spite of the fact that four of them were qualified teachers. Thus, most of these women lived in circumstances sufficiently affluent to exempt them from the need to participate in the work• force. Their freedom from the need to work outside the home allowed them to devote more time to philanthropic and volunteer activity than otherwise would have been possible.

In addition, their strong links to family life conditioned the nature of their approach to the status of women.

This similarity of experience in British Columbia was reinforced by a shared cultural heritage. At least five of the suffragist leaders were born of British parents in

Canada while another three were born in England. All of the suffragists leaders underwent public or private education in Canada or England and shared similar cultural values. Eight of the leaders were residents of British

Columbia by the late 1880s while the other one arrived in the 1890s. As a result, most of these leaders had first-hand experience with British Columbian conditions and attitudes prior to their involvement in suffrage activities and therefore addressed themselves directly to British Columbian problems.

While these facts indicate points of shared exper• ience amongst the suffragist leaders and suggest some prerequisites for activism such as available leisure time, the question of why these particular women became the leaders of the woman suffrage movement remains unanswered.^J

The relatively recent arrival of white women in the province combined with the previously private nature of 'respectable* women's lives to prevent the formation of a tradition of women's leadership in the public life of the province. As a result, the leadership of the various facets of the woman suffrage movement was open to anyone who had a considerable interest in woman suffrage, the personal freedom to engage in such activities, the talent required to'become a public figure and sufficient tenacity to persist despite numerous defeats. All of the woman suffrage leaders in the province seem to have possessed a heightened sense of personal responsibility towards society generally and women and children particularly. This may in part have derived from family traditions of public leadership. Most of these women, either before or after marriage, were connected with families which undertook religious, economic, social and political leadership roles in various communities in

Canada and Great Britian. Five of the suffragist leaders were closely linked through family ties to religious

leaders or were themselves lay church administrators. In

addition, six of the leaders were affiliated with social

gospel denominations. This close connection to persons

with strong religious convictions possibly accounts for

the zeal with which some of the suffragist leaders pursued

their goal and partially explains why they initially 30 became involved in woman suffrage. Both Helen Grant and

Agnes Hill were members of politically prominent families in the Maritimes, while Agnes Hill enjoyed the further distinction of being the second cousin of a former British

Columbia premier, Amor de Cosmos. The political activism of their families may have spurred them to advocate political careers for women, setting the example themselves by becoming school trustees. Susan Crease and Edith Perrin, as female members of the social elite, had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with community leaders and perhaps subsequently to chaffe at the restrictions placed on them because of their sex. Thus it is possible that these nine women assumed the leadership of the first phase of the woman suffrage movement not so much because they were intensely interested in woman suffrage, as because they possessed the necessary personal attributes and were familiar with male leadership. The continuity of their leadership suggests that woman suffrage supporters on the whole found these women to be acceptable public spokesmen for their cause.

The absence of suffrage societies in the province prior to 1910 complicates the task of determining the composition of the membership of the woman suffrage movement.

Although the WCTU as an organization clearly supported the various woman suffrage campaigns, no precise indication can be gained from the annual reports of the number of members working for woman suffrage. One possible indicator is the presence or absence of a Department of Legislation,

Petition and Franchise in a local union. By 1888 Vancouver,

Victoria, New Westminster and Chilliwack WCTUs all had franchise departments and with the exception of Chilliwack, maintained them until woman suffrage was fully secured.

However, as the WCTU gradually expanded on Vancouver Island and into the Okanagan, Kootenays and Cariboo, there is little evidence that the new unions undertook sustained woman suffrage activity prior to 1910. The small membership of the provincial WCTU^ and the even smaller number of dedicated suffragists within the organizations did not, however, prevent the organization from mustering considerable support throughout the province for woman suffrage on various occasions.As Weppler points out, the WCTU*s "superb organizational skills particularly their use of the press, allowed the group to wield much 57 more influence than their numbers warranted."^'

The other major bodies of suffragists in the province during this period were those local council of women members not affiliated with the WCTU.58 Unlike the WCTU, the local councils of women did not compile membership figures in terms of individuals but rather in terms of affliliated societies. Consequently, it is not possible to estimate either the number of members in each local 32

- 59 council ^ or the nunber of suffragist members. Similar to the situation which pertained in the WCTU, the interior local councils of women in Vernon and Nelson did not initiate a Committee on Laws for the Protection of

Women, the committee responsible for franchise work.

Nevertheless, the frequent demonstrations of active support for woman suffrage on the part of the three main local councils of women suggests that many of their members endorsed woman suffrage. The wider perspective of the local councils of women as compared to the WCTU also contributed to the gradual process of expanding the woman suffrage movement to. include working and career women.

The tactics utilized by the suffragists reflected their desire to alter some aspects of the status of women

"without simultaneously appearing to demand a more funda• mental modification of values"^0 which would have precipitated an even more adverse reaction to their cause on the part of anti-suffragists. Indeed, most of the suffragists of this period did not envision an extensive reorganization of society and would not have supported any cause advocating that position. Operating from their premise that the inequities of women's position in society could be corrected by legislative action, the suffragists developed an arsenal of tactics to educate, persuade, pressure, cajole or humiliate politicians into granting woman suffrage. They j reinforced their attacks on hostile politicians by

simultaneously engaging in various activities designed to

attract more support for their cause from the public.

"~ One of the first and most consistently practised

techniques employed by the suffragists was the recruitment i of sympathetic private members to introduce woman suffrage

' as a private member's bill in the legislative assembly.

Since no government prior to Brewster's administration was

willing to introduce a bill granting provincial woman

suffrage as a government measure, this was the only option

available to the suffragists wanting to force a vote on

the issue. (The debates on the nine private member's suffrage

bills from 1890 to 1909 sparked lively exchanges on the

-alleged effects of woman "suffrage in the province and

thereby helped to keep the issue in public view. As the

urban newspapers published either verbatim or summarized

accounts of the debates, readers had the opportunity to

familiarize themselves with the controversy. The

suffragists wrote letters to the editors of the local

papers to explain further their position and refute the

arguments of their opponents. Since a major goal of the

suffragists was to familiarize the public with their

point of view and thereby win converts to their cause,

this technique was viewed as particularly valuable. The

defeat of provincial woman suffrage in 1899 by a margin of Co only one vote reinforced the suffragists' perception of private member's bills as an appropriate tactic for their campaign.

The content of the debate provoked by the private member's bills was similar to that occurring simultaneously in eastern Canada.^ The mental competence of women to vote was roundly contested as some opponents of woman suffrage contended that women were the intellectual inferiors of men,^ too emotional to judge the issues rationally^5 66 and incapable of making decisions. In addition, women were alleged to be encumbered by an innate physical weakness which could possibly hinder them at the ballot box and 67 prevent them from defending their country in wartime. These allegations were countered with flat denials and 68 sarcasm.

More fundamental and therefore more difficult to refute were allegations that the participation of women in public life ran counter to the natural order of the world. Numerous politicians argued that women's partici• pation in politics would result in the destruction of the home,^ the desertion of helpless children''0 and domestic 71 quarrels. According to this point of view, women's

attendance at public meetings and the polls would culminate

in women becoming "amazons" who had **change([d3 their

lovely and bewitching nature, unsex[[ed] themselves and

embrace[d] malthusianism . . . ,n^Z The suffragists rebutted these claims by insisting that the married women's 35 vote would represent the interests of the home and children 73 and that families could function despite possible political 7k differences between spouses since women in civilized countries should have the right to think for themselves. 75

Considerable effort was also expended to reassure the 76 public that the act of voting was in no way unfeminine.

Reflecting the diverse motivations of the suffragists, demands for suffrage based on the moral superiority of women were sometimes accompanied by requests for the female franchise framed in terms of the justice due white British citizens. Suffragists objected to being bound by laws which they did not help to formulate and could not 77 revise. They also expressed resentment at their lack of representation despite the fact that some women were 78 taxpayers either as land owners or business managers.

They argued that it was inconsistent and unjust to grant women the municipal and sehool board franchise but not 79 the provincial vote. To reinforce their appeals variously based on justice, recognition of special talents and 80

class privilege some suffragists attempted to attract

persons sharing a common interest with them by suggesting

that the enfranchisement of women would expedite the O-l securing of their common goals.

1^ In order to strengthen their position, the suffragists

frequently organized petitions and delegations to accompany

]the introduction of private member's bills for woman suffrage or to bring their campaign to the attention of the legislative assembly. This tactic attempted to exert pressure on the politicians to respond to the requests for the extension of the franchise expressed by the numerous signators, frequently including enfranchised men.

It was hoped that petitions containing the signatures of a large number of women would help to refute the constantly reasserted charge that the majority of women were either Op opposed or,apathetic towards woman suffrage.

In addition to the publicity generated by their dealings with politicians, the suffragists simultaneously undertook several other activities to enlist the support of the community and defuse allegations that woman suffrage was a revolutionary measure.8-^ They organizad-J. parlour socials and booths at agricultural fairs to familiarize women with their motivation for seeking the vote and to QL acquaint them with women's activities elsewhere. They wrote women's editions of the Victoria Daily Colonist and

Victoria Daily Times which clearly illustrated their assess• ment of women's position in British Columbia and the 85 remedies available. J Personal interviews and letters planned by suffragists encouraged those women eligible to vote for school board and municipal elections to exercise their franchise rights and thereby vindicate the claims that women would vote if they had the opportunity. D Public meetings, sometimes featuring foreign feminist speakers, drew large crowds and provided a forum to present their case, to denounce opponents and to reassert the inevitability of woman suffrage since, they argued, the suffrage movement constituted the vanguard of a world wide movement to free women.®^

Not content with propagandistic activities, the WCTU suffragists also intervened directly in election campaigns.

The first tentative step of encouraging those women eligible to vote to select reformist candidates was supplemented in

1897 by interviewing members of the legislative assembly to obtain their views on woman suffrage and notify the op electorate of their positions. This tactic was designed to increase the political pressure on candidates as some members of the male electorate supported the suffragist position. By 1908 this tactic was expanded to include sending letters to all candidates requesting their positions on "the enfranchisement of women," "the manu• facture and sale of cigarettes," Mfthe raising of the age of protection for girls in Canada" and the "further curtailment of the liquor traffic." The women promised to "use their influence" for or against candidates on the basis of their replies.^ By directly intervening in election campaigns, the suffragists also aspired to deflate the jocularity which typified the response of some politicians.^

During the first period of concerted campaigning British Columbia suffragists secured only small legislative advances. By 1896 adult women householders or freeholders 91 in urban areas7 or resident householders, freeholders 92 or their wives in rural areas7 were eligible to contest and vote in school board elections in the province. This relative success on the school board level possibly reflects the pervasiveness of the notion that children were rightly the concern of women (most school districts offered only

lementary schooling). By the late 1890s women were also

be^innln'gs?^o^dominate elementary school teaching in the province, thereby reinforcing the connection between womenNand the education of young children. Another possible influentiaLv^factor was the relatively low priority accorded education in the province. Compulsory school attendance legislation remained frequently unheeded as less than

60$ of children aged seven to twelve were enrolled in 93 school prior to 1892. ^ The position of school board trustee was alsoJthe least desirable public office as it commanded little prestige due to the limited power it conferred, as well as its unpaid status. Men were thus perhaps more willing to surrender their monopoly in this

area\_than in others since women* s participation in school 0 board elections as voters or candidates did not seriously impinge on the 'male* world of politics and business.

Much less progress was achieved in the more contentious area of the municipal franchise. The difficulty of making 1° inroads into the municipal electorate was further exacerbated /

by the fact that some municipalities including Vancouver ^

and New Westminster were constituted under their own charters

and consequently were exempt from provincial acts governing

municipal electorates. Nevertheless, by 1890 a few women

qualified to exercise a municipal^vote although no women

were permitted tow contest municipal elections until 1917.'

In Vancouver and New Westminster, single women were

permitted to vote providing they could meet the residency 94 ' • and property qualifications imposed on men. In Victoria,

( ' "' ". „ Nanaimo and other districts and municipalities affected by *

the municipalities acte^ women, qualified as electors on

the same basis as men irrespective of theirjnarital status,^

The effect of this apparent gain, however, was small as

few women possessed sufficient property, paid enough

ren$ or owned business licences in their own names.

This situation was radically altered in 1906 by an amend•

ment to the Municipal Elections Act, The term "house•

holder" was redefined to include

any person of the full age of twenty-one years who occupies a dwelling, tenement, hotel or boarding-house, or any part or portion of a dwelling, tenement, hotel or boarding-house, and who shall, unless exempt by a Statute or Municipal By-law, have .paid directly to the Municipality rates, taxes or fees of not less than two dollars for the current year.96

This alteration meant that married women could qualify

for the municipal franchise upon payment of a two dollar

tax, including a dog licence fee. The provincial politicians had not, however, intended to extend an almost unqualified municipal franchise to women "but merely to include again those militia-men inadvertently excluded by a 1905 amend• ment.

The resulting rush of women to register for the municipal franchise provoked an intense struggle between the opponents and proponents of woman suffrage including petitions, public rallies, letters to the editors of the local newspapers and two court battles.^ The woman suffragists and their allies including the Mayor of Victoria and the majority of his council were, however, defeated by the combined opposition of the Licensed Victualler's

Association, the Property Owner's Association and the

Conservative government of Richard McBride. The 1908 session of the legislature re-enacted the pre-1906 qualifications for electors which excluded the vast majority of women.

The failure of the suffragists to expand the municipal franchise from a property or professional basis to include most women is reflective of their weak position in the community. As a political pressure group, the suffragists possessed few direct weapons with which to threaten the intransigent McBride government. As women they enjoyed no influence in the Conservative party, nor had they the wealth to affect the development of the provincial economy and thereby influence the party in power. Personal access 41 to politicians was formal and ineffective as none of the leading suffragists were close female relatives of current government members. In this period, as well, the suffragists were not accorded intensive, sustained support by any strong men's pressure groups, either provincial or national, but rather gradually won converts among men interested in various reforms or in seeking potential allies. The suffragists were also unable to overcome the allegation that they represented only a lunatic fringe of women. Despite the thousands of signatures accumulated on petitions and the l,l6l women who registered to vote in Victoria in one 98 day in 1906, the government continued to dismiss their demands as unrepresentative of a general sentiment. This attitude reflected the McBride administration's determination to exclude women from municipal and provincial decision• making. The government was confirmed in its stand by the political impotence of the suffragists and entrenched notions of women's position. Women negotiating with municipal governments such as the city of Vancouver fared no better.

Although the suffragists encountered repeated defeat during this period of campaigning, this problem was

insufficient to deter them. They accomplished their goal

of arousing public awareness on the issue while simultaneously refining their own skills as advocates. Buoyed by legis•

lative successes in other areas affecting women, the suffragists remained convinced that their basic premise^ need not be altered. By the end of this period, however, some suffragists had begun to re-evaluate the utility of their various tactics and to search for more effective means to approach the government. Their cumulative experiences constituted an important element in determining the future course of the woman suffrage movement in the province. Footnotes

1. A. Grimes, The Puritan Ethic and Woman Suffrage. 100.

2. As the membership and activities of the provincial WCTU gradually expanded during the 1890s, specific committees were appointed to assume responsibility for eliminating each of these 'blights'.

3. M. Grant, "Franchise," Report of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (1888)i 33 (hereafter cited as WCTU ReportH

4. The WCTU was not the only temperance organization in British Columbia at this time but it was the only temperance organization with a predominantly female member• ship, an exclusively female executive and a considerable interest in women's activities. For a discussion of the other temperance organizations and brief references to the WCTU see J. A. Hiebert, "Prohibition in British Columbia" (M.A. thesis, Simon Fraser University, 1969).

5. Victoria Daily Times. 2? May l895t Women's Edition.

6. M. Grant, "Franchise," WCTU Report (1888)t 34.

7. British Columbia, Statutes. 58 Victoria, c. 48, s. 9.

8. Daily Colonist. 29 April 1897. For similar references regarding other locations see WCTU Report (1908)t 96.

9. Victoria Daily Times. 25 March 1907.

10. M. Grant, "Franchise," WCTU Report (1888)t 33.

11. Mrs. Spain, "Home and Polities," WCTU Report (1899): 62.

12. V. Strong-Boag, The Parliament of Woment The National Council of Women of Canada. 1893-1929. 71.

13. Spain, ibid., 62.

14. Ibid.

15. M. Grant, "Franchise," WCTU Report (1888)t 33.

16. A particularly clear exposition of this viewpoint 44 can be found in Spain, ibid., 63. Also see "The Mother in Public Life," Daily Colonist. 6 November 1909.

17. M. Grant, "Franchise," WCTU Report (1888)i 33.

18. While women, especially women whose cultural backgrounds varied from that the the WCTU suffragists, could pose a threat to the WCTU's world order, this was usually discounted on the grounds of common sisterhood. All women were presumed to vote for the family and therefore 'naturally* oppose liquor.

19. WCTU Report (1889)« 1.

20. R. Allen, "The Social Gospel and the Reform Tradition in Canada, 1890-1929," Canadian Historical Review XLIX (December 1968): 384.

21. For a direct reference to the ballot as a weapon see, for example, M. Grant, "Franchise," WCTU Report (1888)i 34.

22. Allen, ibid., 381-382.

23. Ibid., 384.

24. Ibid. For a discussion of the connection between social gospel and reform darwinism see ibid., 387.

25. S. J. Thompson,"The Relation of the Women's Franchise to Moral Reform" as cited in WCTU Report (I908)i 16-17.

26. The National Council of Women of Canada never achieved its proposed goal of representing all Canadian wonm since membership in the organization was contingent on belonging to a club or a women's group. This criterion automatically excluded all women who either did not have the opportunity or the inclination to join a group affiliated with the national council. The leadership of the organization represented an even narrower group of Canadian women, those who were by birth or marriage members of the Canadian social and political elite. For a discussion of the leadership of the national council see V. Strong-Boag, The Parliament of Women. 1-7 and 134-168. Strong-Boag's detailed findings were anticipated in Bacchi- Ferraro's more cursory study "The Ideas of the Canadian Suffragists, 1890-1920," 14-21;

27. Examples of other collectivist attempts at reform in Canada at this time include the grain growers' associations, trade unions and the Soeical Service Congress 45 of Canada.

28. For a discussion of the religiously based reform groups see V. Strong-Boag, ibid., 56-79.

29. The narrow scope of activities undertaken in Vernon and Nelson probably reflects the small population of the towns, the limited time available to women for activities outside the home and the restricted scope of the secular club movement in small communities prior to 1910. See the "Report of the Vernon Local Council of Women," National Council of Women of Canada Report (1896)t 61 (hereafter cited as NCWC Report): ibid., (1904)t xv and ibid., (1907)» xv and the "Report of the Nelson Local Council of Women," ibid., (1899-1900)« 83. The Nelson chapter seems to have lapsed shortly thereafter as no further reports were received by the National Council of Women of Canada until 1908.

30. M. Grant, "Franchise," WCTU Report (1888)i 33. Although the Committee on Laws for the Protection of Women and Children was formed in response to a request from the national council, the coincidence of approach between the British Columbia WCTU and the national council on this issue suggests that this point of view may have been held by many women reformers throughout Canada. The WCTU's declarations certainly helped to create a receptive atmo• sphere for this proposal. It is noteworthy that the first co-ordinators of this committee in both the Victoria and Vancouver local councils of women were also active WCTU workers. For an account of the directive to form the committee see the "Report of the Victoria Local Council of Women," NCWC Report (1895)» 56.

31. The investigations of the committee were usually confined to three or four specific issues at any one time rather than searching for overall patterns. Within the general category of legal status could be included invest• igations of the dower law, estate distribution, property holding, homestead access, deserted wives, marriage and divorce. For examples see the Daily Colonist, 25 February 1895 and Spofford, "British Columbia" in "Laws for the Protection of Women and Children," NCWC Report (1901)t 101. Beginning in 1906 the New Westminster Local Council of Women began a series of lectures on "Women's Legal Standing", see "Report of the New Westminster Local Council of Women," ibid., (1906)i xvii and ibid., (1907)« xvii. Investigations of women in the workforce dealt with the activities of wage-workers and professional women. For examples see the "Report of the Victoria Local Council," ibid., (1895)» 56; ibid,, (1899)« 79; ibid., (1902)t xii; ibid., (1906)t xiii; "Report of the Vancouver Local Council of Women," ibid., 46

(1908): 105. The care and custody of children investigations ranged from attempts to secure a juvenile court to a child protection act, a curfew law, equal quardianship rights for both parents, elimination of the concept of illegitimacy and introduction of compulsory child support. For examples see "Report of the Victoria Local Council of Women," ibid., (1909)« xviiii ibid., (1900): xv; ibid., (1897)• 136 and ibid., (1904): xii; "Report of the Vancouver Local

Council of Women," ibid., (1901): xv$ ibid., (1898): 80 and ibidi, (1903)i 30; "Report of the New Westminster Local Council of Women," ibid., (1903)» xxiiij "Report of the Committee on Citizenship," ibid., (1909)« 26. Treatment of criminal offenders included numerous attempts to secure a reformatory, police matrons, campaigns to rehabilitate women prostitutes, demands for harsher treatment of convicted rapists and the elimination of an age of consent for women. For examples see the "Report of the Vancouver Local Council of Women," ibid., (1903)* 30 and "Report of the Subcommittee on Laws for the Protection of Women and Children," _id., (1896)t 311- 326.

32. See. for example, British Columbia, Journals of the Legislative Assembly (1896), 53; "An Act Respecting the Maintenance of Wives Deserted by Their Husbands," ibid., (1901), 21 "An Act Respecting the Support of Illegitimate Children," ibid., (1903)» 18 and "An Act for the Protection of Persons Employed in Factories," ibid., (1907), 36.

33. "Constitution," NCWC Report (1894): 22.

34. British Columbia, Journals of the Legislative Assembly (1895)» lxxxix.

35. Ibid., (1894), xxiii.

36. The women School Trustees in thethre e major urban centres prior to 1918 were: Victoria Vancouver New Westminster

Maria Grant Mrs. D. Reid Agnes Hill 1895- 1896 and 1897-1898 1900-1902 1899-1900 Helen Grant Marie McNaughton Mrs. J.R. Gilley 1896- 1903 1912-1914 1912-1917 Margaret Jenkins Irene Moody Mrs. G.B> Cross 1897- 1898 and 1915-1916 and 1912-1913 1902-1919 1917-1920 Agnes Deans Cameron 1906

Each of these women, with the exception of Agnes Deans 47

Cameron, was sponsored by the local council of women in her community. In addition, several women served on rural or town school boards after 1896. For example, in 1905 five women were serving on rural school boards on Vancouver Island, see "Women on School Boards," NCWC Report (1905)t 94.

37. British Columbia, Sessional Papers (1885), 323- 327. The petition was signed by 1,268 persons from Victoria, New Westminster, Wellington, Comox, Sumas, Chilliwack and Maple Ridge.

38. WCTU Report (1889)« 34.

39. Victoria Daily Times. 16 December 1908 and A. Stowe-Gullen, "Committee on Citizenship? NCWC Report (1909) i 27. 40. ^Report of the Local Council of Women of Vancouver," NCWC Report (1909)t xix.

41. R. Spence, Prohibition in Canada (Toronto» William Briggs, 1919), 69; A. Grimes, The Puritan Ethic and Woman Suffrage. 84-85 and A. Kraditor, The Ideas of the Woman Suffrage Movement. 1890-1920. 46-477

42. See, for example, the NCWC Report (1894)« 172 or ibid., (1895)« 253. Bacchi-Ferraro suggests that the disassociation of the National Council of Women of Canada from the American suffragists in the International Council of Women was undertaken to ensure "respectability" for the Canadian organization. See Bacchi-Ferraro, ibid., 14.

43. NCWC Report (1907)» 78 and 80.

44. Although justified by a traditional view of women's aptitude for child care, the participation of women on school boards was by no means a generally accepted policy of all national council members. For examples of the nature of the debate see "Women on School Boards," ibid., (1904)t 58-63 and ibid., (1905)« 93-99. None of the dissenters were British Columbia delegates.

45. "Report of the Committee on Citizenship," ibid., (1910) t 94-104. Although no local council of women was committed by the favorable passage of the resolution to work for woman suffrage, considerable opposition was expressed by the delegates from Hamilton, Halifax, St. John, Ottawa and East Pictou. The resolution passed by a margin of 71 to 51. 46. H. G. MacGill, "The Story of Vancouver Social Service" (Vancouver, typescript, 1943), 31.

47. Ibid., 32.

48. Ibid., 30.

49. The Western Clarion. 20 August 1904.

50. Ibid., 5 November 1903;

51. See, for example, ibid., 28 September 1903.

52. Miss Sarah Bowes, Vancouver; Miss Agnes Deans Cameron, Victoria; Miss Susan Crease, Victoria; Mrs. Helen (William) Grant, Victoria; Mrs. Maria (Gordon) Grant, Victoria; Mrs. Agnes (Albert) Hill, New Westminster; Mrs. Margaret (David) Jenkins, Victoria; Miss Edith Perrin, Victoria; Mrs. Cecilia (William) Spofford, Victoria. See Appendix I for a brief biography of each of these women. These women were designated leaders because they fulfilled at least 3 of the following 4 criteria* held the position of head of a committee responsible for woman suffrage in a woman's organization; frequent and prominent campaigner; leader of suffrage delegations; elected to public office.

53. The problem of exploring the personal motivations of these women to become leaders is seriously complicated by the fact that only Susan Crease's diary is accessible. Unfortunately, the remnants of their correspondence on woman suffrage represents only their contacts with govern• ment officials, not family or friends. The following analysis is therefore tentative.

54. For example, Cecilia Spofford, Maria Grant, Margaret Jenkins, Sarah Bowes and Susan Crease became thirty year veterans of the woman suffrage campaign in the province.

55. In spite of the WCTU's expansion into the interior of the province in 1899 and 1900, the group's membership remained relatively constant from 1890 to 1906, flux- uating between approximately 325 and 450 members. The doubling of membership from approximately 517 people in 1907 to 1,0.16 in 1908 reflects the surge of activity in the local option campaign rather than interest in woman suffrage. See the WCTU Report (1890); 36; ibid., (1906): 14-18; ibid., (1907)* 11-14 and ibid., (1908): 37-51.

56. For example, a membership of approximately 280 women managed to secure the signatures of 2,408 adult women 49 throughout the province for the provincial woman suffrage petition in 1897. See the WGTU Report (1897)« 36-40 and 49 and British Columbia, Journals of the Legislative Assembly (1897)« cix-exvii.

57. Doreen Weppler, "Early Forms of Political Activity AmongWhite Women in British Columbia, 1880-1925" (M.A. thesis, Simon Fraser University, 1971), 48.

58. These findings vary considerably from Weppler's claim that "the close interrelationship between suffrage and prohibition was never questioned in British Columbia, primarily because no suffrage force independent from the prohibition movement existed." Ibid., 47.

59. One possible way of circumventing this difficulty would be to consult the membership records of the affiliated societies. Unfortunately, very few of them have been preserved for this period. Also problematic is the tendency of the women to belong to more than one organ• ization.

60. N. Smelser, Theory of'Collective Behavior (New Yorki Free Press, 1962), 278.

61. Woman suffrage bills were presented in 1891, 1893, 1897, 1898, 1899» 1902, 1904, 1906 and 1909.

62. British Columbia, Journals of the Legislative Assembly (1899). 92.

63. See, for example, Goldwin Smith, "Female Suffrage," The Canadian Monthly and National Review VI (July 1874)1 68-78; Edith Luke, "Woman Suffrage in Canada," Canadian Magazine V (August 1895)s 328-336; R. E. MacNaughten, "A Plea for Woman Suffrage in Canada," ibid., XXIX (June 1907)« 146-152; Authur Hawkes, "Why I Am a Suffragette," ibid., XXXIII (May 1909); 17-21 and James Hughes, Equal Suffrage (Toronto: McClelland and Goodchild, 1910).

64. DailvColonist. 22 April 1898. Major Mutter, the member for Cowichan-Albernie suggested that women were unfit to be voters because of the "scientific fact . . . that the brain of woman was two ounces lighter than that of man."

65. Ibid., 24 April 1897.

66. This frequently repeated charge appeared as early as 1871. See Daily British Colonist. 26 October I871i 50

67. Daily Colonist. 24 April 1897.

68. See, for example, M. Grant, "Should Men Vote?" Victoria Daily Times. 27 May 1895t Women's Edition.

69. Daily Colonist. 22 April 1898.

70. Ibid., 10 February 1893.

71. Ibid., 2k April 1897.

72. Ibid., these remarks echoed sentiments expressed 25 years earlier, see the Daily British Colonist. 23 June 1872.

73. Daily Colonist. 21 March 1897; ibid., 25 April 1897 and ibid., 29 April 1897.

7k. Ibid., k November 1897 and ibid., 25 April 1897.

75. Ibid.

76. Ibid.

77. The Western Clarion,. 10 February 1906; Daily News-Advertiser, 28 February 1899 and Daily Colonist. 25 February 1899.

78. Daily Colonist. 21 March 1897 and ibid., k November 1897.

79. Ibid., 2 February 1906.

80. Ibid., 16 March 1897 and ibid., k November 1897.

81. These appeals were directed primarily towards men's temperance groups but also towards nativists. See ibid,, 2k April 1897 and ibid., 21 March 1897.

82. Victoria Daily Times. 2 February 1906 and ibid., 30 January 1908.

83. Daily Colonist. 5 March 1899.

84. See, for example, Province. 28 October 1909.

85. Victoria Daily Times. 27 May 1895; Daily Colonist. 28 May 1895 and ibid., 6 November 1909.

86. WCTU Report (1893). 37; ibid., (1894); 24 and ibid., (1906)t 19. 87. Susan Anthony spoke in Victoria as early as 1871. See the Daily British Colonist. 26 October 1871. For later instances see, for example, WCTU Report (1904)» 12 for the visit of Mrs. Pettigue from Australia and the Daily Colonist. 31 January 1906 for the speech of Mrs. Irene Smith from Washington state.

88. See, for example, WCTU Report (1897)» 50.

89. The text of the letter sent to E. T. Kingsley, the socialist candidate in Vancouver, was reproduced in The Western Clarion, 17 October 1908.

90. Typical of this style was Henderson's remark in the legislature that he "did not believe there was a single lady in this province over the age of twenty-one years." Daily Colonist. 25 February 1899.

91. British Columbia, Statutes. 58 Victoria, c. 48, s. 9.

92. Ibid., 59 Vict., c. 42, s. 5. These rights were gained only after several reversals, see ibid., 47 Victoria, c. 27, s. 10 and ibid., 55 Vict., c. 40, s. 4 and 9. Weppler incorrectly states that rural women did not achieve the right to become trustees until 1911. See Weppler, ibid., 54. Rural women were inadvertently deprived of the right to become school trustees in 1913. This mistake was ^rectified in the following session. See, British Columbia, Statutes, 3 George 5t c. 67, s. 3 and ibid., 4 George 5i c. 68, s. 3.

93. H. Johnson, A History of Public Education in British Columbia (Victoria* Morriss Printing Company, Ltd., 1964), 56.

94. British Columbia, Statutes. 49 Victoria, c. 32 s. 5 and 6 and ibid., 51 Victoria, c. 42, s. 6 and 7.

95. Ibid., 52 Victoria, c. 18, s. 33 and 34.

96. Ibid., 6 Edward 7, c. 18, s. 2.

97. For a detailed narrative of these events see Weppler, ibid., 55-68.

98. Victoria Daily Times. 30 October 1906. Chapter 2 The British Columbia Woman Suffrage

Movement 1910 - 1917

The formation in December 1910 of the first Political

Equality League, an organization devoted solely to securing woman suffrage, marked the commencement of the second and final phase of the woman suffrage movement in British

Columbia. During this stage of the campaign the efforts of the WCTU, the local councils of women and the University

Women's Club to obtain equal access to the ballot for women were augmented and frequently surpassed by those of the

Political Equality League and other new franchise organiz• ations. Frustrated at the failure of the legislative committees or departments within existing women's organizations to improve women's access to the municipal and provincial franchises, several suffragists decided in

1910 to revitalize the movement by forming organizations specifically designed to lobby for political equality for women. This concept appealed to numerous women throughout the province. As a result, branches of the Political

Equality League and other new woman's franchise organizations such as the Women's Freedom Union, the Equal Franchise

Association and the British Columbia Woman's Suffrage

League began to appear in various provincial cities and

52 towns during the next six years. Collectively, these societies attracted the necessary membership, fresh leader• ship and powerful allies to secure the provincial franchise for women in 1917.

The impetus to seek new means to approach the govern• ment for political equality for women derived from several sources both inside and outside of the province. For

Maria Grant and Cecilia Spofford, Victoria's most active temperance suffragists, disappointment at the withdrawal of the municipal franchise from the majority of Victoria women by the provincial government was compounded by the

McBride government's handling of the local option refer• endum in November 1909.1 Throughout 1908 and 1909 energy and funds which the WCTU would normally have directed towards suffrage agitation were diverted to the local option law campaign. McBride*s refusal to recognize the resulting majority vote, on the grounds that the local option law did not receive a majority of all the votes in the general election, embittered the temperance suffragists.

In addition, Maria Grant's experience as superintendent of the Legislation, Petition and Franchise department of the WCTU during the local option law campaign indicated to her the difficulty of simultaneously pursuing active suffrage and temperance campaigns within an organization whose first goal was not suffrage but temperance and whose 54 membership was not entirely united behind the suffrage cause.2

Vancouver suffragists and women activists were also encountering direct opposition from the McBride government at this time. As a result of their joint investigations in 1909 the Vancouver Local Council of Women and the recently formed University Women's Club of Vancouver concluded that "domestic legislation was more antiquated in British Columbia than anywhere else in Canada, in 3

Great Britain or the United States." Resolved to remedy the situation, the two organizations petitioned the attorney-general to revise the inheritance laws to guarantee widows one-half of marital property. They also requested that he sponsor legislation to accord mothers

equal guardianship rights with the fathers of their legitimate children and to allow deserted wives access

to the earnings of their minor children without a court

order. With the exception of some of their suggestions

for a change in the dower law, all of the requests of the

women were flatly rejected by the government. The

indignation of the women at this response was further

compounded by the government's refusal to sponsor a modified

dower bill which subsequently floundered. According to

Alice Ashworth Townley, the first president of the Vancouver

Political Equality League, the government's indifference to

the perceived injustice of the current dower act prompted the formation of that group, the city's first woman suffrage society.^

Yet, while influential, these factors are insufficient to account for the decision to form groups specifically designed to secure woman suffrage. For the previous twenty years the suffragists had met the problems of government rebuffs and operating within general organizations with renewed resolve to continue the campaign through the same channels. The suffragists' decision to create a more effective pressure group separate from other affiliations was directly linked to important changes in the membership of the suffrage movement in the province. Unlike the majority of the earlier suffragists, several of the new suffragists were career women. As novelists, journalists, trade union organizers, doctors and business women, these women determined to further women's influence in economic, social and political fields. To this end they lobbied to remove legislation prohibiting women from practicing in professions such as law and formed clubs to promote specific career goals — for example, the

Canadian Women's Press Club. They also organized clubs to sanction activities not generally associated with women such as the Alpine Club, for women mountain climbers.

Aware of the value of pursuing economic and social goals through pressure groups specifically designed to achieve such ends, Lseveral of these women decided to apply the same technique to the political sphere by forming suffrage societies.^

The stimuli generated within the province to experiment with suffrage societies was reinforced by the upsurge of suffrage activity in other areas. In November 1910 the women of Washington state regained the vote after campaigning through suffrage societies. Since Washington was the first

American state to grant the franchise to women since 1896, its tactics were carefully scrutinized by British Columbia 7 suffragists. This victory inspired an intensification of suffrage activity in 1910 by the National American Woman

Suffrage Association and other suffrage groups throughout the United States. In England the Women's Social and

Political Union and the Women's Freedom Union accelerated their campaign in the hope of influencing the 1909 general election. This upsurge of activity through various suffrage organizations encouraged the local suffragists to redouble their labours through suffrage societies.

Responding to these circumstances, the ©itizenship

Committee of the Victoria and Vancouver Island Local

Council of Women invited all interested persons to attend a meeting on December 14, 1910 to co-operate in organizing a Political Equality League the aim of which shall be to secure the removal in British Columbia of the dis• abilities which rest on women as a voter and citizen and to secure her political enfranchi sement•8

Seventy-two persons including Harlan Brewster, the future Liberal premier of the province, responded to the local Q council of women's invitation. Unlike the suffrage committees of the WCTU and the local councils of women, the Political Equality League welcomed men as members since these suffragists maintained, "it is only by working side by side that we can build most effectively and successfully in the interests of our children, our homes and our

Province."*^ The successful formation of the Victoria

Political Equality League was duplicated the following 11 month in Vancouver. Four months later, in May, 1911, the executives of the—Victoria and Vancouver Political

Equality Leagues jointly decided that the goal of woman suffrage could be more effectively sought under the auspices 12 of one large suffrage organization. The resulting British

Columbia Political Equality League assumed responsibility for determining general policies and tactics and co-ordinating the activities of the various local leagues.

The constitution of the British Columbia Political

Equality League declared its fundamental principle to be

"the establishment of the Political, Social and Industrial 13

Rights of Women and Men." ^ To this end the members pledged to expose in every way possible to us, the dual standard existing for men and women, to demon• strate the evil resulting therefrom, and to force public recognition to (sic) the direct connection between this dual standard and the political disability of women. Sharing the attitudes of the earlier suffragists, the 58

League's constitution further proclaimed "that the causes of individual cases of injustice can only be satisfactorily dealt with by legislation in which women have a direct share."15 Unlike the earlier suffragists, however, the

League_suffragists declared themselves devoted to "working primarily for Woman Suffrage"1^ rather than attempting to influence the government regarding other legislation affecting women before they secured the vote.

The declarations of the League's constitution indicate that dissatisfaction with the unequal treatment of women in the province remained a primary motive for suffragists.

They continued to champion the suffrage cause in terms of j safeguarding the interests of women and children. Similarly? the proposed necessity of presenting the distinctive women's point of view on all public issues still found staunch supporters among the League suffragists. The old theme of demanding equal justice for female and male

British citizens was also frequently reiterated in the

League's literature and rhetoric. Appeals for woman suffrage based on controlling the 'foreign element' in the province by enfranchising Anglo-Saxon women also recurred, albeit 17 infrequently. These similarities, however, should not be allowed to obscure the important changes which occurred in the emphasis and complexity of the suffragists' arguments after 1910. The League's interest in safeguarding the legal rights \ 59 of women and children in industry introduced a new facet of the suffrage movement. Prior to 1910 suffragists had lobbied to ameliorate conditions for women and children in the workplace through campaigns for half-day holidays, women factory inspectors and the limitation of working hours. In the second phase of suffrage activity, this emphasis on securing legislation to regulate employers was gradually replaced by demands that women workers > 18 directly "regulate the conditions under which they work" by utilizing the ballot. This view of working women as active participants in the suffrage campaign rather than

passive recipients of the philanthropic endeavours of

others laid the foundation for co-operation between the j

primarily middle class suffrage societies and working

class suffrage groups. ^

Changes also occurred in the priorities accorded

previous pro-suffrage arguments. The plea of Dora Kerrt

secretary of the Kelowna Political Equality League, that

"the woman's point of view should be directly represented

in the control of Legislation and all affairs of the

Nation"*^ was favourably received by many suffragists.

However, agreement on what constituted the "woman's point

of view" ssas no longer almost unanimous. In line with

the WCTU position, some League suffragists continued to

assert "Woman's sphere is the Home and it is time she 2 had a voice in making the Laws which interfere with it." While not denying that women should have a voice in matters affecting home life, other League suffragists pointed out that many women either by force or by choice worked outside 21 of the home. In addition, they reminded the more traditional suffragists that some women were voluntarily choosing careers other than motherhood. As a result of these developments, they argued, woman's sphere could no longer be completely defined in terms of the home.

Closely related to the reinterpretation by some suffragists of women's role in society was the more vigorous demand for suffrage based on demands for the just treatment of all persons. Proponents of this point of view claimed women's right to "recognition as human beings, 22 with full and responsible citizenship." Rather than claiming the ballot as morally superior or special individuals, these suffragists emphatically declared that

"women are people" and therefore should have a direct influence on "a government of the people; by the people 23 and for the people." J More extreme proponents of this school of thought warned the government that "slavery must lead to rebellion and war, and sex-slavery must 24 eventually lead to sex-rebellion and sex-war." This

"disaster" would be prevented only by the "enfranchisement of the sex-slaves." J Thus, in the view of thse suffragists, the recognition of women's equality and the termination of women's political subjugation would be achieved by the granting of woman suffrage. They explicitly postulated that this action would eliminate the dual standard for men and women in politics, society and industry by giving women equal access with men to the legislative process. As enfranchised persons, women would utilize the vote on behalf of their various and sometimes divergent interests as homemakers, parents, consumers, wage-earners, philanthropists, professionals or business persons.

Intertwined with the plea for the just recognition oTf women* s equality was a renewed and more vigorous demand ^ than that made previously for full citizenship for women. J

Asserting that the woman "bears her share of the burdens 26 of life", these suffragists requested that women be all-owed to enjoy the privileges of citizenship rather than merely be subject to the law. As members of the community they insisted that government rest on the "consent of the 27 governed". Conscious of the powerlessness of women as a result of the contemporary franchise laws, the ; suffragists demanded redress. They asserted that women were as capable as men of making responsible decisions affecting the welfare of their communities, the province and the nation. Reflecting this spirit, a writer in the

League's official magazine, The Champion, declared that the right of access to the ballot "spells citizenship, liberty, self-respect and the power to help share the nation's destiny." The members of the League made no attempt to resolve yf the inconsistencies between the newly proposed arguments for woman suffrage and those already popular in suffrage circles in British Columbia prior to 1910. Rather, the league presented an amalgam of all positions advocating woman suffrage to the public in order to attract as wide an audience as possible. The suffragists displayed no concern that potential supporters might be offended by the inconsistency of their appeals. Similarly, in an attempt to minimize internal dissension and draw as many persons as possible, members were permitted to interpret the

League's mandate to eliminate the dual standard between men and women in the province within their own frames of reference. This attitude reflected the suffragists' attempt to create a broadly based coalition in order to maximize its influence as a political lobby. Consequently,, devotion to the goal of achieving woman suffrage constituted the prime qualification for membership and participation.

The contradictory points of view within the League readily became apparent in the group's publications, proclamations and correspondence. For example, the editors of The Champion accorded claims for woman suffrage on the basis of women's roles as mothers and guardians of the home an important status. Nevertheless, they did not allow motherhood and homemaking to become as predominant an issue as it was in the first twenty years of the campaign. On the other hand, proclamations issued by the League such as

"Why Women Ought to Have the Vote in B. C." stressed the role of women as the "mothers of the race" and totally 29 ignored any mention of working women. 7 Similarly, the suffrage movement * s previous emphasis on the alleged moral superiority of women was less frequently mentioned by

The Champion than by the broadsheets and letters to the premier issued by the League. Conflict also existed between the temperance and nontemperance suffragists within the League. Although the British Columbia Political

Equality League never officially advocated prohibition, occasional references to a direct connection between woman suffrage and prohibition appeared in its publications such 30 as "The Experinee of Australia"^ and in letters to the 31 premier from local Leagues.

The willingness of the majority of the members of the

British Columbia Political Equality League to accept the diversity of views expressed by the organization was not shared by all. A minority of conservative women seceded from the Vancouver League in 1912 to form the British

Columbia Equal Franchise Association. The initial members of this group, while supporting woman suffrage, disapproved of overtly public roles for women. They main• tained that educational meetings conducted in private homes constituted more appropriate behavior for women than the League's practice of actively campaigning for the suffrage 32 in public forums.-7 It is possible that as a result of their viewpoint on this matter, the majority of the founding members also supported the contention of their leader,

Alice Ashworth Townley, that women desired only the vote 33 and not access to public office. However, the presence of activist women such as Helen Gregory MaeGill in the group indicated that, like the League, this organization was unable to achieve total uniformity of opinion and approach to the suffrage. Although the British Columbia

Equal Franchise Association eventually established small branches in Nelson and Kelowna, its insistence on working 34

"quietly"^ precluded it from assuming as prominent a role in the British Columbia woman suffrage movement as several other organizations. Dissension also arose among League members residing in

Victoria. In December 1913 Dorothy Davis, the former provincial political organizer of the British Columbia

Political Equality League and co-editor with Maria Grant of The Champion, announced the formation of the Women's 3*5

Freedom Union. J This group, also known as the Go-Aheads, stated a willingness to compromise on the issue of granting women the franchise on the same basis as men. The Women's

Freedom Union indicated that it would accept an extension of the franchise to include married women 21 years and over 65 36 and single women over 25 yearsi^ The implied rejection of the suffragists' arguments for the vote on the basis of women's humanity, women's contribution to the nation and women's claims to the full benefits of British citizenship was not popular with Victoria suffragists and consequently the Women's Freedom Union soon floundered.

While the Equal Franchise Association and the Women's

Freedom Union members found the British Columbia Political

Equality League objectionably radical, at least one member 34 of the Vancouver based Pioneer Political Equality League^ found the League's stance too conservative. Although some

Political Equality League suffragists adopted a more cordial policy towards working-class women than their predecessors and the Pioneer branch formed an Evening Work Committee to 38 reach a larger cross-section of the public, the League remained primarily a middle-class organization. Dissatisfied with the League's inability to recruit working-class women,

Helena Gutteridge, trade union organizer and secretary of the Vancouver Trades and Labour Congress, decided to form a new suffrage society, the British Columbia Woman's

Suffrage League. Like the British Columbia Political

Equality League, the British Columbia Woman's Suffrage

League was advertised as "an organization formed for the purpose of obtaining votes for women on the same terms as it is granted to men."-^ Unlike the already established 66 suffrage societies, however, this group "proposed to deal not only with votes for women but all matters connected with the interests of women, particularly with those things 40 that affect the woman out in the labour market."

The British Columbia Woman's Suffrage League distinguished itself from the other suffrage organizations principally by this emphasis on the necessity of forming a connection between the woman suffrage movement and working women in

British Columbia. To further this end, Helena Gutteridge edited a woman suffrage page in the B. G. Federationist to explain the basis of her claim that "the need of political power for the working woman is greater than that of any other class,!' because "only when she is able to influence industrial legislation will she cease to be exploited and 41 forced into starvation or shame." Gutteridge argued that the political organization of women in the suffrage movement and the economic organization of women into trade unions were complementary activities necessary to create politically active women conscious of their position as workers. According to this point of view, these women 42 would become a "collective political voting force" capable of securing significant changes in industrial legislation governing working conditions and pay rates, thereby eliminating sweated labour, the undervaluing of 43 women's work and poverty-induced prostitution. J The theme of using the ballot to right inequities perceived in society was common to all of the British

Columbia suffragists. Differences Qf opinion arose more frequently over the priority to be accorded a specific reform than over whether a specific measure constituted a reform. Like the other suffragists, the members of the

British Columbia Woman's Suffrage League firmly expressed the conviction that women would utilize the franchise to ameliorate the negative aspects of industrialization, urbanization and immigration. In addition to their special interest in the situation of working women, members of this group voiced the concerns of many other suffragists regarding unsanitary living conditions, the marketing of impure foods, the legalization of "crime and vice", i prohibition and the alleged moral turpitude of Asian Lb immigrants.

In line with their conviction that the granting of woman suffrage would lead directly to improvements in the quality of family and community life in the province, the members of the British Columbia Woman's Suffrage League expressed considerable interest in the legal status of women in the province. Their interest in this area, however, was limited to topicss of particular relevance to the experiences of working-class women. As a result, the group concentrated its attention on the legal rights of women as service and industrial workers, wives and mothers.

While lobbying for alterations in legislation affecting working women, these suffragists realized that their chances of success were poor, particularly on those issues not fully backed by male trade unionists^ or other 46 suffragists. They were more optimistic, however, about improving the legal status of wives and mothers since their position on this topic closely corresponded to the one generally adopted by suffragists in the province. They staunchly supported the appeals of other women's groups to amend the laws regarding inheritance and dower, the guardianship of children, the maintenance of deserted and destitute women and children, the age of ^eligibility for marriage, mother's pensions, and numerous other similar 47 issues. The failure of the 1913 amendment to the Infant's

Act to grant mothers equal guardianship with fathers of their legitimate children strengthened the resolve of these women to secure the franchise in order to gain 48 appropriate recognition as wives and mothers.

The spokesmen of this organization also periodically mentioned the standard points included in demands for for woman suffrage based on recognizing women's innate equality with men and securing the consent of the governed.

The relatively infrequent use of these arguments as compared to those mentioned above reflected the group's intention to attract the attention of working-class women through specific pragmatic appeals clearly relevant to their lives.

This may also explain the general lack of socialist 69 analysis of the situation in the British Columbia Woman's

Suffrage League's publications.

Although these suffrage organizations dominated the woman suffrage movement in the province after 1910, the local councils of women and the WCTU also continued to campaign. As a result of the pressure exerted by the

Vancouver Local Council of Women, the Vancouver city council unanimously voted in November 1910 to amend the city charter to allow married women the same voting privileges as men and to permit single women to qualify for the franchise on the same basis as men. The New

Westminster, Vancouver and Victoria local councils of women also successfully continued to sponsor women candidates for their respective school boards.50 The Vancouver and

New Westminster local councils of women did not, however, take part in the campaign to secure provincial woman suffrage other than passing supportive resolutions and occasionally inviting speakers on the subject. Under the perennial leadership of Susan Crease, the Victoria Local Council of

Women remained somewhat more active in the quest for the provincial franchise than the mainland councils by endorsing woman suffrage resolutions, writing to the government and sporadically participating in suffrage delegations to the premier.51 The failure of the local councils to undertake a prominent role in the campaign to secure the provincial franchise derived from their member• ship' s lack of unanimity regarding woman suffrage and a determination on the part of several members to avoid all issues which could be construed as political.52 Rather than engaging in constant disagreements, the majority of the suffragist members of the local councils of women simply conducted their public campaign for the suffrage through one of the suffrage societies.

The WCTU continued its agitation for woman suffrage as it had over the previous twenty years. Under the leader• ship of Maria Grant until 1915* the Department of

Legislation, Petition and Franchise advanced those arguments in favour of the cause developed during the first phase of the movement. Cognizant of the necessity of amassing as strong a pressure group for woman suffrage as possible,

Grant constantly urged the WCTU to co-operate with the

British Columbia Political Equality League. Reassuring the temperance women that the League's "work has been our 53 work,"-'-' Grant was able to arrange several joint endeavours between the two organizations.. The WCTU, however, main• tained its autonomy and did not affiliate with any specific suffrage society.

The leadership of the second phase of the woman suffrage movement in British Columbia was exercised by thirteen women.5^ All of them campaigned frequently and prominently for their cause and were executive members either of suffrage societies or of those women's organizations which participated in the campaign. One woman, Marie McNaughton, also held a seat on the Vancouver School Board, the only public office open to women. Only two of these women,

Susan Crease and Maria Grant, had held positions of leader• ship in the previous twenty years of the campaign. Further, only a few of these women participated in woman suffrage activities in the province prior to 1909 and therefore most did not come up through the ranks of suffragists. J

Rather, the majority quickly assumed positions of influence

in the movement through their initiative in forming and

directing various new woman suffrage societies.

The question of why these thirteen women became the most prominent spokesmen of the movement remains difficult

to answer. The lack of biographical information on them

precludes all but the most cursory analysis of the

personal characteristics which motivated them to become

leaders. Elsie MacGill characterized her mother,

Helen Gregory MacGill, as "clearly marked by temperament to

be the leader of mutineers.• The careers of several of

the suffrage leaders suggest that this assessment might

also be applied to them. However, while the area of

personality remains to be examined, it is clear that

these women possessed the skills necessary for leadership,

a fact which distinguished them from the majority of women of their era. All of these women were effective public 57 speakers.Townley, Smith, Hall, Gutteridge, Glark and

MacGill were part-time journalists and authors adept at using their training to lead campaigns to expand the public roles available to women. The post-secondary education undertaken by McConkey, MacGill, Jamieson, Gutteridge and

Clark was also not a typical experience for women at that time and may have assisted them in articulating their case.

The skill demonstrated by these women in foreefully representing the position of their groups may also have derived from their previous leadership experience. Crease,

Grant, Smith, MacGill, Clark-: and Gutteridge had held positions of leadership or prominence in the woman suffrage movement, although not necessarily in British Columbia.

All of the suffragist leaders were actively engaged in other reform groups and women's clubs and frequently occupied key positions in these organizations.

As in the case of the pre-1910 leaders, a family tradition of public leadership may also have been instrumental in promoting several of these women to positions of leadership. As the wives and daughters of lawyers,

judges, politicians, business executives, ministers, doctors and military officers, most of these women were aware of the value and sometimes the necessity of assuming leadership positions. Family connections also 73 linked some of the suffrage leaders to male reformers,

including trade unionists, temperance advocates and social gospellers. Their familiarity with these persons strengthened their ability to lead women sympathetic to the various causes represented by the male reformers. As members of prominent families, several of these women were part of the social elite in Vancouver and Victoria, a position which further enhanced their ability to lead some segments of the woman suffrage movement.

The membership of the second phase of the woman suffrage movement differed from that of the first phase in several important ways. Most obvious were the quantitative changes evident by 1913. As a result of the efforts of the

British Columbia Political Equality League^® and to a lesser CO extent those of the WCTU, 7 the suffrage movement expanded to include men and women from numerous areas in the province including the Okanagan, the Cariboo and the

Kootenays. In addition to the growth of the movement in non-urban areas, the participation of men and women in

Victoria and Vancouver also grew in response to the recruiting efforts of the various suffrage societies and the increasing awareness of the suffrage issue generated by newspaper accounts of the movement elsewhere. While the determination of the actual number of members of the woman suffrage organizations in the province is precluded by the absence of complete records, an estimate can be made for

1914. The 1914 membership list of the Vancouver based

Pioneer Political Equality League included the names of 142 persons.To this can be added the 21 persons designated as either executive members or committee chairmen by the

Mount Pleasant Woman's Suffrage League as well as a portion of its average turnout of 40 members.61 Since the Victoria

Political Equality League grew from 72 members at its formation in December 1910 to 100 members in August 1911, it is quite possible that it had maintained or expanded 62 this number by 1914. These figures provide a rough total of 300 persons. This number is inadequate however, as it does not include any of the province's suffrage societies for which no data is available. Excluded are the 36 branches of the British Columbia Political Equality

League registered by February 1913.^ the British Columbia

Equal Franchise Association and its branches in Kelowna and Nelson, the British Columbia Woman's Suffrage League and its Fraserview branch and the Women's Freedom Union.

Also not counted in this assessment were those suffragists who worked solely through the local councils of women, the

WCTU or the University Women's Club. An estimate of between 500 and 800 active members of the suffrage campaign may not be excessive for 1914.

The membership of the movement also became represent• ative of a greater cross-section of the community than previously. The 1914 membership list of the Pioneer

Political Equality League included persons employed in

numerous occupations ranging from seamstress to mayor and 64

residing throughout Vancouver. The British Columbia

Woman's Suffrage League and its small branches in Mount

Pleasant and South Vancouver catered to working-class women

as did the Cedar Cottage and South Vancouver branches of

the British Columbia Political Equality League. Persons

with professional or business backgrounds were well-repre•

sented in various branches of the Equal Franchise Association

and the British Columbia Political Equality League.^

Aware of previous failures, the majority of the post

1910 suffragists adopted a more aggressive approach

towards securing general and political support for the

further enfranchisement of women. Under the auspices of

the various suffrage societies, they undertook to raise

public awareness of their position through the extensive use of all available media. The most ambitious of these

projects was the publication.of the monthly suffrage magazine, The Champion, by the British Columbia Political 66

Equality League from 1912 to 1914. In addition to covering British Columbia suffrage news, The Champion featured excerpts from Votes for Women, articles by prominent British suffragists including Emmeline and

Sylvia Pankhurst and Emmeline and Frederick William 76

Pethick-Lawrence and reports of suffrage victories around the world. The editors of The Champion also regularly included accounts of women pioneering in professions , previously barred to women and indictments of conditions confronting women industrial workers in various countries.

Each month 650 copies of the magazine were distributed throughout the province.6'' The League also issued a variety of broadsides and leaflets. The Pioneer Political

Equality League in Vancouver began a suffrage newsletter, 68 Pioneer Woman, in March 1913. The British Columbia

Woman's Suffrage League's page in the B. C. Federationist reported the local suffrage campaign from its perspective and featured extensive articles on the legislative reforms enacted in Australia and New Zealand following the granting of woman suffrage and as well as reports supporting 6Q the activities of the militant British suffragists. The suffragists also sought to increase their public visibility by participating in parades and local fairs, performing suffrage plays and encouraging theatre managers to 70 screen pro-suffrage films and boycott anti-suffrage ones.'

Assuming that more women would join the suffrage cause if they became aware of their legal position, the suffragists also undertook an extensive informational campaign.

Lectures on the legal status of women were delivered by suffragists and sympathetic lawyers in all available forums. More important, however, was the compilation for the first time of the laws regarding women in a readily available and comprehensible form. The first movement in this direction was the pamphlet Points in the Laws of 71

British Columbia Regarding the Legal Status of Women issued in 1911 by the Vancouver branch of the British

Columbia Political Equality League. This effort was super• ceded by suffragist Helen Gregory MaeGill's authoritative 72 pamphlet, Daughters. Wives and Mothers in British Columbia first published in 1913. The professionalism evident in

MaeGill's work indicated the capabilities and approach of the new generation of suffragists.

Another important facet of the attempt to secure more support was an extensive campaign to address directly as many residents of the province as possible. In her position as provincial organizer for the British Columbia Political

Equality League, Dorothy Davis held successful suffrage rallies throughout the Okanagan and Kootenay districts in the autumn and winter of 1912-1913.73 Florence Hall and

Mary Ellen Smith received similarly enthusiastic receptions at suffrage meetings they conducted on behalf of the League 74 in the Fraser Valley and Cariboo district. Suffragists from all groups organized extensive programs of speaking to men's and women's clubs, trade unions, church groups and general meetings on the lower mainland and on

Vancouver Island in order to recruit supporters from as wide a cross-section of the population as possible. They 78 also held public and private meetings featuring prominent suffragists including Emraeline Pankhurst, Barbara Wylie,''6

Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence,'''' Nellie McClung''8 and several 79 women from Washington state,'7 thereby connecting themselves directly with the suffrage movement elsewhere.

The differences of perspective expressed by the various organizations supporting woman suffrage did not deter the suffragists from undertaking joint campaigns or from forming coalitions of suffrage organizations. The suffragists' ability to suppress their differences temporarily and thus, present a united front to the anti- suffragists, derived not only from the political pragmatism inherent in this tactic. Equally important for many suffragists was their consciousness of being participants in an international woman suffrage movement directed by persons dedicated to improving the political, legal, social and economic status of women in their respective countries.

Viewed from this perspective, local disputes over priorities and tactics assumed smaller proportions since they all agreed on the common goal of extending the franchise to women.

The expansion of programs to engage the interest of the public in woman suffrage was accompanied throughout this period by an escalation of pressure on politicians, particularly Premier Richard McBride. Determined to demonstrate a widespread demand for their cause, the suffragists and their supporters deluged the government

throughout the legislative sessions of 1913 and 1914 with resolutions and telegrams demanding the enfranchisement 80

of women. The attention of politicians was directed to

the affirmative result of a woman suffrage referendum conducted in conjunction with"the Victoria municipal

election of 1914. In a further attempt to inform each politician of the strength of support for woman suffrage

in his constituency, annual delegations of suffragists presented large petitions to the legislative assembly Qp DO during the 1913 and 1914J sessions of the legislature.

McBride's continued refusal to make woman suffrage a government policy in spite of these large demonstrations of support caused numerous suffragists to adopt a belligerent attitude towards the McBride government and the Conservative Party. In February 1913 Dorothy Davis warned the premier that a continued refusal to extend the vote to women might cause the "fluid political feeling" of men and women in the province to move towards the 84

Socialist Party which had frequently introduced woman suffrage bills. Infuriated by McBride's dismissal of a

10,000 signature petition supporting political equality for women and the defeat of the private member's bill on the issue, Grant informed McBride that the suffragists

"propose now to deal with political questions by political methods. "^ Subscribers to The Champion were regularly reminded that the Liberal Party had adopted woman suffrage 86 as a party plank at its convention in 1912 while the

Conservative Party had engaged in numerous tactics to prevent the question from being discussed at its 1914 Qrp convention. Members of the WCTU were also reminded of the respective positions of the Liberal and Conservative 8ft parties on the matter. The British Columbia Woman's Suffrage League reported that the Liberals of ward five in 89

Vancouver were conducting debates favouring the measure.

By 1914 the editors of The Champion were sufficiently frustrated with the McBride government to muse publicly

"we understand better why some of the English women 90 became militants."7

The suffragists* opposition to McBride was temporarily weakened by the outbreak of the first world war. The pre-session campaigning typical of other years was drastically curtailed in the autumn and winter of 1914-

1915. Instead, many of the suffragists directed their attention to personal matters and patriotic work under the auspices of the Red Cross, the Imperial Order of Daughters of the Empire, the WCTU and numerous other organizations.

None of the province's woman suffrage societies or women's organizations approached the government on behalf of woman suffrage during the 1915 session.

Although the suffrage movement remained largely dormant throughout 1915» one important change occurred during the year which affected its future course. Attracted

by the Liberal Party's endorsement of woman suffrage and

its increased political activity, several women decided to

form a Women's Liberal Club in the spring of 1915« The

inclusion of several prominent suffragists in its member•

ship and executive directly introduced an element of

partisanship into the woman suffrage campaign. Although

an alliance between the Liberal Party and the woman 91

suffrage movement was not welcomed by all suffragists,

it was to be instrumental in obtaining their enfranchise• ment.

Agitation for woman suffrage recommenced along

familiar lines in December 1915 with a request from the 92

United Suffrage Societies of Vancouver'7 that the new

premier, William Bowser, meet with them and the represent•

atives of the local councils of women, the Women's

Forum,^ the Trades and Labour Council, the University

Women's Club and the King's Daughters to discuss his oh

position on woman suffrage. Bowser declined the

invitation. As a representative of the British Columbia

Political Equality League, Grant also renewed the demand

for woman suffrage by requesting a government bill like

the onesrecently passed in Manitoba, Alberta and

Saskatchewan.^ This pattern of interaction between the

suffragists and the Conservative government was abruptly

altered, however, by Bowser's announcement that a referendum on woman suffrage would be held in conjunction with the next general election in the province.^

The Bowser government's decision to hold a woman suffrage referendum coincided with changing political conditions in the province. The security enjoyed by the

Conservative Party following its overwhelming victory in the 1912 provincial election was gradually eroded through• out 1915* Serious allegations about gross mishandling of 97 lands, resources and contracts by the government, a strong prohibition lobby, continued high unemployment and 98 an enormous provincial debt plagued the government throughout the year. The major beneficiaries of these developments were the Liberals who succeeded in winning two of three seats contested in bye-elections in February and March, 1916.^ Aware of these events, the Conservative

Party urged Bowser to adopt woman suffrage as a government policy in order to divert some of the reformers from the

Liberal Party.100 Rather than completely reverse the government's previous stand, Bowser offered a referendum to placate the suffragists just as McBride had offered a referendum to appease the prohibitionists.101

The suffragists reacted to the announcement of a 102 referendum with unanimous disapproval and indignation.

A large delegation of suffragists from throughout the province urged the government to recognize women's right 103 to the franchise and pass a bill accordingly, ^ but the Bowser government remained firm. Unable to secure the preferred measure of a government bill or passage of the private member's woman suffrage bill before the house, the majority of the suffragists resolved to campaign actively for the successful passage of the referendum. Only the

British Columbia Equal Franchise Association refused to 104 participate in the "hazard of a referendum vote,"

Throughout the summer of 1916 the suffragists worked to present their case to as large a portion of the male electorate as possible prior to the September 14 election and referendum. To facilitate their campaign and fund- raising the suffragists formed coalitions, the Woman's

Suffrage Referendum Campaign Association in Vancouver and the Woman's Suffrage Referendum League in Victoria,

They spoke at suffrage rallies and at political meetings held by the Liberal and Conservative parties, they campaigned door to door, wrote letters to the editors of the local press, published broadsides stating their position and urged sympathetic ministers to endorse woman suffrage. In addition to the arguments developed by the suffragists prior to the war, they now pleaded that women should receive the vote as recognition of their eontribtuion to the war effort.10-'

The passage of the woman suffrage referendum by an overall two to one margin gratified the suffragists.

The leading veteran suffragist, Maria Grant, attributed this victory to the men's desire to acknowledge women's citizenship as a result of their war work.10^ While this factor was influential and in some cases allowed formerly staunch opponents to reverse their stand without incurring adverse comment, other factors were more decisive. The second phase of the woman,suffrage movement succeeded in arousing considerable interest in the cause throughout the province, particularly among persons sympathetic to the activities of the province's reform community, including social gospellers, prohibitionists, trade unionists and other secular social reformers. In addition to the support offered by these special interest groups, the suffragists received help for their cause from many Liberal candidates^

Similarly, suffragists, prohibitionists and other reformers frequently worked for the Liberal Party since the

Conservatives had consistently expressed hostility toward them prior to 1916., In this respect the passage of the woman suffrage referendum was part of the general rise of reform sentiment in politics in British Columbia and other parts of English-speaking Canada. Some voters may also have been convinced to vote for woman suffrage as a result of the reception given the suffragists on the prairies where they had won provincial political equality 109 the previous year.

The successful passage of the woman suffrage referendum

did not, however, result in the enfranchisement of women on January 1, 1917 as promised. Delays in counting the overseas soldiers' vote on the referendum prevented the compilation of an offical total. Eager to register for the upcoming bye-elections for cabinet ministers and for a possible federal election, a large delegation of . suffragists prevailed upon the new Liberal government to overrule the referendum legislation by introducing a woman suffrage bill as a government measure. The government complied and the Provincial Elections Act was amended on

April 5i 1917 to grant women the provincial franchise on the same basis as men.*** The act also empowered women to contest elections, subject to the same restrictions which applied to men. The Municipal Elections Act was also amended to allow women who qualified for the municipal franchise as property or business owners to contest 112 municipal elections.

But the British Columbia suffragists were soon chagrined to discover in 1917 that access to the provincial franchise no longer simultaneously secured the federal franchise for them. They had not previously taken an active part in attempting to influence the federal government in this matter because they had not thought such action necessary. The announcement that the War-Times Election

Act would supercede the Dominion Elections Act for the 113 duration of the war and demobilization was greeted with a mixed response from the suffragists. In the atmosphere 86 of the war, some suffragists accepted the terms of the new act which stated that only "the wives, the widows, the mothers, the sisters, and the daughters of members past or present of the actual overseas force shall have the right 114 to vote in the war-time election." However, several other British Columbia suffragists protested to Prime Minister

Borden that women were persons in their own right, not merely relatives of men and therefore all adult women citizens should be fully enfranchised.115 Borden replied that women were enfranchised under his bill solely to speak for the men overseas and the dead.116 Powerless to reverse this decision, the suffragists awaited further opportunities to approach the federal government for the enfranchisement 117 of all adult women citizens.

Thus, the suffragists enjoyed considerably more success in realizing their goal during the second phase of the movement. To the rights secured in connection with the school board franchise during the first phase of the move• ment were added equal access with men to the provincial and Vancouver municipal franchise. No progess was made

in enlarging the interpretation of the property qualify

ications of the Municipal Elections Act to include the wives of qualified men so the number of women eligible

to vote in Victoria and other municipalities under the

jurisdiction of the act remained small. Women also gained the right to become candidates in provincial and municipal elections provided they qualified as voters and possessed any necessary property requirements. The suffragists' failure to expand the interpretation of the property qualification to include wives reflected the strength of the Property Owners' Association lobby which was opposed to any compromise on the issue. Ironically, it also accorded with the views of those suffragists who argued that women should receive the same treatment as men. The restricted access to the ballot in federal elections, while disappointing many, still represented a qualified victory in that area. Thereafter, the suffragists turned their attention primarily to securing those alterations in women's legal status and those social reforms which had intially prompted many of them to join the movement. Footnotes

1. For an account of the irregularities in connection with the referendum and McBride's attitude throughout see A. Adams, "A Study of the Use of Plebiscites and Refer- endums By the Province of British Columbia" (M.A. thesis, University of British Columbia, 1958), 24-37.

2. Grant, "Legislation, Petition and Franchise," WCTU Report (1910)t 62-63. In addition to working "eight hours each day" for "four months" Maria Grant loaned the suffrage campaign almost one third of its budget. Ibid., 63.

3. E. MacGill, Mv Mother The Judge. 119.

4. "Committee on Laws for Women and Children," NCWC Report (1911)* 33 and [Alice Ashworth Townley], Points in the Laws of British Columbia Regarding the Legal Status of Women (n. pi.* Vancouver Political Equality League, L1911J), 8-9.

5. Townley, ibid., 10.

6. E. MacGill, ibid., 123.

71 Daily Colonist. 3 August 1911 and ibid., 2 August 1911. 8. Woman Suffrage File, British Columbia Public Archives Victoria, British Columbia (hereafter city as BCPA). The idea of a Political Equality League was first suggested at the annual meeting of the NCWC in 1910, although the NCWC did not endorse the idea. Victoria was the first local council to try the experiment.

9. Victoria Daily Times, 15 December 1910.

10. Ibid.

11. Province, 14 January 1911. Unlike the Victoria Political Equality League, the Vancouver branch was organized "independent of the Council". See NCWC Report (1911)* 74..

12. Province. 5 May 1911 and Vancouver World, 6 May 1911.

13. The Champion I (August 1912)* 6.

14. Ibid.

15. Ibid. 89

16. Ibid.

17. See, for example, Janet Kemp to Richard McBride. n.d. McBride Papers, Official, Correspondence Inward, 1913, File 97, BCPA.

18. The Champion II (February 1914)t 10.

19. Dora Kerr to Richard McBride. 2 February 1913. McBride Papers, 1913, File 97.

20. [British Columbia Political Equality League], "Why Women Ought to Have the Vote in B. G.," McBride Papers, 1913, File 97. For examples of this sentiment see Province. 15 February 1913; Victoria Daily Times. 18 February 1913 and Sun. 19 March 1913, Women's Edition.

21. See, for example, "The Referendum," The Champion II (February 1914)» 4.

22. Maria Grant to Premier of British Columbia. 14 February 1913. McBride Papers, 1913. File 97.

23. "The Woman's Reason — Because," The Champion I (October 1912)« 17. See also Daily Colonist 16 February 1913 and Victoria Daily Times. 18 February 1913.

24. "Why Women Ought to Have the Vote in B. C," ibid..

25. Ibid.

26. "The Referendum," ibid.

27. Petition, McBride Papers, 1913. File 97.

28. "The Referendum," ibid.

29. "Why Women Ought to Have the Vote in B. C.," ibid.

30. British Columbia Political Equality League, "The Experience of Australia," McBride Papers, 1913, File 97.

31. New Westminster Political Equality League to McBride. 10 March 1915. McBride Papers, Official, Correspondence Inward, 1915. File 298, BCPA.

32. E. MacGill, ibid., 125.

33. Townley, ibid., 11.

34. Sun, 19 March 1913. Women's Edition. 90

35. The Champion I (December 1913)« 5.

36. Ibid., 4.

37. Weppler, "Early Forms of Political Activity Among White Women in British Columbia, 1880-1925," 84 claims that the Vancouver Political Equality League "severed connections with the provincial group and became the Pioneer Political Equality League." I can find no trace of such a division.

38. Daily News-Advertiser. 27 March 1913.

39. B. C. Federationist. 3 October 1913.

40. Ibid.

41. Ibid.

42. Ibid., 17 October 1913.

43. See, for example, ibid., 10 October 1913s ibid., 5 December 1913; ibid., 12 December 1913.

44. See, for example, ibid., 7 January 1916; ibid., 10 July 1914} ibid., 7 November 1913; ibid., 17 October 1913; ibid., 31 July 1914.

45. See, for example, ibid., 21 November 1913.

46. For example, the British Columbia Woman's Suffrage League's support of the Domestic Workers' Union was not necessarily shared by those suffragists employing servants.

47. See, for example, B. C. Federationist, 10 October 1915; ibid., 24 October 1913; ibid., 7 November 1913; ibid., 3 October 1913; Vancouver Local Council of Women, Minutes, 5 October 1914, Special Collections, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia.

48. See, for example, B. C. Federationist, 21 November 1913.

49. British Columbia, Statutes. 1 Geo. 5. c. 75» s. 1 and 4.

50. For a list of those elected see Chapter 1, footnote 36.

51. See, for example, The Champion II (February 1914)«: 6. 52. See, for example, Vancouver Local Council of Women, 91

Minutes, 7 August 1916.

53. Grant, "Legislation, Petition and Franchise," WCTU Report (1911)« 76.

54. Mrs. Susie Lane (James) Clark, Vancouver; Miss Susan Crease, Victoria; Miss Dorothy Davis, Victoria; Mrs. Maria (Gordon) Grant, Victoria; Miss Helena Gutteridge, Vancouver; Mrs. Florence (William Lashley) Hall, Vancouver; Mrs. Laura (John) Jamieson, Vancouver; Mrs. Janet Kemp, Vancouver; Mrs. Elizabeth (William) McConkey, Vancouverj Mrs* Helen Gregory (James) MacGill, Vancouver; Mrs. Marie (Peter) McNaughton, Vancouver; Mrs. Mary Ellen (Ralph) Smith, Vancouver; Mrs. Alice Ashworth (Charles) Townley, Vancouver. See Appendix I for abrief biography of each of these women. These women were designated leaders because they fulfilled at least three of the following four criteriaj executive member of a suffrage society or woman's organization campaigning for woman suffrage; frequent and prominent campaigner; leader of suffrage delegations; elected to public office.

55. Eight of the eleven new leaders resided in British Columbia for several years prior to 1909. Of these, three worked for suffrage within the Vancouver Local Council of Women. The failure of the remaining five to become extensively involved can be attributed to domestic obligations including childbirth, ehildcare and travelling with their husbands in the course of their husbands' occupations.

56. E. MacGill, ibid., 118.

57. See, for example, British Columbia Pictoral and Biographical (Vancouver, Winnipeg, etc» S. J". Clarke Publishing Company, 1914), 536.

58. See, for example, The Champion I (January 1913)* 6-14 for an account of Davis' and Hall's recruitment activities.

59. See, for example, "Okanagan District Convention," WCTU Report (1911)» 52-53.

60. "Pioneer Political Equality League," Vancouver Social Register and Club Directory 1914 (Vancouver* Welsh and Gibbs, 1914), 92-93.

61. B. C. Federationist. 3 July 1914; ibid., 31 July 1914; ibid., 17 October 1913.

62. Victoria Daily Times. 15 December 1910 and Daily Colonist. 2 February 1911.

63. The Champion I (May 1913)« 5.

64. Henderson's Greater Vancouver City Directory 1914 (Vaneouvert Henderson Publishing Company Limited Liability, 1914). 65. Based on the occupations or spouses' occupations of known members as listed in Henderson** s Directories (variously titled) 1910-1915.

66. Surviving copies of The Champion cover the period from August 1912 to April 1914.

67. The Champion II (June 1913)» 4.

68. Daily News-Advertiser. 21 March 1913. Since no copies of Pioneer Woman are held in public repositories, its subsequent fate is unknown. The B. C. Federationist. 4 April 1913 reprinted a section of the first edition.

69. See, for example, B. C. Federationist. 24 October 1913; ibid., 7 November 1913s ibid., 23 November 1914; ibid., 17 October 1913.

70. See, for example, The Champion I (August 1913)« 4; ibid., (March 1913): 18.

71. Townley, ibid.

72. H. G. MacGill. Daughters. Wives and Mothers in British Columbia (Vancouveri Moore Printing Co. Ltd., 1913).

73. The Champion I (January 1913)» 6-13.

74. Ibid., 13 and B. C. Federationist. 21 August 1914.

75. Victoria Daily Times. 21 December 1911 and Daily Colonist. 22 December 1911.

76. The Champion I (February 1913)« 9

77. E. MacGill, ibid., 124.

78. Vancouver World. 30 August 1915.

79. See, for example, The Champion I (March 1913)t 8; ibid., (August 1913) s 9s WCTU Repor"tTl912) > 23; Daily Colonist. 2 August 1911; Daily News-Advertiser. 5 June 1913. 93

80. McBride Papers, 1913, File 97 and McBride Papers, Official, Correspondence Inward, 1914, File 77, BCPA.

81. "The Referendum," ibid.

82. See McBride Papers, 1913, File 97. A small woman suffrage petition was also submitted by the residents of Greenwood Electoral District the previous year. See McBride Papers, Official, Correspondence Inward, 1912, File 173, 14 March 1912, BCPA.

83. British Columbia, Journals of the Legislative Assembly (1914), 42.

84. Dorothy Davis to Premier of British Columbia. 13 February 1913. McBride Papers, 1913, File 97.

85. Maria Grant to McBride. 22 February 1913. McBride Papers, 1913. File 97.

86. See, for example, "Liberal Convention," The Champion II (March 1914)i 7-8.

87. "Conservative Convention," ibid., 8-9.

88. WCTU Report (1912)i 56.

89. B. G. Federationist, 24 July 1914.

90. The Champion II (March 1914)t 7.

91. See, for example, B. C. Federationist. 11 June 1915.

92. A loose coalition of the British Columbia Woman's Suffrage League, the Mount Pleasant Woman's Suffrage League, the Pioneer Political Equality League, the South Vancouver Political Equality League and the Equal Franchise Association formed as a result of Gutteridges efforts in 1913. Its activities were restricted to sending delegations to the government.

93* The Women's Forum was organized in 1912 to unite and inform the women : ratepayers of Vancouver. Its executive included Kemp, MacGill, McConkey and Smith. See Sun. 19 March 1913, Women's Edition.

94. United Suffrage Societies to Bowser. 15 December 1915. Bowser Papers, Official, Correspondence Inward, 1916, File 293, BCPA.

95. Grant to Bowser. 25 March 1916. Bowser Papers, 1916, File 293. 94

96. Province. 14 April 1916* Daily Colonist. 14 April 1916; Victoria Daily Times. 14 April 1916.

97. Ministerial Union of the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. Crisis in B. C. An Appeal for Investigation (Vancouver! Saturday Sunset Presses, 1916).

98. J. C. Hopkins, ed., Canadian Annual Review 1916 (Toronto* Annual Review Publishing Company Ltd., 1916), 697 and 730-735.

99. J. C. Hopkins, ed., Canadian Annual Review 1916 (Toronto* Annual Review Publishing Company Ltd., 1917), 755.

100. Vancouver Conservative Association to Bowser. 10 March 1916. Bowser Papers, 1916.

101. Canadian Annual Review 1915. 733.

102. See, for example, Bowser Papers, 15 April 1916 to

15 May 1916, File 293* Victoria Daily Times. 17 April 19l6f Province. 19 April 1916T

103. See, for example, Victoria Daily Times. 26 April 1916 and Daily Colonist. 27 April 1916.

104. Province. 15 May 1916.

105. Daily Colonist, 14 July 1916. The civilian vote for woman suffrage was 43,619 for and 18,604 against. The soldiers' vote was 8,273 for and 6,002 against. Canadian Annual Review 1916. 781.

106. Victoria Daily Times. 16 September 1916.

107. See, for example, Victoria Daily Times, 12 July 1916.

108. This co-operation with the Liberals on the part of some suffragists prevented the Vancouver Local Council of Women from entering the suffrage referendum campaign. See, Vancouver Local Council of Women, Minutes, 8 January 1917.

109. This point was raised in Vancouver City Central Woman's Suffrage Referendum Campaign Association. Broadside. City Archives of Vancouver, Vancouver, British Columbia.

110. British Columbia, Statutes. 6 Geo. 5» c. 76, s. 2.. 95

111. Ibid., 7 and 8 Geo. 5, c. 23.

112. Ibid., c. 23, s. 2. Most women, however remained excluded from the property based municipal franchise until 1920. See ibid., 10 Geo. 5, c.26, s. 2.

113. Canada, Commons Debates. 1917, vol. 6, 5415.

114. Ibid., 5416.

115. Province. 20 September 1917.

116. Ibid.

117. Women were granted the federal franchise on the same basis as men by the federal parliament in 1918, to be effective January 1, 1919. Canada, Statutes. 8 Geo. 5» c. 20. According to Cleverdon "with no appreciable amount of pressure from any source, either inside or outside parliament, the right of women to be elected to the federal House was quietly inserted into the Dominion By-Elections Act of July 1919." See Cleverdon, ibid., 136 and Canada, Statutes. 9 Geo. 5, c. 48. Chapter 3 Community Reaction to the British Columbia

Woman Suffrage Movement 1890 - 1917

The reaction of the residents of British Columbia to the woman suffrage movement can be most effectively determined by examining the positions of those groups claiming to speak in the public interest on the issue.

Throughout the campaign opposition to the women's demands for political equality was voiced primarily by politicians and those newspapers which shared their perspective.

Roman Catholic clergymen occasionally denounced the measure but did not otherwise publicly oppose the 1 movement. No group of women or men organized an anti-suffrage society. In sharp contrast to the basically static group opposed to the extension of the franchise to women, the number and diversity of the movement's supporters increased considerably throughout the campaign.

Apart from drawing aid from numerous women's groups, the suffragists also attracted the favourable attention of politicans, socilalists, clergymen, newspaper editors, trade unionists and members of the general public. The decision of members of the British Columbia community to support, oppose or ignore the British

Columbia woman suffrage movement was determined

96 by the degree of coincidence between their world view and the goals of the suffragists. The number and diversity of the suffragists' supporters indicated the breadth of the progressive sentiment in British Columbia of which the suffragists formed an integral part. It also testified to the suffragists' growing skill in forming a broad- based coalition to confront entrenched government opposition. The failure of the campaign to achieve its major goals prior to 1917 indicated the strength of its opposition.

The major opponents of the British Columbia suffragists were the province's successive governments. All govern• ments prior to the Brewster administration refused to sponsor the extension of municipal and provincial voting privileges to women on the same basis as men. This intransigent attitude can be attributed primarily to a reluctance on the part of government members to alter the electorate which placed them in positions of power.

Particularly worrisome to politicians in this regard were the declarations of some of the movement's leaders that women would not be swayed by party loyalty or patronage but would cast their vote for the most appropriate candidate, man or woman, available in their constituency. Some of these men may have feared that their personal conduct would not be acceptable to women who claimed to judge candidates in terms of their personal morality and temperance rather than their position, wealth

and power. Unable to predict what percentage of the female

vote they could attract, most government and some

opposition members preferred the electoral status quo.

The disinclination of various British Columbia govern• ments to involve women in the political process was

heightened during the McBride years by the acrimony between many of the suffragists and some Conservative

party supporters. Amongst those potentially endangered

by the suffragists' moral reform programs were the

province's brewers and saloon proprietors whose interests 2

were protected by the Conservative government. During

the 1907-1908 controversy regarding the provincial govern•

ment's inadvertant extension of the municipal franchise

to most women, one of the principal complainants was the

Licensed - Victuallers Association which represented the

tavern owners of Victoria. These men objected to the

enfranchisement of women because they feared that the

majority of women would favour the closer restriction of

the liquor trade, if not its abolition. In view of the

alliance between the Conservative government and the

liquor interests it is not surprising that the McBride

government assiduously ignored all further agitation

to accord women full municipal and provincial voting

privileges following the revocation of the women's 99 municipal franchise by a court decision.

Government opposition to political equality for women also stemmed from the divergence of interests between the

two groups. On the one hand, the suffragists' attention

focused on issues directly related to women's lives and

the quality of community life* They tendered proposals for

improving the legal status of women, altering the moral

standards of the community, regulating conditions in the

workplace and providing more adequate social services.

Government politicians, on the other hand, concentrated

on constructing railways, dispensing timber, mineral,

fishing and land rights, attracting industry and commerce

and demanding better terms from the federal government.

As a result of these priorities, government members

frequently deemed most of the suffragists' demands

irrelevant, inappropriate or undesirable. Neither side

in this dispute expressed interest in the other's priorities

and consequently successive provincial governments had no

incentive to include women in the electorate.

In addition to these pragmatic considerations, some

politicians resisted attempts to enfranchise women because

they believed that woman's nature and role in society

precluded her from active involvement in politics.

Representative of this group was Albert McPhillips, a

member of McBride's cabinet, who argued that it was

"incompatible with womanhood to be responsible for civil 100 government since womanhood is constituted not to debate or reason, but to influence and persuade."^ Others maintained that woman suffrage was contrary to the divine order of relations between the sexes and consequently would, at the very least, destroy family harmony and defile the purity of women by entangling them in the mire of politics.-

Some parliamentarians proclaimed that women should be excluded because they would not fight on behalf of their country or because they were allegedly biologically inferior to men. The number of politians sincerely subscribing to any of these claims is difficult to determine however, since these positions may have been voiced by members attempting to disguise more pragmatic considerations. The impression that some politicians were disguising their actual motives in this manner is strengthened by the repetitive and trite character of such statements as these. During the Conservative regime the tendency of members not to state their objections in the legislature before registering a negative vote adds to the problem of determining the motives of opposing politicians.

In conjunction with the parliamentary opposition to political equality for women several of the province's newspapers, at various times, expressed hostility toward woman suffrage. The most frequent opponents were those 101 newspapers which supported the Conservative party, particularly the Victoria Daily Colonist after 1906, the Vancouver

Province and, to a lesser extent, the Vancouver Daily News-

Advertiser. However, Liberal newspapers such as the

Victoria Daily Times also periodically displayed similar

sentiments prior to the Liberal party's adoption of a woman suffrage plank. The close relationship between the

political affiliation of each paper and its point of view

on this issue suggests that the editors' stands were motivated primarily by partisan considerations.

Press hostility to the extension of the franchise to

women usually assumed one of three forms. The most direct

method used was the printing of editorials which announced

that women were not yet ready to vote and therefore it

was in the best interests of all concerned not to pass

enabling legislation. This type of editorial usually

conceded that women eventually would be prepared (by an

undefined process) and therefore would vote at an unidentified

time in the future.6 However, the majority of editors

shunned this technique, possibly because they wanted to

avoid offending subscribers and advertisers sympathetic

to the women's cause.

Far more popular with newspaper editors was the subtler

and possibly more effective tactic of attempting to

discredit the reputation of the province's suffragists by

puporting to report objectively the anti-social behaviour 102 of women seeking the vote elsewhere. Sensationalized accounts of the activities of the suffragettes in Great

Britian appeared regularly on the front pages of the

Victoria Daily Times, the Province and the Daily News-

Advertiser from 1908 to 1913.7 No explanation of the motives of the suffragettes nor reports of their imprison• ment were printed. The readers were not informed that the local supporters of political equality for women disapproved of these violent tactics; rather they were left with the impression that similar social disruption could occur in British Golumbia. This impression was reinforced by the publication of warnings to British mil•

itants travelling in Canada that their tactics would not be

ft tolerated. The lawful conduct of these women in Canada was ignored. In addition to this attempt to discredit

the local suffrage movement, these opposing papers also reprinted articles from the American and British press which characterized women who were interested in participating in the governmental process as unfeminine o and infertile.

Some papers also undertook to minimize the effect

of the local campaign by publishing only brief notices

of major suffrage events in the province and in Canada.

This tactic was particularly popular with the editor of

the Daily Colonist from 1909 until the Conservative

government's announcement of a woman suffrage referendum in 1916.±XJ The Vancouver Province also frequently adopted

this procedure. The editor of the New Westminster British

Columbian, a pro-Conservative newspaper, extended this

tactic even further by allowing only one reference to this

issue during the month prior to the referendum.

The effect of the opposing press campaign on the

efforts of the campaigners is difficult to ascertain,

just as the influence of newspapers on all readers remains unclear. The suffragists, however, viewed the enmity of this

section of the press as particularly vexatious since they

were to a considerable extent dependent upon the goodwill

of the various editors to publicize their point of view.

It is possible that the refusal of these editors to

print the suffragists' point of view restricted their

audience and subsequently the number of converts to their

cause. The suffragists' frequent assertions that they did

not advocate the violence of the English militants suggests

that they feared that many women were sufficiently

alarmed by the press coverage of the English situation to

refrain from joining the movement in British Columbia.11

The hostile press campaign also served to reinforce the

opinions of those persons already opposed to political

equality for women. It may also have attracted the

allegiance of some some persons previously undecided on the

issue. Thus, the editors of the opposing newspapers were

able to counter public sentiment in favour of woman 104

suffrage.

Pear and apathy combined to create a type of opposition

to political equality for women which the suffragists

found difficult to combat. Their inability to involve the majority of the province's women in their movement remained,

in their view, an extremely serious obstacle to securing 12

full franchise rights. Their failure in this regard

stemmed partially from their inability to dissuade women

from the notion that they would be severely criticized

for opposing the status quo of political and social relations between men and women. Some women feared the negative reaction of relatives and friends if they

publicly expressed interest in woman suffrage by attending 13 a meeting or signing a petition. Others remained reticent lest their involvement jeopardized their husband's business 14

or social connections. These considerations may have been reinforced by the religious training received by

many women which stressed the necessity of women's

submission to the will of men. For some women these

factors were sufficient either to prevent them from partici•

pating in the campaign or from accepting the validity of

the suffragists' claims.

Problems in building the numerical strength of the

movement also derived from more mundane, yet pressing,

difficulties. Many women were largely occupied with matters centered in the home and had little time or opportunity to pursue matters other than those of immediate importance.

This was particularly true of women with large families and women who had insufficient funds to purchase labour

saving commodities. Country women were, on the whole, precluded from active involvement or sometimes from an awareness of the campaign by the number of their tasks and their geographical isolation. The suffragists' attempts to overcome these obstacles confronting women by various means, including increased publicity and welcoming children at meetings, remained inadequate to recruit the majority of women.

The apathetic response presented by some residents

of the province to the woman suffrage campaign may also

have reflected a more generalized notion that the political

process was remote from daily life and therefore unworthy

of sustained interest. The suffragists, like the trade

unionists, were unable to overcome totally this point

of view.

Despite the considerable opposition to the woman

suffrage movement, several sections of the community not

directly connected with women's organizations gradually

offered their support. The continued refusal of successive

British Columbia governments to extend the provincial and

a full municipal franchise to women failed to deter politicians from acting on behalf of the campaigners.

From 1891 to 1916 seven men sponsored twelve private member's bills designed to grant provincial woman suffrage.

The actions of Ralph Smith (1899), Smith Curtis (1902),

James Hawthornthwaite (1906 and 1909) and John Place

(1913» 1914 and 1916) in this matter derived from their

affiliations with British Columbia labour and socialist groups which backed equal political rights for women.

John Cunningham Brown (1891 and 1893), Harry D. Helmcken

(1897 and 1898) and Richard Hall (1904) acted as individuals

sympathetic to the cause.

The divisions in the legislative assembly on these bills indicate that politicians of differing political perspectives from various regions of the province voted

in favour of provincial woman suffrage.1^ Before the

introduction of party government in 1903, members of both

the opposition and government factions endorsed this

change according to their personal preferences since none

of the factions officially adopted a position on the

issue. The vote in the first three divisions after the

election of the McBride government indicated that Liberals

and Socialists were clearly more inclined to support the

measure than Conservatives. The favourable response

expressed by the majority of the Liberals reflected a

variety of motivations including a desire to oppose the

Conservative government wherever possible and the association of woman suffrage with liberal attitudes in

England, the United States of America and Canada. Following the complete defeat of the Liberals in the 1912 election, the bills were supported by the Socialists and nine

Conservatives who disagreed with the majority of their 17 colleagues. '

The identification of the Liberal party with the extension of the franchise to women was further strengthened by its adoption of a woman suffrage plank in its 1912 platform. While this action could be construed as the logical outcome of the voting record of Liberal members in the legislature, it is significant that official recognition of the women's demand was forthcoming only when the party had reached the nadir of its political influence in the province. The possibility of attracting a large numer of women as campaign workers who would later become - voters may have been influential in this decision* However, the growing alliance between various reform groups and the Liberal party was likely as important as pragmatic considerations in creating a majority opinion in favour of promoting political equality for women. The endeavours and statements of Liberal politicians in this regard were fully reported by the Victoria Daily Times from 1914 to 1917 and to a lesser extent by the Vancouver

Sun and the Vancouver World from 1913 to 1917.

Nominal and sometimes active backing for the suffragists was also forthcoming from several small parties with labour and socialist "backing. The Nationalist Party resolved in 1894 "that all citizens, irrespective of sex, over the age of 21 years, be enfranchised, and that no other qualification be required for any election, municipal, 18 provincial, or federal." The Nanaimo Workingman's Platform of 1894 also advocated the extension of the 19 franchise to women on the same basis as men. While the motivation of these two groups in adopting this stance is unclear, such a change would have expanded the number of voters from the working-class, a matter in which they were vitally interested. Furthermore, this position accorded with their professed democratic ideology. The United

Socialist Labour Party of British Columbia furthered this trend by including the "universal and equal right of 20

suffrage" in its platform for 1900. The Provincial

Progressive Party meeting in Kamloops in 1902 also decided

to recommend the inclusion of women in the province's electorate in spite of opposition from some socialist 21 delegates. E. T. Kingsley, the delegate from Nanaimo, argued that woman suffrage was "irrelevant" since the 22 "class struggle was the real issue." - Delegate Bulmer of Rossland voiced the fear that women were intrinsically conservative and therefore should be left politically 23

powerless. These men, however, represented a minority

opinion among socialists as the advocacy of adult suffrage 109 remained a permanent policy of the British Columbia Socialist 24

Party. The socialists' stand on this issue derived from

their nominally egalitarian ethic, and their desire to maximize the number of their electoral supporters. The

fact that numerous European socialist parties demanded full

voting rights for all citizens may also have been influ•

ential.

Local politicians gradually began to lobby for the

extension of the franchise to women at all levels. The

British Columbia School Trustess Association notified

Premier McBride that they supported the 1913 suffrage delegation to the legislature and warned him that public

opinion was "strongly settling in this behalf".25 In

February 1909 Mayor Hall of Victoria presented the

provincial government with a resolution unanimously passed

by the Victoria city council which declared that the

municipal franchise should be accessible to all adult 2& women citizens upon the payment of a $2.00 tax. The Victoria city council reiterated its backing for an expanded female franchise by petitioning the 1914 session of the

provincial legislature to alter the restrictions placed 27

on women in municipal elections. Some Vancouver

municipal politicians also championed woman suffrage.

They recommended the revision of the city's charter to

include women on the voters' list and took an interest

in the provincial campaign by joining suffrage organizations 110 28 and addressing meetings on the topic. The interest of local politicians in this issue may have reflected the strength of the movement in these cities. Also influential was the fact that some women qualified for the municipal and school board franchises and therefore possessed a degree of political power at these levels.

The suffragists found additional allies in various sections of the reform community primarily identified with men. The most longstanding support from this area was that tendered by clergymen of various Protestant denom• inations in the province. During the first two decades of the campaign, individual ministers endorsed political equality for women as a chaage conducive to the moral improvement of the community. Bishop Perrin, head of the

Anglican Church in British Columbia, championed woman suffrage by claiming "if society is to be purged, it must 29 be by women ... we need women directors." 7 Expanding on this theme, Congregationalist Reverend John Simpson exorted the eligible women in his church to vote in the upcoming municipal election "with Christ in mind . . . 30 for the welfare of their homes and the city."^ Several social gospel ministers defended the suffragists in the

Victoria municipal franchise controversy by arguing that property ownership and payment of taxes were not neeessary prerequisites for creating a moral electorate and consequently Ill women should he eligible to vote.-'1 In 1913 the Methodist

Conference of British Columbia officially endorsed political

equality for women as "it would greatly aid in the moral uplift of social and political affairs for which we are 32

all working."-7 The following year the favourable attitude

on this issue previously demonstrated by individual ministers and the British Columbia Methodist Conference was

officially endorsed by all the major protestant denominations 33

in the province and Canada.J

Ministerial interest in the extension of the franchise

to women was frequently prompted by the association of

serveral suffragists with temperance endeavours. Reverend

J. C. Speer, pastor of Victoria Metropolitan Methodist

Church, presented a woman suffrage petition to the

legislature in his capacity as president of the B. C.

Alliance, a men's prohibition organization.-7^ Clergymen

informed the annual meetings of the WCTU of their

simultaneous support of the women's temperance and

political campaigns and argued publicly that women should ,

share equal franchise rights with men in order to express 35 an opinion on the liquor traffic. J

From 1913 to 1916 the strongest support for the

suffragists came from those .denominations most closely

associated with the social gospel and prohibitionist

movements. The Western Methodist Recorder published the

"Suffrage Sermonette" from February 1914 until October 1915 in which Florence Hall argued that political equality was 36 not a violation of the divine order^ but a step towards

establishing "the Kingdom of God right here and now,"^^

the major goal of the social gospel ministers. She assured

her readers that enfranchised women would strive to

eliminate the influence of the bartender and "every evil 3fi

that would produce moral pollution." Reflecting a

similar point of view, the editor of the Presbyterian

Westminster Hall Magazine and Farthest West Review

lamented "there has been too much tendency ... to forget

that national as well as domestic life is a partnership 39 between the sexes.He predicted that after the granting

of woman suffrage "the race would at once take the big

step forward which must inevitably ensue when woman has

a direct political influence in the social and moral

conditions of the country and people."^® Ministers of

the Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist and Congregationalist

churches regularly continued to notify their parishoners,

the public and the government of their position on the

issue and request their support in the campaign and the

referendum. The majority of the suffragists viewed

the sanctioning of their efforts by the various

Protestant denominations in the province as particularly

valuable in influencing those members of the public opposed

to changes in traditional relationships between men and

women. Some secular reformers, most notably the trade unionists, expressed their support for the extension of the franchise to women. In accordance with the earlier labour-socialist sponsorship of woman suffrage bills, the

Vancouver Trades and Labour Council endorsed "adult suffrage including the franchise for women" in 1910.

The following year the first annual meeting of the British

Columbia Provincial Federation of Labour passed a similar 43 resolution introduced by a Victoria delegate. ^ The position of organized labour in the province in this regard was well in advance of the Trades and Labour Congress of

Canada which did not issue a directive to assist in the woman suffrage campaign until 1913. Prior to the 1914 session of the legislature, sixteen Vancouver trade unions notified the provincial government that their membership of over 1,100 men and women unanimously backed full political equality for women.^ The 1914 convention of the

British Columbia Federation of Labour ratified its earlier stand on the matter on the grounds that women voters would "support and expand working class pressure", particularly as ;women increasingly entered the work force.^

Although organized labour officially upheld the goal of woman suffrage, its support was not unqualified.

The extension of the franchise to women was never a vital concern of the province's trade unions and consequently their support waned whenever they perceived a possible conflict of interest between trade unionists and suffragists.

The strengthening of ties between some suffragists and the

Liberal Party during 1915 reaffirmed the contention of some trade unionists that enfranchised women would not 4 7

support labour candidates and issues. f Thereafter, their involvement in the campaign was drastically curtailed. The

1916 and 1917 conventions of the British Columbia Federation of Labour did not discuss woman suffrage. Reflecting this attitude, the B. C. Federationist terminated its considerable and sympathetic coverage of suffrage events with a hostile editorial which declared that the capitalists would enfranchise women in order to gain their support 48 against union men, particularly returned veterans.

With the exception of a brief notice in April 1917 that working-class women should register to vote in provincial

elections, organized labour's silence was not revoked; until the announcement of a restricted federal female

franchise under the terms of the War-Times Elections Act.

On the recommendation of Helena Gutteridge, the Vancouver

Trades and Labor Council passed a resolution condemning

the act and demanding equal access to the ballot for all 49

adult women citizens. Apart from Helena Gutteridge,

the Council members expressed interest in this issue primarily because they feared that the federal government was deliberately manipulating the electorate to strengthen 115 its position on conscription which was unpopular with organized labour.-'0

Throughout the campaign to secure political equality for women, the suffragists also received demonstrations of support from members of the public not necessarily connected with special interest or political groups. This backing usually took the form of signing petitions. In

1891 1,00$ residents of Victoria^1 and 549 residents of 62

New Westminster^- signed a petition to extend the provincial franchise to women. By 1897 2,411 women in the lower mainland were willing to endorse the measure.J The following year 2,577 men and women indicated their approval 54 in this manner."^ Much larger petitions were presented by the suffragists in the final stages of the campaign to refute McBride*s charge that there was no general interest in the issue. In 1913^ and 1914^ the British Columbia

Political Equality League presented petitions containing

10,000 and 7,000 signatures respectively. While the petitions were never signed by a majority of the electorate, they did show that large numbers of men and women in the province were neither opposed nor indifferent to the cause.^ The suffragists' claims in this regard were confirmed by the overwhelmingly affirmative endorsement of the woman suffrage referendum in 1916. The residents of British Columbia initially exhibited a mixed reaction to the British Columbia woman suffrage movement which ranged from outright hostility to active

support. The ability of the suffragists to expand their active supporters from a small group of women in 1890 to a large percentage of the male electorate in 1916

indicated the success of their campaign to alter the attitude that politics was rightfully the concern only

of men. The favourable response of a large segment of the British Columbia population also reflected the growing popularity of the progressive movement in the province, particularly amongst groups and individuals which did not have a vested interest in the status quo. Footnotes

1. See, for example, The Champion I (July 1913)» 4.

2. For example, the McBride government's handling of the 1909 local option referendum and the 1915 prohibitionist movement. See Adams, "A Study of the Use of Plebiscites and Referendums By the Province of British Columbia," 24-37 and Hopkins, ed., Canadian Annual Review 1915. 732.

3. B. C. Federationist. 31 October 1913.

4. Ibid., 12 December 1913.

5. Daily Colonist. 24 April 1897.

6. See, for example, Daily Colonist, 26 March 1907 and Victoria Daily Times. 30 January 1908.

7. See, for example, Province, 7 March 1913, Daily N ews-Advert is er. 25 May 1913.

8. See, for example, Daily News-Advertiser, 13 January 1912 and ibid., 28 October 1912.

9. See, for example, Victoria Daily Times, 10 January 1908 and Province, 2 November 1910.

10. See, for example, the Daily Colonist's brief coverage of Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst's Victoria visit, 22 December 1911.

11. See, for example, The Champion II (February 1914)t 5. 12. See, for example, B. C. Federationist 11 June 1915. 13; Interview with Mary .Norton,suffragist, 1974.

14. Interview with Frances Barr, daughter of Maria Grant, 1973.

15. The divisions, all against woman suffrage, were; 1891 10-17; 1893 10-22; 1897 12-16; 1898 10-18; 1899 15-17; 1902 12-15; 1904 16-20; 1906 12-24; 1909 13-23; 1913 9-23; 1914 10-23; 1916 6-24. British Columbia Journals of the Legislative Assembly (1891), 79; ibid., (1893), 10; ibid., (1897), 93; ibid., (1898), 120; ibid., (1899), 65; ibid., (1902), 84; ibid., (1904), 36; ibid., (1906),5; ibid., (1909), 30; ibid., (1913), 55; ibid., (1914), 27; ibid., (1916), 23. 118

16. The Liberals voted 1904, 9 yea-4 nay; 1906 9 yea- 6 nay; 1909 9 yea-2 nay while the Conservatives voted 1904 1 yea-15 nay; 1906 0 yea-18 nay; 1909 1 yea-21 nay. The Socialists voted solidly affirmative.

17. The absence of a provincial hansard and poor newspaper coverage of woman suffrage debates severely complicates the task of determining why individual members supported or rejected the measure. The fact that 3 of the 9 Conservative dissidents represented constituencies in which the previous members had voted for the bills may have influenced their voting record. Four of the Conserva* tive suffrage advocates reversed their previous opposition to the measure either in response to the demands of their constituents or to their own change of attitude.

18. Vancouver^World. 14 May 1894 as cited in T. Loosmore, "The British Columbia Labor Movement and Political Action, 1879-1906" (M.A. thesis, University of British Columbia, 1954), viii.

19. Nanaimo Free Press. 7 March 1894 as cited in Loosmore, ibid., xi.

20. The Independent. 26 May 1900.

21. Ibid., 9 April 1902. This decision was reaffirmed the following year. See Minutes of the Provincial Progressive Party, New Denver, August 19©3 as cited in Loosmore, ibid., xxix.

22. The Independent, 4 April. 1902. For later examples of this sentiment see The Western Clarion, 10 December 1910; ibid., 27 September 1913; ibid., February 1916 and ibid., June 1917.

23. The Independent. 4 April 1902.

24. See, for example, The Western Clarion. 12 January 1907. 25. J. J. Dougan to McBride. 15 February 1913. McBride Papers, 1913, File 97.

26. Victoria Daily Times. 11 February 1909.

27. British Columbia, Journals of the Legislative Assembly (1914), 45.

28. See, for example, Province. 5 May 1911; Vancouver World, 6 May 1911, Vancouver Social Register and Club 119

Directory 1914. 92 and B. C. Federationist. 3 July 1914.

29. Daily Colonist. 5 February 1899.

30. Province, 8 January 1906.

31. See, for example, Daily Colonist. 24 March 1907.

32. R. F. Stillman to McBride. 16 February 1914. McBride Papers, 1914, File 77. See also Methodist Church, Department of Social Service and Evangelism, Report 1913-1914 (n. pl.t n. pub., n.d.), 52.

33. Social Service Congress, Report of Addresses and Proceedings. 1914 (Toronto: Social Service Council of Canada, n.d.), 358.

34. British Columbia, Journals of the Legislative Assembly (1899), xxxiii.

35. See, for examples, WCTU Report (1908): 16-17 and Victoria Daily Times. 9 November 1909. Secular temperance organizations with religious connections such as the Sons of Temperance and the Local Option League later endorsed woman suffrage but did not work on the suffragists1 behalf. See E. MacGill, My Mother the Judge. 125 and C. Cleverdon, The Woman Suffrage Movement in Canada. 90.

36. See, for example, Western Methodist Recorder (September 1914)i 19-21.

37. Ibid., (March 1914)* 9.

38. Ibid.

39. Westminster Hall Magazine and Farthest West Review III (February 1913)* 23.

40. Ibid., 22.

41. See, for example, E. M. Fenner to McBride. 28 February 1914. McBride Papers, 1914, File 77; Methodist Church, Department of Social Service and Evangelism, Report 1915-1916 (Toronto* n. pub., n.d.), 55; ». E. Runnals, "A History of Knox United Church Prince George," 1945, Special Collections Division, Library, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, 32; Victoria Daily Times, 31 July 1916 and Daily News-Advertiser, 3 September 1916. 120

42. Vancouver World. 30 April 1910.

43. Ibid., 25 March 1911.

44. M. Draper to Vancouver Trades and Labour Council. 20 March 1913. Vancouver Trades and Labour Council, Minutes of Regular Meetings 1912-1916, Special Collections Division, Library, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia.

45. McBride Papers, 1913. File 97 and McBride Papers, 1914, File 77.

46. B. C. Federationist. 6 February 1914.

47. See, for example, ibid., 2 April 1915.

48. Ibid., 14 April 1916.

49. Ibid., 9 July 1917 and Province 17 September 1917.

50< Ibid.

51. British Columbia, Sessional Papers (1891), 397.

52. Ibid., 417. 53. British Columbia, Journals of the Legislative Assembly (1897), cix-cxvii and 71.

54. Ibid., (1898), lix and 76.

55. The Champion I (March 1913)« 7.

56. British Columbia, Journals of the Legislative Assembly (1914), 52 and 54.

57. Tacit recognition of the growing strength of the suffragist cause also came inadvertantly from some merchants in Victoria and Vancouver. Hoping to elicit a favorable response from their clientele, they placed commercial advertisements based on woman suffrage themes in the daily press. See, for example, Daily Colonist. 21 December 1911; Province, 15 December 1915 and ibid., 7 January 1916. Conclusion

Women in British Columbia were motivated to seek woman suffrage for two primary reasons. Some suffragists — a minority prior to 1910 but one which increased in strength thereafter — demanded equal access to the franchise as the democratic right of all adult citizens.

This position derived from English and American traditions of liberal individualism. The majority of the suffragists, however, sought equal political rights not only as a recognition of their political equality with men but as a means to enable them to promote specific social reforms and to secure equal rights for women within family law.

This group drew on the liberal tradition insofar as it maintained that the arbitrary standard which automatically accorded women a secondary status was unjust. In their emphasis on laws for the protection of women and children, however, the reformers tacitly conceded that women and children constituted a specific group which was particularly vulnerable to exploitation unless protected by specific legislation. Similarly, they argued that family and community life required protection from such adverse influences as alcohol abuse and political corruption.

Consequently they held that the state should intervene

121 in areas of social behaviour where individual interests had become collective ones. In this sense the British

Columbia woman suffrage movement could be characterized as a campaign to preserve and extend the individual liberty of those members of the community who shared the suffragists' world view.

All of the suffragists believed that the problem of the subordinate status of women would be solved by legislative action. The majority of the campaigners failed to realize that the basis of their subordination to men had more fundamental causes than those created by legal restrictions. On the whole they did not regard marriage and the family as obstacles to women's equality.

Rather, they argued that both private and public life should represent an equal partnership between the sexes, a situation which, they alleged, would occur automatically once women were accorded equal political rights with men. Indicative of their faith in legislative solutions, several Vancouver suffragists formed the Women's New Era

League shortly after the successful passage of the woman suffrage referendum in order to lobby for the revision of laws which they deemed unfair to women and children.

The suffragists attempted to apply similarly shallow solutions to other social problems confronting their society. In conjunction with many other reformers of their era, they advocated a campaign of persuasion backed by restrictive legislation to force their standards upon the increasingly heterogeneous population of the province. The naivete of the suffragists' and their fellow reformers' b;elief in the efficacy of legislation derived from their overly optimistic view of the possibility of human perfection and their "social Christian's confidence in the 2 force of good." This easy acceptance of the legislative remedy was characteristic of the progressive movement in general.

In common with other sections of the Canadian progressive movement, some British Columbia suffragists, while seeking legislative solutions to their problems, renounced the party system in government. They maintained that women could best participate in government as voters and politicians by remaining nonpartisan and judging each issue on its merits. The first women to contest provincial elections in British Columbia demonstrated the strength of their commitment of this ideal. Cecilia Spofford, a thirty year veteran of the province's woman suffrage campaign ran as a candidate of the Women's Independent

Political Association in the Victoria riding vacated by the death of Premier Brewster in 1918. Despite her defeat, the group also sponsored women in the 1919 Victoria municipal and school board elections. Spofford enjoyed more success in these elections as she was elected a L trustee on the Victoria school board. Mary Ellen Smith, 124 the first woman elected to the provincial legislature, initially campaigned as an independent in Vancouver in

1918,5 Although she subsequently joined the Liberal

Party and was re-elected as a Liberal in 1920, she continued to rebel .against party discipline. In 1921 she resigned her cabinet position in the John Oliver govern• ment on the grounds that

I have been in the unfortunate position of having to assume the responsibility of (sic) acts of the government without being in a position to criticize or advise* I am after all primarily interested in women and children and no matter what government has the power, as long as I can serve the people who I have the honour to represent, then I shall find the happiness that public life gives,"

This insistence on remaining outside of the regular political process paradoxically increased the obstacles which prevented women from participating more fully in govern• ment. As the progressive movement declined in the 1920s, women subscribing to this point of view were increasingly isolated in political affairs.

The possibility of a more equitable and public role for women as a result of securing equal access to the ballot was also hindered by the tendency of many suffragists to demand greater autonomy for women in politics in order that women might defend more effectively traditional institutions such as the family. By arguing that women must enter the political process solely because many of the former concerns of the family had moved into the public sphere, these suffragists reinforced the traditional notion that women were 'naturally* concerned only with domestic affairs. As a result of this perspective they failed to recognize that campaigning for the vote or any other measure represented a distinct departure from the behavior traditionally designated appropriate for women.

As Jill Conway points out in reference to the American reformers, "the consequence of this failure to question traditional views of femininity meant that the genuine changes of behavior and the impact of women's social 7 criticism were short-lived."' During the 1920s British Columbia women, in common with most women in Canada, g remained primarily identified with the home.

The British Columbia woman suffrage movement accomplished little change in the political activities of women aside from securing for them the right to vote.

The Women's Independent Political Association collapsed as the reform impulse which supported the woman suffrage movement declined. Women candidates remained exceptional o in elections for all levels of government.^ Many of the reforms envisioned by the suffragists failed to materialize.

Despite these shortcomings, however, the movement was successful in its immediate goal of securing the vote and with it the recognition of women's equal citizenship.

The suffragists were also instrumental in promoting the passage of legislation which granted women new rights in family law and in the workplace, thereby ameliorating many problems. The limited scope of the suffragists' reform vision prevented them from undertaking more fundamental changes. 127 Footnotes

1. H. G. MacGill, "The Story of Vancouver Social Service," 54-55.

2. V. Strong-Boag, Introduction to In Times Like These by Nellie McClung (rpt. 1915J Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1972)./

3. M. Cramer, "British Columbia Woman Suffragei A Victoria Viewpoint" (M.A. thesis, University of Victoria, 1973). 47.

4. Victoria Daily Times. 18 February 1938.

5. B. C. Federationist, 18 January 1918.

6. As cited in C. Roberts and A. Tunnell, eds., A Standard Dictionary of Canadian Biographyt Canadian Who Was Who, vol. 2 (Torontot Trans-Canada Press, 1938),

7. J. Conway, "Women Reformers and American Culture, 1870-1930," Journal of Social History V (Winter 1971-1972)t 174.

8. For a discussion of this trend see "i . . 'And Things Were Going Wrong at Home*," Atlantis I (Fall 1975)» 38-44.

9. For example, only 16 women had been elected to the British Columbia legislature by March 1968, 51 years after women won that right. See Vancouver News Herald. 5 October 1946 and Sun. 19 March 1968. No British Columbia city has elected a woman mayor. SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

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MacDonald, N. "A Critical Growth Cycle for Vancouver, 1900-1914." B.C. Studies XVII (Spring,1973)* 26-42.

McGeer, A. "Agnes Deans Cameron, A Memory." B.C. Historical News VIII (November 1974)* 16-17.

MacLean, U. "The Famous Five." Alberta Historical Review^ X (Spring 1962)* 1-4.

Mahood, S. "The Women's Suffrage Movement in Canada and Saskatchewan." in Women Unite! 21-30. Toronto* Canadian Women's Education Press, 1972.

Menzies, J". "Votes for Saskatchewan's Women." in Politics in Saskatchewan, 78-92. Editors N. Ward and D. Spafford. Lindsay, Ontario*;, Longmans Canada Ltd., 1968, 142

Morrison, T. "Their Proper Spheresi Feminism, the Family and Child-Centered Social Reform in Ontario, 1875-1900." Pt. I. Ontario History LXVIII (March 1976)t 45-64.

Morton, W. L". "The Extension of the Franchise in Canada* A Study in Democratic Nationalism." Canadian Historical Association Report. 1943* 72-81.

Perry, A. "Is Woman Suffrage a Fizzle?" Maclean's Magazine (February 1928)t 6-7, 58-59, 63.

Rutherford, P. "Tomorrow's Metropolis! The Urban Reform Movement in Canada, 1880-1920." Canadian Historical Association Historical Papers. 1971* 203*224.

Stamp, R. "Adelaide Hoodless, Champion of Women's Rights." in Profiles of Candian Educators. 213-232.. Editors R. S. Patterson et al. N. pl.t D. C. Heath Canada Ltd., 1974.

Stoddard, J. and Strong-Boag, V. "... 'And Things Were Going Wrong At Home'." Atlantis I (Fall 1975)* 38-44.

Strong-Boag, V. "Cousin Cinderella. A Guide to Historical Literature Pertaining to Canadian Women." in Women in Canada. 263-290. Editor M. Stephenson. Toronto* New Press, 1973.

. "The Roots of Modern Canadian Feminism, The National Council of Women, 1893-1929." Canada A Historical Magazine III (December 1975)« 22-33.

Tennyson, B. "Premier Hearst, the War and Votes for Women." Ontario History LVII (September 1965)» 115-121.

Thompson, J. H. "'The Beginnings of Our Regeneration'1 The Great War and Western Canadian Reform Movements." Canadian Historical Association Historical Papers. 1972* 227-245.

Voisey, P. "The 'Votes for Women' Movement." Alberta History XXIII (Summer 1975)» 10-23.

Welter, B. "The Cult of True Womanhood, 1820-1860.!' American Quarterly XVIII (Summer 1966)* 151-174.

"The Woman's Issue." Urban Reader III. 143

III Theses and Essays

Adams, A. "A Study of the Use of Plebiscites and Referendums By the Province of British Columbia." M.A. thesis, University of British Columbia, 1958.

Bacchi-Ferraro, C. "The Ideas of the Canadian Suffragists, 1890-1920." M.A. thesis, McGill University, 1970.

Christie, E. A. "The Official Attitudes and Opinions of the Presbyterian Church in Canada With Respect to Public Affairs and Social Problems, 1875-1925.M M.A. thesis, University of Toronto, 1955*

Cramer, M. "British Columbia Woman Suffrage« A Victoria Viewpoint." M.A. thesis, University of Victoria, 1973.

Dwyer, M. J. "Laurier and the British Columbia Liberal Party 1896-1911." M.A. thesis, University of British Columbia, 1961.

Ellis, W. "Some Aspects of Religion in British Columbia Polities." M.A. thesis, University of British Columbia, 1959.

Grantham, R. "Some Aspects of the Socialist Movement in British Columbia, 1898-1933." M.A. thesis, University of British Columbia, 1942.

Hiebert, J. A. "Prohibition in British Columbia." M.A. thesis, Simon Fraser University, 1969'.

Hunt, P. R. "ThePolitical Career of Sir Richard McBride." M.A. thesis, University of British Columbia, 1953.

Kennedy, M. "The History of Presbyterianism in British Columbia, 1861-1935." M.A. thesis, University of British Columbia, 1938.

Lamb, B. "Origin and Development of Newspapers in Vancouver." M.A. thesis, University of British Columbia, 1942.

Loosmore, T. "The British Columbia Labor Movement and Political Action." M.A. thesis, University of British Columbia, 1954.

Mercer, E. B.- "Political Groups in British Columbia, 1883- 1898." M.A. thesis, University of British Columbia, 1937.

Mosher, S. "The Social Gospel in British Columbia* Social Reform as a Dimension of Religion, 1900-1920." M.A. thesis, 144

University of Victoria, 1974.

Nilsen, D. "The 'Social Evil't Prostitution in Vancouver, 1900-1920." B.A. essay, University of British Columbia, 1976.

Richards, J. "Baptists in British Columbia* A Struggle to Maintain 'Sectarianism"." M.A. thesis, University of British Columbia, 1964.

Royce, M. "The Contribution of the Methodist Church to Social Welfare in Canada.!' M.A., thesis, University of Toronto, 1940.

Smith, B. R. D. "Sir Richard McBridet A Study in the Conservative Party of British Columbia, 1903-1916." IT.A. thesis, Queen's University, 1959.

Thorpe, W. L. "Lady Aberdeen and the National Council of Women of Canada." M.A. thesis, Queen's University, 1973.

Underhill, Harold Fabian. "Labor Legislation in British Columbia." PhD. dissertation, University of California, 1936.

Weppler, D. "Early Forms of Political Activity Among White Women in British Columbia, 1880-1925." M.A.. thesis, Simon Fraser University, 1971.

IV Papers

MacGill, H. G. "The Story of Vancouver Social Service." Vancouver, 1943. Typescript held by Special Collections Division, Library, University of British Columbia. Vancouver, British Columbia.

Mitchinson, W. "The Woman's Christian Temperance Union* A Woman's Reform Organization 1874-1900." Paper presented at Mount Saint Vincent University, April 1976.

Nelson, L. "Vancouver's Early Days and the Development of Her Social Services." Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Social Worker's Club, Vancouver, British Columbia, May 18, 1934.

Runnals, F. E. "A History of Knox United Church Prince George." 1945. Paper held by Special Collections Div• ision, Library*' University of British Columbia. Vancouver, British Columbia. Appendix I Biographies of the British Columbia Woman

Suffrage Leaders, 1890 - 1917

Bowes, Sarah organizer for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union; single.

Arrived in Vancouver 1886. Organizer for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union from eastern Canada. First city missionary for the WCTU in Vancouver. Formed branches of the WCTU in Vancouver and throughout the interior of the province. Vice-president of the Vancouver Local Council of Women 1905-1911 and convener of the Committee on Laws for the Protection of Women and Children 1909-1910. Methodist.

H. G. MacGill, "The Story of Vancouver Social Service"; NCWC Report (1905-1911); WCTU Report (1886-1900).

Cameron, Agnes Deans author, lecturer, educationalist and politician; b. Victoria, British Columbia, 1863, fa'. Duncan Cameron, miner and contractor, mo. b. Jessie Anderson; single; d. Victoria, British Columbia, 1912.

School teacher in Victoria, Vancouver and Comox during the 1880s.' First woman teacher at Victoria High School, 1890- 1894. First woman school principal in British Columbia at South Park School, Victoria, 1894-1905. Resigned over a discipline dispute. Elected to the Victoria School Board 1906. Articles published in the local press, Century, Atlantic Monthly. Saturday Evening Post and other journals, 1893-1912. Travelled extensively in the North West Territories in 1908, published The New North (1909) and The Outer Trail (1910). Lecturer and writer for the federal government in Canada and in Europe to encourage immigration, 1909-1911. Vice-president of the Canadian Women's Press Club 1911. Member of the Victoria Local Council of Women, the Society to Prevent Cruelty to Animals, the British Columbia Historical Society, the Ladies of the Macabees, the Young Women's Christian Association and the British Agricultural Association. Presbyterian.

E. Forbes, Wild Roses at Their Feet (Vancouver, 1971); G. Haybell, "Agnes Deans Cameron, 1863-1912," B. C. Historical News VII; A. McGeer, "Agnes Deans Cameron, a Memory," ibid. VIII; C. Parker, ed., Who's Who in Western Canada, 1911 (Vancouver, 1911); NCWC Report (1901. 1905. 1906); G. Roberts and A. Tunnell, eds., A Standard Dictionary of Canadian Biographyt Canadian Who Was Who 145 146 vol. 2 (Toronto, 1938); P. Smith, Come Give a Cheer! (Vancouver, 1976).

Clark, Susan Lane teacher, journalist, politician and housewife; b. San Francisco, California, 1880s, fa. Nathaniel Lane, supervisor, City of San Francisco; hus. James Allan Clark, printer, 1 daughter and 3 sons; d. Vancouver, British Columbia, 1956.

Taught in elementary, secondary and business schools in the United States after completing a university extension course for teachers. Secretary of the first suffrage organization in San Francisco formed by Susan Anthony. Emigrated to Canada in 1907 with her Canadian husband. President of the Mount Pleasant Woman's Suffrage League 1913-1917. Co-editor of the B. C. Federationist suffrage page, 1913-1914. Chairman of the Vancouver City Central Woman's Suffrage Referendum Campaign Committee, 1916. President of the New Era League, 1916-1917 and vice- president 1925. Member of the Mother's Pensions Board, the Vancouver Local Council of Women, the Parent-Teacher Association, the Federated Labour Party, the Socialist Party of Canada and the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation. During World War I British Columbia representative on the Canada Food Board. Advocate of a minimum wage for women, women probation officers, women factory inspectors, women judges and better conditions for orphans. Elected to the Vancouver Park Board 1938- 1939. Socialist.

McBride Papers, 1914-1917 (BCPA); NCWC Report (1915)f Vancouver Women's Building Diary 1925 (Vancouver, 1925); B. C. Federationist. 1913-1914; Province. 28 November 1956; Sun. 10 May 1941; ibid., 28 November 1956.

Crease, Susan Reynolds philanthropist; b. Cornwall, England, 1856, fa. Sir Henry Pering Pellew Crease, British Columbia Attorney-General 1864-1870 and Supreme Court Judge in British Columbia, mo. b. Sarah Lindley; single; d. Victoria, British Columbia, 1947.

Emigrated to Victoria in i860 with parents, 1862-1868 resided in New Westminster, 1868-1947 lived in Victoria. Educated in Victoria's private schools. Founding member of the Victoria Local Council of Women, president 1911- 1921, 1923-1932, first life member 1928. Executive member of the National Council of Women of Canada. Instrumental in the visit of Emmeline Pankhurst to Victoria in 1912. 14?

Union? mAnglica^ °hriSt Church' victoria and the Scripture

S. Crease, Letters and Diaries I865-1943 (BCPA) Ke r p!n ^ » Biographical Dictionary of Weil-Known British Columbians (Vancouver, 1890) % NCWC Report (l895-TQ3?T7 D|ily_C^nist, 16 July 1947; VlotoHaBaliv TimesT 10 November 1945; ibid., 16 July 1947. —

Davis, Dorothy author and housewife; b. England; hus. Capt. R. P. Bishop, surveyor.

Pounding member of the Victoria Political Equality League. Provincial organizer of the British Columbia Political Equality League 1911-1913. Co-editor of The Champion 1912-1913. Founder of the Women's Freedom Union, Victoria, December 1913. Member of the Victoria Local Council of Women and the Colonial International League. Politically non-partisan.

The Champion 1912-1913; Correspondence, City Archives, Victoria, British Columbia; McBride Papers, 1913-1914 (BCPA); NCWC Report (1913).

Grant, Helen Maria politician and housewife; b. Maitland, Nova Scotia, 1853» fa. George Smith; hus. William Grant, captain, trader and sealer, 2 sons; d. Victoria, British Columbia, 1943.

Following marriage in 1873 lived the next 13 years on the sea travelling to South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. Trained navigator. Settled in Victoria with her family in 1886. Charter member of the Victoria Local Council of Women, treasurer 1896-1917 and 1921 and vice- president 1922-1927. Life member of the National Council of Women of Canada. Member of the Victoria WCTU and active on its Home Committee 1909-1913. Member of the Home for Aged Women Society, the Protestant Orphanage and the Friendly Help Society. Elected to the Victoria School Board 1896-1902. Accorded the Victoria Best Citizen's Award, 1929. Cousin, Amor de Cosmos (William Alexander Smith) Premier of British Columbia December 1872 to February 1874. Uncle, Judge Jonathan McCully, Senator. Baptist.

NCWC Report (1895-1917, 1921-1927); Daily Colonist. 24 May 1929; ibid., 10 December 1933; Victoria Daily Times 27 October 1943. 148

Grant, Maria Heathfield politician, journalist, minister and housewife? b. Quebec City, Quebec, 1854, fa. Reverend William Pollard, District Supervisor of the Methodist Church in British Columbia: hus. Gordon Grant, engineer, 5 daughters and 2 sons; d. Victoria, British Columbia, 1937. Arrived in Victoria in 1867 with her parents. Founding member of the Victoria WCTU (1883) of which her mother was the first president. Charter member of the Victoria Local Council of Women 1894. Supervisor of the WCTU Department of Petition, Legislation and Franchise 1887- 1915. President of the Provincial WCTU 1903-1905. Recording Secretary of the Victoria Local Council of Women 1895-1903, executive member of the ad hoc woman suffrage committee 1908-1909, chairman of the Committee on Citizenship 1909-1910 and chairman of the Committee on Laws for the Protection of Women and Children. 1916. Supporter of Susan Anthony's visit to Victoria, 1871. First president of the Victoria Political Equality League and the British Columbia Political Equality League. Co-editor, later sole editor, of The Champion 1912-1914. Executive member of the Canadian Suffrage Association 1914. Elected to the Victoria School Board 1895-1896 and 1899- 1900. Active supporter of the Children's Aid Society. Member of the Woman's Independent Political Association 1917. Minister, Victoria Unity Centre 1917-1933. Politically non-partisan. Methodist.:

C rSrwn- ^Agh?S^7h^ HistGry of the Organization (BC A 192 fej£?y'' ? A 5)5 Forbes, Wild Roses At Their pftfit,. NCWC R|£or| (1895-1917);.Ross Bay Cemetery Records, ' Victoria, British Columbia; WCTU Report (1885-1917), Daily Colonist, 31 March 1937; ibid;, 1 April 19371 31 Ch 1 37, toria Dai1 mma2 2 X i^ ? .^g r ^ February 1919; S 2" i5,5fSember Wo; ibid., 14 December 1909; ibid;. 30 March 1937; Western Methodist Records (May 1937)

Gutteridge, Helena Rose trade union activist, politician, journalist, welfare officer and farmer; b. London, England, 1879 or 1880; single; d. Vancouver, British Columbia, I960;

Attended the Regent Street Polytechnic and the Royal Sanitary Institute in London, England. London suffragette 1908-1911. Emigrated to Vancouver, British Columbia 1911. Founder of the British Columbia Woman* s Suffrage League and co-editor of the B. G. Federationist woman suffrage page. Secretary of the United Suffrage Societies, 1915 and 1916. Secretary of the Vancouver City Central Woman's 149 Suffrage Referendum Campaign Committee, 1916. Member of the Pioneer Political Equality League and the Vancouver Local Council of Women. Served the Vancouver Trades and Labour Council as an organizer, secretary, business agent, treasurer, statistician, vice-chairman and trustee. Correspondent for the Labour Gazette 1913-1921. Chairman of the Women's Minimum Wage League 1917. Active supporter of the Mother's Pension Act. Elected first woman alderman in Vancouver in 1937, sponsored by the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation. Re-elected 1939, defeated 1940. Chairman of the Vancouver Town Planning and Parks 1937. Secretary of the New Era League 1937. Contested the Van• couver Point Grey constituency in 1941, defeated. Poultry farmer in the Fraser Valley 1921-1932. Supervisor of the welfare office of the Japanese internment camp at Slocan City for the duration of World War II. At the time of her death chairman of the Women* s International League for Peace. Socialist. No denominational affiliation.

McBride Papers, 1915-1916 (BCPA); Vancouver Trades and Labour Council, Minutes of Regular Meetings, 1912-1920; B. C. Federationist 1913-1920; Pacific Tribune 8 March 1957s Province. 3 October I960; Sua, 31 March 1937« ibid., 3 October I960; Vancouver News Herald, 15 October 1941.

Hall, Florence journalist, educationalist and housewife; b. United States; hus. Reverend William Lashley Hall, Methodist Minister.

Superintendent of the WCTU Department of Evangelistic Work including hospitals, jails and city missions 1909- 1916.. Active supporter of prisonn reform, women matrons and court procedure reforms. Member of the Vancouver Local Council of Women and the Vancouver Political Equality League. Recruiter for the British Columbia Political Equality League in the Cariboo and Kootenay districts of British Columbia, 1912-1915. Author of the "Suffrage Sermonette" column in the Western Methodist Recorder 1914-1915* Professional advisor to the Vancouver School Board prior to 1925. Accompanied her husband to his various parishes throughout the province from 1893 until 1925. Husband was a co-worker of the Booths in the Salvation Army in the 1880s and president of the British Columbia Methodist Conference in 1914 which endorsed woman suffrage. Methodist.

The Champion 1912-1914; McBride Papers 1914 (BCPA); WCTU Report (1909-1916); Western Methodist Recorder 1914-1915? British Columbian 23 January 1960; Province 19 December 1942. 150 Hill, Agnes politician and housewife; b. St. John, New Brunswick, 1840s, fa. Alexander Lawrence; hus. Albert J. Hill, geological surveyor and city engineer New Westminster, British Columbia, 2 daughters and 2 sons.

Moved to British Columbia in 1882 with husband. President of the New Westminster Local Council of Women 1901-1902. Member of the National Council of Women of Canada Committee on Women on School Boards, 1904. Representative of the New Westminster Benevolent Society, the Baptist Missionary Society and the Ladies Baptist Aid at the New Westminster Local Council of Women 1903-1910. Elected to the New Westminster School Board 1900-1903. Brother, W. Lawrence involved in New Brunswick politics. Baptist.

J. Kerr, Biographical Dictionary of Well-Known British Columbians; NCWC Report (1900-1910).

Jamieson, Laura Emma judge, politician, author and housewife; b. Head Park, Ontario, 1883, fa. Joseph Marshall, mo. b. Lucy Smith; hus. John Stuart Jamieson, juvenile court judge, 1 daughter and 1 son; d. Vancouver, British Columbia, 1964.

Graduated from the University of Toronto 1908, Married John Stuart Jamieson in 1911 and moved to Vancouver. A leading proponent of woman suffrage through the Vancouver University Women's Club, president 1915-1916. Member of the Vancouver Local Council of Women 1911-1964 and vice-president 1952. Organized the Vancouver branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom 1921 and was corresponding secretary 1925. Secretary of the Vancouver Young Women's Christian Association 1926. Member of the British Columbia Public Library Commission 1927-1938. Member of the Business and Professional Women's Club and the Civil Liberties Union. Executive member of the Vancouver Women's Building Limited (1925), the Vancouver Housing Association, the Vancouver Branch of the Community Planning Association and the Women's School for Citizenship. Elected to the provincial legislature for Vancouver Centre 1939-1945 and 1952-1953, sponsored by the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation Party. Alderman in Vancouver 1948 to 1950. Vice-president of the provincial Co-operative Commonwealth Federation Party 1950-1951. Author of Women Dry Those Tears (1940).. Socialist. Unitarian.

Canadian Parliamentary Guide, 1940; ibid., 1953; L. Jamieson, Correspondence and Personal Documents, 1921-19 (BCPA); Vancouver Women's Building Diary 1925; Who's Who 151

in British Columbia, IX (Victoria, 1953); Democrat. 1 August 1964: Sun3 July 1964.

Jenkins, Margaret teacher, politician and housewife: b. England, 1843, fa. Deacon Townsend, Congregational Minister: first hus. Fox, second hus. David Jenkins, 7 children and 9 step-children: d. Victoria, British Columbia, 1923.

Indentured as a pupil teacher in England at age 14. Travelled to Columbo, Chile in 1866 to teach. Married Fox in Chile, widowed 1876 with 4 young children. Married David Jenkins in 1879,cared for their 16 children. Emigrated to Victoria in 1882. Founding member of the Victoria WCTU in 1883 and was the first provincial .corresponding secretary. Vice-president of the provincial WCTU 1887-1888. President of the Victoria WCTU 1900. Charter and life member of the Victoria Local Council of Women, recording secretary 1904-1910, vice-president 1911-1914. Elected to the Victoria School Board 1897- 1898 and 1902-1919, sponsored by the Victoria Local Council of Women and the WCTU. Member of the Victoria Women's Canadian Club, the Cymrodian Society, the Metropolitan Methodist Church Ladies Aid, the Home Nursing Society, the Ladies Auxiliary to the Young Men's Christian Association and the Victoria Women's Conservative Club. Conservative. Methodist.

NCWC Report (1895-1917); WCTU Report (1883-1900); Daily Colonist 7 June 1923t Victoria Daily Times. 7 June 1923.

Kemp, Janet housewife; b. 1864; hus. Kemp, 2 sons and 1 daughter; d. Vancouver, British Columbia, I960.

Arrived in Vancouver in 1889. Vice-president of the Van* couver Local Council of Women 1905-1915 and convener of the Committee on Laws for the Protection of Women and Children, 1910-1914. Life member of the National Council of Women of Canada. Provincial convener of the Legislative Committee of the British Columbia Political Equality League, 1913-1914. Founding member of the Presbyterian Mission Church in Mount Pleasant, Vancouver. Life member of the United Church Women's Missionary Society. Member of the Alexandra Orphanage, the Ladies of the Macabees and the Imperial Order of Daughters of the Empire. President of the Widows, Wives and Mothers of Great Britain Heroes' Association, 1925. Advocate of mother's pensions. During World War I organized 1800 women through women's groups for farm labour. Husband Riel 152

Rebellion hero. Conservative. Presbyterian.

McBride Papers 1913 (BCPA); NCWC Report (1905-1915); Vancouver Local Council of Women, Minutes, 1910-1917; Province 24 March 1947; ibid., 28 January I960; Sun 18 March 1947.

McCbnkey, Mary Elizabeth housewife; b. Winnipeg, Manitoba, 1880s, fa. Sibbald, homesteader, mo. b. Blacki hus. William McConkey, teacher and physician, 1 daughter and 1 son.

Honor graduate in Arts, University of Manitoba. Married in 1908 and moved to Vancouver 1908-1909. President of the Pioneer Political Equality League, 1914. Member of the Vancouver Local Council of Women, the Vancouver University Women's Club and the Westminster Presbyterian Church. Liberal. Presbyterian.

British Columbia Pictoral and Biographical (Vancouver, 1914); McBride Papers 1913 (BCPA)t Vancouver Social Register and Club Directory 1914 (Vancouver. 1914); Sun. 3 December 1966..

MacGill, Helen Gregory journalist, judge, author and housewife; b. Hamilton, Ontario, 1864, fa. Silas Gregory, businessman, mo. b. Emma O'Rielly; first hus. Lee Flesher, physician* second hus. James MacGill, lawyer, 2 daughters (MacGill) and 2 sons , (Flesher); d. Chicago, United States of America, 1947.

First woman granted a Bac. Mus. (1886 first class), B. A. (1888) and W. A. (1890) by Trinty College, University of Toronto. Contributed articles on the Canadian West, Japan and other topics to the Toronto Globe, Cosmopolitan. Atlantic Monthly. Harper's and other magazines. 1892 moved to San Francisco with her husband Flesher and her mother. Reporter for the San Francisco Morning Call. Co-editor with her mother of the San Francisco suffrage newspaper The Searchlight. Moved to Minnesota and continued suffrage activities there. Reporter for the St. Paul Globe. Widowed 1901. Married J. MacGill in 1902 and moved to Vancouver, British Columbia. Founding member of the Vancouver University Women's Club 1908, the Vancouver Women*s Press Club 1909* the Vancouver Creche 1909-1910 and the Vancouver Business and Professional Women* s Club 1922. The major promoter of the Vancouver Women's Building Limited 1911 and member of the Board of Directors until the 1930s. Member of the Quebec Press Association 1887, 153

the Vancouver Women's Canadian Club, the Women's Institute, the Imperial Order of Daughters of the Empire, the Women's Musical Club, the Canadian Daughters League, the Red Cross* the Neighbourhood House and Phi Delta. Member of the Vancouver Local Council of Women 1909-1947, convener of the Press Committee 1909-1910, convener of the Citizenship Committee 1911-1912 and vice-president 1934. Executive member of the British Columbia Equal Franchise Association 1912-1917. Campaign manager for Marie McNaughton 1912- 1913. Convener of the Laws Committee of the Vancouver University Women's Club 1916 and president 1917. President of the New Era League 1925. Appointed first woman judge of juvenile court in British Columbia at Vancouver, served 1917-1928 and 1934-1945. Only woman member of the first minimum wage commission in British Columbia. Author of Daughters. Wives and Mothers in British Columbia (1913, 1914), Laws for Women and Children in British Columbia (1925, 1928. 1935. 1939). How to Conduct Public Meetings in Canada (19?, 1939) and The Work of the Juvenile Court and How to Secure Such a Court in a Canadian Community (1943). Granted an honorary LLD. by the University of British Columbia 1938. Conservative until 1915-1916. Liberal thereafter. Anglican.

McBride Papers, 1912-1917 (BCPA)j E. MacGill, My Mother the Judget H. MacGill, "The Story of Vancouver Social Service"; Vancouver Local Council of Women, Minutes 1910- 1914; Vancouver Women's Building Diary 1925.

McNaughton, Marie Henerietta politician and housewife; b. Glengarry, Ontario, i860; hus. Peter McNaughton, 1 daughter and 2 sons; d. Victoria, British Columbia, 1946.

Arrived in Vancouver in 1888 with her parents. Married in 1891. Vice-president of the Vancouver Local Council of Women 1904-1910 and president 1910-1913. Elected to the Vancouver School Board 1912-1914, sponsored by the Council. Founding director of the Vancouver Women's Building Limited, 1911. Charter member of the Vancouver Women's Canadian Club, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Vancouver General Hospital Board of Governors and St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church. Organized the Women's Auxiliary to Westminster Hall. Moved to Victoria in 1914. President of the Victoria Women's Canadian Club, 1928. Member of the Victoria Local Council of Women. Presbyterian.

NCWC Report 1905-1914; Vancouver Local Council of Women, Minutesj 1910-1914; ibid, Membership Lists, 1904-1914; Daily Colonist, 9 January 1946; Province. 9 January 1946; Victoria Daily Times, 9 January 1946. 154

Perrin, Edith b. England, fa. Thomas Perrin, mo. Margaret; single.

Arrived in British Columbia in 1893 with her brother, Bishop Perrin. Founding member of the Victoria Local Council of Women. First convener of the Council's Committee on Laws for the Protection of Women and Children, 1895* Undertook an investigation of the conditions of working women and girls in Victoria 1895-1899. President of the Victoria Local Council of Women 1899-1903. Vice-president of the National Council of Women of Canada 1895. Member of the National Council of Women of Canada's Committee on Laws for the Protection of Women and Children, 1899. National Council of Women of Canada delegate to the International Council of Women convention 1897. Secretary of the Victoria WCTU? Refuge Home 1897. President of the Canadian Branch of the Girls Friendly Society. Returned to England 1904. Brother William Perrin, Bishop of Columbia, supporter of temperance and woman suffrage. Anglican.

R. Gosnell, The Yearbook of British Columbia 1897 (Victoria, 1897); NCWC Report 1895-1903; Parker, Who's Who in Western Canada 1911; Victoria Daily Times. 11 February 1909.

Smith, Mary Ellen politician, author and housewife; b. Devonshire, England, 1861, fa.. Richard Spear, mo. b. Mary Jane Jackson; hus. Ralph Smith, politician and trade union activist; 1 daughter and 4 sons; d. Vancouver, British Columbia, 1933.-

Arrived in British Columbia 1892. Life member of the National Council of Women of Canada. Member of the Vancouver Local Council of Women, the Women's Institute, the Red Cross, the Suffrage League of Canada and the Pioneer Political Equality League. Original member of the Vancouver Women's Forum. Founding member of the Vancouver City Creche 1909-1910. Regent of the Imperial Order ©f Daughters of the Empire. President of the Vancouver Women's Canadian Club 1915-1917. Founder and president of the Women's Auxiliary Hospital at Nanaimo. Organizer of the Returned Soldiers Club of Vancouver. Honorary president of the Vancouver Women's Liberal Association, 1917, founder of the Laurier Liberal Club, chairman of the British Columbia Liberal caucus for five years and chairman of the 1927 British Columbia Liberal convention. Elected to the British Columbia legislature as an Independent from Vancouver in 1918 (the constituency represented by her late husband). Re-elected in 1920, 1924, 1930 as a Liberal. First woman cabinet minister in the British Empire, president of the Council March to November 1921. First woman speaker in 155 the British Columbia legislature, February 1928. Closely associated with legislation for old age pensions, minimum wages, appointment of women juvenile court judges, maintenance of deserted wives, abolition of illegitimacy, family maintenance, mother's allowance, widow's inheritance, protection of neglected and delinquent children and regulation of night employment. Member of the Dominion Board of Mental Hygiene, Federal Tariff Commission 1925, and the select commission to inquire into the practice of the Workmen's Compensation Act (1926). Toured Europe on behalf of the federal government to encourage emigration to Canada, 1923. Canadian delegate to the League of Nations April 1929. Author of Is It Just? (1912). Husband president of the Trades and Labour Congress of Canada for five years, member of the British Columbia legislature 1898-1900 and 1916-1917 (Minister of Finance), Member of Parliament 1900-1911. Liberal. Methodist. British Columbia, Journals of the Legislative Assembly (1918-1933); Canadian Parliamentary Guide. 1918; ibid., 1927; C. Roberts and A. Tunnell, eds., A Standard Dictionary of Canadian Biography; CanadTan Who Was Who, vol. 2.

Spofford, Anne Cecilia teacher, politician and housewife; b. Sydney, Nova Scotia, 1859, fa. Duncan McNaughton; hus. William Spofford, contractor, 1 daughter and at least 1 son; d. Victoria, British Columbia, 1938. Arrived in Victoria in 1876 with her parents. Married in 1883. Taught in early schools on the Saanieh Peninsula and Salt Spring Island. Founding member of the Victoria WCTU 1883, provincial vice-president of the WCTU 1886, recording secretary 1887, president of the Victoria WCTU 1887. Founding member of the Victoria Local Council of Women 1894, corresponding secretary 1903-1908, convener of the Committee on Laws for the Protection of Women and Children 1904, member of the Legislative Committee 1909- 1910 and vice-president 1933-1936. Organizer of the Victoria Political Equality League 1910 and member of the British Columbia Political Equality League. Elected to the Victoria School Board 1919-1921. Charter member of the Victoria Women's Canadian Club and the Women's Union First Baptist Church. Member of the Victoria Young Women's Christian Association, Ladies of the Macabees and the Children's Aid Society, president 1915. Baptist Convention president 1929. Provincial Council of Women president 1937-1938. Member of the Social Welfare Commission and the Minimum Wage Board in Victoria. Candidate for the Woman's Independent Political Association in a provincial r 156

bye-election 1918, defeated. Mother charter member of the New Westminster WCTU, initiator of the Band of Good Hope School and the WCTU Provincial District organizer for the 1880s. Politically non-partisan. Baptist.

C. Cleverdon, The Woman Suffrage Movement in Canada; Cunningham, "The History of the Organization[WCTU]"; J. Gordon, "History of the Women's Canadian Club" (BCPA, 1959); L. MacPherson, "Historical Sketch of the WCTU of B. C." (BCPA, 1953)5 NCWC Report (1895-1936); C. Spofford, Miscellaneous Papers, 1877, 1879, 1880 (BCPA); Daily Colonist. 18 February 1938; Province. 18 February 1938; Victoria Daily Times, 14 December 1909; ibid., 18 February 1938":

Townley, Alice Ashworth author, politician and housewife; b. QuebecCity, Quebec, 1870, fa. William Henry Ashworth, mo. b. Jane Moray; hus. C;. R. Townley, realtor; d. Vancouver, British Columbia, 1941

Arrived in Vancouver in 1903* Founding member of the Vancouver Women's Press Club, president 1910-1911. Organizer of the Vancouver Women's Canadian Club, 1909. Vice-president of the Vancouver Local Council of Women 1911 and convener of the Committee on Citizenship 1914. Member of the Imperial Order of Daughters of the Empire, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Women's Musical Club, the King Edward Parent-Teacher Association, The New Westminster Academy of Arts, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Vancouver Art, Historical and Scientific Association, the Child Welfare Association, the Women's Institute and the Women's Auxiliary to Disabled Veterans. Member of the first Board of Directors of the Vancouver Women's Building Limited 1911. President of the Vancouver Political Equality League 1911. Founder and president of the British Columbia Equal Franchise Association, 1912- 1917. President of the League of Women Voters, 1918. Elected to the Vancouver Park Board 1928-1935. Author of Points in the Laws of British Columbia Regarding the Legal Status of Women (1911). Opinions of Mary (1909). Just a Little Girl (1907). Just a Little Boy (1897) and numerous newspaper and magazine articles. Conservative. Anglican.

Mrs. J. Macaulay, Women's Canadian Club, Vancouver, B. C, 1909-1930' (City Archives of Vancouver, 1930); C. Parker, Who's Who and Why 1912 (Vancouver, 1912); E. Stoddard, "The Feminine Side of the Western West," Man to Man Magazine VI; Vancouver Local Council of Women, Minutes 1910-1917; V. Vectis, "Women Writers of the West," British Columbia Magazine V II; Province, 6 January 194l;""Sun 6 January 1941.