MOTHERING CITIZENS: ELITE WOMEN IN MONTREAL 1890-1914 Elizabeth Kirkland Department of History McGill University, Montreal September 2011 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy © Elizabeth Kirkland, 2011 ii ABSTRACT This thesis explores the activism of elite women in Montreal Ŕ Anglophone, Francophone, Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox Jewish Ŕ between 1890 and 1914. In the form of a collective biography, I observe the twenty elite women who comprise this study in their homes, in the rituals of their class, in the work of philanthropy, and in active engagement with their local community and the world beyond Montreal. These women had a vision for society that went beyond social reform or securing the vote for women; one that was based on their experiences of gender, race, ethnicity, class, and religion. Maternalist ideology as adopted by these early activists, built a framework for a brighter future, a better city, and a stronger nation. I argue that elite women twinned their role as mothers with their identity as citizens in order to create a realm of social and political influence for themselves. They placed the family unit as the nuclear centre of society and extended this concept as a model to the community, nation, and international world. As maternalists, these women believed that they, as wives, mothers and especially as citizens, had an important role to play in shaping society. Through shared gender and class identities, they forged bridges across ethnic and religious divides which in turn provided them with influence and power in Montreal and beyond. What emerges from the sources is that these women were far from passive or content to stay in the shadows. They were intentionally political in the way they thought about and engaged their lives as citizens. But there were limits to their influence and the women studied here had to carefully navigate these boundaries. The onset of the First World War served to aggravate tensions that had long been simmering beneath the surface to the point that cooperation disintegrated and their power that had derived from their unity was markedly diminished. iii RÉSUMÉ Cette thèse porte sur lřengagement social et politique de femmes de lřélite montréalaise de 1890 à 1914. Pour ce faire, jřai réuni vingt Montréalaises issues des communautés anglophones, francophones, protestantes, catholiques et orthodoxes juives en une biographie collective qui lève le voile sur leur vie domestique, les rituels propres à leur classe sociale, leur travail philanthropique, de même que sur leur engagement au sein de la communauté locale et élargie. Cet exercice de style mřa permis de mettre en évidence lřinfluence des identités de genre, de race, dřethnie, de classe et de religion de chacune sur sa conception de la société. La mise en commun des expériences de ces femmes de lřélite montréalaise révèle également que leurs préoccupations étaient plurielles et quřelles dépassent la seule question du suffrage féminin. Lřidéologie maternaliste embrassée par ces activistes traçait les jalons dřun futur meilleur, dřune ville assainie et dřune nation plus forte. Ma thèse est que les femmes constituant ce corpus combinaient leurs rôles de mères et leurs identités de citoyennes afin de se tailler une place, un cercle dřinfluence, dans des sphères dřactivité qui leurs étaient habituellement défendues, soit les sphères sociale et politique. Pour y arriver, elles ont placé la famille au cœur de leur conception du système social et ont transposé cette vision à la communauté, à la nation et au monde. En tant quřépouses, mères, mais aussi en tant que citoyennes, ces maternalistes croyaient quřelles avaient un rôle important à jouer dans la transformation de la société. Le fait qu'elles aient partagé les mêmes identités sexuelle et sociale leur a permis de se rapprocher. Ces similarités, jumelées à leurs différences ethniques et religieuses leurs ont conféré une influence et un pouvoir indéniable à Montréal et au-delà. Les sources consultées révèlent que ces femmes de lřélite montréalaise étaient loin dřêtre passives ou contentes de rester dans lřombre. Leur engagement politique et citoyen était conscient. Leur influence comportait néanmoins des limites quřelles durent apprendre à repousser avec doigté. Avec le déclenchement de la Grande Guerre, les tensions cachées qui existaient entre elles s'aggravèrent et il ne fut bientôt plus possible de coopérer. La séparation de ce groupe eut pour résultat de diminuer de façon notoire le pouvoir et lřinfluence que ces femmes de l'élite montréalaise avaient acquis en près de vingt-cinq ans. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am most keenly aware of the many people who have supported me along this journey. It has been a memorable experience on so many levels. First and foremost, I wish to thank my supervisor, Suzanne Morton, who planted the seed of this project on an unexpected bus ride up Park Avenue many moons ago. She has been an incredible mentor from the beginning and has given me the support and encouragement I needed to see this project through. Thank you also to Brian Young who spent many hours talking through elite culture, thesis organization, and source-finding strategies with me. Leonard Moore and Jarrett Rudy were also instrumental in my formation as an historian and I thank them for the ways they cheered me on along the way. I owe many thanks to the members of the Montreal History Group and to the idea of such a group in the first place. The group has shaped and challenged my understanding of Montreal and historical practice in many fruitful ways. To David Meren I owe a huge debt of gratitude. Not only did he read and comment on the entire thesis, he has been a supportive and wise friend, sharing the ups and downs of this process each step of the way. Sean Mills and Nicolas Kenny have similarly been part of this project since its early beginnings. Their enthusiasm and fastidious scholarship have served as an example. Many years ago Harry Van Dyke suggested to me that it might be time to go back and look at these maternalists. Iřm so glad he did. Colleen Parish saw me through much of the administrative business connected with graduate life and I thank her for that. Early in my graduate career I was fortunate to work on two parallel projects with scholars in fields related to history. Sherry Olson, Peter Gossage, v and Annmarie Adams opened up new ways of uncovering the past and taught me how to see details in what looked like bland sources to the untrained eye. Archivists also played an important role in the shape of this project and I am indebted to their sympathetic, professional guidance. In particular, I want to thank François Cartier formerly of the McCord Museum for his genuine interest in this project and the seemingly little Ŗextrasŗ that made the source material for the project so rich. I wish to thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Max Stern McCord Museum Fellowship, the Foundation for the Advancement of Protestant Education Graduate Fellowship, the T. Palmer Howard Award, the McGill Faculty of Graduate and Postgraduate Studies, the Michael Tarshis Award, the Margaret Gillett Graduate Research Award, and the Montreal History Group for providing funding for the project. Thanks are due to the circles of friends who both asked and didnřt ask how the work was going. To Megan Webster, Nicolas Kenny, Catherine Braithwaite, Sean Mills, Anna Shea, Marie-Ève Harbec, David Meren, Mary Anne Poutanen, Jennifer McCann, Rob Costain, Jean-François Constant my sincerest thanks. To Tom Brydon who went on ahead, I wish I had a way to thank you. To the Group of Six from Belleville, I thank you for whisking me away from this world every once in a while to search out antiques in Prince Edward County or to open another bottle of wine late in the evening. Thank you to those friends who were perpetually on the other end of emails and texts, regardless of my emotional state, and for walking along the journeys that have paralleled this project. Thank you to Geneviève Guimont for caring so immensely for my children. Many thanks to my vi colleagues at Dawson College, especially Jo LaPierre and Gemma Albanese who did amazing things with scheduling in order to give me space to see this thesis to completion. And to Ted Irwin who helped me crunch numbers and believed in me at just the right moment. To my families I dedicate the remainder of these thanksgivings. My parents, Marg and Kent Kirkland provided endless support and at a critical moment in my teenage life provided me with the opportunity to walk through the streets of Europe, fanning the love of history that had only just begun in the classroom. Thank you to my siblings, Jennifer, Melanie, Meredith, and Andrew who put up with their baby sister and her resistance to facing the Ŗreal worldŗ. To the Griffins, Carl, Darina, and Laura, who have walked every step of the journey with me, I also say thank you. The real world support of child care, warm meals, a clean kitchen, and a listening ear at the other end of the telephone made a world of difference as I navigated all the different roles that make up my life. Finally, but most importantly, to the three loves of my life Ŕ Kate, Jack, and Greg Ŕ my most wholehearted thanks and love. I would write a thousand words but none would suffice to express how full and wonderful you make the journey every day. All my love. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract/Résumé Analytique ii Acknowledgments iv Table of Contents vii List of Abbreviations viii CHAPTER 1 1 Introduction CHAPTER 2 34 ŘNřoublions pas que la famille est le royaume de la femmeř: Marriage, Maternity, and the Home.