1920s Minority RightsRole of WomenThe Persons CaseAboriginal PeoplesSelf Determination

The Role of Women• Women gaining more

control by taking on roles traditionally held by men

- Politicians- Sports- Industry

Despite these gains, women still facing discrimination and restrictions

Women’s Social Status• Married women role was

still wife and mother• Single women had

limited career options- nurse/teacher- Very few doctors, engineers

ect.- secretaries, sales clerks,

telephone operators

• PAID MUCH LESS THEN MEN!

Women were propertyWomen were the property of her father until marriage

Once married women had few rights over-Property- children-Protection from assault

-Women not considered persons unless charged with a crime

Women’s Christian Temperance Union• Supported Women’s right

to vote- Believed that with the

vote, women could influence the government to address social problems such as child labour, pollution, and poverty

Women in Politics• Won the Federal Vote

in 1918- Only 4 women ran for

office in 1921

• Only one (Agnes Macphail) won a seat

- Only woman in the House of Commons until 1935

- Federal/Provincial governments remained male dominated

British North America Act

•“Women are persons in matters of pains and penalties, but are not persons in matters of rights and privileges”

The Persons Case 1929•A Decade long battle by the Famous Five

to get women in Canada defined persons under the law

April 1928 •the Supreme Court of Canada argued

that women are not persons under the law- They cannot be magistrates - They cannot be senators

The Famous FiveEmily MurphyHenrietta Muir EdwardsIrene ParlbyLouise McKinneyNellie McClung

Took their case to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council

- Prime Minister Mackenzie King supported their cause

The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council

British Court Ruled in favour of women

“ the exclusion of women from all public offices is a relic of days more barbarous than ours...To those who would ask why the word “person” should include females, the obvious answer is, why should it not”

The Fight for Equality is Remembered, but Far from Over

Aboriginal Peoples• Contribution to the war

effort did little to help their situation at home

•Not classified Persons

- No vote- BC 1949 - Federal 1960

Indian Act 1876•Regulated the lives of Aboriginals in

Canada•The main purpose of reservation lands

was to free up land for settlers and immigrants from Europe

- Regulated by government agents who decided when or if they could leave

- Land was unsuited for farming and no equipment provided

Policy of Assimilation•Residential Schools

purpose was to assimilate children to the European lifestyle

“Kill the Indian in the Child”

Did not end until the 1980s!

Potlatches• An important cultural

ceremony involving the oral acknowledgement of births, deaths, namings, establishing status in tribes, sharing of wealth ect.

• forbidden in 1884 as they were seen as an obstacle to assimilation

1920s Fight to Regain Potlatches•First Nations challenged Provincial and

Federal Government on right to hold Potlatches

•After WWI Kwagiulth people held several Potlatches despite the ban

- The Provincial government arrested chiefs and sentenced many to jail terms

Struggle for Land Claims in the 1920s•The Allied Tribes of BC argued the

government had violated the Indian Act by taking reservation land

•The government changed the Indian Act - allow transfer of land without Aboriginal consent- Illegal to raise money to pursue land claims

without government consent

Enfranchisement•1920 The Indian Act changed to allow the

government to enfranchise Aboriginals without their consent

- take away status and therefore treaty rights- Policy ended 2 years later

BUT- Women who married out same problem until

1982

Self Determination•1923 Six Nation Council of the Iroquois

Confederacy took the issue of Aboriginal Self-Determination to the League of Nations

- Wanted international recognition of the Six Nations as an independent state to end ties with the government and the Indian Act

- Britain blocked it from happening