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| Agnes Macphail with mother Henrietta and supporters after winning the 1935 election |
On Women
At the age of fourteen, Agnes Macphail considered a woman's place as she saw it
all around her: "a woman has children, the boys do things and the
girls marry and have other children of which the boys do a job in
the world of affairs, and the girls do not....". She knew then that
this was not the life for her, that wanted to do "some work as a
person."
Being employed as a teacher was the first step Agnes Macphail took outside the trap of marriage and all her life she encouraged other women to consider their options, rather than submit to marriage and child rearing as their only focus in life. Agnes Macphail became involved in women's organizations, believing that women had a place and a right to express their opinions because their lives were shaped by the same social and political forces that shaped men's lives. Later, Agnes Macphail was a pillar of
the Women's UFO group in Grey County, called the Holdfast Club, where rural women
gathered and shared information about pertinent issues like women's
health, and educated themselves about the world at large.
As the first women elected to Parliament, Agnes Macphail did not ask
for special treatment, but wanted to be treated as an equal in
everything she did and advocated for other women to expect the same. Even though she faced resistance from men and women alike, Agnes Macphail followed the resolve of other woman leaders like Nellie McClung and Flora MacDonald Denison to
catapult women's issues into the political realm. Perhaps a bit too optimistic, Agnes Macphail was disappointed when election after election passed and she remained the only woman in the House
but even alone, Agnes Macphail's voice for women's equality, social justice and humanitarian treatment
of all people was heralded as one of the strongest in the country.
See Women...
