Local Council of Women of Halifax

Halifax Nova Scotia

(1912)

The Local Council of Women of Halifax (LCWH) is an organization in

May Sexton.^[1] Halifax business man George Henry Wright left his home in his will to the LCWH, which the organization received after he died in the Titanic (1912). Educator Alexander McKay also was a significant supporter of the Council.^[2]

Historical Context

flower bed by the Halifax and Dartmouth Woman's Christian Temperance Union (1939), Halifax Public Gardens

In 1851 women were excluded from the vote in Nova Scotia. In 1870,

Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU).^[4] In 1884, the WCTU successfully lobbied for married women’s property legislation. In 1891 the WCTU officially endorsed the suffrage cause, the first major women's organization to support women's suffrage. Edith Archibald became the leader of the Maritime chapter of the WCTU the following year. (Women joined the WCTU "in numbers that greatly surpassed their participation in any other women's organization in the nineteenth century," making the WCTU "the first women's mass movement.")^[5] Two years later, in 1893, Edith Archibald and others made the first official attempt to have a suffrage bill for women property holders passed in Nova Scotia. The bill was passed by the legislature but quashed by Attorney General James Wilberforce Longley (who opposed unions and female emancipation for the twenty years he was in office).^[6]^[7]

Suffrage

The year following the defeat of the first suffrage bill, the Local Council was established in 1894 as the local chapter of the

Enfranchisement was the issue. (The concomitant preoccupation with enfranchisement was reflected locally in the founding of the Woman’s Suffrage Association in March 1895; Leonowens was president, assisted by sisters Eliza Ritchie and Mary Walcott Ritchie, along with Charlotte McInnes.)^[10] Between 1892 and 1895, thirty-four suffrage petitions were presented to the Nova Scotia legislature, and six suffrage bills were introduced, the final one in 1897.^[11]

In June 1897 the annual meeting of the National Council was convened in Halifax, where presentations were made by Lady Aberdeen and American suffragist May Wright Sewall.^[10]

On June 11, 1914, the Suffrage Club was established at Wright's home to work on granting women the right to vote throughout the province. On 22 February 1917 the LCWH presented a suffrage petition endorsed by forty-one women's organizations. When the Liberal Premier ignored the issue, irate members introduced a private member bill. Its defeat marked the birth of the Nova Scotia Equal Franchise League in the spring of 1917.^[12]

On April 26, 1918, with the support of premier

Laura Bond was former president of the LCWH - used his majority to pass women's suffrage for the whole country. Almost forty-three years later, on 1 February 1961, Gladys Porter

became the first woman elected to the House of Assembly.)

Other contributions

The members of the LCWH (the Nova Scotia 5) established the following organizations:

Victoria School of Art and Design (NSCAD)
Art Gallery of Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia Red Cross
Children's Hospital, Halifax (IWK)
Dalhousie Alumnae Association
Forrest Hall, Dalhousie's first residence for women
Halifax Victorian Order of Nurses
Dalhousie Review
Ladies Musical Club of Halifax
Halifax Playground Commission
Pioneer Book Club
Shakespeare Club
Official Employment Bureau
School of Domestic Science
Women's Welcome Hostel
Anti-Tuberlculosis League

Nova Scotia 5

Anna Leonowens - made famous in musical The King and I
Edith Archibald
Eliza Ritchie
Agnes Dennis
May Sexton

Other members

Laura Borden - wife of Prime minister Robert Borden
Margaret Marshall Saunders - author of Beautiful Joe^[14]

Links

References

Endnotes

^ Ian McKay. The 1910s: The Stillborn Triumph of Progressive Reform. In The Atlantic Provinces in Confederation edited by E. R. Forbes, Delphin Andrew Muise, University of Toronto. 1993. p. 202
^ Canadian Biography
^ Robertson, Allen B. (1998). "Norris, Hannah Maria". In Cook, Ramsay; Hamelin, Jean (eds.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. XIV (1911–1920) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
^ article, p. 6
^ Ruth Bordin. Woman and Temperance: The Quest for Power and Liberty, 1873-1900. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1981.
^ Cahill, Barry; Girard, Philip (2005). "Longley, James Wilberforce". In Cook, Ramsay; Bélanger, Réal (eds.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. XV (1921–1930) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
^ Timeline of Women's History, Canada
^ Sandra Markham, Leisure and the National Council of Women of Canada, 1995
^ "Biography – BEST, EDNA MAY WILLISTON (Sexton) – Volume XV (1921-1930) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography".
^ ^a ^b Yorke, Lois K. (1998). "Edwards, Anna Harriette". In Cook, Ramsay; Hamelin, Jean (eds.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Vol. XIV (1911–1920) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
^ Women's Suffrage Movement in Canada by Patricia Roome, p. 6
^ Women's Suffrage Movement in Canada by Patricia Roome, p. 14
^ Premier Murray's response
^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-09-22. Retrieved 2017-11-27.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)