Keys to History

In early-1890s Canada no woman yet had the right to vote in either provincial or federal elections. At the same time the movement for the political rights of women had received an infusion of fresh blood. The Women's Christian Temperance Union, frustrated by the lukewarm reception given ever since 1874 to its campaign against alcoholism and its destructive effects, embraced the cause of women's suffrage, considering it the only way to reach government ears. When the National Council of Women was founded in 1893, the Dominion Women's Enfranchisement Association found a wider audience. The Council initially observed a prudent neutrality on the question of suffrage. But in 1910 it pronounced itself officially in favour of the vote, indicating that a large number of women had become aware of their status as inferiors and were determined to change that.