International Women’s day

1. Background
International Women’s Day (IWD), also called International Working Women’s Day, is celebrated on March 8 every year.
On March 8, 1908, thousands of female garment workers went on strike in New York City. They wanted better working conditions and the right to vote. Since then, March 8 has become International Women’s Day.

2. Important events in fighting for women rights in Canadian history

1916: Manitoba was the first province to give women the right to vote.
1918: Women across Canada won the right to vote in federal elections.
1921: Agnes McPhail was elected to the House of Commons. She was the first female Member of Parliament.
1929: Women could be appointed to the Senate.
1940: Quebec was the last province to let women vote in provincial elections.
1984: Jeanne Sauvé was Canada’s first female Governor General.
1993: Kim Campbell was the first woman to become Prime Minister.
2015: 77 female MP’s in Canada
Today, every Canadian citizen who is 18 or older has the right to vote.’

3. Nellie McClung
Nellie McClung (1873 –1951) is one of the most famous women in Canadian history. She was a feminist, politician, writer and social activist. In 1927, McClung and four other women: Henrietta Muir Edwards, Emily Murphy, Louise McKinney and Irene Parlby, who together came to be known as “The Famous Five” (also called “The Valiant Five”).
NeNellie McClung was born in 1873 and raised on a small farm in Manitoba. At this time, women had few rights. She didn’t attend school until she was 10. She received a teaching certification when she was 16. She taught school until she married in 1896. Later she became a successful writer and public speaker. She was a reformer who campaigned for women and children’s right. In 1911 she and her family moved to Winnipeg. From 1911–15, Nellie McClung fought for women’s suffrage and helped women in Manitoba get the right to vote in 1916.
Nellie McClung died in Victoria, B.C., in 1951.