Days More Barbarous Than Ours: The Fight for Female Enfranchisement & Equality in Canada and the Women Who Led the Charge
Name:
Daniel Rossi
Major: Social Science - Secondary Education
Hometown: Pewaukee, WI
Faculty Sponsor: Stephanie Mitchell
Other Sponsors:
Type of research: Course project
Funding: N/A
Abstract
In an era of elevated awareness regarding equality in every sphere of our society, the trailblazers and pioneers who first made a way for the under-represented and over-ostracized are often forgotten. The martyrs, matriarchs, and patriarchs who advocated and administered massive social reforms that altered the trajectory of our world too frequently fall victim to a degree of historical apathy, allowing for the mission and motives of these meliorists to sink to a dangerous level of societal obscurity. This unfortunate trend persists - perhaps especially - in relation to the quest for female impartiality and opportunity; a crusade fought primarily by those perceived to be unassuming and inferior, who had no platform to stand upon, but much to say. This paper is an inquiry into the nature of this crusade, most specifically into the Canadian variant. The researcher, though party to years of intensive historical education, has become aware of being taught little more than an iota of Canadian history, none of which centered upon the fight for female enfranchisement from America’s northern neighbor. To rectify this intellectual absence - which the researcher believes is present in an overwhelming percentage to the general public, not just his own person - the author has engaged in a series of thorough and thoughtful historical analyses, focused primarily on scholarly literature centered on the topic, most notably the work of revered women’s historian Ms. Joan Sangster and her respective peers. The work produced is an attempt to enlighten and inform the public in relation to the women who promulgated the enfranchisement campaign in Canada, as well as those who engineered and enacted the subsequent legal struggle for the right of the Canadian female to serve as a political entity and member of any number of legislative collectives. In the experiences and understandings of the author, little is said or widely available in regards to the complexities and intricacies of the Canadian Female Enfranchisement Movement, making this oeuvre a unique and warranted piece of research, applicable to our current era, one in which social reformation and equality is paramount to many. As a completed piece, this research and presentation is a detailed and comprehensive examination of the reformation of the status of Canadian women between the early nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with particular focus on the campaign for female enfranchisement, as well as the legal dispute for the right of Canadian women to serve in the highest political enclaves.
Poster file
