Emily Murphys Case

History Essay-Emily Murphy and the Persons Case “Suffragettes,” “property,” and “non-persons.” Such suggested as the British North America Act specifying that all women were not seen as people in the eyes of the British law. Women were unqualified to vote, own land, and run an office since women were persons in “matters of pains and penalties, but not in matters of rights and privileges” (Mitchell 29) according to the BNA Act. Due to the lack of government, this got the attention of five women activists around Canada who recognized the inequality between
Women were now eligible to be appointed to the Senate as well as the House of Commons and began serving in the Senate of Canada, with “about one-third of the Senate seats occupied by women” (Dowdy 27) today. Emily Murphy’s intention was to become a senator herself, she was never named to the Senate, neither were the four other members of the Famous Five. Mackenzie King names Canada’s first woman Senator, Cairine Wilson, four months after the Famous Five dominates the Persons Case, proving herself as s beneficial senator, “ active with the National Council of women, the Young Women’s Christian Association, the Red Cross, and the Victorian Oder of Nurses” (Sharpe 192). William Lyon Mackenzie King is certainly correct when he named Wilson to the Senate. An editorial writer describes her as “one of the industrious women politicians, spinsters, and others who have talked incessantly of their rights as women without discharging any of their responsibilities as such” (Sharpe 191). Emily Murphy’s efforts in the Persons Case such as writing a petition to appoint women into the Senate of Canada, led a huge transition for women. Women were now motivated and continued to work for greater rights and opportunities through the
They were able to gain the right of voting, owning property, and running an office. However, “even with the Persons Case and women being granted the federal vote many years earlier, women in Quebec were not given the right to vote in provincial elections until 1940” (Dowdy 27) as well as owning land and running an office. Emily Murphy also passed the Dower Act, an act that prohibits a married person from disposal the homestead without the consent of the other spouse. This included women to possess “one-third of the estate if their husbands died,” (Dowdy 20). The Persons Case empowered female citizens across Canada from the past 77 years, passing many rights such as the Fair Employment Practices Act, the Female Employee’s Fair Remuneration Act, and the Female Employees Equal Pay Act. This entitled women to be equal as men such as being paid the same wage as men for similar work and to target discrimination within the civil service in the 1950s. This case inspired Canadian citizens to achieve great things and set goals for the future, continuing the fight for social economic and political equality for women.

Canadians have come to honour the Persons Case as a symbol of equality and recognize the full personhood