What Is One Influential Women in History You Would Like to Talk to and Why? (Essay Sample)

What Is One Influential Women in History You Would Like to Talk to and Why?
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What Is One Influential Women in History You Would Like to Talk to and Why?
A raging debate continues on whether the granting of voting capabilities to women in western countries was a consequence of World War I or it was an inevitable change (Barbara, 1989, p. 56). In countries like New Zealand and Australia, women got the nod to become voters and participate in important political decisions even before the war broke out. However, in others such as Denmark, women were enfranchised during the war without any participation whatsoever. Canada was one of those countries where Hannah Norris stood out in her efforts to not only advocate for women’s rights, but also oversee a time when women began getting recognized in all realms.
As feminism and activism began taking shape in Canada, women were always the minority. Albeit feminism was found in all classes of women; the rich, the poor, the working and unemployed alike, those who were working would dismally combine both trade unionism and feminism activism (Early, 1986, p. 46). Socialism was another form of activism that would not go in hand with feminism. Feminism in Canada is classified into different stages referred to as waves depending on the time or period in which it occurred.
The first wave took place in the final phases of the 19th century and the threshold of the 20th century (Krook, 2008, p. 2). Initial stages of feminist activism were aimed at raising the levels of women participation in public affairs with such objectives as increasing the levels of education of women, trying to lower poverty among women and also advocating for their recognition by the law (Miles & Finn, 1982, p. 42). This early activism was based on the notion that since mothers are naturally caregivers and’ mothers of the country’, they were entitled to involvement in public affairs due to the assumption that their thoughtfulness and care would result in sound decisions being reached at. This idea was the beginning of civilization of Canadians on women affairs. (Miles & Finn, 1982, p. 234)
The early movements of women in Canada were mainly based on religion especially the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) (Newman & White, 2006, p. 33). Religion was the founding factor of the earliest known women organizations in Canada. When women made tireless efforts to join the missionary activities of their churches, they were turned down. As a result of this rejection by their respective churches, they joined up together and formed their own missionary societies and raised funds that were used in sending their own female missionaries abroad (Liddington, 1983, p. 53). These efforts raised even enough funds that were used to train female doctors and teachers in the country.
In the year 1870, a group of Baptist women inspired by Hannah Norris, a trained teacher who aspired to be a missionary, came together at Canso, Nova Scotia and formed the first of these missionary societies (Kealey & Sangster, 1989, p. 45). This was a rejoinder to Hannah’s rejection to the Baptist Foreign Mission. This came from the women who went to the same church as her. This led to a revolution among the women since protestant missionary societies affiliated to the Presbyterian and Methodist churches sprung in other parts of the country such as Quebec and Ontario (Krook, 2008, p. 24). In these newly hatched up societies, women were not only accorded the opportunities to serve as missionaries, but also management of funding, appointment of new missionaries and their training was done by these same women.
Social change was also advocated for via these religious efforts. One such platform was the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) which was founded by in 1874 by both Hannah Norris and Letitia Youmans (Liddington, 1983, p. 76). Its main goal was to raise society’s awareness on alcoholism and hoped to successfully mitigate for its ban. The efforts of the organization were inspired by its sister organization by the same name in the USA. The organization later rose to be one the initial organizations to fight against suffrage and also became a training ground for future leaders who would be for suffrage (Miles & Finn, 1982, p. 64).
Various professions such as journalism, teaching and public health began receiving women professionals in the late 19th and the early 20th centuries. In 1883, the first fully women’s college was started in Toronto (Newman & White, 2006, p. 75). This was partly due to the efforts of Hannah Norris and Emily Stowe. Stowe was the pioneer female medic to practice in Canada. Later her daughter Augusta Stowe-Gullen became the pioneer woman to get a medical accreditation in a Canadian medical school. The National Council of Women of Canada was founded in 1893 to provide a credible platform that would bring all women leaders and representatives from various organizations in order to air out their complaints and views as a unit (Early, 1986, p. 43).
In 1910, the NCWC endorsed suffrage on the grounds that women played an obligatory role in society. They were, therefore, of the opinion that women should be actively involved in the public life by being given the chance to vote for their leaders in government. They also invoked the ideology that since women possessed a form of a natural maternal care; they should have been allowed to participate in public affairs freely with no discrimination. A new frontier was reached in feminism during World War I when women began undertaking in heavy jobs even in factories (Kealey & Sangster, 1989). This was the turning point where much awareness was created on women’s rights, suffrage and it consequently to increased eminence of women in political affairs and debates.
The mid-1910 saw the peak of suffrage among women in the country. Formation of clubs was the order of the day with most of them turning into suffrage franchises such as the 1876 formation of the Toronto Women’s Literary Club (TWLC) which later transformed into the Toronto Women’s Suffrage Association in 1883 (Liddington, 1983). Success in the movement was...