October 18th, 1929
October 18th marks the day in 1929, ninety-five years ago, when the historic decision was made to include women in the legal definition of “persons” in Canada. On Persons Day, we honour the bravery and determination of the Famous Five, whose landmark case helped pave the way for women to participate equally in all aspects of life in Canada. We take the time to recognize all those whose work in the years since then has expanded and strengthened those rights.
Prior to this change, Governments used the definition of “persons,” one that only applied to men, to exclude women from important positions. In 1927, Emily Murphy, Nellie McClung, Louise McKinney, Irene Parlby, and Henrietta Muir Edwards, journalists, politicians, reformers, and activists from Alberta (now known as the Famous Five), challenged this definition at the Supreme Court of Canada. The Supreme Court debated the definition for a terribly long five weeks before concluding that it would continue to bar women from the word “person” and any of the social rights it gave.
Undeterred, the Famous Five pursued this fight and took their case to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council of Great Britain in London, Canada’s then-highest court of appeal. On October 18th, 1929, Lord Sankey, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain, announced the decision: “The exclusion of women from all public offices is a relic of days more barbarous than ours. And to those who would ask why the word ‘person’ should include females, the obvious answer is, why should it not?”
Finally, this change granted some women the right to be appointed to the Senate of Canada and paved the way for increased participation by women in public and political life. Though this decision did not include all women, such as Indigenous women and women of Asian heritage and descent, it did mark critical progress in the advancement of gender equality in Canada.
For more information about this event and the way it marked Canadian culture and history, we invite you to visit Canada’s official page below.
