January 1, 1919 - Canadian Women Given Vote - a podcast by Stephen Hammond

White Canadian women given federal vote. The right to vote in Canada evolved like a two-steps-forward, one-step-back dance. The government allowed, then rescinded the vote before deciding to grant it conditionally; it depended on one’s property holdings, race, ethnicity and gender. Before Confederation in 1867, women may have been allowed to vote, but in many regions, they dared not exercise it for fear of social stigma. However, in places where the vote was taken away or never granted, women in the movement for universal suffrage worked long and hard to win the rights that most men took for granted. Interestingly, in 1917, women of British descent who had close relatives fighting overseas in World War I, were able to vote on their relatives’ behalf in federal elections. It was on January 1, 1919 that all white women were finally given the right to vote in federal elections. By then, a few provinces (such as Manitoba since1916) were also allowing women to vote. The right to a provincial vote spread slowly but steadily after that – Quebec women finally clinching it in 1940.

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