News
The "Famous Five" Named Honorary Senators
Maquette of the Famous Five monument situated on Parliament Hill.
Photo courtesy of Public Works and Government Services Canada,
Parliamentary Precinct Directorate and the Digital Simulation Laboratory.
Women of determination
The Journal Pioneer
An Albertan who has just helped name the Famous 5 honorary senators, thinks those five barrier-breaking women would be simultaneously buoyed and disheartened with where their sisters stand 80 years after their fight with the Canadian Senate.
On Oct. 18, 1929, the Famous 5 – namely, Emily Murphy, Louise McKinney, Nellie McClung, Henrietta Muir Edwards and Irene Parlby – won their case in front of the British Privy Council to have women considered “persons.” Before that date, women couldn’t become senators even though men in the Red Chamber were passing and defeating bills directly impacting the fairer sex.
When two bills in a row were quashed by the all-male Senate – the mother’s allowance and the old age pension – the Famous 5 were spurred to action. Apparently, the rationale the senators used for defeating these bills was that women didn’t need such funds – men would take care of them.
Murphy rallied her four well-known suffragette friends into taking on a campaign and court challenge to see women acknowledged as “persons.” The Canadian Supreme Court found against them, so they took their argument to the judicial committee of the British Privy Council, which agreed with the women. None of the five, though, ever became a senator. Until now.
Alberta Senator Grant Mitchell was among the legislators, male and female, who passed the motion to posthumously name the women honorary senators.
Mitchell noted, though, it hasn’t been smooth sailing for Canadian women in the 80 years since becoming persons. “Women still bear the brunt of domestic violence, women bear the disproportionate share of poverty, and women earn 70 per cent of what men do, on average,” he said. “There are all these fundamental issues that still need to be addressed.”
A recent Statistics Canada study, for instance, found that not only do women earn less than their male counterparts, mothers earn less than childless women in the workforce – up to 30 per cent less for mothers in their 40s who had interrupted their careers for family.
These numbers tell women they can’t have it all – they do have to make a choice between their career and their family. That’s something the Famous 5 would take issue with.
The Famous Five (left to right) Nellie McClung, Louise McKinney, Henrietta Muir Edwards, Emily Murphy, Irene Parlby.
Credit: Courtesy of Farm and Ranch Review, January 2, 1930
Related Stories:
A Historic Moment
Notice of Motion to Recognize "Famous Five" as Honorary Senators
Motion to Recognize "Famous Five" as Honorary Senators Debate
Motion of the Hon. Ethel Cochrane
Seconded by the Hon. Consiglio Di Nino
October 7th, 2009 - Statement by the Hon. Lucie Pépin
October 8th, 2009 - Statement by the Hon. Claudette Tardif
October 8th, 2009 - Statement by the Hon. Joyce Fairbairn
October 2nd, 2009 - Statement by Michael Ignatieff on Women’s History Month
October 9th, 2009 - 'Wonderful gift': Famous 5 to become honorary senators - Calgary Herald
October 10th, 2009 - 'Famous 5' named honorary senators - CBC
October 13th, 2009 - Posthumous Senate appointments bittersweet victory - Edmonton Journal
Famous 5: Heroes for Today
Women are persons -- the Famous Five and the Persons Case
The Famous Five on Parliament Hill: a Second Unveiling
The Famous Five - National Council of Women in Canada
History by the Minute
Emily Murphy
Nellie McClung
Detail of the maquette of the statue of the Famous Five, which depicts their reaction
on hearing of the judgement of the Privy Council in Great Britain declaring women ‘persons’,
and eligible to sit in the Senate.
Courtesy of the Famous 5 Foundation, Calgary, Alberta.
Photo by Mark Mennie
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