ROLE OF WOMEN IN THE 1920’S,

THE PERSON’S CASEFLAPPERS

TODAY’S LESSON:

ROLE OF WOMEN

• During the 1920’s women were making advances to equal rights. In the last decade women achieved the right to vote, but they were still not given the equals rights women share with men today. • In previous decades and centuries women were either stay at

home moms or worked for jobs that included a “motherly” role (e.g. wet-nurse, nanny, laundress). • During the 1920’s, although rare some women were

persevering to become a doctors, dentists, lawyers, school principals, engineers, or company executives.

ROLE OF WOMEN (CONTINUED)

• Most occupations that were meant for women were nursing, journalism, secretaries and elementary school teaching.

• Due to the new products and appliances that were being built around this time , women were finding that they were able to not only maintain a household but also they could start working outside the home; because of the time that was being saved by the various cleaning appliances. (e.g. a fridge, vacuum, and washing machine)

• Although a lot of women a lot of women still decided to be stay at home moms, doing household work it was become more frequent than ever before to see women working, but they were paid a lot less than men.

THE PERSON’S CASE

Nellie McClung:Activist,Feminist, and Politician

Irene Parlby:Activist,Politician,And FarmLeader

Henrietta Edwards:Women’s Right Activist andReformer

EmilyMurphy:Jurist,Author,and RightsActivist

Louise McKinneyProvincial Politicianand RightsActivist

THE PERSON’S CASE

• Women received the right to vote on the previous decade, yet they were still not regarded as persons. The only people that were given the rights were given to men over the age of age 18 and were Canadian citizens.• The BNA Act in 1867 created the Dominion of Canada

providing its governing principles.• The British common law made a ruling saying “Women are

persons in matters of points and penalties but are not persons in the matters of rights and privileges.” • In 1916 Alberta social activist Emily Murphy was appointed

the first female magistrate in Alberta.

THE PERSON’S CASE

• In 1916 Murphy was challenged by a lawyer that women were not persons. Outraged Murphy worked to give the right to woman that they were viewed as a person. In 1917 the Supreme Court of Alberta ruled that women were persons but this law only applied in Alberta and not for the rest of Canada.• Murphy decided to question the issue to the prime minister

Robert Borden by putting her name as candidate to be a Canadian Senator. He rejected her due to the fact she was a woman and women were not considered persons. • In response Murphy got a petition signed by thousands of

Canadians that were asking for her to be appointed Senate.

THE PERSON’S CASE

• Borden was willing to say yes but couldn’t due to the fact that he had to follow the 1876 British common law that stated women were not eligible for rights and privileges.• A few years later Murphy asked four other protesting Albertan

women to join her in a petition to protest against the federal government’s on the issue of women states.• On August 1927 the four other women (Irene Parlby, Nellie

McClung, Louise McKinney, and Henrietta Edwards) signed the petition asking the federal government to inquire about two questions on the women’s status to the Supreme Court of Canada.

THE PERSON’S CASE

• The Supreme Court of Canada heard about the case on March 14th 1928 and on April 24th 1928 Francis Alexander Anglin stated that “Senators must be at least 30 years old, must be a British subject, must own real and personal property, with a net value of $4,000, and must live in the province from which they’re appointed.” They used the pronoun HE in the original writing to state it was males only.• The Famous Five then took the case on appeal to the Judicial

Committee of the Privy Council.

THE PERSON’S CASE

• The Lord Chancellor, Viscount Sankey writing for the committee found that the meaning “qualified persons” could be read broadly to include women which then reversed the decision of the Supreme Court.• The final ruling was made October 29th 1929. Sankey says:“The exclusion of women from all public office is a relic of days make barbarous than today’s, to those who ask why the ward should include females the obvious answer is why should they not.”

THE PERSON’S CASE

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flIPB3hg6rg

FLAPPERS

FLAPPERS

• Flappers were the fashion icon for the 1920’s. Flapper were basically symbolized the era of the 1920’s. A flapper was considered the new type of younger women for the 1920’s. They were women who went against the social norms of the time in not only the way they dressed but also acted.• In a time where revealing skin was unacceptable, flappers did

the contrary tot his and revealed ankles, calves, knees, and even backs were exposed. They were a boyish bob hair cut, listened to jazz music and dance in a scandalous manner compared to most women at the time.

FLAPPERS

• It was shameful and rare to see women smoking and drinking in public but flappers completely transformed the way most women behaved by openly smoking and drinking in public, wearing excessive make-up, treating sex in a casual manner, and driving automobiles. Flappers brought liberalistic views to the 1920’s.

• Flappers wore their hair in a bobbed blunt cut level to the bottom of their ears, the hair cut alone was a radical transformation from how most women had their hair at a long length.

• Women’s evening dresses revealed more of the body, dresses were full length but back and neck lines were low and it was common for flappers to appear flat chested, especially if this attire was worn to speakeasies and nightclubs.

FLAPPERS

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdPlUjbiDoI&feature=related