Women's rights - We've come a long way baby!

By Peggy Staruch, November 2017

In the late 1960s, as the world began to see shifting attitudes about gender, race, and stereotypes, an ad campaign seemed to embrace the feminist revolution that was unfolding. It showed a woman, by herself, in various roles from businesswoman to superman -- and underneath in bold text it said; "You've come a long way, baby."

As women, we have come a long way.

In 1851, New Brunswick permitted deserted or abandoned women to have their own finances and manage their own property.

"Until the 1850s married women in the Maritime colonies and Upper Canada had no legal right to hold or use property, except as provided in equity," according to Courtship, Love, and Marriage in The Nineteenth-Century English Canada by Peter Ward. In terms of civil law, a married woman had no independent existence. They were denied the right to make a will, sell property, sign contracts, or engage in business without the consent of her husband.

It wasn't until 1859 that a married woman in Canada could own property independent of her husband's control.

The Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857 permitted divorce, but it greatly favoured men over women. According to Horace Nelson's book, Selected Cases, Statutes and Orders, a husband could petition for divorce on the sole grounds that his wife had committed adultery; whereas a wife had to prove a myriad of offences such as cruelty, incest, bigamy, or desertion before it could be granted.

The 1880 and 1890's showed progress relating to employment for women. In 1880, Canada allowed women to attend universities; in the late 1880s, women living out West in America were allowed to obtain trade licences and in 1895 women were permitted to work as barristers. 

As the century turned, the Suffrage Movement, which sought basic human rights for women, finally emerged victorious when women were granted the right to vote and to stand for political office in Canada in 1916 - often at the municipal council level, or within school boards. The Suffrage Movement was more than just about the right to vote; it started initially as way to elevate women from what amounted to being regarded as chattel. It pushed for educational reforms and saw the inclusion of both boys and girls in compulsory education for the nation.

"Women had first to convince the world that they had souls, and then that they had minds, and then it came on to this matter of political entity and the end is not yet," wrote Canadian feminist Nellie McClung, who, along with Henrietta Muir Edwards, Emily Murphy, Louise McKinney, and Irene Parlby came to be known as "The Famous Five" who launched the "Persons Case" that argued that women should be eligible to sit for office (the Senate).

On March 14, 1928, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Section 23 of the Constitution Act should be amended from using "he" to "person" and allow women the opportunity to sit in the Senate. Female candidates still had to own property worth at least $4,000 and be at least 30-years-old. And there were still several months of debate as to whether "persons" meant women.

The Supreme Court had to step in and clarify that it did.

But it was still an uphill climb.

A 1955 Good Housekeeping article "The Good Wife's Guide," instructed women on how to "please" their husbands. It included such advice as "Touch up your makeup, put a ribbon in your hair and be fresh-looking," to "Remember his topics of conversation are more important than yours," to "Don't complain if he's late home for dinner or even if he stays out all night." Finally, it said "A good wife always knows her place."

It took until the Indian Act in 1960 to permit Indigenous women living on reserves the right to vote. In that same year, women were afforded the ability to stand for election, without any of the previous restrictions of property, age, and worth.

In 2000, Canada introduced an amendment to the Employment Standards Act, that said a woman could not be paid less than a man if she is doing "equal work."  However, provisions were made to allow disparity in wages based on: a seniority system; merit system; any system that measures earnings by quantity or quality of production; and any difference that is not based on the sex of the employee - which left room for a wide interpretation in the gender wage gap.

In Ontario, the Pay Equity Act is celebrating its 30^th anniversary, and was Canada's first attempt to regulate wages for what traditionally had been seen as 'female jobs.'  It is not, however, equal pay. In Canada, according to a 2016 StatsCan survey, a woman still makes an average of 74.2 cents for every dollar her male counterpart earns.

"Having a gender wage gap in Canada in 2016 is unacceptable," the Minister of Status of Women in 2016, Patty Hajdu, said in a press release. "Our government believes strongly in the principle of equal pay for work of equal value and the fair treatment of all workers in the workplace, and we are committed to taking actions to help close the gender wage gap, support the economic advancement of women, and reduce income inequality."

In Canada, women make up 50.4% of the entire population. Through empowerment, education, and support, women are taking on non-traditional roles; becoming the family breadwinner; running for office; even playing on men's sports teams.

With the right support and opportunity, we can eliminate existing disparities for our coming generation of doctors, soldiers, pilots, prime ministers - whatever any young girl sets her mind on, without limitations.

The Ottawa Police Service (OPS) is committed to working with our frontline partners to better-serve all who identify as a woman in Ottawa. As we celebrate 150 years as a nation, it's important to look back and realize just how far we've all come, together.

And we've come a long way.

While there is still work to be done for women's issues, the OPS will continue to solicit feedback and advice from our valued partners and stakeholders in an effort to continue what was so hard-fought by the suffragettes at the turn of the last century.