Nellie McClung: Canadian feminist and social reformer

Nellie McClung

Many women and children live in substandard and marginal conditions in many parts of the world and they need a voice to transmit those conditions and voting power to correct those conditions. Too much masculinity is behind this contagion and chivalry cannot substitute for true justice. Nellie McClung, one of Canada's foremost social activists and its first feminist waged a political battle for Canadian women's rights, specifically the right to vote. In her time, women were not considered "persons" under the British North American Act but were mere appendages to men. She and the rest of the Famous 5 fought to secure that right and won it. Women's rights and women's movements are expressions of the best instincts of womanhood to serve and help the human race. Women, like men, think and think as dynamically. If women's thoughts are ignored or repressed, evolution is blocked and similarly suppressed. Revolution can be an unfortunate alternative.