Nellie McClung
Nellie Letitia McClung, née Mooney, suffragist, reformer, legislator, author (born 20 October 1873 in Chatsworth, ON; died 1 September 1951 in Victoria, BC). Nellie McClung was a women’s rights activist, legislator and author who is perhaps best known for her involvement in the
Persons Case.
Early Life and Career
Nellie McClung was raised on a homestead in the Souris Valley, Manitoba, from 1880 and did not attend school until she was 10. She received a teaching certificate at 16 and then taught school until she married Robert Wesley McClung in 1896. In Manitou, where her husband was a druggist, she became prominent in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, of which her mother-in-law was provincial president. In 1908 McClung published her first novel, Sowing Seeds in Danny, a witty portrayal of a small western town. It was a national best-seller and was followed by numerous short stories and articles in Canadian and American magazines.
Activism and Politics
In 1911, the McClungs and their four children moved to Winnipeg, where their fifth child was born. The Winnipeg women's rights and reform movement welcomed Nellie as an effective speaker who won audiences with humorous arguments. She played a leading role in the 1914 Liberal campaign against Sir Rodmond Roblin's Conservative government, which had refused women suffrage, but moved to Edmonton before the Liberals won in Manitoba in 1915.
In Alberta McClung continued the fight for female suffrage and for prohibition, dower rights for women, factory safety legislation and many other reforms. She gained wide prominence from addresses in Britain at the Methodist Ecumenical Conference and elsewhere (1921) and from speaking tours throughout Canada and the United States, and was a Liberal MLA for Edmonton, 1921–26.
Nellie McClung was also one of the “Famous 5,” a group that included Emily Murphy, Henrietta Muir Edwards, Louise Crummy McKinney and Irene Parlby. In 1927, the five activists petitioned the Supreme Court to have women declared “qualified persons” who were eligible for public office as senators. Although the Supreme Court decided against the petitioners in 1928, the British Privy Council overturned the decision the following year and officially declared women “persons,” remarking that the exclusion of women from all public offices was “a relic of days more barbarous than ours.”
Later Career
Vancouver Island, where Nellie completed the first volume of her autobiography, Clearing in the West: My Own Story (1935, reprinted 1976), and wrote short stories and a syndicated column. In all, she published 16 books, including In Times Like These (1915, reprinted 1975). Her active life continued: in the Canadian Authors Association, on the CBC's first board of governors, as a delegate to the League of Nations in 1938, and as a public lecturer.
Legacy
Nellie McClung died in Saanich (Victoria), British Columbia, on 1 September 1951. Forgotten for a decade, she was rediscovered by feminists in the 1960s. Although some criticized her maternalistic support of the traditional family structure, most credited her with advancing the feminist cause in her day and recognizing the need for further progress such as the economic independence of women. More recently, she has attracted criticism for her support of eugenics and Alberta’s Sexual Sterilization Act (1928); like many of her fellow reformers, such as Emily Murphy, McClung publicly supported the sterilization of “mental defectives.”
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The bronze likeness sculpture of Nellie McCLung is located in close proximity to the Center Block of the Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario. Nellie McLung is standing on a wooden platform proudly displaying a copy of the Journal announcing that Women are Persons… She is wearing a felt bonnet, a ladies fur cape, a long coat with decorations and winter boots. That she is most satisfied is undeniable.