THE HISTORY OF INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY IN TORONTO

Ghosts of Toronto's Past | Carys Owen
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This month, in celebration of International Women’s Day (IWD) on March 8th, I thought I would give you all a little history lesson on International Women’s Day in Toronto and some of the events and people that have supported women’s rights in Toronto.

In 1977, women’s liberation appeared to be thriving as rape crisis centres, women’s centres and daycare centres were becoming more common. However, many of these services were inaccessible to the general public and the media was claiming that women’s liberation was dead. It was during this period that a group of Toronto women began to organize the first celebration of International Women’s Day in English Canada. Prior to this, International Women’s Day had been celebrated across Europe and in many Communist countries as a way to draw attention to the struggles of working-class women to obtain a better life and a living wage.

In order to organize an International Women’s Day celebration in Toronto, a number of feminists were pulled together from various active women’s groups. There was a diversity of women’s voices and a variety of changes they were demanding in this grassroots coalition movement. Of course, International Women’s Day continued as a tradition in Toronto with a different key issued featured each year. This year’s theme was #BecausOfYou which showcases the Canadians who are making changes and inspiring gender equality. I would now like to tell you a little bit about some of the events and women in Toronto that have made moves in fighting for gender equality. Sadly, the list of women and events mentioned in this article is rather short and restricted to Caucasian women. This is not something I did intentionally. Much of the information I read on this subject focused on Caucasian women and ignored the particular struggles of minority women. In reality, women of colour and minority women play an equal part in fighting for women's rights, and many minority women are faced with further pressure in fighting for their rights. This is something I would like to explore in later articles.

[Source]

Carolyn Egan

Carolyn Egan was part of the International Women’s Day Coalition in Toronto and she helped organize the first International Women’s Day in Toronto. She is the president of Steelworkers Toronto and she is involved in the reproductive justice movement. Carolyn remembers that at the time of the first IWD, many people and the media thought the women’s movement might be dead. Carolyn and her partners felt very strongly that this was not the case and there were still several issues that needed attention including the deportation of Jamaican mothers and the issues surrounding working women’s rights. For Carolyn and the rest of the coalition, organizing IWD was about highlighting issues that everyday women were struggling with. 

Pro-Choice Movement

By 1960 Planned Parenthood had already been established in other areas, but Planned Parenthood was prevented from coming into Canada by a number of powerful religious organizations and a lack of interest. Barbara and George Cadbury (yes, the chocolate Cadburys) began a fight to get Planned Parenthood into Canada by organizing, informing lobbying, and writing letters. Their efforts helped to get Planned Parenthood into Canada and to support Canadian women in deciding when, and if, they have children. This wave of reproductive rights continued into the 80s as the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that prohibiting abortion was unconstitutional in 1988. Today, thanks to people like Barbara and George, Canada offers non-judgemental primary care, mental health support, sexual health research, advocacy and an array of programs and choices. While the fight for reproductive rights still face a lot of pushback, allowing women to choose if, how, and when they have children is a sign of respect and a major step forward in the women’s rights movement. I myself,  am so pleased that I can live in a country and province that respects my right to choose.

Doris Anderson

As the editor of Chatelaine Magazine, Doris Anderson was a trailblazer for working mothers in Canada. In 1951, Doris was in Toronto and acquired a job in the advertising department of Chatelaine Magazine, but, as a result of great determination, she received a promotion to the editorial staff team and later became the managing editor. Under her direction, the magazine took a feminist turn as they began publishing articles about sexuality and women’s rights. Despite the competition from American publications, Chatelaine exceeded the circulation of any other Canadian monthly publication. Doris went on to become the editor of the magazine and marry David Anderson, but this only happened because she was able to convince the manager of Chatelaine’s parent company that she could handle both a career and married life. Similarly to many employers of this time, the company had no maternity leave policy, so Doris had to work right up until the birth of her children and return to work only a few weeks later.

Doris left Chatelaine in 1977 after she was denied the role of publisher. However, Doris did not back down from public life or women’s rights. She became the chair of the Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women, but she left the CACSW in 1981 in protest of government interference. Her departure lead to the formation of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women that appointed Doris as their president until 1984. Doris also published a book in 1991, the Unfinished Revolution: The Status of Women in Twelve Countries, and she worked for the Toronto Star from 1982 to 1992. Doris’ work had a strong impact on women’s rights in Canada; her efforts created social change and progress in healthcare, employment and politics. Today, we can still see many of the changes that Doris advocated for and she remains a hero in Canadian women’s rights.

Article from the July 1971 issue of Chatelaine. [Source]

The Fight for Women’s Rights

In 1871, the Married Women’s Property Act of Ontario passed and gave married women the right have their own earnings and wages including revenue from the businesses they owned. This was a huge step for women’s rights because it acknowledged that a woman’s identity could be legally separate from a man’s, and this event inspired the creation of several women’s rights organizations across the city. One of these organizations was the Toronto Women’s Literary Club that was lead by Dr. Emily Stowe in 1876. The club worked to get women access to higher education, better working conditions and a presence in politics.

In 1884, the Literary Club changed its name to the Canadian Women’s Suffrage Association. In part of the CWSA’s advocacy work, women in Toronto were able to vote in the city’s municipal elections on January 4th, 1886. The CWSA continued to fight for women’s right to vote, but it was not until 1918 that women were granted full suffrage.

This list of events and people involved in women’s equality in Toronto is a short one that really only mentions Caucasian women and men. However, this list only scratches the surface of women’s equality in Canada. There are a number of great women from all walks of life (including women of colour) that have made an impact in Canada and there are a number of other milestones in the women’s rights movement that were not included on this list. I hope that on March 8th (and every other day) everyone not only celebrated all of the strong women in their life but also took this opportunity to learn about the struggles women still face and to acknowledge that every women they know is the equal of every man.