This section displays the biggest project that was done in this course. This was the research paper that we wrote on a topic of our choice and then we did further research on it. This was a great task because it allowed was to really dive in on a topic that we were interested in. 

 

 

Research Paper

 

Women who lived in the pre-Confederation era did not have the same roles and rights that they are granted today. However, the roles and rights of women in pre-Confederation began to evolve and develop during the 19thcentury. Women had to work so much harder when it came to the different roles, responsibilities, and equal rights before things began to develop. Therefore, these aspects were what drove women to start a movement and begin the changes to their rights.

Before the rights and roles of women began to develop women were expected to take on work in non-traditional areas. When you think of a woman and the type of role they play, the first thing that probably comes to mind is, mother, wife, or “keeper of the house”. In fact, “long before this search for the ideal Canadian mother began, colonial women had cleared land, worked as loggers, owned and operated mines, hunted for meat and, trapped for fur. They did this while raising families”1. With this it shows the intense labour jobs that women would take on and, besides that they were raising families at the same time. During the 19thcentury  most people would think a lot of jobs and the more important roles were taken on by the men of the house however, many people didn’t know that “even though many industries at the time were male oriented, women helped in woodlot management and harvesting on their family farms”2..Women were even in the logging camps were they could find work as cooks, laundresses, and boarding- house keepers, also, “the 1820s saw a significant number of women working in “non-traditional jobs” such as silversmith, woodwork, coach maker, lumberjack and mortician”1. This gives us an insight look at the roles women were taking on. However, another role woman was obligated to take on was motherhood. “Motherhood was thought to be the goal and primary social function of every Canadian woman”1. In fact, women were obligated to still maintain their work even while pregnant. This is shown in the picture of a mother and her family attending to the family farm and, the mother is still working while carrying a child5. With this being said, women and the titles they took on were not as recognized as they would be in today’s society. Women were not just going through the struggle of being under appreciated for their roles, women were also struggling obtaining equal rights.

 

Despite the fact that women were struggling with their roles in society they were also dealing with equal rights. Women were not given the right to vote in pre-Confederation Canada and were not treated or seen fairly or even equally to men. Women viewed as the “idealization of women as guarantors of cultural survival, who had no place in political life”3. With this lots of people made the assumption that “women were expected to remain at home, producing children and guaranteeing culture”3.  Single women were able to own land or property but as soon as they were married, all the land and property rights would go to their husbands. For women this was very degrading, and it took away their independence. With women not being able to vote and “the word male in 1843 in New Brunswick, and in the 1849 into the Quebec election law, reflected an emerging ideology that placed women and men in separate spheres”3. Again this made women look like that had no say or part in political life. However, this ties back into women and their roles and the fact that they were taking on just as much as men were and, still not even close to equal rights. These circumstances were the beginning of women realizing their worth and the start of a development.

 

The progression of women’s rights began to develop, and it became notice that, “the Canadian Constitution was a “living tree” capable of growth and reinterpretation in line with changing social circumstances”4. This being said that times were changing in the 19thcentury for women and their rights. In Lower Canada women were able to vote under the Constitutional Act 1791 however, “A Plan For a House of Assembly attached to a petition presented by Anglophones in 1784 called for the British to set up an elected assembly in Lower Canada in which “None but males shall either Vote or represent”4. This made the assumption that “women at the time were politically active and would otherwise have expected to vote”4. This was an example of a higher power trying to stop women from being able to vote although, when “the assemblies for Lower and Upper Canada were established and voting qualifications were set out in the Constitutional Act 1791 in section XX there was no reference to sex as a qualification”4. Which meant that “the vote was given to “persons”4. In fact, there began to be evidence of women who were voting and, “one of the earliest direct records of women voting in Canada is of Mrs. Papineau and her female friends accompanying her son to the Polls in 1809 and announcing proudly that she would be voting for her son”4. This was just first of many women coming forward and taking part in what is their right. There then came a record of the highest numbers of votes which was prior to the “first legislative attempt to exclude women from the franchise”4. It was “in elections in 1832 records show that 71 women came forward to vote over 4 days in an April by-election in an Montreal East, 61 of those votes were accepted”4. With this it was the push from women that started the development of women’s rights in pre-Confederation Canada. Without the risk taken by women and realizing that change needed to happen, there would be no development.

 

Women in the 19thcentury faced challenges that forced them to work in areas that were untraditional and required hard labour. They were also under appreciated and with this did not obtain equal rights compared to males even though, their responsibilities were just as important. However, with these circumstances it created a push for women that made them see what they truly deserved. This started the force that slowly began to develop the rights for women. Even though the impact wasn’t as big in the early 19thcentury it was the beginning of change that women deserved and, without this first initial move we wouldn’t be where we are today.