Emily Stowe: The Canadian Women's Movement

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What would the lives of Canadian women today be like without Emily Stowe? The women movement would not be as strong as it was without her. She was one of the most influential figure of her time, rallying against the laws and government power prohibiting women’s rights. At the age of sixteen, she was already able to reach positions that women were not usually given, such as being the first woman principal. She was one of the first advocates who strongly voiced out her opinions about the laws restricting women’s rights in Canada. She was adamant and steadfast in her beliefs that she was willing to resort to extreme measures to prove how important it was to change the system. This paper will argue the historical significance of Emily Stowe in …show more content…
Consequently, she pursued her studies at the New York Medical College for Women. Stowe returned to Canada to set up her own practice, but was prohibited on the grounds that no women were accepted into colleges. Thus, she campaigned for women’s rights to education, emphasizing the importance of equality. Her commitment involved making sure that women would have the same services and opportunities as men. She linked suffrage and education as necessities to achieve reform. Employment and work conditions for women declined because they received no higher or proper education. And this was caused by their lack of voice. Therefore, Stowe is an influential figure that made a significant difference in the lives of many Canadian women. (Stowe proved by getting the doctor degree as a woman and gained a recognition that all women can get rights to education. Later on, women ended up having voting rights.) Stowe proved by getting the doctor degree and became the first woman physician in Canada, which gained a recognition that all women can get higher education and women ended up having the rights to vote later on.
At the beginning in the 19th century, women's acceptance of these traditional roles began to dissipate. Eschewing the contemporary adage that women protesting, attending political speeches, or otherwise rabble-rousing was considered gauche and unladylike, women began taking
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Women now represent the majority of post-secondary students, and the number of women in the higher education sector has exploded in the last thirty years [footnote].
Emily Stowe leading the Suffrage Movement
Emily Stowe founded and led the Toronto Women’s Literary Club (TWLC) in 1877, which spearheaded the campaign for women’s suffrage in Ontario. The “TWLC’s goals remind us that, for many late nineteenth-century women, it was a desire for education, rather than a more abstractly envisaged “vote,” that moved them to action and organization.” (83) Due to Stowe’s rejection
The members of the club would meet and discuss ideas

In 1877 she gave an Ontario lecture tour on “woman’s sphere” and “women in the profession.” The club endorsed aspirations for the general advancement, education and self-improvement of women until it was reconstituted as a specifically women’s enfranchisement group in the 1880s (6 new women 146).
The group met to discuss women in the professions, women's education and the condition of women in the work force. Eventually the group succeeded in securing separate sanitary facilities in factories and acquired chairs for clerks who worked long hours. They realized that further advancement required