• Use a Think Pair Share strategy to have student discuss the following:
  • What are some issues that are important to women today?
  • What opinions do you have about these issues?

• Provide students with copies of the handout “KWL: How have women’s rights in Canada changed over the past 150 years?”.
• Have students fill in the columns for what they know and wonder about the history of women’s rights in Canada.

Part 1: Women’s Suffrage

• Ask:
• Show Heritage Minute: Nellie McClung (1:01).
• Explain that Nellie McClung was an important advocate of women's rights and suffrage. As a result of her campaigning, Manitoba became the first Canadian province to give women the franchise in 1916.
• Write on the board “Right to Vote” along with the synonyms “Suffrage” and “Franchise”.
• Explain that the Electoral Franchise Act of 1885 prevented Canadian women from voting. Apart from the temporary and selective right to vote granted to women under the Wartime Elections Act  in 1917, women were first granted the right to vote federally in 1918. (However, Asian and Indigenous Women were still excluded for decades.)
  • The North
  • Atlantic Canada
  • Quebec
  • Ontario
  • Western Canada
• Divide students into 5 groups
• Using a Think-Pair-Share strategy, have students discuss possible reasons for regional differences in women achieving the right to vote.
• Explain that in 1916 women in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta achieved the right to vote in provincial elections. The following year women in BC and Ontario got the vote. In 1940, Quebec was the last province to grant women the vote. In 1951, the Northwest Territories became the last territory to do so.
• What strategies did McClung use to promote women’s right to vote?
• Why did some people think that women should not be able to vote?
• How did Nellie McClung challenge “appropriate” gender roles of her time?
• Have each group use Women’s Suffrage in Canada to research how and when women gained the vote in their assigned region. Provide students with the handout “Women’s Suffrage in Canada” to record their findings.
• Afterwards have groups share their findings with the class.
• Debrief by asking:
  • Why was progress so slow in achieving universal suffrage?
  • Why were the suffrage campaigns in Québec so different from the rest of Canada?
  • What were some of the difficulties faced by the organizations?
  • Who was excluded from the suffrage campaigns?

Part Two: The Person’s Case

• Show the short video How 5 Women Changed Canada Forever Over a Cup of Tea (2:45).
• Ask: What was the issue? How did five Canadian women solve this problem?
• Explain that this group of five Alberta women were plaintiffs in a court case that argued women were “persons” under the British North America Act (now the Constitution Act, 1867) and, therefore, women could Senators. The Persons Case was a groundbreaking case for women’s rights in Canada. The case was brought before the Supreme Court of Canada in 1927. It was decided in 1929 by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, Canada’s highest appeals court at the time. It was a landmark case in the long struggle by women to achieve political and legal equality in Canada. 
• Provide students with a copy of the handout “The Famous Five”. Show the video Did You Know? - The Famous Five and the Persons Case (6:00) and have students record notes.
• Divide students into 5 groups:
  • Emily Murphy
  • Nellie McClung
  • Henrietta Muir Edwards
  • Louise McKinney
  • Irene Parlby
• Provide students with access to The Famous Five Women. Have each group read the profile to identify their person’s contributions to changing discriminatory laws and gaining rights for women in Canada.
• Have groups present their person’s contributions to women’s rights in Canada.

Part 3: Royal Commission on the Status of Women

• Explain that the 1960s were a time of social change. In 1967 Canada created a Royal Commission on the Status of Women with the goal of creating gender equality in all areas of Canadian society.
• Provide students with access to the Statement by the Prime Minister on the 50^th Anniversary of the report by the Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canada. 
• Have students use the handout “Status of Women” to list the areas that where progress has been made and where work still needs to be done.

Part 4: Gender Equality Today

• Explain that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, enacted as part of the Constitution Act in 1982, outlaws discrimination based on sex.
• Write on the board the United Nations’ definition of gender equality: equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities for all genders.
• Ask: Does gender equality exist in Canada today? Use the Barometer Strategy to have students take a stand on this issue.

• Provide students with the handout “Gender Equality?” and access to the websites Gender Results Framework, Women in Canada, Gender Equality Achievements, and Canadian Women’s Foundation. Provide time for students to record current facts about:
  • Economics
  • Leadership
  • Violence
  • Mental Health
• Afterwards use a Think-Pair-Share strategy to ask students what surprised them about the status of gender equality in Canada today.

• Have students respond in an Exit Ticket: What is the most significant barrier to gender inequality in Canada today?

• Provide students with access to Women in Canadian History: A Timeline and a copy of the handout “Turning Points for Women’s Rights in Canada”.
• Have students select the five most significant turning points for women’s rights in Canada from Confederation to today and provide a rationale for each.
• Then have students revisit their KWL charts to fill in the “learn” column.

• Share the fact that Canada ranks 62nd out of 193 countries for the representation of women in Parliament. At the rate Canada is going, it will take until 2075 for women to hold half the seats. There won’t be gender parity in our lifetimes unless we implement incentives or quotas.
• Organize a debate on the topic: "Be it resolved that 50% of all parliamentary seats should be reserved for women."

Canada. 2021. “Why does gender equality matter?” https://women-gender-equality.canada.ca/en/commemorations-celebrations/women-impact/learning-toolkit/educational-guide/why-gender-equality-matter.html

Canada. Status of Women Canada. 2020. “Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canada.” https://cfc-swc.gc.ca/commemoration/roycom-en.html

Canada. Status of Women Canada. 2020. “Women in Canadian History: A Timeline.” https://web.archive.org/web/20201008053355/https:/cfc-swc.gc.ca/commemoration/whm-mhf/timeline-chronologie-en.html

CPAC. 2014. “Did You Know? - The Famous Five and the Persons Case.” YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=if_pyx5dm9Y 

ESRI Canada. [n.d.] “Canadian Heroines.” https://esrica-marketing.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/index.html?appid=57318542d6574515845415220f6e02f7 

Forster, Merna. 2017. “Women of Worth.” Canada’s History. https://www.canadashistory.ca/explore/women/women-of-worth 

Historica Canada Education Portal. [n.d.] “Women in Canadian History: Education Guide.” https://fb.historicacanada.ca/education/english/women-in-canadian-history/ 

Historica Canada. [ca.2015?]. “Women’s Suffrage in Canada: Education Guide.” http://education.historicacanada.ca/files/108/Womens_Suffrage.pdf 

Historica Canada. 2016. “Heritage Minutes: Emily Murphy.” YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njAO38Og1-k 

Historica Canada. 2016. “Heritage Minutes: Nellie McClung.” You Tube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdbG6EIHrbs 

Historica Canada Education Portal. 2021. “Nellie McClung.” http://education.historicacanada.ca/en/tools/75?c=32 

Morris, Cerise, "Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canada". In The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Article published February 07, 2006; Last Edited March 22, 2016. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/royal-commission-on-the-status-of-women-in-canada

Public Service Alliance of Canada. 2015. “Canadian Women's History.” https://psac-ncr.com/canadian-womens-history 

Strong-Boag, Veronica, "Early Women’s Movements in Canada: 1867–1960". In The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Article published August 15, 2016; Last Edited August 15, 2016. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/early-womens-movements-in-canada

Strong-Boag, Veronica, "Women's Suffrage in Canada". In The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Article published June 20, 2016; Last Edited August 25, 2016. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/suffrage

“Timeline: Women's Suffrage.” 2021. The Canadian Encyclopedia. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/timeline/womens-suffrage 

Women in Canada. 2015. “Women. Are. Persons.” YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFCsMtzA5t0