We Shall Persist

Women and the Vote in the Atlantic Provinces

By Heidi MacDonald
Categories: Regional & Cultural Studies, Canadian Studies, Gender & Sexuality Studies, Women’s Studies, Political Science, Canadian Political Science, History, Canadian History
Series: Women’s Suffrage and the Struggle for Democracy
Publisher: UBC Press
Hardcover : 9780774863179, 300 pages, April 2023
Ebook (PDF) : 9780774863193, 300 pages, April 2023
Ebook (EPUB) : 9780774863209, 300 pages, April 2023

Table of contents

Introduction

1 Suffrage Contexts and Challenges in the Maritimes and Newfoundland

2 Nova Scotia: Steady, Determined, and Strategic Agitation

3 New Brunswick: Early Promise, Sharp Opposition

4 Prince Edward Island: Informal but Consistent Interest

5 Newfoundland: Long and Fierce Opposition

6 The Legacy of Suffrage in Atlantic Canada

Conclusion

Sources and Further Reading; Photo Credits; Index

Description

Women in Atlantic Canada won the right to vote and to run for office only after long, vigorous, and exhausting campaigns for the Great Cause. We Shall Persist explores the distinctive political contexts and common problems characterizing these efforts. Despite uneven progress – and class and racial inequities within the movement itself – most nonindigenous women achieved enfranchisement following the First World War. This victory curbed the most blatant political misogyny and prepared the way for other rights, such as improved social assistance and access to birth control, marking a crucial step in the still-unfinished march toward full gender, race, and class equality.