At the south entrance to the Quebec National Assembly stands a monument honoring the pioneer women who led the fight for voting rights in Quebec and the first woman elected to the assembly – Monument en hommage aux femmes en politique. From left to right are: Marie Gerin Lajoie, Idola St. Jean, Therese Forget-Casgrain, and Marie-Claire Kirkland.
The Canadian federal government granted women the right to vote in 1918, and following the Person case decision in 1929, women could get elected to the Senate. Quebec was the last province to grant women their right to vote and run for office in the provincial election only in 1940 after 20 years of struggle. Four years later, women voted for the first time in provincial elections in Quebec.
The women who led this fight are depicted in this monument:
Thérèse Casgrain (1896-1981) was a mother of four, a feminist, and a politician. She led the Comité du suffrage provincial (Provincial Suffrage Committee), which in 1929 became the Ligue des droits de la femme (League for Women’s Rights). After winning the right to vote, she stayed in politics at provincial and national levels.
Idola Saint-Jean (1880-1945) was an educator, journalist, and women’s rights leader. She established and led the Alliance Canadienne pour le vote des femmes au Québec (Canadian Alliance for Women’s Vote in Québec), edited its journal, and even ran for federal election for the cause of suffrage. She died several months after voting for the first time.
Marie Lacoste Gérin-Lajoie (1867-1945) was Université de Montréal professor, a prominent feminist and mother of four. She co-founded the Comité provincial du suffrage féminin (the provincial committee for women’s suffrage), and co-chaired it.
Next to the three suffrage leaders stands the statue of Marie-Claire Kirkland-Casgrain (1924-2016). Kirkland was the first woman elected to the National Assembly of Quebec in 1961, the first woman Cabinet minister in Quebec, the first woman appointed acting premier, and the first woman judge to serve in the Quebec Provincial Court. She promoted bills to improve women’s rights and the establishment of Québec’s Conseil du Statut de la femme, a council on the status of women in 1973.
As part of the 50th-anniversary celebrations of Kirkland becoming Canada’s first female minister, the artist Jules Lasalle created the sculptures. The monument was unveiled on December 5th, 2012, by Québec premier Pauline Marois, the first woman elected to this position.
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