Women Are Persons! Monument

Photo credit - Wikimedia

‘Women Are Persons!’ is a monument dedicated to the ‘famous five’ – Louise McKinney, Irene Parlby, Emily Murphy, Henrietta Muir Edwards, and Nellie McClung, who fought to change the legal term of ‘persons’ in Canada, which until October 18th, 1929 didn’t consider women as such. Because of that definition, women couldn’t be appointed to the Senate.

The monument, created by Barbara Paterson in 2000, is the first one on Parliament Hill to memorialize Canadian women. The statues depict the women in their moment of victory, having a pink tea party, wearing plain dresses and standing on the ground and not pedestals, emphasizing that those were ordinary women that had the strength to change the world. The empty chair invites you to interact with them as well as to inspire you to take a stand on your own beliefs.

A replica of this statue was dedicated a year before, on October 18th, 1999, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Another statue of the ‘famous five’ by Helen Granger Young stands at the grounds of the Manitoba Legislature in Winnipeg, Canada.
 

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Near the East Block on Parliament Hill, in Ottawa, Canada

 

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Tags: 19th Amendment Centennial Anniversary and Places in Canada

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