Henrietta Muir Edwards
| Henrietta Louise Muir Edwards | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Henrietta Louise Muir 18 December 1849 Montreal, Canada East |
| Died | 10 November 1931 (aged 81) Fort Macleod, Alberta |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Occupation | Suffragist, Author |
| Known for | Women's rights activist |
Henrietta Muir Edwards (18 December 1849 – 10 November 1931) was a Canadian women's rights activist and reformer.
Henrietta Edwards was one of "The Famous Five", along with Emily Murphy, Nellie McClung, Louise McKinney and Irene Parlby, who fought to have women recognized as "persons" under the law, and for the woman's right to vote in elections.
She was born Henrietta Louise Muir in Montreal. She grew up in an upper-middle-class family that valued culture and religion. Edwards became active in many religious organizations, where she grew disenchanted with old traditions where the exclusion of women was acceptable.
As a young woman, Edwards and her sister Amélia founded a Working Girls’ Association in Montreal in 1875 to provide meals, reading rooms and study classes. This would become one of Canada's first YWCAs. They also published a periodical, The Working Women of Canada, which helped to bring working conditions into the public eye. This project was undertaken at their own expense, and was funded from their earnings as artists.
Henrietta Edwards was married to Dr. Oliver C. Edwards in 1876 and they had three children. They moved to Indian Head, North West Territories (now Saskatchewan) in 1883. Dr. Edwards was the government doctor for the Indian reserves there. Henrietta continued to pursue women’s rights and feminist organizations on the prairies.
In 1890, Edwards’s husband fell ill so they returned to Ottawa, where she “took up the cause of female prisoners and worked with Lady Aberdeen, wife of the Governor General, to establish the National Council of Women of Canada in 1893.” Henrietta served for 35 years as their chair for Laws Governing Women and Children, and because of her expertise in this area of the law was appointed chair of the Provincial Council of Alberta. With Lady Aberdeen she also helped establish the Victorian Order of Nurses (VON) in 1897.
The Edwards family moved to Fort MacLeod, Northwest Territories (now Alberta) in 1903, where her husband was posted as a medical officer to the Blood tribe.
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