Nellie McClung
| Nellie McClung | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta | |
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In office 18 July 1921 – 28 June 1926 |
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| Succeeded by | John Lymburn, Charles Weaver, Charles Gibbs, Warren Prevey and David Duggan |
| Constituency | Edmonton |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Helen Letitia Mooney 20 October 1873 Chatsworth, Ontario |
| Died | 1 September 1951 (aged 77) Victoria, British Columbia |
| Political party | Liberal |
| Spouse(s) | Robert Wesley McClung |
| Occupation | Social activist |
| Known for | Women's rights activist |
Nellie Letitia McClung, (born Helen Letitia Mooney; 20 October 1873 – 1 September 1951), was a Canadian feminist, politician, author, and social activist. She was a part of the social and moral reform movements prevalent in Western Canada in the early 1900s. In 1927, McClung and four other women: Henrietta Muir Edwards, Emily Murphy, Louise McKinney and Irene Parlby, who together came to be known as "The Famous Five" (also called "The Valiant Five"), launched the "Persons Case," contending that women could be "qualified persons" eligible to sit in the Senate. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the current law did not recognize women as such. However, the case was won upon appeal to the Judicial Committee of the British Privy Council—the court of last resort for Canada at that time.
Nellie McClung Mooney was born at Chatsworth, Ontario in 1873, the youngest daughter of John Mooney, an Irish immigrant farmer and a Methodist, and his Scottish-born wife, Letitia McCurdy. Her father's farm failed and the family moved to Manitoba in 1880. She received six years of formal education and did not learn to read until she was ten. She later moved with her family to a homestead in the Souris Valley of Manitoba. Between 1904 and 1915, Nellie McClung, her husband Wesley, a pharmacist, and their five children, resided in Winnipeg, Manitoba where, from 1911 until 1915, McClung fought for women's suffrage. In both the 1914 and 1915 Manitoba provincial elections, she campaigned for the Liberal party on the issue of the vote for women. She helped organize the Women's Political Equality League, a group devoted to women's suffrage. A public speaker known for her sense of humour, she played a leading role in the successful Liberal campaign in 1914. She also played the role of the Conservative Premier of Manitoba, Sir Rodmond Roblin, in a mock Women's Parliament staged in Winnipeg in 1914 under the auspices of the Canadian Women's Press Club. The theatrical effort was designed to expose the absurdity of the arguments of those opposed to women's suffrage by pretending to debate whether or not the franchise should be granted to men. Nellie and her colleagues celebrated the defeat of the Roblin government in August, 1915 but by the time Manitoba became the first province in Canada to grant women the vote on 28 January 1916, under the new Liberal government, she had already moved to Edmonton, Alberta. In Edmonton, she continued her career as an orator, author, and reformer. In 1921, McClung was elected to the Alberta Legislative Assembly as a Liberal. She then moved to Calgary, Alberta in 1923, and dedicated herself to writing. She had already written her first novel, Sowing Seeds in Danny, published in 1908. A national bestseller, the book was succeeded by short stories and articles, McClung wrote in several Canadian and American magazines.
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