#GoodRead | A century ago, a savvy campaign helped Canadian women win the right to vote [UPDATED]
"A century ago, a savvy campaign helped Canadian women win the right to vote":
It was the kind of savvy political strategy that politicians and lobbyists attempt to craft today: Stitch together a coalition of supporters from diverse communities, secure financial backers, mount a successful ad campaign, and earn some positive media coverage.
A group of women in Manitoba used it to win the right to vote a century ago.
Important, clarifying edit:
This story misses important facts. Yes, it speaks to the first group to get the vote, but it misses the broader, intersectional injustice that held women back in Canada for another 44 years.
Only white women got the right to vote in 1916. For women of colour who were Eastern or Asian, they didn't get the right to vote until the late 1940s, and indigenous women didn't get the right to vote federally until 1960. So, if you want to celebrate women's right to vote in Canada, it's only the 56th anniversary for all women, not only white women, getting the vote in Canada. Celebrating what is effectively a white victory without mentioning all those who were still denied that right based on race and ethnicity continues the erasure of women of colour and indigenous women in Canadian history.
For a better description about when different groups of women won the right to vote in Canada, read "Women & The Right To Vote In Canada: An Important Clarification":
It is true that women had the right to vote in the 1921 federal election. But — and this is a significant but — that didn't mean ALL women in Canada.
At the time, aboriginal and Asian women were NOT allowed to vote. That's an important distinction to make.