Overview
In 1929, the Privy Council declared that women were persons, making it possible for Canadian women to be appointed to the Senate. Behind it all was Nellie McClung – lecturer, teacher, suffragist, temperance worker, legislator and writer. Considered a holy terror by some and a latter-day Joan of Arc by others, Nellie McClung fought tirelessly to make the world a better place for women and their children. Sowing the Seeds of Danny became an instant hit and its sequel, Second Chance, was published two years later, thus establishing Nellie McClung as one of the more popular writers of her day.
Not content with writing alone, McClung wanted to get women out of the home and into the political arena. As a member of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, the Canadian Women’s Press Club and Political Equality League, she dedicated her life to female suffrage. In 1916, after years of struggle, women in Manitoba were granted the right to vote. Nellie’s political work, however, was far from over. She was elected a member of the Liberal Party in 1921; became the first woman on the Board of Governors of the CBC in 1936 and, in 1938, was appointed a Canadian delegate to the League of Nations.
Historian Mary Lile Benham’s vivid account of this feisty feminist brings to life Nellie’s passion and her fierce determination to champion the rights of women.