Which was the first province to grant women the right to vote, in 1916?
- Manitoba
- Nova Scotia
- Ontario
- Quebec
Answer: Manitoba
Manitoba was the first province to give women the vote, in 1916. This was a win for the women’s suffrage movement, founded in Canada by Dr. Emily Stowe. Most women gained the federal vote in 1918, and Quebec gave women the vote in 1940.
Learn more: Women get the vote
- The effort by women to win the vote is called the women’s suffrage movement.
- Its founder in Canada was Dr. Emily Stowe, the first Canadian woman to practise medicine in Canada.
- In 1916 Manitoba became the first province to give women the vote.
- In 1917 Sir Robert Borden’s federal government gave the vote first to nurses at the front, then to women related to men in active wartime service.
- In 1918 most Canadian women aged 21 and over won the right to vote in federal elections.
- In 1921 Agnes Macphail, a farmer and teacher, became the first woman Member of Parliament.
- Thanks to Thérèse Casgrain and others, Quebec gave women the vote in 1940.