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Bonnie Reilly Schmidt, Ph.D.

~ History Provides Context

Bonnie Reilly Schmidt, Ph.D.

Tag Archives: Women in the RCMP

Celebrating Great Canadian Women on International Women’s Day

01 Tue Mar 2016

Posted by Bonnie Reilly Schmidt in Canadian History, Society, Women in History

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A Women's Parliament, Aimee Semple McPherson, Canadian Women, Chatelaine Magazine, Doris Anderson, International Women's Day, Judy LaMarsh, Kathleen Klondike Kate Ryan, Lois Beckett, Manitoba Political Equality League, Sault Ste. Marie Police, Stelco Steel, Women in the RCMP, Women's Suffrage

International Women’s Day is a day set aside to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women around the world. The United Nations began celebrating International Women’s Day during International Women’s Year in 1975, establishing March 8 as the day member states celebrate women.

International Year of the Woman

This year, March 8 is particularly significant because it marks the centenary of the date women first gained the right to vote in Canada. In 1916, Manitoba became the first province to grant women the suffrage in provincial elections, along with the right to hold public office. Women have come a long way since then. For the first time in Canadian history, women now hold half of the federal Cabinet positions in the House of Commons.

To celebrate, here are just some of the women who have helped to make Canada great and who have influenced and inspired me:

Doris Anderson (1921-2007)

Anderson was the editor of Chatelaine magazine from 1957-1977. As an activist, Anderson played an important role in championing women’s rights and advocating for social change through her editorials and the magazine’s content. Anderson’s editorials in particular were instrumental in applying pressure on the federal government to establish a Royal Commission to investigate the status of women in Canada. She also lobbied for the inclusion of women’s rights in Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1981. Under her tenure as editor, Chatelaine’s readership rose to over one million.[1]

Doris Anderson Source: CBC News

Doris Anderson
Source: CBC News

The Women of the Stelco Steel Company (1943-1981)

During WWII, Stelco Steel in Hamilton, Ontario supplied steel for the building of ships, shells, and army transports. One of the largest steel producers in Canada, Stelco lost 1,500 men to the war. To fill the employment gap, the company hired women who worked in some of the toughest sections of the mill, including the blast furnaces. After the war, all of the women were fired. Between 1961 and 1977, no women were hired womens-rights1[1]at all. Only twenty-eight women, working in the tin mill and the cafeteria, were employed at Stelco while 13,000 men worked for the company. The disparity was challenged when five women launched a sex discrimination complaint against the company with the Ontario Human Rights Commission in 1979. The women won their case and Stelco was forced to hire 180 women, all of whom lost their jobs during massive layoffs by Stelco in 1981.[2]

Julia Verlyn (Judy) LaMarsh (1924-1980)

In 1963, Judy LaMarsh was just the second woman in Canadian history to be appointed to a federal Cabinet position. As a minister, LaMarsh was instrumental in pressuring her cabinet colleagues to establish a Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canada. She was also responsible for the implementation

Judy LaMarsh

Judy LaMarsh

of the Canada Pension Plan, designing Canada’s Medicare system, creating the Broadcasting Act, and overseeing Canada’s centennial celebrations as Secretary of State in 1967.[3] LaMarsh died of cancer in 1980, but her legacy lives on in the medical and social benefits that all Canadians enjoy today.

Kathleen “Klondike Kate” Ryan (1868-1932)

Ryan was the first white woman to arrive in Whitehorse in 1898 during the Yukon Gold Rush, mushing some 600 miles on foot along the Stikine Trail to get there. She established a successful restaurant business and regularly invested in gold. In 1900, Ryan was hired by the North-West Mounted Police as a matron to assist in the care of female prisoners. She was later appointed as a “Constable Special” to work as a gold inspector monitoring female smugglers. Ryan was so esteemed by the RCMP that when she died in Vancouver in 1932, the police force provided an honour guard for her funeral, a rare privilege that few women have been afforded.[4]

Aimee Semple McPherson (1890-1944)

Aimee Semple McPherson Source: Foursquare Church International

Aimee Semple McPherson
Source: Foursquare Church International

A missionary, radio broadcaster, evangelist, and author, Aimee McPherson was born in the small farming community of Salford, Ontario. McPherson’s evangelistic work landed her in Los Angeles where she established one of the largest Pentecostal churches in the world, Angelus Temple, in 1923. During the Depression, McPherson’s temple fed and clothed thousands of homeless and destitute in Los Angeles. But she is best remembered for her colourful preaching and unconventional approach to spreading her “old-time gospel” message. McPherson was ahead of her time. She used radio broadcasts, stage plays, magazines, newspapers, and even a float in the Tournament of Roses parade to draw people to church and to God, methods that would become commonplace later in the century.

The Women of Royal Canadian Mounted Police Troop 17 (1974-1975)

In September 1974, thirty-two women arrived at the RCMP’s academy in Regina, Saskatchewan to begin training as the first women to join the RCMP. Although the RCMP signed up all thirty-two women at exactly the same time so no one woman would be able to claim that she was “the first,” the members of Troop 17 broke ground as the first female figures of authority in Canada’s national police force.

Female Troop Parade Square

Constable Lois Beckett, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario (1949-1968)

Lois Beckett served as a constable with the Sault Ste. Marie Police Force between 1949 and 1968. Although she held the rank of constable during those years, she was paid less than men of the same rank. She was also denied membership in the force’s association because she was a woman. Beckett sued the police force and the association for discrimination. In response, the department dismissed her from her duties as a constable and reclassified her as a clerk-typist. In 1968, her case went to the Ontario Supreme Court where Justice R. Fergusson ruled against Beckett, arguing that she should be paid less than her male colleagues because, as a woman, she did not perform the same duties as men and did not have dependents to provide for. To Fergusson, the lower rate of pay was justified since it conformed to “all the rules of civilization, economics, family life and common sense.”[5] Nevertheless, her demands for equal pay and equal rights brought the issue before politicians and the public, opening the door for women’s rights as police officers.

The Women of the Manitoba Political Equality League (1912-1916)

On January 28, 1914, members of Manitoba’s Political Equality League staged a “A Women’s Parliament” at the Walker Theatre in Winnipeg. The satire starred suffragist Nellie McClung as the premier of a mythical province where women were the political leaders and men were asking for the right to vote. The women acted out a parliamentary debate discussing why men should be denied the vote, using the same arguments Manitoba’s politicians employed. But it was McClung’s thinly-disguised parody of the province’s long-time premier Rodmond Roblin that brought the house down. The satire was a brilliant strategy that placed the issue of voting rights into proper perspective for many Manitobans. In 1916, exactly two years to the day after the mock parliament was first performed, Manitoba women became the first in Canada to exercise their right to vote in provincial elections and to hold public office.[6]

Executive members of the League following the passage of the suffrage bill in Manitoba, 1916. Source: Manitoba Archives

Executive members of the League following the passage of the suffrage bill in Manitoba, 1916.
Source: Manitoba Archives

 

[1] Eberts, Mary. “‘Write It For the Women’: Doris Anderson, the Changemaker.” Canadian Woman Studies 26:2 (Summer/Fall 2007): 6-13.

[2] Meg Luxton and June Corman, “Getting to Work: The Challenge of the Women Back Into Stelco Campaign,” Labour/Le Travail 28 (Fall 1991).

[3] LaMarsh, Judy, Memoirs of a Bird in a Gilded Cage (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart Ltd., 1968).

[4] Edmonds, William Lewis, “The Woman Called Klondike Kate,” Maclean’s (15 December 1922); Brennan, T. Ann, The Real Klondike Kate (Fredericton, NB: Goose Lane Editions, 1990).

[5] Doris Anderson, “The Strange Case of Policewoman Beckett,” Chatelaine 41:4 (April 1968): 3.

[6] http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/analysis/mcclung-played-the-crowd-like-a-vaudevillian-241934181.html.

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Women’s “Firsts” – History Provides Context

11 Thu Dec 2014

Posted by Bonnie Reilly Schmidt in Women in History

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Albert Einstein, History Provides Context, Marie Curie, Women in the RCMP

Recent revelations that Albert Einstein advised Marie Curie in a letter to ignore the “reptiles,” the journalists who printed “hogwash” about her personal life, have made for fascinating reading. Einstein’s letter to Curie was a beautifully written piece of encouragement that reminded Curie that her intellect was most important.[1]

Einstein recognized brilliance when he saw it; Curie was an incredibly gifted scientist. She was the first woman to obtain a doctorate in a scientific field in France (1903), the first female professor at the Sorbonne (1906), and the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize (1903) for Physics. In 1911, she received a second Nobel for Chemistry, the first and only person since that time to be recognized in two different sciences.

einstein%20curie[1]

Albert Einstein and Marie Curie (Photo source: NobelPrize.org)

Being a brilliant and successful scientist was not enough however, because Curie was still a woman. When she crossed the gendered boundaries of appropriate feminine behaviour by entering into an affair with a married colleague who was estranged from his wife, Curie was vilified in the press. She was accused of sullying the name and reputation of her late husband, Pierre, prompting Einstein to write his letter.

When members of the Nobel committee tried to discourage Curie from accepting her prize in person because of the negative publicity surrounding her private life, Curie responded, “The prize has been awarded for the discovery of radium and polonium… I cannot accept that the appreciation of the value of scientific work should be influenced by libel and slander concerning private life.”[2] Curie quite wisely insisted that her scientific work was separate from her personal life and picked up her prize in person.

History is filled with women who have achieved groundbreaking firsts. When the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) decided in 1974 to hire women for the first time, they did not want any one woman to claim that she was “the first” female Mountie. The police force may have had a number of reasons for this approach, but the official reason was that they did not want the pressure of being “the first” placed on one woman. It was a paternalistic attitude that was based on the assumption that a woman would be unable to handle the media’s intense scrutiny.

As a result, all thirty-two of the first female members of the police force were sworn in together at exactly the same time across the country’s five time zones. It too, was “a first,” a decision that has never been repeated in the history of the RCMP. It was just the beginning of the unprecedented attention on the women, both inside and outside the RCMP, who dared to transgress gendered boundaries that would influence their working lives on a daily basis.

Our fascination with the correspondence between Einstein and Curie a century ago probably has a lot to do with our familiarity with the ongoing issues over gender that exist in our society today. But it also serves as a reminder of the importance of considering context when we think about the accomplishments of women in history.  Then we will more fully understand the significance of their achievements.

[1] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2867236/Don-t-read-hogwash-Newly-unearthed-letter-enraged-Albert-Einstein-Marie-Curie-1911-advises-female-scientist-ignore-critics.html

[2] Ibid.

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Female Mounties: Celebrating Forty Years

13 Sat Sep 2014

Posted by Bonnie Reilly Schmidt in Women in the RCMP

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40 years in the RCMP, 40th anniversary, celebrating 40 years, Female Mounties, Women in the RCMP

September 16 will mark forty years when thirty-two women from across Canada were sworn in as the first women to join the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The swearing-in ceremonies were the first step in a long journey toward their acceptance as police officers. While they were considered equal on paper, the women had to work hard to prove themselves as police officers.

Troop_banner web page downsize

The challenges they faced began early in their careers. During their training at the RCMP’s academy in Regina, Saskatchewan, the women came under criticism. Some people questioned whether female Mounties would be putting the lives of male police officers in danger because they lacked the brawn and physical stature they thought was necessary to handle violent situations. Mountie wives were resistant to the idea of attractive young women riding alone with their husbands in a police cruiser. Rumours spread throughout the RCMP that the women looked more like football players after all of the physical exercise they underwent during training. And the women were devastated to learn that they would not be wearing the same uniform as male Mounties, a decision that set them apart as different from the men from the outset.

Many Canadians struggled with women’s changing role in society. They assumed that women working in a male-dominated occupation wanted to be like men. Few people realized that the first female Mounties had no intention of being like their male peers. They joined the RCMP for a number of reasons. Some wanted a new and challenging career. Others wanted job security and better pay. Many were eager to join an organization steeped in the history of the nation. Five of the first women were carrying on the family tradition established by brothers and fathers who were also police officers. Still others had altruistic reasons for joining, fulfilling a strong desire to help people. Not many people understood that the first female Mounties wanted to define themselves as police officers on their own terms.

Despite the opposition, the first women to join the RCMP proved the naysayers wrong. The late Superintendent W.F. MacRae, in charge of recruit training at the academy in 1975, said it best: “There is absolutely no reason why women cannot do police work. People say you couldn’t send them here and there. What they are talking about is muscle and muscle is only a small part of the job. No one ever questioned the courage of the female.”[1]

Forty years later, he proved to be right. Congratulations to the women of the RCMP.

[1] Quoted in Colleen Slater-Smith, “Troop 17 Graduates,” The Leader-Post (Regina), March 3, 1975.

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When Mounties Finally Got Their Women

31 Thu Jul 2014

Posted by Bonnie Reilly Schmidt in Women in the RCMP

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40th anniversary, Female Mounties, History of Women in the RCMP, Women in the RCMP

Forty years ago, thirty-two women from across Canada were anxiously waiting to be sworn in as the first female Mounties. That summer, they quit their jobs, moved out of their apartments, packed their belongings, and said goodbye to their families as they prepared to be sworn in as regular members of the police force and enter the RCMP’s training academy.

The swearing-in ceremonies, scheduled for 16 September 1974, were being carefully orchestrated by the RCMP. Plans were underway to swear the women in simultaneously across the country and across time zones, all under the watchful eye of the media.

The ceremonies were just the beginning of the media’s fascination with female Mounties. News outlets from across the country and around the world captured the women taking their oath of office and, later, going through training at the academy. In the 1970s, Canadians were unsure of whether women were capable of performing police duties. It was an unknown that journalists capitalized on to illustrate the changing role of women in Canadian society.

As the fortieth anniversary date of the hiring of women as Mounties approaches, we should reflect on the significance of this historical event. The first female Mounties did not consider themselves trailblazers who were breaking ground for women’s rights in Canada. But they made an important contribution toward changing how Canadians thought about women’s place in society, even if they were not aware of it at the time.

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