'WOMEN ARE PERSONS'

And I hought it was going to be boring getting a present for a 12 year old who only wants money to buy minutes for his phone!

I had not realised how fascinating a CanAdian $50 bill would prove to be. It features Therese Carsgrain, feminist, suffragette, senator and campaigner against nuclear weapons. Also featured are the Famous Five. No, not Julian, Dick, Anne, George and their dog Timothy, but Emily Murphy (the British Empire's first female judge);Irene Marryat Parlby (farm women's leader, activist and first female Cabinet minister in Alberta); Nellie Mooney McClung (a famous suffragist and member of the Alberta legislature)Louise Crummy McKinney (the first woman elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, or any legislature in Canada or the British Empire) and Henrietta Muir Edwards (an advocate for working women and a founding member of the Victorian Order of Nurses). Formidable lot, eh? Though some of their actions were questionable (dabbling in eugenics and the like) they were sucessful in challenging the Supreme Court of Canada's decision that women were not 'persons' so not eligible for appointment as senators. Up until then, women were defined in common law as 'persons in matters of pains and penalties, but not in matters of rights and privileges'.

Tomorrow, we are promised sunshine. Maybe a chance for an outdoor blip instead of a history lesson!