Local Council of Women of Halifax Facts for Kids

George Henry Wright House - Wright gave his home to the Local Council of Women, Halifax Nova Scotia (1912)

The Local Council of Women of Halifax (LCWH) is an important group in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It works to make life better for women and children. One of their biggest achievements was fighting for 24 years to get women the right to vote (from 1894 to 1918).

This group had strong leaders. Five key women were Anna Leonowens (known from The King and I), Edith Archibald (who later led the National Council), Eliza Ritchie, Agnes Dennis (who was president from 1906 to 1920), and May Sexton. A Halifax businessman named George Henry Wright left his home to the LCWH in his will. The group received it after he died on the Titanic in 1912. An educator named Alexander McKay also strongly supported the Council.

How Things Were Before
The Fight for Voting Rights
Other Important Work
Nova Scotia 5
Other Members
See also
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How Things Were Before

FrancesWillardPlaqueHalifaxPublicGardensNovaScotia

Frances Willard plaque and flower bed by the Halifax and Dartmouth Woman's Christian Temperance Union (1939), Halifax Public Gardens

In 1851, women in Nova Scotia were not allowed to vote. Later, in 1870, Hannah Norris started to get women involved in public life. She created the Woman’s Baptist Missionary Aid Society across the Maritimes.

After Frances Willard visited Halifax in 1878, women in Nova Scotia formed local groups. They also created a provincial Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). This group worked to stop alcohol use. In 1884, the WCTU successfully pushed for a law that gave married women rights to their own property.

By 1891, the WCTU officially supported women's right to vote. This made them the first major women's group to do so. Edith Archibald became the leader of the WCTU in the Maritimes the next year. Many women joined the WCTU, making it the first large women's movement.

In 1893, Edith Archibald and others tried to pass a bill to let women who owned property vote in Nova Scotia. The legislature passed the bill, but the Attorney General, James Wilberforce Longley, stopped it. He was against women's rights for 20 years.

The Fight for Voting Rights

Plaque marking where the Playground movement began in Nova Scotia, (1906), Local Council of Women, Halifax, Nova Scotia

The year after the first voting rights bill failed, the Local Council of Women of Halifax was formed in 1894. It was the local branch of the National Council of Women of Canada (NCWC). On August 30, 1894, the group's leaders met for the first time. Emma MacIntosh was the first president, and Anna Leonowens was the secretary.

Getting women the right to vote was their main goal. A group called the Woman’s Suffrage Association was also started in March 1895. Leonowens was its president, helped by sisters Eliza Ritchie and Mary Walcott Ritchie, and Charlotte McInnes. Between 1892 and 1895, 34 petitions asking for voting rights were sent to the Nova Scotia legislature. Six bills for women's voting rights were introduced, with the last one in 1897.

In June 1897, the National Council held its yearly meeting in Halifax. Lady Aberdeen and American suffragist May Wright Sewall gave speeches.

On June 11, 1914, the Suffrage Club was created at Wright's home. Its goal was to get women the right to vote across the province. On February 22, 1917, the LCWH presented a petition for voting rights. It was supported by 41 women's organizations. When the Premier ignored the issue, angry members introduced their own bill. Its defeat led to the creation of the Nova Scotia Equal Franchise League in the spring of 1917.

Finally, on April 26, 1918, with the help of Premier George Henry Murray, the Assembly passed The Nova Scotia Franchise Act. This law gave women the right to vote in Nova Scotia's provincial elections. Nova Scotia was the first province in Atlantic Canada to do this. A month later, Robert Borden, who was from Nova Scotia and was the Prime Minister of Canada, helped pass women's suffrage for the whole country. His wife, Laura Bond, was a former president of the LCWH.