Nellie McClung is an excellent example of the politically and socially active women who were energetically advocating the rights of women during the latter part of the nineteenth and early part of the twentieth century.

Nellie McClung Detail of B-06795

Born in 1873 in Grey County, Ontario, Nellie Letitia Mooney was the youngest of six children. She was raised by a strict Scottish Presbyterian mother and an Irish Methodist father, so religion was always a significant part of Nellie's life. The family moved to Manitoba in 1880 to find better farmland and homesteaded near present-day Wawanesa.

Nellie headed off to Winnipeg in 1889 for a five-month teacher-training program. The next year she taught all eight grades in a school at Hazel, three miles from Manitou. It is there that Nellie met her husband Wes McClung.

Nellie McClung with her child Detail of G-04011

Nellie married Wes McClung in 1896. Wes and Nellie had five children together.

In the years before the First World War, Nellie McClung established herself as a popular author. Her books celebrated the rural and western ideal and the superiority of country over city.

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She had sixteen books published during her lifetime. Two of these books include Sowing Seeds in Danny, and The Second Chance.

Nellie and Wes moved to Winnipeg in 1911, where she became involved with the Canadian Women's Press Club and the suffrage movement.

Nellie McClung with Alice Jamieson (centre) and Emily Murphy (right) in 1916 B-06791

In 1914 Nellie took part in the "Women's Parliament" staged by the Political Equality League, a mock sitting of the Legislature demonstrating how women could be involved in legislative activities.

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In 1921 Nellie attended the Ecumenical Conference in London, England as a member of the Methodist Church. It was also at this time that she was elected as a Liberal member of the Alberta Legislature having moved to Edmonton in 1914.

In 1935, Wes and Nellie moved to their final home outside Victoria, British Columbia.

In 1936 Nellie became the first women appointed to the CBC Board of Governors, and in 1938 she was a delegate to the League of Nations meeting in Geneva.

On September 1, 1951, Nellie McClung died at her home at the age of 77.

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The efforts of Nellie McClung and those who shared her goals and enthusiasm effected significant changes in women's lives.Canadian women can now vote, hold poltical office, be ordained ministers, and be recognized as fully participating citizens of the country.