Emily Murphy

"It is good to live in these first days when the foundations of things are being laid, to be able, now and then, to place a stone or carry the mortar to set it good and true."

~Emily Murphy

Emily Murphy is heralded as being one of Canada's greatest women who helped further the Canadian feminist movement in the nineteenth century. She is most famous for her court battle to have women declared "persons" under the British North American Act. Some of her achievements also include: being the first female magistrate in the British Empire, author of several books, president of the Women's Canadian Club, and was active in implementing the Dower Act. Emily Murphy is regarded as being an influential woman in the first-wave feminist movement and she represented the women of her time period. Yet, despite all her accomplishments and her belief in equality for all, she was a strong advocate of eugenics and sterilization as well as being a racist, which mars her legacy. The question then is, should Emily Murphy be praised and held up as a role model to women when she degraded and disparaged immigrants and non-white people. The answer to this question is complicated as Murphy was a product of her time and one cannot simply view her through the lens of contemporary principles. However, this also cannot be used as an excuse for her negative rhetoric, but to understand Emily Murphy's view one must look at the era in which she belonged. Emily Murphy may not be a role model to women but society cannot overlook her deeds and accomplishments.

Emily Murphy was not always interested in women's politics and the suffragist movement. She was born in Cookstown, Ontario in 1868 into a family environment of "affluence, accomplishment, affection, and high ideals."1 In 1887 she married Arthur Murphy, a minister, and settled down to married life. For the next ten years Emily and Arthur moved around Ontario wherever a clergyman was needed. During this time Emily and Arthur had two girls. In 1898 the Murphy's moved to England for a year where Arthur would act as a missionary. It was during this time that Emily Murphy began her career as a writer. She began writing under the pen name Janey Canuck, the feminine