Brown also wrote scripts and educational broadcasts for the CBC and was a reporter for The Daily News of St. John’s from 1959 to 1966. Orphaned at ten, Joe attended Shubenacadie Indian Residential School for four years. Whether your picks had political clout, made the world a little brighter through art and song or pushed the boundaries to fight for a better tomorrow, we are definitely inspired! Whether your picks had political clout, made the world a little brighter through art and song or pushed the boundaries to fight for a better tomorrow, we are definitely inspired! Ryan, who subsequently suffered a bout of gonorrhoea, had her arrested and charged with vagrancy. So, for International Women's Day, we asked the Canadian Living family (which includes you, too, readers!) Major-General Sir Isaac Brock fell at the head of his troops while defending Canada from an American invasion during the War of 1812. "Roberta Bondar, our first female astronaut. Canada’s first female senator. Laure Gaudreault began teaching in rural Quebec in 1906. To me, that’s more indicative of what it means to be Canadian than what I wear.'"

She attended a business school and a few years later moved to Winnipeg to further her business education. Murphy also spent twelve years fighting for women to be declared “persons,” after being challenged on this when she became a magistrate. Today, a massive metal sculpture of Mance stands outside Montreal’s modern Hôtel-Dieu. Susanna Moodie (née Strickland) was an accomplished author whose work vividly captures the pioneer life in Upper Canada.

She was denied the allowable paid leave to pursue further education from1915 to 1926 and was unable to complete her PhD until 1929.

Her family established a farm, which later became the colony’s first seigneury. In 1911, she helped start Toronto’s Women’s College Hospital where she was the chair of gynecology from 1912 to 1942. She founded Canada’s first suffrage group — the Toronto Women’s Literary Club — and was the principal founder and first president of the Dominion Women’s Enfranchisement Association in 1889.

Pioneering woman. Lumb also led the “Save Chinatown Committee” that lobbied successfully to protect Toronto’s Chinatown from expropriation in the 1960s. She escaped from Vechta Prison in Germany in March 1945 and travelled over 125 kilometres back to the Netherlands, where she was able to get help from a Canadian army unit. In 1737, seven years after her husband’s death, d’Youville and three other women founded a religious order to serve the poor of Montreal.

Co-founder of the Caisses populaires Desjardins (today the Desjardins Group). That truly makes her a gentle giant of a heroine. There, she taught the children of rural French settlers and provided support to the Filles du Roi — young women sent to Canada as brides for settlers. Pediatrician and co-founder of Sainte-Justine Children’s Hospital. Callwood was deeply concerned with social justice and founded or co-founded over fifty organizations. 100 Canadian Heroines: Famous and Forgotten Faces, Ann Harvey - a courageous teenager who saved immigrants shipwrecked off the coast of Newfoundland in 1828, Fanny 'Bobbie' Rosenfeld - Olympian reputed to be the world's greatest woman athlete, Thérèse Casgrain - feminist reformer who was the first woman in Quebec to lead a provincial political party, Elsie MacGill - the first woman in the world to design an airplane, Anna Mae Aquash - a native rights activist from Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia, who became the most prominent woman in the American Indian Movement, Agnes Macphail - an impressive politician who was the first woman elected to the House of Commons, Mary Ann Shadd - leader of Black Refugee Movement and the first woman to publish a Canadian newspaper, Dr. Margaret Newton - a brilliant scientist who made important discoveries that led to the development of rust-resistant grains, Violet Clara McNaughton - organizer of the Women Grain Growers and proponent of a public medical care system, Major Margaret C. Macdonald - the Matron-in-Chief of the Canadian Nursing Service during World War I, Helen Harrison - a pioneer pilot who ferried bombers across the Atlantic during World War II, "Heroines are women who risk their lives in the name of convictions and beliefs and who never lose their determination in spite of adversity...in Canada or anywhere else in the world, for that matter. As I age, I often think of her and what she was dealing with."

Jean Lumb was an adept businesswoman and a prominent leader of Toronto’s Chinese community. "We’re so fortunate to live in a country with no lack of inspiring women, but if I had to choose just one as my hero, I would say it’s Tanya Tagaq. In the 1950s, Lumb played a critical role in helping to end discriminatory immigration laws that prevented Asian permanent residents from bringing family members to Canada. Founder of the Congregation of Notre Dame of Montreal. She was the force behind an incredible variety of initiatives, including clothing and food services, a transitional home for women moving to the city, programs for seniors and patients in mental hospitals, and a co-operative women’s credit union, to name just a few. Ted Grant/Library and Archives Canada/ Neg 61-1180 Fr.25-30, Harold Mortimer-Lamb, Library and Archives Canada, archival reference number R11019, PA-212948, University of Manitoba, E. Dafoe Library, Icelandic Collection, Jules-Ernest Livernois / Library and Archives Canada / PA-023401. In a perfect world, the thirty-six women on this list would be household names. E. Cora Hind arrived in Winnipeg in 1882. In a perfect world, the thirty women on this list would be household names. —Nancy Bennett, "Lynn Crawford is one of the figures who originally inspired me to start cooking professionally. Heroine, wife, and mother. She staged plays, arranged raffles, and organized banquets to raise money for girls and immigrants in financial need. I’m in constant awe of her talent, her advocacy for Indigenous issues, and her ability to shift perceptions on what it means to be Canadian.

First female geologist, a world-renowned paleontologist and first female Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. She was granted the title Right Honourable in 1992 and received the Order of Ontario in 1996. The order brought the hospital out of debt and although it was destroyed by fire in 1765, d’Youville and the other Grey Nuns quickly rebuilt it. But for too long history textbooks have focused on great men, to the exclusion of all others.

In 1945, she helped organize the Canadian branch of the Unitarian Service Committee, where she served as chairperson until 1949. Beloved in her own day, Travers laid the foundations for the 1950s folk revival and later generations of French Canadian singers. Have students decide who they would place on their list of Great Canadian Women. Canadian physician and the first female surgeon in Canada. Secord was never properly recognized for her heroic feat until after her death. Her critically acclaimed show, Pitchin’ In, delves deep into the relationship between farming and cooking and educates thousands about what it takes to produce the commodities we take for granted. Get exclusive content you won’t find in our magazines. She’s a firebrand." She went to Minneapolis to study for six years but was not admitted to the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Quebec until 1903.

In 1915, while working for the Red Cross in England, she established an information bureau to keep Canadian families informed about missing, injured, and deceased soldiers. She became publisher of Newfoundland Women magazine from 1961 to 1964.

Affectionately known as 'Hurricane Hazel,' she proved that as a woman you could choose a high-profile career, work hard at a job you love, and have a full and active life. In 1887, she borrowed money to sail to the United States, settling in an Icelandic settlement in Dakota Territory. First Canadian woman to earn a degree in electrical engineering, the first woman in North America to earn a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering, and the world’s first female aircraft designer. —Melissa Howard, Image by: instagram.com/streetsvilleliving, "The longest-serving and first female mayor of Mississauga, Hazel McCallion, left quite an impression on me when I was growing up in the city. In her inaugural Senate speech, Fergusson noted simply, “If I can be of help to women in getting justice, I will.”. Her work and how she carries herself inspires me to be unabashed, to think outside the box and to always be creating." I mean the woman is juggling Canada’s #1 daytime lifestyle series, The Marilyn Denis Show, as well as working every weekday morning on the Roger & Marilyn radio show—she’s like the Energizer bunny! Denied entrance to Canadian medical schools, she attended New York Medical College for Women, graduating in 1867. She established the Jeanne Sauvé Foundation in 1989, dedicated to youth excellence in Canada. This legislation protected a woman’s right to one-third of her husband’s property.

Brown was born in Rose Blanche, Newfoundland and moved with her family to St. John’s in the 1930s. You can help make our past relevant, engaging, empowering and accessible. ", "My favourite Canadian heroine is Emily Carr. Mohawk stateswoman and diplomat. In the 1630s her home became a residence for Indigenous girls who were studying with the Jesuit missionaries. She was named to the Royal Commission on the Status of Women in 1967. However Laval’s successor, Jean-Baptiste de La Croix de Chevrières de Saint-Vallier, encouraged her to teach and to open schools. She received an honorary doctor of laws degree from the University of Manitoba in 1935. Canadian athlete, Olympic medallist, sportswriter. She continued to devote herself to improving the salaries, pensions, and working conditions of rural and retired teachers well into the 1960s. ", A woman admired for her bravery, great deeds, or noble qualities.

In 1659, Mance recruited three sisters of the Hospitallers of Saint-Joseph to carry on the hospital’s work, while she continued to direct the hospital’s management. She was active in many public services. Rita Joe was a gifted poet whose writing is marked by compassion, candour, and dignity. An icon of dedication, commitment, and true sportsmanship."

By 1927, she was journalist for Le Progrès du Saguenay and writing about the problems of rural teachers.

Stella Burry was an extraordinarily active member of her church and community throughout life.