hose who ask why the word [persons] should include females, the obvious answer is why should it not.”
Like other members of the Famous Five, Irene Parlby has been criticized as being elitist and racist, and for supporting the eugenics movement. Eugenics was a pseudoscience that subscribed to the idea that the human population could be improved by controlling reproduction. Many influential Canadians, including J. S. Woodsworth, Dr. Clarence Hincks and Tommy Douglas, supported eugenic ideas in the early 1900s. (See also Tommy Douglas and Eugenics.) They promoted both “positive” eugenics (promoting the breeding of “fit” members of society) and “negative” eugenics (discouraging procreation by those considered “unfit”). Eugenicists argued that “mental defectives” and the “feeble-minded” were prone to alcoholism, promiscuity, mental illness, delinquency and criminal behaviour, and therefore posed a threat to the moral fabric of the community. These concerns led to increasing support for eugenic legislation, including the sterilization of “defectives.”
Parlby supported the passing of eugenics legislation, titled the Sexual Sterilization Act, while she was an Alberta cabinet minister. In a 1924 speech to members of the United Farm Women of Alberta, Parlby posed a question about the standard farming practice of culling the herd to breed only the best animals, “and yet when it comes to the human race we allow the mating of the most diseased and imperfect both mentally and physically?”
Parlby and others believed the sterilization procedures would prevent further problems and so passed the Sexual Sterilization Act. The legislation was enacted in 1928 and repealed in 1972. During that time, thousands of people deemed “psychotic” or “mentally deficient” underwent forced sterilization. A disproportionate number of them were Indigenous women. (See also Sterilization of Indigenous Women in Canada.)
League of Nations
In 1930, Prime Minister R.B. Bennett appointed Irene Parlby one of three Canadian delegates to the League of Nations meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. The League of Nations was instituted in 1919 after the First World War, with the goal of preventing war through negotiation, disarmament and collective security. The League was replaced by the United Nations after the Second World War.
As elections approached in 1935, Irene Parlby declined to run for a fourth term in office. She settled back into the comfort of her home. She took care of family and continued to champion the betterment of women. In the same year, the University of Alberta awarded her an honorary Doctor of Laws for the many years she served on its board of governors. Parlby was the first woman to receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Alberta.
The Government of Canada recognized Irene Parlby as a Person of National Historic Significance in 1966. This was based on her role in the Persons Case, but also for her work as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta and for her distinguished service in the fields of “education, social welfare, and legislative reform.” In October 2009, 80 years after the Persons Case, the Senate of Canada voted to recognize the Famous Five as honorary senators. It was the first time the Senate had bestowed such a distinction.
See also National Council of Women of Canada; Women’s Movements in Canada; Status of Women; Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canada; Council on the Status of Women; Women and the Law; Women’s Organizations.