only thing which seemed to concern my opponents was that I am a woman — and worse, an Englishwoman who, although I came to Western Canada when it was still an undeveloped wilderness, could not possibly know anything about it!”
On 18 July 1921, the UFA won a majority in the Alberta legislature, and Parlby was elected MLA for her district. Premier Herbert Greenfield appointed Irene Parlby to cabinet, making her the second woman in the British Empire to hold such a position. (The first was Mary Ellen Smith, elected to the British Columbia legislature a few months earlier.) Parlby was named Minister without Portfolio, with special responsibility for advising the government on issues of particular concern to women and children. However, she was without a mandate or budget to take any action. Popularly known as the “Women’s Minister,” Parlby was particularly active on issues related to health care, improved wages for working women and married women’s property rights.
Lacombe constituents returned Parlby to office in 1926 and again in 1930. Over her 14 years in the Alberta Legislature, Parlby’s persistence and patience served her well. As she once said, “evolution cannot be brought about by the use of dynamite.”
Women’s Rights Legislation
As “Women’s Minister,” Irene Parlby sponsored successful legislation for a minimum wage for women, mothers’ allowance grants, and improvements to the Dower Act and the Official Guardian Act, among others. Parlby advocated for mobile dental and medical services as well as municipal hospitals.
Not all of Parlby’s bills were successful, however. In 1925, she introduced the Community of Property Bill. It proposed that all property brought into a marriage by a woman, or acquired as an inheritance or gift, remain in her name. It also stipulated that all other property gained during the marriage would remain community property. The bill was considered too radical and failed. (See also Property Law.)
Parlby had a positive reputation in politics. Nearly 20 laws concerning the welfare of women and children were passed during her time in public office. Some called Parlby the “Minister of Cooperation.”
The first United Farmers of Alberta legislative caucus in summer 1921. This was the meeting at which Herbert Greenfield was selected as Premier. On the right is Richard Reid, who would later serve as Premier himself. On the left, in the white hat, is Irene Parlby, Alberta's first female cabinet minister.
In August 1927, Emily Murphy, Canada’s first woman judge, invited Henrietta Edwards, Irene Parlby, Louise McKinney and Nellie McClung to a meeting at her Edmonton home. Murphy had carefully drafted a petition to put before the Supreme Court of Canada regarding the interpretation of the word persons in the British North America Act (now called the Constitution Act, 1867). At the time, women were not included in the definition of persons under the Constitution.
Murphy and the others signed the petition. Edwards’s signature appeared first; thus, the case was titled Edwards v. Attorney General of Canada. The petition asked the Supreme Court whether the word persons in Section 24 of the British North America Act, 1867 included women. If it considered women to be persons, the Constitution would allow for a woman to be appointed to the Senate.
Handing down the judgment on 24 April 1928, the Supreme Court denied the petition. The women — first called the “Alberta Five” and later the “Famous Five” — took their request to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in England (Canada’s highest court of appeal until 1949).
On 18 October 1929, after much deliberation, the Privy Council reversed the decision of the Supreme Court. It concluded that “the word ‘persons’ in sec. 24 does include women, and that women are eligible to be summoned to and become members of the Senate of Canada.” Lord Sankey, who delivered the judgement on behalf of the Privy Council in what became known as the Persons Case, also remarked that the “exclusion of women from all public offices is a relic of days more barbarous than ours […] and to t