Nellie McClung Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Nellie McClung - Essay Example ves and today they are recognized as government officials, CEOs, established professionals, sometimes the Head of their household and now have access to certain rights and privileges. Nellie McClung, a Canadian Activist is credited for the progress of the women in today’s Canadian society. She was the voice for the women who didn’t have the privilege to speak and her contribution to fighting for women’s rights is the reason they can obtain white collar jobs and favourable divorce and custody laws. 1She is famous for her superb humoured public speaking and determinant abilities to get women recognized and accepted as individuals who deserve equal rights and other privileges. 2 Nellie Letitia Mooney was a Canadian Feminist, suffragist, social reformer, legislator, author and politician.3 Born in Chatsworth on October 20th 1873, she was raised on a homestead in rural Manitoba and is an inspiration to women everywhere. Her father was an Irish Methodist and her mother a Scottish Presbyterian. Nellie McClung helped to shape the history of women’s rights in Canada. Inspired by Dickens’ novels she decided that she wanted to be the voice for the voiceless as Dickens’ was a defender for the weak. 4Cross referenced literature declared that Mooney started school at the age of 10 but by the age of 16 had received a teaching certificate and taught school, which was a highly respected profession for women at the time, until she wed Robert Wesley McClung, a pharmacist in 1896. The couple had four children and produced a fifth when they relocated to Winnipeg and from all sources seemed to have had a happy and productive marriage. McClung had contributed greatly to Canada actively campaigning for women’s suffrage, safety legislations, prohibition of the sale of alcohol, labour reforms, mother’s allowances, public health nursing, free medical and dental care for children, divorce laws and property rights.5 McClung had a rather extensive career profile; a rural