"Of course, with the customary hot-headedness of reformers, you never thought of that. Oh, no, just like a man, you never thought of the expense . . . "
– From Nellie McClung's speech "Should Men Vote?"
Nellie McClung and other Canadian suffragists were told repeatedly that nice women didn’t vote. Manitoba’s premier Rodmond Roblin said in January 1914 that if women voted it would be "a retrograde movement … it will break up the home."
McClung, a skilled orator and writer, countered that remark with humor. On January 29, 1914, she played the leading role in a mock parliament at the Walker Theater in Winnipeg, where she gave the speech “Should Men Vote?”
Her approach lampooned Roblin and the many reasons she and her fellow suffragists had heard for denying women the vote.
McClung’s delivery was reported to have been over-the-top, getting big laughs from the largely female audience. McClung became a sought after speaker. Women secured the right to vote in Manitoba two years later.
McClung moved to Alberta before the right to vote was granted in Manitoba, so continued her fight in Alberta until women in all of Canada were allowed to vote in 1918.
From 1921 to 1926, she served in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.
She was also a member of The Famous Five, five women who petitioned in 1927 for women to be legally considered persons so they could be appointed to the Canadian Senate. Rejected by Canada’s Supreme Court, their case was overturned in 1929, a victory for women’s rights.
While McClung is admired for her speaking, her success as a novelist, her work on women’s rights, and as an advocate for the poor, she leaves a complicated legacy.
Read the full speech here.
Find an analysis of why McClung's speech was so successful here.
And here’s an interview with a woman who witnessed the speech as a young girl recalling the impact it had:
