The Icelandic Canadian - 01.05.2008, Síða 23

Vol. 61 #2
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
I 13
anything has been recorded about these
early pioneers. Manitoba pioneer women
were a part of this group (Bumsted, 1999,
p. viii).
Several factors seemed to have encour-
aged women to pursue a more active role in
society. Kinnear (1982) suggests that in the
1800s, “dispensing charity to the poor had
long been an acceptable activity for
women” (p. 143-144). The public sphere of
business, commerce, and politics was large-
ly a male domain and women did not nor-
mally enter these spheres. Some women
were able to cross from private to the pub-
lic sphere by doing their work in setting up
soup kitchens, and visiting asylums and
volunteering in hospitals. Other women
became breadwinners because they were
single, or widowed, or needed to support
the rest of their family and realized they
had to work outside the home in offices,
shops, and factories, hospitals, and schools
in order to earn and manage their wages to
survive. Kinnear (1998) cites Joy Parr in
this regard: “As Joy Parr showed in The
Gender of Breadwinners, women were
fully aware that “securing subsistence and
managing the complexities of social and
economic existence have required deft bal-
ancing of these different kinds of activities”
(p. 5). Such activities provided middle class
women an opportunity to feel useful in
morally discouraging situations, to work
outside the home and away from family,
and to develop a social network among
other women. Also, “They used every
opportunity to create community connec-
tions. Luxury was a cup of tea and a chance
to chat with another woman” (Armstrong,
2000, p. iv).
Religion, Social Concerns, and Suffrage
Manitoba was strongly influenced by
religion, beginning with the Roman
Catholic Church and the Churches of
England and Scotland (Anglican and
Presbyterian) with the emigration of
French and British settlers. Friesen (1987)
speaks about a major shift in the focus of
the Protestant faiths in Canada and in
Manitoba.
In the last decades of the century new
currents altered the religious beliefs and the
social perspectives of the Protestant
churches. . . . this new outlook, the ‘Social
Gospel,’ became an important influence in
western Canadian life and the driving force
in the development of a distinct western
Canadian mission. The Social Gospel was
the product of many intellectual currents.
In an age when powerful evangelists
crossed the continent with the message that
God could provoke changes in the life of an
individual, hope for such changes became
widespread, (p. 350)
Groups within the Presbyterian and
Methodist faiths (between 1874 and 1884)
created large churches and church organi-
zations (Mission Bands, Ladies Aid
Society, Women’s League) and worked
with thousands of Canadian women, chil-
dren, and youth to raise an awareness of
social and public issues. The major
Christian denominations were represented
in Manitoba: Roman Catholic (French and
Irish), Anglican (English), Presbyterian
(Scottish), Methodist, Baptist,
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