The Icelandic Canadian - 01.05.2008, Side 24

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Vol. 61 #2
1 14
Congregationalists (English), United
(formed in 1925), Unitarian (Icelandic) and
Lutheran (Icelandic and German),
Mennonite (German), Ukrainian
Orthodox and Ukrainian Catholic. This is
not an exhaustive list but gives a sense of
the variety of faiths at that time. The belief
in responsibility to family, church, friends
and the community at large was particular-
ly important to women who felt morally
obligated, justified, and motivated to
become involved in church organizations.
Noteworthy were the actions of feminist
Nellie McClung, who carried the message
of the Social Gospel in her public speaking
and in her campaign for women’s suffrage
in Manitoba (Kinnear, 1992, p. 72-73;
Kinnear, 1998, p. 25).
Women from the rural areas moved
into the cities in search of work as seam-
stresses in the garment district of inner city
Winnipeg and in various grocery shops and
factories. Many middle class women
worked in the department stores as sales-
clerks and some found employment as
office secretaries. Their private world
quickly expanded into the public domain
and with it, the awareness of current chal-
lenging issues: salaries, conditions of
employment, unions, post secondary edu-
cation, prohibition, healthcare, prostitu-
tion, property rights and the right to vote.
During the 1880s and 1890s, voluntary
organizations developed that provided
women with contact, growth, and oppor-
tunity to discuss, question, and advocate
for a better society. These local groups had
various names (e.g., sewing circles, church
ladies’ aids, mothers’ meetings, or guilds)
R£\j. Stefa ia,jovms&dw*
ARBORG UNITARIAN CHURCH
GIMLI UNITARIAN CHURCH
9 Rowand Avenue
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3J 2N4
Telephone: (204) 889-4746
E-mail: sjonasson@uua.org
and were frequently developed by local
women and devoted to improving the qual-
ity of community life (Prentice et al., 1996,
p. 215). Issues of social reform included
temperance, working conditions, and the
poor and less fortunate. One specific case
cited in Prentice et al., (1996, p. 215) tells of
the Ladies Aid of the First Icelandic
Lutheran Church in Winnipeg early in
1901. The members raised funds and even-
tually opened Betel Home, a building for
the aged, in Gimli, Manitoba in 1916 (Betel
Home continues today.). The Women’s
Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U.)
fought against the abuse of alcohol and the
results of drunkenness: violence, poverty,
family breakdown, and lack of self-respect
by those who were drunk. By 1891, the
W.C.T.U. formally endorsed woman suf-
frage at all levels of government in Canada.
They issued petitions, made constant
demands of politicians and sent delegations
to the federal and provincial governments
on behalf of women and their right to vote.
By 1889, the Dominion Women’s
Enfranchisement Association was formally
founded in Canada and sponsored a lecture
series across the country to increase public
awareness and support for its cause: the
vote for women and the franchise for
women in each province. The women of
the Icelandic community (Thor, 2002, p.
261) in Manitoba, including Benedictsson,
demonstrated relentlessly and consistently
on behalf of a woman’s right to vote in
Manitoba. And women, such as Cora Hind
(a journalist), Dr. Amelia Yeomans, and
especially Nellie McClung and other suf-
fragettes, “worked for prohibition, factory
laws for women, compulsory education,
prison reform, and changes to the existing
laws affecting women and children; it was
to effect reforms in these areas that she and
other feminists fought so hard to get the
vote” (Prentice et al., 1996, p. 205, 224).
Finally, in 1916, Manitoba women were
granted the vote.
Margret Benedictsson (1866-1956):
Journalist and Social Activist
Many immigrants to Canada were
attracted by the government’s promise of