Written By Carol Small, Middlesex Centre Archives
Women’s history can never be lumped together as one-size-fits-all. It is varied and yet has common elements. Women’s studies, and thus their history, have gained attention over the past 150 years, just as history has turned to include the study of society. While women’s history studies progressed, the study of the farm women within that group, remained obscure. In history, the farm woman has been portrayed as a worker, without status or rights. Nothing could be further from the truth!
Theorists have stated that economic production is central to determining status, power and prestige. In pre-industrial times, production was done in the home and all participated. As the industrial revolution grew, production was taken out of homes and placed in factories and other settings. It was the male who worked outside the home and maintained status, power and prestige, while the woman remained in the home and had none. In the case of the farm woman, production never left the farm. She was an integral part of that production and so, in the rural community, never lost status, power or prestige. However, as with her urban sisters, in society she did not have legal rights or status.
While the family is still the central focus for all women, the farm family working together for the success
of the farm business forges a strong family bond. Often farm business decisions were made around the kitchen table with farm women and other family members participating. Within the rural community, farm women’s status, power and prestige were maintained.
Pioneer women were not timid soles. They, with the help of their families, carved farms out of the bush. In the 1840s, George Lloyd, of Lloydtown, thought he could confiscate land from a widow and her children. She took him to court and won. Pioneer daughters ventured to the Canadian and American West to take out land claims. In 1873, the Married Women’s Real Estate Act allowed women to sell real estate with the agreement of their spouse, unless he was of unsound mind. One Bruce County woman used this law on July 6, 1875 to gain sole ownership of the farm when her husband left for the California gold fields saying she could have the farm. She pursued the matter through the courts and gained ownership and raised her 11 children on the farm.
The rural community recognised the status, power and prestige of farm women. Women participated in rural organisations in the community such as Literary Societies, Agricultural Societies, church groups, etc. Women were educated. The church and school were two community institutions established early in a pioneer settlement. In the rural community, girls attended school alongside their brothers. Women, and yes, eventually even married women, were teachers in one-room rural schools and small village schools. The rural community supported women Principals in multi-room schools, while in urban schools, male Principals were predominated.
Because politics and policies directly influence farm finances, women are and were interested. The farm women’s role was directly felt in the Patrons of Industry as they called for female suffrage in 1896. According to the research of Carol Lee Bacchi, author of Liberation Deferred, farm women were more interested in gaining the vote through their own organisations than joining with the suffragette movement. Starting in 1918, organisations such as the United Farm Women’s Organisation, grew out of the Dominion Grange, the Patrons of Industry and the United Farmers of Ontario movements. By 1921, the United Farm Women’s Organisation had 175 clubs and over 6000 members. They focused on community improvement and assisting with the work of the United Farmers of Ontario. In 1919, The United Farmers of Ontario were elected to provincial government and gave women the right to vote. From an active background in rural organisations, Agnes McPhail, of Grey County, was the first woman elected to the House of Commons in 1921. It would be October 18, 1929 (now Person’s Day in Canada) before Canada formerly recognized women in the definition of persons.
Other organizations, in which women participated and had great influence in both rural and urban communities, were the Women’s Institutes and Women’s Support for Agriculture. After the death of her infant son due to contaminated milk, Adelaide Hoodless campaigned for better education for women in household science (Home Economics). In 1897, she founded the first Women’ Institute at Stoney Creek, Ontario, a movement that spread across Canada and the World. Working with Lady Aberdeen, she helped found the National Council of Women, Victorian Order of Nurses and the National YWCA. History owes a deep gratitude to Women’s Institutes as they created the Tweedsmuir Histories in their individual communities. In their collections, Middlesex Centre Archives has Tweedsmuir histories from most the Women’s Institutes in Middlesex Centre.
