The Status of Women in the Province of Quebec

A critical examination of the status of women in Quebec, from an English Quebecers point of view, following the First World War. Contains information on women's political rights, property, contract and parental rights, workplace rights, professional rights (medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, law and architecture), and the treatment of female criminals. The author also outlines what charitable relief exist for women under the separate control of Roman Catholic, Jewish and Protestant philanthropic organizations. The author concludes her thesis with the following paragraph: "This conservative condition of affairs in the Province of Quebec is not one deliberately planned to give women a lower status than men, as many people seem to think. Rather, it is a very typical regime reflecting French traditions and Roman Catholic ideas as to the place of the woman. Quebec's so-called "backwardness" may be explained as largely a racial and religious matter, and the French-Canadian women themselves are quite contented with their present status. Agitations for reforms find enthusiastic support from English-speaking Quebec women, but a far larger percent of the feminine population that is the French, prefer their present condition. Thus, such as the circumstances are in Quebec, they are what have been evolved in a largely French province, by people of French origin, to suit their peculiar needs, temperament and religion."

Master's Thesis

McGill University

Montreal

1920

[ii]-68p.

en