Helen Mooney was born in 1873 near Owen Sound,
Ontario to John and Letitia Mooney. At the age of sixteen, she moved to
Winnipeg and began teaching at a rural school called Somerest School, after
only five years of formal education. She was known to play football with
the children at recess. In 1892, she moved to Manitou to continue her teaching
career. She boarded with the family of James and Annie McClung with who
influenced Helen. Annie McClung was an was an open supporter of women’s
rights, suffrage and the president of the Manitou chapter of the Women’s
Christian Temperance Union. In 1893, Nellie upgraded her teaching status
at Winnipeg Collegiate where she graduated first in her class. From 1895
to 1896, Nellie taught at her childhood school, Northfield.
As
a young girl, Nellie questioned the “traditional women’s roles” however
she was always hushed up when she openly did so. These views were evident
in the many books that she wrote in the years leading up to the First World
War. As a “pioneer” writer, McClung talked significantly about how the
hard work and dedication of women often goes unnoticed and unrewarded.
Being an avid Christian believer, Nellie believed deeply in social justice
and was a prominent member of the WCTU. She founded many organizations:
the Winnipeg Political Equality League, the Federated Women's Institutes
of Canada and the Women's Institute of Edmonton, for which she was also
the first president. She was also active in, among others, the Canadian
Authors Association, the Canadian Women's Press Club, the Methodist Church
of Canada and the Calgary Women's Literary Club.
“While a celebrated novelist, it is as an essayist and political activist that McClung is most often remembered. She and her husband, Wes McClung, son of the family she had boarded with in Manitou, moved to Winnipeg in 1911, where she became involved with the Canadian Women’s Press Club and where her fervent Methodism and belief in the Social Gospel found release in the suffrage movement.”
“In 1915, McClung penned In Times Like These, a collection of anecdotes and speeches based on the speaking tours she had done for the Political Equality League. This book remains today one of the most articulate expressions of the ideology and arguments of maternal feminism .In it, the reader can see evidence of McClung's fervent Methodism, her adherence to the Social Gospel, and also the elitism and persistent nativism that would later mar her relationship with some of her more progressive allies like Francis Beynon.”
Nellie followed her beloved husband, Wes and their five children, to Alberta where she remained politically active. She served as a Liberal Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in the twenties. In 1929, she along with four other women rallied against the Supreme Court Decision to have women declared “persons” under the law. The “famous five” succeeded. Only one year later, she was appointed to a clerical position of the United Church of Canada.
Nellie
died on September 1, 1951, peacefully from natural causes. In 1973, an
eight-cent postage stamp and s statue in Ottawa of the “Famous Five” were
dedicated to her for her great and significant contribution to the country
of Canada. And most recently, a statue was erected in Calgary in 1999.
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