Book Review: Nellie McClung by Charlotte Gray

Nellie McClung, by renowned biographer Charlotte Gray, is one of a series of Extraordinary Canadians. This book provided food for much interesting discussion this afternoon. It was difficult for Charlotte Gray to develop this biography as most of Nellie McClung’s diaries had been destroyed. The reason for this destruction is not apparent, but did limit the author. Despite this, Nellie McClung is an easily read and well paced book outlining the strong role that she played in winning women the right to vote. Manitoba, where Nellie McClung resided, was the first province to legislate the vote for women. She was also involved in the Temperance movement at the time. As she and her family moved into Alberta and then into Victoria, Nellie maintained the strength of her beliefs, not all of which are acceptable today. According to Gray, Nellie McClung did support the eugenics movement when it was popular in 1928.

Regardless I am grateful for the bravery of Nellie McClung, the Famous Five and other suffragettes both in Canada, the U.K., the United States and around the world. This at a time when women were seen as non-persons. It truly was a world run by men, for men and about men. Women were, because of that, completely economically, socially and even politically dependent on the other half of humanity. Thank you Nellie, and thank you to Charlotte Gray for this book.

“The economic dependence of women is perhaps the greatest injustice 

that has been done to us, and has worked the greatest injury to the race.”

~ Nellie L. McClung

Title:  Nellie McClung
Author:  Charlotte Gray
Publisher: Penguin Group
Publication Date: 2011
Format:  Soft Cover
ISBN: 978-0-14-305455-9 (pbk.)
Type:  Biography
Series:  Extraordinary Canadians (Series Editor: John Ralston Saul)