We should know our historic heroines better

Viola Desmond part of a large and illustrious group, writes Merna Forster.

The debut of the new $10 bank note featuring Viola Desmond brings national recognition for the gutsy civil rights activist. But a recent Ipsos poll shows we still have poor knowledge of heroines from Canadian history.

The pollsters asked participants to select Canadian women from the past and present who they’d like to dine with. The guest list was short and included only a few historical figures, such as Emily Carr, Lucy Maud Montgomery and Viola Desmond. Methinks the explanation is we still don’t know much about HERstory. Why not?

There are countless female historical figures Canadians would enjoy dining with, if only they knew who these women were. On reading the poll results, I thought of The Dinner Party, the artwork of feminist Judy Chicago displayed at the Brooklyn Museum. She created a table, complete with 39 place settings for both mythical and actual female historical figures, plus inscriptions for another 999 important women. Women who all deserved a seat at the table. As Chicago explained, her goal was to “end the ongoing cycle of omission in which women were written out of the historical record.”

I imagined women from the past who I’d like to invite to a Canadian dinner party. Since I’ve written several books that celebrate 200 notable Canadian women from our history (including Viola Desmond) — and know I’d love to meet each and every one of them — the guest list for my HERstory dinner party would be long.

My dinner table would be crowded, with lively conversations between explorers, pilots and poets, mountaineers, miners, musicians, journalists, scientists and singers, preachers and photographers, artists, dancers and doctors. Perhaps Tookoolito will share some stories of her experiences as a guide and interpreter to Arctic explorers, and Anna Leonowens will tell the guests how she became a feminist in Canada — after her days as governess working for the King of Siam.

We’ll chat with Yoko Oya about the challenges she faced as the first Japanese woman to settle in Vancouver, back in 1887. I’ll ask Viola MacMillan how she managed to become a self-made millionaire in the mining industry, and invite the internationally acclaimed Portia White to sing a solo for the group. Maybe superstar Emma Albani, wearing a necklace given to her by Queen Victoria, will perform and tell us if Brahms actually wept when she sang his Requiem.

I’ll hope that actress and movie mogul Mary Pickford will tell the guests how she transformed herself from Gladys Louise Smith of Toronto to a Hollywood legend, and that Mona Parsons from Nova Scotia will share the story of her barefoot trek across Germany after an amazing escape from a Nazi prison.

I’ll ask the brilliant cardiologist Dr. Maud Abbott how she coped when male colleagues presented her work on her behalf.

As for Hilda Ranscombe, the famed hockey heroine of the 1930s, I’ll thank her for paving the way for female hockey players in Canada. And I’ll quiz the De Grassi kids, sisters Charlotte and Cornelia, who as teenagers helped saved Toronto during the 1837 rebellion by spying and relaying secret messages while riding around on horseback and getting shot at. You go girls!

In 2018, school students and the general public should have a good knowledge of notable women in Canadian history. Recognizing, and celebrating, the important contributions of women is important in understanding history, shaping our perceptions of the role of women, and ensuring equality. Making sure that women have a place at the table — whether an imaginary dinner party of people from the past, corporate boardrooms, or the House of Commons. What can you do to help make this happen?