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Emily Murphy Essay

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Emily Murphy was a Canadian women’s rights activist, jurist, and author. She is best known for contributions to Canadian feminism, specifically the question of whether women were “persons” under law. She is one of the strongest women in canadian history.

In one case, the women were asked to leave the courtroom on the claims that the statement was not "fit for mixed company". This outcome was unacceptable to Murphy and she protested to the provincial Attorney General. "If the evidence is not fit to be heard in mixed company," she argued, "then the government must set up a special court presided over by women, to try other women." (Pettinger, Tejvan. “Biography of Emily Murphy“, Oxford) Murphy's request was approved and she became the first woman police magistrate for the British Empire. Her appointment as judge, however, became the cause for her greatest adversity concerning women within the law.

For twelve years Murphy led the fight to have women declared legal "persons" in Canada. When petitions from various women's organizations failed to open in …show more content…

However, during her first case on 1 July, 1916, the defendant’s lawyer protested that Murphy’s guilty verdict was invalid because Murphy was a women and therefore, under the BNA act of 1867, was not a legal person. Because of this legal challenge, Murphy began a long campaign to have women classified as persons and the archaic 1867 law overturned. She allowed her name to be put forward as a candidate for the Senate, however, it was turned down by Prime Minister Robert Borden because the BNA act did not recognise women as persons. Motivated by these anachronism, she found that one way to challenge a law was to present a submission from five interested parties to the Canadian Supreme Court. These became known as the Famous Five, and included Nellie McClung, Louis McKinney, Henrietta Edwards and Irene

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