We Shall Persist

Women in Atlantic Canada won the right to vote and to run for office only after long, vigorous, and exhausting campaigns for the Great Cause. We Shall Persist explores the distinctive political contexts and common problems characterizing these efforts. Despite uneven progress – and class and racial inequities within the movement itself – most nonindigenous women achieved enfranchisement following the First World War. This victory curbed the most blatant political misogyny and prepared the way for other rights, such as improved social assistance and access to birth control, marking a crucial step in the still-unfinished march toward full gender, race, and class equality.