Calgary & Southern Alberta

World War II poster depicting women's role in the war effort
Courtesy of the Glenbow Collection

Despite women’s political and legal gains in the first three decades of the twentieth century, throughout the Social Credit era men dominated the Party and politics. Before the Social Credit Party won the 1935 election, however, women played a prominent role in the movement. In particular, Calgarians Edith Rogers and Edith Gostick attempted to recruit women’s support for William Aberhart’s Prophetic Bible Institute. In 1933 Aberhart appointed Rogers as the organisation’s Women’s Organiser. She then proceeded to set up meetings at the Institute and to garner the support of women’s organisations. Women supported the party for a number of reasons, but predominantly because the Party promised economic reform within traditional social and moral frameworks.

Early Women's magazines
Courtesy of the Glenbow Collection

When Aberhart selected his party candidates, however, only two out of sixty-three were women. Women’s involvement in the Party was largely confined to membership in the Social Credit Women’s Auxiliary formed in 1937. Although the Social Credit Party gave women equal status with men in 1939, the victory was hollow. Between 1935 and 1971 only seven women became MLAs. Despite women’s secondary status within the Party, the SCWA provided the impetus for much womens' rights legislation passed in the period, including widow’s pensions, maternity hospitalisation grants, and the District Home Economics Office.