Thérèse Casgrain Source

Recently, to mark the International Day of Peace last September 21, we introduced you to Julia Grace Wales, champion for peace. Today, we present Thérèse Casgrain.

In the 1950s, Thérèse Casgrain became the first woman to be elected to the leadership of a political party in Canada. She was a fierce activist for women’s rights her entire life, and for two decades campaigned to obtain for Quebec women the right to vote in the provincial elections. Throughout her career, she also worked to correct many social injustices, to say nothing of the significant role she played in the promotion of peace. To that end, in 1961, she founded the Quebec chapter of the Voice of Women (Voix des femmes), an organization devoted to world peace—of which she became president the following year.

Thérèse Casgrain fonds

More can be learned about Thérèse Casgrain by consulting the speeches, memorabilia and digitized newspaper clippings (in French only) of the Thérèse Casgrain fonds, in which she talks about what motivated her: [TRANSLATION] “Long convinced that women can be a dynamic force in building peace, I resolved to establish, in February 1961, the Quebec branch of the Voice of Women. […] women of Ontario appealed to all women in our country to raise their voices against the tensions of a cold war and the imminent threat of a nuclear conflict.”

The fonds also comprises photographs, including many that are digitized. Not all the material in this fonds is digitized, but the titles of the various files may be consulted using our online research tool  [PDF].

Remember: Not all our material is digitized and accessible online. For more information, read our post How to Consult Material that Is Not Yet Available Online.

Questions or comments? We would love to hear from you!