The Local Council of Women of Winnipeg, 1894-1920, tradition and transformation

Abstract

This thesis is a study of the Local Council of Women of Winnipeg (LCWW) from its establishment in 1894 to 1920. The LCWW is an umbrella organization encompassing a wide variety of associations and still exists today. The study investigates the goals and activities of the Council and the women who participated in its work as well as the LCWW's member organizations. The LCWW is considered in the context of both the evolving historical situation in Winnipeg and the international woman movement of the late nineteenth century. The concept of feminism is explored and the question of whether or not the women of the Council were feminists is examined. The thesis covers a transitional period for women's organizations. It begins when women's groups were chiefly concerned with improving the condition of disadvantaged sections of the community and it ends when the goals of an increasing number of women's groups were primarily concerned with advancing the interests of their own members. The study shows the Council and the women who participated in its work emerging into the first two decades of the twentieth century with a widening vision of women's capabilities and resp nsibilities in the public sphere.