The impacts of the women’s suffrage movement are still being felt in Newfoundland and Labrador some 100 years later.
That’s according to history scholar Dr. Margot Duley, who spoke on Wednesday at an International Women’s Day conference.
She was specifically referring to the impact of Armine Nutting Gosling, a leader of the province’s suffragette movement.
(Armine Nutting Gosling. Image via Heritage NL.)
Duley says the issue of a woman’s right to vote was highly controversial when it was first broached in the province, and Gosling had to endure “all sorts of slings and arrows and criticism” but soldiered on with her work.
Duley says Gosling’s work was never just about the vote—it was about expanded opportunities.
She references a quote from one of Gosling’s last speeches in the province, during which she stated that the vote won’t matter unless it is used and the fight continues on. She says recent statistics from the United Nations say it will take another 300 years for women globally to achieve equity, underscoring the need for continued advocacy.
