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Did you know that Canadian women, like writer and suffragist Emily Murphy, have been writing and working for newspapers since the 19th century? The following 20 Canadian newspaperwomen include the first Black woman in North America to publish and edit a newspaper, the first female war correspondent in North America and the first female French-Canadian journalist. Others were literary and drama critics, sports journalists, agricultural writers and editors. Many wrote or edited “women’s pages,” which covered not only recipes, fashion and homemaking tips but also the women’s movement, among other issues. Several were founding members of the Canadian Women’s Press Club (1904).
Mary Ann Shadd
Mary Ann Camberton Shadd Cary (born 9 October 1823 in Wilmington, Delaware; died 5 June 1893 in Washington, D.C.). Mary Ann Shadd became the first Black woman in North America to publish and edit a newspaper, The Provincial Freeman. As one of the first Black newspaperwomen in North America, Shadd promoted the abolition of slavery and the emigration of African Americans to Canada (see Black Canadians; Black Enslavement in Canada; Slavery Abolition Act, 1833). She also advocated on behalf of women’s rights (see Women’s Movements in Canada).
Sarah Anne Curzon
Sarah Anne Curzon (born circa 1833 in Birmingham, England; died in 1898 in Toronto, Ontario). Curzon was an original member of Canada's first feminist organization, the Toronto Women's Literary Club, and recording secretary of the Dominion Women's Enfranchisement Association. She was associate editor of the Toronto temperance weekly The Canada Citizen, which boasted the first women's page to cover emancipation and women's access to university education.
Kathleen Blake “Kit” Coleman
Kathleen Blake “Kit” Coleman (born 20 February 1856 in Castleblakeney, Ireland; died 16 May 1915 in Hamilton, Ontario). Kathleen Coleman was the first female journalist in Canada to oversee her own section of a Canadian newspaper, writing and editing the women’s section of the Toronto Daily Mail. She was also North America’s first accredited female war correspondent, the first president of the Canadian Women’s Press Club and the first Canadian with a syndicated column.
Kate Simpson Hayes
Kate Simpson Hayes, pen name Mary Markwell (born in 1856 in Dalhousie, New Brunswick; died 15 January 1945 on Vancouver Island, British Columbia). Hayes was a journalist who also published numerous plays, sketches, short stories, songs and verses. In 1899, she became women’s editor at the Manitoba Free Press; she was also one of the founders of the Canadian Women's Press Club (CWPC). Hayes was president of the CWPC in 1906-07 and later women's editor of the Ottawa Free Press.
Sara Jeannette Duncan
Sara Jeannette Duncan (born 22 December 1861 in Brantford, Canada West; died 22 July 1922 in Ashtead, England). Duncan's notable career as a journalist in the 1880s testifies to her determination and ability. The first woman employed full time by the Toronto Globe 1886-87, she also worked for the Montreal Star 1887-88. During a trip to India, she met British civil servant Everard Charles Cotes. After their marriage, she divided her time between England and India. Duncan wrote 22 books during her career, two of which —The Imperialist (1904) and Cousin Cinderella (1908) — focus on Canadian society.
Robertine Barry
Robertine Barry, pen name Françoise (born 26 February 1863 in L’Isle-Verte, Canada East; died 7 January 1910 in Montreal, Quebec). The first French-Canadian woman journalist, she was also a founding member of the Fédération nationale Saint-Jean-Baptiste and the first vice-president of the Canadian Women’s Press Club. Barry had a weekly column, Chroniques du lundi, in La Patrie. Writing under the pen name Françoise, she addressed all the major issues of the day, including women’s suffrage; social justice; family violence; and child labour.
Helen Gregory MacGill
Helen Gregory MacGill (born 7 January 1864 in Hamilton, Canada West; died 27 February 1947 in Chicago, Illinois). MacGill was a pioneering journalist, feminist and judge. She published articles in several newspapers and magazines throughout her life and was the exchange editor of the St. Paul Globe (Minnesota). She was also a founding member of the Vancouver Women’s Press Club (1909).
Victoria Grace Blackburn
Victoria Grace Blackburn (born 17 April 1865 in Quebec City, Canada East; died 4 March 1928 in London, Ontario). After working in education in Minnesota and Indianapolis, Blackburn moved to New York to study journalism, theatre and dramatic criticism. In 1896, she returned to Canada to become literary and dramatic critic for the London Free Press. Blackburn became an assistant managing editor in 1918 and worked at the Free Press until her death in 1928.
Flora MacDonald Denison
Flora MacDonald Denison, (née Merrill) (born February 1867 in North Hastings County, Canada West; died 23 May 1921 in Toronto, Ontario). Denison, who combined running a successful Toronto dressmaking business with a writing career, was active in the suffrage movement in Toronto from 1906. Her views on religion, marriage, birth control and social class, expressed through her regular 1909–13 column in the Toronto Sunday World, were more radical than those of most Canadian suffragists.
Constance Lindsay Skinner
Constance Lindsay Skinner (born 7 December 1877 in Quesnel, British Columbia; died 27 March 1939 in New York, NY). Born in rural British Columbia, Skinner moved to Vancouver in 1891. Two years later, she moved to California to live with an aunt. There, she worked as a journalist for the Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Examiner, serving as a drama and music critic and writing political commentaries. She then moved to New York City, where she would publish numerous works until her death in 1939.
Éva Circé-Côté
Marie Arzélie Éva Circé-Côté (born 31 January 1871 in Montreal, Quebec; died 4 May 1949 in Montreal). A poet and playwright, Éva Circé-Côté was the city of Montreal’s first librarian as well as the curator of the prestigious Philéas Gagnon collection. Throughout her career as a journalist, she wrote over 1,800 pieces for about a dozen newspapers under several pseudonyms. A progressive, secular free thinker, she fought for compulsory education and the status of women.
Anne-Marie Huguenin
Anne-Marie Huguenin (née Gleason), pen name “Madeleine” (born 5 October 1875 in Rimouski, Quebec; died 21 October 1943 in Montreal). In 1901, Joseph-Israël Tarte put Huguenin in charge of the women’s pages in the Montreal newspaper La Patrie. For 19 years, she wrote and edited “Royaume des femmes” (Women’s World) under the name “Madeleine.” She then founded and managed her own magazine, La Revue moderne. Huguenin was one of the founders of the Canadian Women’s Press Club.
Thaïs Lacoste-Frémont
Thaïs Lacoste-Frémont (born 18 October 1886 in Montreal, Quebec; died 6 April 1963 in Montreal). Thaïs Lacoste made promoting women’s rights her life’s work. In 1933, she became a columnist with Montreal newspaper La Patrie, publishing one or two columns per week for the next three years. She also contributed to Le Journal and sporadically to other newspapers such as L’Événement de Québec.
Lillian Beynon Thomas
Lillian Kathleen Thomas, (née Beynon) (born 4 September 1874 in King Township, Canada West; died 2 September 1961 in Winnipeg, Manitoba). Lillian Beynon Thomas was a newspaperwoman and author. In 1906, she became assistant editor of the Weekly Free Press and Prairie Farmer (Manitoba) and began writing “Home Loving Hearts” under the name Lillian Laurie. Her “woman’s page” included recipes, articles about fashion and various homemaking hints, as well as stories about the women’s movement.
Francis Marion Beynon
Francis (née Frances) Marion Beynon (born 26 May 1884 in Streetsville, Ontario; died 5 October 1951 in Winnipeg, Manitoba). Beynon trained as a teacher but in 1908, she left her teaching career and moved to Winnipeg, where her sister Lillian Beynon Thomas (above) worked as a journalist. In 1912, she became an editor and columnist for the Grain Growers’ Guide. During her five years at the paper, she worked on “The Country Homemakers"and "The Sunshine Guild" sections. Like Lillian’s column in the Weekly Free Press and Prairie Farmer, Country Homemakers covered a range of topics from feminism and radicalism to recipes.
Ella Cora Hind
Ella Cora Hind (born 18 September 1861 in Toronto, Canada West; died 6 October 1942 in Winnipeg, Manitoba). Hind was an acclaimed grain expert, a champion of women’s rights and an advocate for the franchise. In 1901, she became agricultural editor at the Manitoba Free Press. Tramping through fields to examine crops, she earned an international reputation as an agricultural journalist and as “the oracle of wheat” for her accurate harvest yield predictions. Hind was also a founding member of the Winnipeg branch of the Canadian Women’s Press Club.
Violet Clara McNaughton
Violet Clara McNaughton, (née Jackson) (born 11 November 1879 in Borden, England; died 3 February 1968 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan). McNaughton was a leader in the co-operative, farm, peace and women’s movements in Canada. She was an influential member of the Saskatchewan Grain Growers’ Association and helped found the Western Producer, an alternative paper for farmers. She became the women’s editor of the Producer in 1925, managing the “Mainly for Women” and “Young Co-operators” pages. McNaughton retired as editor in 1950 but wrote a column for the Producer for several years.
Myrtle Cook-McGowan
Myrtle Cook-McGowan (born 5 January 1902 in Elora, Ontario; died 18 March 1985 in Elora). Cook was an athlete and journalist who participated in the 1928 Olympic Summer Games in track and field. In 1929, she moved to Montreal when she married journalist Lloyd McGowan. She began a journalistic career at the Montreal Star with "In the Women's Sport Light", a column dedicated to women's sports, which she wrote for more than 40 years.
Fanny "Bobbie" Rosenfeld
Fanny "Bobbie " Rosenfeld (born 28 December 1904 in Ekaterinoslav, Russia [now Dnipro, Ukraine]; died 13 November 1969 in Toronto, Ontario). An exceptional athlete who excelled in many sports, including basketball, hockey and softball, Rosenfeld is best known for her medal-winning performances on the track at the 1928 Olympic Summer Games in Amsterdam. After retiring from competition, she became a well-known sportswriter — her column “Sports Reel” ran for 20 years in The Globe and Mail.
Carrie Mae Best
Carrie Mae Best, (née Prevoe) (born 4 March 1903 in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia; died 24 July 2001 in New Glasgow). Sparked by incidents of racial discrimination, Carrie Best became a civil rights activist. She was co-founder of The Clarion, one of the first newspapers in Nova Scotia owned and published by Black Canadians. Best used the newspaper as a platform to advocate for Black rights. As editor, she publicly supported Viola Desmond in her case against the Roseland Theatre.
