Kate Aitken

Perhaps Canada's best-known radio broadcaster in the 1930s and 1940s was Kate Aitken. She travelled the world many times to bring her listeners the latest news from abroad.

Elizabeth Arden

Her real name was Florence Nightingale Graham, but she was known as Elizabeth Arden who built a world-famous beauty product empire.

Doris Anderson

Doris Anderson, a champion of women's rights, changed the traditional focus of the women's magazine Chatelaine when she was managing editor.

Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood is one of Canada's best-known authors. A winner of some of the world's most prestigious literary awards, she also creates comic strips under the name Bart Gerrard.

Dr. Elizabeth Bagshaw

For more than 30 years, Dr. Elizabeth Bagshaw supplied family planning advice to her patients at the first Canadian birth control clinic.

Dr. James (Miranda) Barry

Until her death in 1865, everyone thought Dr. James (Miranda) Barry was a man! She had to pretend to be one to become a doctor.

Elisabeth Bruyère

Mother Elisabeth Bruyère of the Sisters of Charity dedicated her life to looking after the destitute people of Bytown (Ottawa) where she started the first hospital and the first bilingual school in 1845.

June Callwood

Popular writer, June Callwood has been called "Canada's one-woman conscience" for her dedicated work on social causes such as Jessie's - a service for teenage mothers.

Paraskeva Clark

Paraskeva Clark was one of several artists chosen to record Canada's participation in the Second World War.

Adrienne Clarkson

In 1999, Adrienne Clarkson became Canada's Governor-General. A well-known television journalist she also served as Ontario's Agent General in Paris in the early 1980s.

Anne Cools

Anne Cools was the first black person to be appointed to the Canadian Senate in 1984.

Cornelia and Charlotte de Grassi

Teenagers Cornelia and Charlotte de Grassi helped save Toronto by spying on rebels during the 1837 revolt called the Mackenzie Rebellion.

Eunice Dyke

Eunice Dyke was a pioneer in public health nursing at a time when contributions by nurses to health care were not properly recognized.

Ellen Fairclough

Ellen Fairclough was Canada's first female cabinet minister and she pushed for equal pay for equal work. She was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1978.

Filmmakers

Some Oscar winning filmmakers include Alison Snowden, Wendy Tilby and Brigitte Burman. Snowden for Bob's Birthday, Animated Short Film, 1995. Tilby won for her Animated Short Film Strings in 1991 and Burman, in 1986, for Artie Shaw: Time is All You've Got.

Maureen Forrester

Maureen Forrester's rich contralto voice, famous for German leider and for opera, has excited audiences all over the world.

Celia Franca

As founder and artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada, Celia Franca played a major role in the development of Canadian ballet.

Ofra Harnoy

In 1975, at age 10, Ofra Harnoy made her professional debut on the cello. She has since become one of the world's most talented cellists.

Grace Hartman

In 1975, Grace Hartman became the first female unionist to head the largest Canadian labour union, CUPE (Canadian Union of Public Employees), a position she held for eight years.

Margaret Hamilton

Margaret Hamilton was with the Thomson newspaper chain all her working life becoming president, chief executive officer and a company director.

Dr. Marion Hilliard

Dr. Marion Hilliard was internationally famous for her work with women and children. She at times delivered 50 babies a month!

Abby Hoffman

Abby Hoffman caused a sensation in 1956 when it was discovered that this all-star, peewee hockey player was a girl! She later won many track and field medals in international competitions.

Helen Hogg

Helen Hogg received many honours for the important contributions to astronomy and for popularizing the science.

Adelaide Hunter Hoodless

A strong believer that home economics should be taught in schools, Adelaide Hunter Hoodless also started the first of the now international Women's Institutes in 1897.

Dora de Pédery-Hunt

Dora de Pédery-Hunt's coin and medal designs have won her international acclaim. They are exhibited in art collections worldwide.

Pauline Johnson

Pauline Johnson, daughter of a Mohawk man and an English woman, is known for her poetry, which celebrates her native heritage.

Ojibwa Elsie Knott

When the Indian Act was amended in 1952, allowing native women to run for office and to vote, Ojibwa Elsie Knott became the first woman elected as a chief.

Judy LaMarsh

Judy LaMarsh was the cabinet minister largely responsible for developing the Canada Pension Plan and our country's medicare system.

Margaret Laurence

Margaret Laurence was one of Canada's most important writers. In particular, this author became well known for her Manawaka novels.

Jeanette Corbière Lavell

In 1971, Ojibwa Jeanette Corbière Lavell challenged the part of the Indian Act that said native women who married non-native men would lose their Indian status - as would their children. It wasn't until 1985 that this statute was removed.

Flora MacDonald

Flora MacDonald became Secretary of State for External Affairs in 1979 - one of the first women to get such a major cabinet post.

Gwendolyn MacEwen

Gwendolyn MacEwen, best known for her award-winning poetry, also wrote a number of children's books like the one here.

"Elsie" Gregory MacGill

"Elsie" Gregory MacGill was one of Canada's leading aeronautical engineers. She made significant contributions to the aircraft industry particularly during the Second World War.

Ada Mackenzie

Champion golfer Ada Mackenzie built the first women's golf club in the world in 1924, allowing women to play seriously.

Agnes Macphail

In 1921, Agnes Macphail was the first woman elected to Canada's Parliament. This was the first time women voted in a federal election.

Almanda Marchand

While Almanda Marchand's mother tongue was English, she was an early champion of francophone rights across the nation.

Clara Brett Martin

Clara Brett Martin opened the way for women to become lawyers in Canada by being the first in the British Empire in 1897.

Nellie McClung

Popular writer Nellie McClung realized a dream in 1916 when Manitoba became the first province to permit women to vote in elections.

Pauline McGibbon

Pauline McGibbon, the first women lieutenant-governor in Canada, held that position, from 1974-1980.

Louise McKinney

A petitioner in the Persons Case, Louise McKinney became one of the British Empire's first two women legislators in 1917.

Dorothea Mitchell

The first single woman granted homestead rights in Ontario was Dorothea Mitchell (the "lady lumberjack"). She owned and ran a logging camp and a sawmill.

Susanna Moodie

Susanna Moodie's classic books - such as Roughing It in the Bush - have given us a valuable record of pioneer life in Canada.

Dora Mavor Moore

Known as the grande dame of Canadian theatre, Dora Mavor Moore almost solely created Canada's professional theatrical scene.

Judge Emily Murphy

In 1929, Judge Emily Murphy won her fight to have the word "person" in the BNA Act refer to both men and women.

Musicians

Ontario women are taking the music world by storm -Shania Twain, Alanis Morissette and Sarah McLachlan. They have each been recognized with armfuls of Juno and Grammy Awards.

Daphne Odjig

Daphne Odjig is one of Canada's most celebrated native artists. She is also a founder of the contemporary style of native art.

Mary Pickford

In 1920 Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith became the first film people to own their own studio, production company, and distribution network - aptly titled the United Artists Corporation.

Kate Reid

Kate Reid was one of Canada's best-known and best-loved actors who appeared on the stage, in films and on television in Canada and the United States.

"Bobbie" Rosenfeld

Athlete "Bobbie" Rosenfeld excelled in numerous sports. She was chosen as Canada's outstanding Woman Athlete of the Half Century for 1900-1950.

Barbara Ann Scott

Barbara Ann Scott won Canada's heart in 1949 when, at age 19, she won the Olympic gold medal for figure skating.

Mary Ann Shadd

An early fighter for women's rights and the abolition of slavery, Mary Ann Shadd was the first black woman to publish a Canadian weekly newspaper.

Elizabeth Smellie

A nurse who served in both world wars, Elizabeth Smellie was the first woman to become a colonel in the Canadian Army.

Emily Stowe

While Emily Stowe was trained in the United States because no Canadian school was willing to accept female medical students, she became the first woman to practise medicine in Canada in 1867. She was very proud when her daughter Augusta Stowe-Gullen became the first woman to take her entire training and earn a medical degree in our country in 1883.

Catharine Parr Traill

Catharine Parr Traill's outstanding books on botany were read and respected by many scientists worldwide.

Dorothy Mackenzie Walton

Athlete and badminton champion, Dorothy Mackenzie Walton, was the president of the Consumer's Association of Canada, 1950-53.

Charlotte Whitton

One of Ontario's cleverest and funniest politicians was Charlotte Whitton, the first Canadian women mayor.

Alice Wilson

Alice Wilson struggled for almost 40 years to be recognized as a geologist. She made significant contributions to Canadian geology.

Bertha Wilson

Judge Bertha Wilson became the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada in 1982.

Joyce Wieland

Joyce Wieland was one of Canada's best-known artists. She worked in many media. Quilting was used for the famous piece shown here.

Elizabeth Wyn Wood

Elizabeth Wyn Wood was one of Canada's finest sculptors, known for her large architectural pieces.