Irene Parlby

Photo: University of Toronto

Born in England in 1868 when Canada was just a year old, Irene Parlby immigrated to Alberta with her husband and lived on a homestead near Lacombe.

Parlby's involvement in politics was inspired by her wish to improve the lives of rural women and children in her home province. She became president of the United Farm Women of Alberta, and was later elected to the Alberta Legislature, where she became the first female cabinet minister in Canada and the second in the British Empire.

In 1925, she supported the Minimum Wage Act for women. She was also one of the Famous Five women who initiated the Person's Case of 1929 to persuaded the government of England, (then the highest legal authority) that Canadian women were "persons" under the law. In 1930, she represented Canada at the League of Nations meeting in Geneva.

An early supporter of distance education, Irene Parlby was the first woman to receive an honorary degree from the University of Alberta.

Parlby lived till the age of 97. By the time she died in 1965, she must have felt immense satisfaction at the social improvements women had achieved in her lifetime.

Along with her sister reformers, she has an Edmonton park named for her.