Margaret Stovel McWilliams

Margaret Stovel McWilliams (1875–1952) was a Canadian feminist, historian and politician.

McWilliams was born in Toronto in 1875 where in 1898 she attended the University of Toronto. Later on she became a journalist in Detroit and returned to Canada, settling in Winnipeg by 1910 where she joined the women's movement.

During her life she was representing Canada at foreign conferences.

In 1913 she was elected to the executive of the University Women's Club and by 1922 became the first President of the Canadian Federation of University Women.

She married Roland Fairbairn McWilliams, lieutenant-governor of Manitoba 1940-1953.

Margaret and Roland visited Russia in 1926. The book they wrote about their visit was published the following year.

In 1928 she wrote the book Manitoba Milestones under name M.S. McWilliams.

In 1930 her words were published in pamphlet "All Along The River." It was described as the "Text of an Address by Mrs. R. F. McWilliams given at a luncheon tendered to the visiting ladies of the British Medical Association at the Manitoba Agricultural College, Winnipeg on Wednesday, August 28th, 1930.")

In 1931 she wrote the book If I Were King of Canada, published under pseudonym Oliver Stowell.

From 1933 to 1940 she served on Winnipeg's city council. She was Winnipeg's second female councillor.

In 1943 she was appointed by the federal government to be head of the "Subcommittee on the Post-War Problems of Women," which planned how to deal with the problems women in war industry were likely to encounter once war ended. Its parvenu was expanded to cover problems faced by all Canadian women in the post-war period. Although its term of operation was shortened to just eight months, it produced a comprehensive report, which was described by some as a "bill of rights" for Canadian women.

She served as a President of the Manitoba Historical Society for four years, 1944-1948.

In 1948 she wrote her third and last book, This New Canada.

She died on April 12, 1952 at the Government House. She was buried in the Old Kildonan Cemetery.

Memory

In 1955 Manitoba Historical Society have commissioned an award in her honour called the Margaret McWilliams Award.

Mary Kinnear wrote Margaret McWilliams: An Interwar Feminist (Biography of Margaret McWilliams, published by McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal, 1991. (ISBN 10: 0773508570ISBN 13: 9780773508576)