Emily Murphy, 1868 - 1933

Thanks to Emily Murphy, women in Canada were officially declared "persons" under the law in 1929! Murphy became an activist at the age of 40, when she began fighting for women's property rights in Alberta. She was appointed as a magistrate in 1916, the first woman magistrate in both Canada and the British Empire. But after her first case, the prisoner's lawyer appealed her conviction, saying that the judgement was invalid because women were not legally persons. That, plus the question of whether women could be appointed as senators, resulted in her recruiting four other women's rights activists to take the question first to the Supreme Court of Canada, then to Britain's Privy Council. They were called the "Famous Five," and their 1929 victory in the Persons Case was a major step for women's rights. Murphy didn't live to fulfill her dream of becoming a senator, but in 2009, she and the rest of the Famous Five were named Canada's first honorary senators.