Editing Women's rights (section)

==== North America ====

===== Canada =====

[[File:The Valiant Five Statue.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|Statue in [[downtown Calgary]] of the [[The Famous Five (Canada)|Famous Five]]. An identical statue exists on [[Parliament Hill]], [[Ottawa]].]]
[[Women's rights in Canada|Women's rights activism in Canada]] during the 19th and early 20th centuries focused on increasing women's role in public life, with goals including women's suffrage, increased property rights, increased access to education, and recognition of women as "persons" under the law.<ref name="Prentice1988">{{cite book | title=Canadian Women: A History | isbn=0774731125 | publisher=Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich | author=Prentice, Alison | year=1988 | display-authors=etal | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/canadianwomenhis0006unse }}</ref> [[The Famous Five (Canada)|The Famous Five]] were five Canadian women – [[Emily Murphy]], [[Irene Parlby|Irene Marryat Parlby]], [[Nellie McClung|Nellie Mooney McClung]], [[Louise McKinney|Louise Crummy McKinney]] and [[Henrietta Muir Edwards]] – who, in 1927, asked the [[Supreme Court of Canada]] to answer the question, "Does the word 'Persons' in Section 24 of the [[Constitution Act, 1867|British North America Act, 1867]], include female persons?" in the case ''[[Edwards v. Canada (Attorney General)]].''<ref name=Brennan>{{cite book| first=Brian| last=Brennan| title=Alberta Originals: Stories of Albertans Who Made a Difference| year=2001| publisher=Fifth House| page=[https://archive.org/details/albertaoriginals0000bren/page/14 14]| isbn=978-1-894004-76-3| url=https://archive.org/details/albertaoriginals0000bren/page/14}}</ref> After Canada's Supreme Court summarized its unanimous decision that women are not such "persons", the judgment was appealed and overturned in 1929 by the British [[Judicial Committee of the Privy Council|Judicial Committee of the Imperial Privy Council]], at that time the [[court of last resort]] for Canada.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKPC/1929/1929_86.html|title=Henrietta Muir Edwards and others (Appeal No. 121 of 1928) v The Attorney General of Canada (Canada) [1929] UKPC 86 (18 October 1929)|work=bailii.org|access-date=8 October 2015}}</ref>

===== United States =====
{{Further|Timeline of women's legal rights in the United States (other than voting)}}
The [[Women's Christian Temperance Union]] (WCTU) was established in 1873 and championed women's rights, including advocating for prostitutes and for [[women's suffrage]].<ref name="MarionOliver2014">{{cite book |last1=Marion |first1=Nancy E. |last2=Oliver |first2=Willard M. |title=Drugs in American Society: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics, Culture, and the Law |date=2014 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=9781610695961 |page=963 |language=en}}</ref> Women had access to legal handbooks specific for women such as "Every woman her own lawyer: a private guide in all matters of law" (1858) by George Bishop, which informed women of how to deal with property, marriage, divorce, violence, children, abandonment, economic issues, assets, etc.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Bishop |first1=George |title=Every Woman Her Own Lawyer : A Private Guide in all matters of Law, of essential interest to women |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=osu.32437122561133&seq=7 |website=HathiTrust - Ohio State University |publisher=Dick and Fitzgerald Publishers |language=en |date=1858}}</ref>