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Join us at Bison Lodge to hear inspiring stories of Alberta Women Homesteaders and Farmers - presented by U of A Professor Sarah Carter
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Join us in person for a fascinating look at the lives of Alberta's women homesteaders and farmers - presented by Professor Sarah Carter from the University of Alberta. Discover the challenges they faced and the opportunities they seized in shaping their communities. It's a great chance to hear stories of grit, growth, and perseverance. Don’t miss out on this inspiring journey through history!
6:30pm doors open - coffee and tea & dessert served (no cost)
7:00pm presentation begins
Summary:
Canada's land laws denied most settler women and all First Nations women the right to the free homestead grant of 160 acres. Legal and cultural obstacles and discrimination ensured that women acquired only a tiny fraction of the land that was thrown open for settlement following treaties with First Nations in the 1870s. Virtually the only settler women who could qualify were widows with children. Settler women were complicit in the dispossession of Indigenous people but they faced gendered patterns of disadvantage, they were both privileged and restricted. They were tenacious and inventive however, in their strategies to obtain land. A troubled campaign for homesteads for women of “British birth” was a failure. Despite barriers, there were female homesteaders, farmers, and ranchers in Alberta such as the famous English settler Isobel “Jack” May, who purchased a “ready-made” Canadian Pacific Railway farm at Sedgewick.