In honour of International Women's Day, we're compiling a list of Manitoba's Most Admirable Women.

Some of our choices are below and we're gonna keep adding to it.  Tell us about the Manitoban women you admire most in the comments section below and help this list grow!

 

 

Lived in both the Souris Valley and Winnipeg, was part of The Famous Five.  Nellie was a politician and activist.  She helped launch the Persons Case and helped in making Manitoba the first province to grant women the right to vote. 

GLADYS EVELYN TAYLOR COOK

Member of the Sioux Valley Dakota First Nation.  She established an agency that would later become the National Native Alcohol and Drug Abuse Program in Portage la Prairie.  The Gladys Cook Education Centre at Agassiz was named in her honour.  She was also honoured with the Governor General’s Award, the Premier’s Award, the Order of Manitoba and the National Aboriginal Achievement Award. 

HANNAH TAYLOR

Founded the Ladybug Foundation when she was 8 years old to spread awareness and raise fund to assist charitable organizations which provide food, shelter and other needs of the homeless and near homeless in Canada.  The National Film Board of Canada has produced “Hannah’s Story” and she has been honoured with a Humanitarian Award from the government of Canada. 

JEAN MARGARET LAWRENCE

Novelist, wrote the ‘Stone Angel’.  Dedicated to presenting a female perspective on contemporary life. 
 

ELIZABETH HENNING

A champion to the Canadian country music industry.  Was president of the Canadian Country Music Association and used her own money to put up the $100,000 needed to spearhead the association’s first live awards show in 1986.   The CCMA honoured her with the Hank Smith Award of Excellence in 2008.
 
MARY KOLTEK

She was on the board of the Children’s Aid Society and the Women’s Auxiliary of the Manitoba Pharmacists Association and Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.  She served with the Ukrainian Catholic Women’s League and was the Manitoba Diocesan president. 
 
AIHLIN WALER

President of the Canadian Ladies Golf Association, a member of the women’s council of the World Amateur Golf Council and vice-chairwomen of the 1999 Pan Am Games Festival Committee.  She was inducted into the Manitoba Golf Hall of Fame and the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame.  
 
CAROL PHILIPPS

She was the founding editor of Swerve, the city’s first gay and lesbian newsmagazine.  
 
ELLA PALMER

Came to Winnipeg with her family from Scotland and was believed to be the last surviving witness to several of the violent events of the Winnipeg General Strike in 1919.  She witnessed Mike Sokolowski being shot.

ISOBEL LOUTIT

She taught as schools in Mountainside, Rondeau and East Kildonan and was assistant principal in Winnipegosis.  During the Second World War, after seeing the names of four of her former students from one town in the list of war casualties, she decided to improve the survival chances of soldiers.  She responded to a newspaper ad from the government and became involved in the AA Predictor project, a device that predicted the path of oncoming planes for anti-aircraft guns before radar was invented.
 
IRENE BARON

A nurse who along with her husband bought their first nursing home, called the Baron Nursing Home in 1960.  They went on to build the Arcadia Nursing Home, the Maples Personal Care Home, River East Personal Care Home and the Irene Baron Eden Centre.
 
DOROTHY KOZAK

She was the province’s best female athlete in 1953.  She won the bronze medal as part of the Canadian women’s relay team at the British Empire Games in 1954.  She was part of a relay team that broke a Canadian record at the 1956 Olympics in Australia.  That same year, she broke the Canadian record for women’s broad jump. 
 
DOREEN CRATON

A teacher who fought the Winnipeg School Division regarding human rights.  She became a high school business education teacher at 50, but when the school division said she had to retire at age 65, she fought all the way to the Supreme Court to stay.  She was successful, opening the door for other Manitobans to retire later.  
 
GWEN AXWORTHY

She helped set up the United Church’s national audio visual education service, and chaired the committee that led to the Riverside Lions Club constructing a new personal care home.  She served on the National Parole Board.  
 
RUBY ROE

A teacher who became a community builder.  She retired in Stonewall and helped initiate REACT, an environmental organization which preserved a patch of tallgrass prairie in the town.  In 2008 the town named it the Ruby Roe Tallgrass Prairie.  
 
DORIS BARR

Lived in Starbuck, Mb and became a baseball star.  She played with the Winnipeg Ramblers in 1937 and then the Regina Army and Navy Bombers playing in the All American Girls Professional Baseball League from 1.  She was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown N.Y as well as the Canadian and Manitoba Hall of Fames.  
 
EDYTHE MACDONALD

Graduated in law from the University of Manitoba, she is responsible for drafting The Divorce Act, The Canadian Grains Act, and a portion of the Canadian Constitution containing women’s rights.  
 
DIANE BAMPTON

Successful businesswomen who began at Manitoba Hydro and later became the president and CEO of CentreVenture.  While there, she was instrumental in the development of Waterfront Drive. 
 
PEGGY (NEVILLE) JOHNSON

Starred in the Peggy Neville Show, the first program broadcast in colour in Canada in 1966.

MARGE TRYNACITY

She was a driving force in putting works of art on the seawall at the Gimli Harbour.  Served several terms as president of the Gimli Art Club.
 
EDITH BAKER

Mother and Grandmother known for her baking, especially her Clodhopper Candy recipe.
 
MARGARET BISHOP

Spent two years in the Ninette Sanatorium while in her teens, for more than 50 years, she volunteered to help with children’s health care.  She was a founding member of the Children’s Hospital Book Market and longtime board member of the Children’s Hospital Foundation
 
IRENE GRANT

Grew up near Niverville, she became the first lone Girl Guide in the province.  She also successfully fought for a precedent allowing women to continue teaching after getting married.  She helped change other gender inequalities including the rule that female teachers had to retire five years earlier than men.  She helped found the Fort Garry Women’s Resource Centre.  She was honoured with the Federal Order of the Persons Award and the Order of Manitoba.  
 
GWEN BLAKE

She was crowned the Flin Flon Trout Festival’s first beauty queen in 1951; opened Blake Jeweler’s and was involved for more than 20 years with the Minnedosa Christmas Cheer Board, many of those as chairwoman. 
 
MIRIAM HUTTON

Taught social work at the University of Manitoba and became head of the social work department at the University of Botswana.  When her daughter Jocelyn died of cancer in the family home in 1980 she along with her husband created Jocelyn House Hospice, Western Canada’s first freestanding hospice in their former home. 
 
KENDRA MCBAIN

After being diagnosed with cancer when she was 15 she organized Kendra’s Walk to raise money to refurbish the teen room at CancerCare Manitoba, raising more than $160,000.  
 
MARY RICHARD

Once known as “The Mayor of Main Street” was an aboriginal activist who was a played a very large part in building the Thunderbird House at Higgins Ave and Main Street.  She opened the city’s first aboriginal restaurant Bungee’s Teepee on Carlton Street.  She was honoured with the Order of Manitoba and the Order of the Buffalo Hunt. 
 
MARISA SOLTA

Before passing away from Cancer at 17, she volunteered with the Children’s Hospital Foundation and was involved with Coast to Coast Against Cancer.
 
GRACE IVEY

She worked with the Canadian Hostelling Association, starting with an office in her home and ending up with the city’s first permanent youth hostel on Maryland Street.  When she retired it was name Ivey House in her honour.
 
AVIS AINLEY BRIDGEMAN

Responsible for audible cues at pedestrian crossings.  A disability advocate, she filed a complaint against the City of Winnipeg and with the Manitoba Human Rights Commission resulting in all intersections with pedestrian traffic signals being changed to eventually have audible cues.  

EVELYN SHAPIRO

She was the mother of home care in Canada.  She was the executive director of the Age and Opportunity Centre and launched a public home-care program.  She received the Order of Canada and Order of Manitoba.  The Canadian Medical Association presented her with its Medal of Honour.

LULA CLYDE
 
Born in Neepawa, Lula blazed the way for women in banking.  She was appointed the first female bank manager in Canada in 1967.

BEATRICE (CULLETON) MOSIONIER

Author of ‘In Search of April Raintree’, the novel is read by students across the country every year and it remains one of Canada’s most popular and well-known works of Aboriginal literature. 

DR. JUNE MARION JAMES

Born in Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. James moved to Manitoba in 1960 and became the first black woman admitted to the University of Manitoba’s Faculty of Medicine.  She was instrumental in founding Manitoba’s Family Allergy Program and has served as a councilor of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba and also as president.

KAREN BUSBY

An activist and a professor of law at the University of Manitoba, Karen worked to change sexual violence laws and worked with the equal marriage for same sex couples campaign.  She’s led a lobby advocating change to Manitoba’s laws that discriminated against women, gays and lesbians leading to Manitoba having the most comprehensive changes to legislation aimed at ensuring equal rights in Canada. 

LILA BELL ACHESON WALLACE

Co-founder with her American-born husband of Reader's Digest, she was born near Virden to a clergyman and his wife.

 
SISTER GERALDINE MACNAMARA
A teacher, lawyer and nun who founded Rossbrook House, a 24-hour drop-in centre she started from her basement.

SENATOR SHARON CARSTAIRS

Liberal MLA who became the first woman to lead a Manitoba political party.

ANNIE A. BOND
The British-born nurse who settled in Winnipeg in 1903 was the driving force behind the establishment of Winnipeg's Children's Hospital in 1909. She remained dedicated to the facility for life.

Olga Fuga

Director, Manitoba Region, of the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews, she is active in her municipality, Winnipeg, as well as in the Canadian Ukrainian community. She has been a political commentator on radio and television for provincial and municipal elections and she supports and serves many organizations, including the United Way, the Red Cross, the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and the Children's Aid Society.

Betty Havens

During her career with the Manitoba provincial government, she was instrumental in the establishment of the Manitoba Home Care, Pharmacare and Support Services to Seniors Programmes and in extending provincially insured services to include personal care homes. She initiated and has maintained the Aging in Manitoba (AIM) longitudinal study which, thirty years later, continued to be a valued resource for researchers worldwide.

Clara Hughes,

Cyclist and speed skater, and has won multiple Olympic medals in both sports. Hughes won two bronze in the Summer Olympics in 1996 and four medals (one gold, one silver, two bronze) over the course of three Winter Olympics. Known as much for her humanitarian efforts as for her medals.

Verna J. Kirkness

Her passion for improving education for Aboriginal people has led to the creation of several learning centres. She is the founder of the First Nations House of Learning. A unique facility in Canada, it serves as a "home away from home" where students may study in surroundings reflective of Aboriginal traditions and culture.

Anne Glaz Ross

Born in Winnipeg’s North End, she attended United College and the University of Manitoba. She studied nursing at Winnipeg General Hospital and psychiatric nursing in New York City. She was first employed by Mount Carmel Clinic in Winnipeg in 1948 as its only full-time staff member, and she built up the clinic through her personal efforts. She was known as “Anne of the Milk Subsidies.” In 1995 she established AGR Health Services for seniors. She was the author of several books, including Teenage Mothers Teenage Fathers (1982).

Elizabeth Willcock

Senior Citizenship Judge for Canada, she has directed countless volunteers in assisting citizens with language training, cultural adjustments and material assistance.

Jane Polak Scowcroft

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