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Idola Saint-Jean (May 19, 1880 – April 6, 1945) was a Quebec journalist, educator and feminist. She devoted her life to the pursuit of equal rights for women in Quebec and her efforts lead to women being given the right to vote in Quebec in 1940.[1]
Life
Saint-Jean was born in Canada and taught in the French studies department at McGill University.[2] She was secretary for the board of the Montréal Juvenile Court and was named to the Commission du salaire minimum des femmes du Québec in 1925.[1] In 1927, Saint-Jean founded the Alliance canadienne pour le vote des femmes au Québec.[2] She was among the group of women who met with Quebec premier Louis-Alexandre Taschereau to demand that women be given the right to vote. She returned before the Quebec National Assembly each subsequent year until 1940, when women finally won the right to vote.[1]
In 1930, she ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the Canadian House of Commons as an independent candidate in Saint-Denis, finishing third.[3]
In 2016, she was one of five finalist to be on Canadian banknotes, a competition closed to men.[4] She ultimately lost to civil rights activist Viola Desmond.
