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| | LEVEL OF DESCRIPTION: | Sous-fonds | | No.: | PR0363.014SF | | TITLE: | United Farm Women of Alberta sous-fonds | | CREATOR: | United Farmers of Alberta. United Farm Women of Alberta | | DATE RANGE: | 1917-1949 | | EXTENT: | 0.83 m of textual records. – 23 photographs | | ADMINISTRATIVE | | HISTORY/BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: | The United Farm Women of Alberta was initially formed as the Women’s Auxiliary of the United Farmers of Alberta (UFA) in January 1915. It ceased to exist in January 1949 when the United Farmers of Alberta amalgamated with the Alberta Farmers’ Union, becoming the Farmers’ Union of Alberta; the women’s organization became the Farm Women’s Union of Alberta.
Farm women’s organizations grew out a need among these women for a form of social interaction, as most farm women faced monotony and isolation in their daily lives. The idea for a women’s section of the UFA was broached in 1912 when a resolution was presented at the Annual Convention endorsing the establishment of Women’s Clubs; specifically the resolution stated that wives and daughters should organize locally and provincially along the lines of the UFA for the improvement of rural condition, morally, intellectually and socially. Little was done during the following year to establish such a group. In 1913 the constitution of the UFA was revised to allow women to join. The following year, a meeting was held to discuss the establishment of a women’s section, but it drew little interest. At the 1915 Annual Convention, farm women gathered again to consider establishing a women’s auxiliary similar to that of the Grain Growers Association of Alberta. The fifty-eight women, including representatives of the Alix County Women’s Club, gathered at McDougall Church in Edmonton, Alberta where the majority decided to adopt the Constitution of the UFA, and elected an executive. Miss Jean C. Reed would be the Women’s Auxiliary’s first president. At the end of the first year, the organization had twenty-three locals, and over seven hundred members.
At the 1916 convention, the Auxiliary was officially recognized by the UFA, a special women’s section being added to the UFA constitution, and plans were completed to organize the Auxiliary as a provincial society under the name of the United Farm Women of Alberta (UFWA). Irene Parlby was elected president. UFWA objectives included to: establish libraries, literary societies, reading rooms, arrange lectures and further extend the knowledge of the members and their families along social and economic lines, with a view of elevating the standard of living in the rural communities; encourage members to provide suitable halls and meeting places and properly equip and furnish same for social and educational benefits of the members; foster and encourage the co-operative method of distribution of farm products, and the supplying of staple commodities; make farm life more attractive, thereby keeping the young people on the farm; beautify the home, the home surroundings and the school; increase the efficiency of the homekeeper and raise the ideal of home life and work; work for better legislation for women (federally and provincially), work for better school boards with women among the trustees and foster and develop local taste for literature, music and the finer things of life. Causes for which these women advocated included: prohibition, women’s franchise, peace, co-operation, rural education, and just legislation.
Following meetings of farm women in Alix, Alberta in 1914, where they discussed country women’s organizations with guest speaker Miss E.B. Mitchel, the group established itself as the Alix County Women’s Club; Mrs. R.W. Barritt the Club’s first president. This group was to become the first women’s local of the UFWA. Other women’s groups, established before the Women’s Auxiliary and the UFWA came into being, eventually formed locals of the UFA’s women’s section.
When the United Farmers of Alberta amalgamated with the Alberta Farmers Union in 1949, and became the Farmers’ Union of Alberta, the women’s organization became the Farm Women’s Union of Alberta. Subsequently when the Farmers’ Union of Alberta became Unifarm in 1970, the women’s organization became the Women of Unifarm.
The United Farm Women of Alberta operated in parallel to the United Farmers of Alberta, though resolutions passed at the UFWA conventions needed approval from the UFA. The president of the UFWA sat on the executive of the UFA.
At the 1916 UFA women’s convention, through resolution, the name of the Women’s Auxiliary was changed to the United Farm Women of Alberta.
President of the Women’s Auxiliary: Jean Reed, 1914-1915
Presidents of the United Farm Women of Alberta: Irene Parlby, 1916-1920; Marion Sears, 1920-1924; Susan Gunn, 1924-1929; Amy Warr, 1929-1933; Elenore Price, 1933-1937; Marie Malloy, 1937-1940; Winifred Ross, 1940-1946; Vera Lowe, 1946-1949. | | SCOPE AND CONTENT: | The sous-fonds consist of the records of the United Farm Women of Alberta and includes the following sous-sous-fonds: Pleasant Hill Local No. 340 sous-sous-fonds and Windy Hill Local No. 108 sous-sous-fonds. The sous-fonds also includes one series, Executive records, belonging to Winifred Ross, which includes minutes of UFA and UFWA and Junior, constitutions, annual reports, correspondence. | | ARRANGEMENT NOTE: | Due to the disorganized nature of Winifred Ross's records, those records not directly relating to the United Farm Women of Alberta or the Farm Women's Union of Alberta were included in Winifred Ross's personal fonds. | | ASSOCIATED MATERIAL: | Also see the Women of Unifarm fonds at the Glenbow Archives in Calgary, Alberta. | | RELATED RECORDS: | Also see the Farm Women’s Union of Alberta sous-fonds at the Provincial Archives of Alberta.
For the records of the following UFWA locals, see the following sous-sous-fonds in the Farmers’ Union of Alberta fonds, Farm Women’s Union of Alberta sous-fonds: the Asker Local No. 49, Horn Hill Local No.209, West High River Local No. 87, see in Farm Women’s Union of Alberta fonds the Asker Local No. 902 sous-fonds, the Horn Hill Local No. 1011 sous-fonds, and the West High River Local No. 1211 sous-fonds. | | GENERAL NOTE: | Information for the administrative history is from the following books which are located in the Provincial Archives of Alberta Reference Library: Thirty Years of Progress: History of United Farm Women of Alberta, 367.97123 C245, The History of Organized Farm Women of Alberta, 367.97123 C245h, Politics, Pitchforks and Pickle Jars: 75 Years of Organized Farm Women in Alberta, 367.97123 L36, Furrow, Faith and Fellowship, 630.6 P933 and Unifarm: A Story of Conflict & Change, 630.607123 J378.
Included in accession PR1971.0420 are records belonging to the U.F.A. and U.F.W.A. Independent Political Association of the Strathcona Federal Constituency sous-sous-fonds, the Farm Women's Union of Alberta sous-fonds, and the Winifred Ross fonds.
Included in accession PR1977.0113 are records belonging to the Junior Branch of the U.F.A. sous-fonds, the Farm Women's Union of Alberta sous-fonds (including the Hillside Local No. 906 sous-sous-fonds), the Winifred Ross fonds, the Alberta Federatio | | RELATED FONDS: | PR0363 (United Farmers of Alberta fonds)
| | RELATED SOUS-SOUS-FONDS: | PR0363.014SF.001SSF (Pleasant Hill Local No. 340 sous-sous-fonds)
PR0363.014SF.002SSF (Windy Hill Local No. 108 sous-sous-fonds)
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