The stories of influential and enterprising women are being told across the country to celebrate their impact on Canadian history for national Women’s History month.
Okotoks museum and archives specialist Kathy Coutts said many women have contributed to the story of Okotoks, but two in particular stood out as unique trailblazers.
The first was Beatrice Wyndham, who was the first woman in Okotoks to be elected into a leadership position, as a trustee on the Okotoks School Board. She would be followed by women like Sandi Kennedy, who was the first female mayor in Okotoks from to 1995.
“(Wyndham) was a bit of a trailblazer in the sense that she paved the way for other women to not be afraid to put their name forward to stand for nomination for public office,” said Coutts.
Women got the right to vote and the right to run for office in Alberta in 1916. The election in 1919, when Wyndham won her seat on the school board, was the first time women put their names forward for a position, she said.
Wyndham went on to serve on the school board for 12 years.
“She was really committed to service,” said Coutts. “She proved she deserved the position and made a name for women in Okotoks.”
Wyndham was also deeply rooted in the community, she said. She was involved with the Okotoks Agricultural Society board, a volunteer with the Red Cross, a member of the St. Peter’s Anglican Church Women’s Auxiliary and a member of the Okotoks Book Club.
She was also an avid curler, said Coutts.
“Her team’s name was called the Wildcats, which I think is very fitting because she really sounds like a bit of a wildcat,” said Coutts. “She did unconventional things for the time.”
Another woman devoted to serving the Okotoks community was Amelia Metcalfe – though her contribution was in the business community, not through volunteerism.
“Amelia was one of the first women entrepreneurs in Okotoks,” said Coutts. “Usually the shops were run by men or families, but she operated a millenary, which is a hat store, on her own.”
Metcalfe sold ornate women’s hats and other fancy goods like corsets and “unmentionables” from 1908 until the mid-1930s, she said.
She was not the only woman in business in town. Mrs. Watson ran a confectionary, though the shop had been started with her husband as a family business before he drowned in the river, leaving Watson to carry on the business on her own, said Coutts.
“There were a few others, but Amelia was in business a long time and one of the things I really find fascinating about her is she was resilient,” said Coutts. “Twice she lost her millenary business due to fire, and some might think, ‘Okay, I’ll just pack up and give up,’ but she persevered.”
Metcalfe successfully ran her millenary through to the mid-1930s, but the exact date she closed the business is unknown, said Coutts. It was during the 30s when her newspaper ads stop appearing.
Metcalfe’s ornate women’s hats were unique in what was coined the untamed West, she said.
“You almost wonder, was there much of a market for that?” said Coutts. “But I think most people, when they went out in those days, or on Sundays, they dressed. So she catered to that market with fancy hats and fancy goods.”
Coutts said there were many remarkable and ordinary people who helped shape the face of the town.
“They’re ordinary people doing extraordinary things for their community,” said Coutts. “Some might be quietly doing it in the background, or some might be doing it publicly like Beatrice Wyndham in public service.”
Between 2002 and 2004 Coutts worked on a women’s oral history project, which saw her meeting with several women who were born and raised in town, or had lived in Okotoks for several decades. There were a lot of oral histories from men in the archives at the time and Coutts decided to fill the gap of women’s history.
She said many of the women she approached denied having anything important to contribute and told her to pick someone else more interesting. She managed to convince most of them to chat with her anyway.
“The women, even though they didn’t think they did anything significant, really did contribute to our history by raising their families, helping their husbands, whether they were farm wives or they were married to a businessman,” said Coutts. “In large ways women have contributed, but also in the small ways to make the community a better place. There are so many examples of women contributing to our community’s success.”
