Human Rights A Day

Nancy Hodges, B.C. MLA, becomes British Empire’s first legislative woman Speaker.Nancy Hodges was born in London, England in 1888, the ninth of 10 children. After university and work as a journalist, she and her husband Harry Hodges moved to Kamloops, B.C. in 1912, where they edited the Inland Sentinel. A few years later they moved to Victoria to work for the Victoria Times. Here, Nancy Hodge’s writing championed women’s causes and she actively involved herself with the Liberal Party. In 1941 she was elected to the B.C. legislature, one of only five women. Hodges was known as a great debater and passionate about women’s issues. She came out against taking away jobs from single women to make way for WW II vets and called for women to be included in workers’ compensation benefits. When she was appointed Speaker of the legislature on April 10, 1950, she made history as the first woman in the British Commonwealth to hold such a position. Her prominent role came with its drawbacks as Hodges noted she would no long