Elizabeth Monk – Short Biography

ELIZABETH MONK

By Susan Button on behalf of the Centenary Committee

To highlight some of the outstanding women who founded our Club in 1927, I would like to start with Elizabeth Monk.  I cannot improve on the lovely tribute which is in the history of the Club by Catherine Holland Joyce: This history is gratefully dedicated to Miss Elizabeth C. Monk who from the beginning of the Club, down through the years, has, by her courage, faith and unselfish devotion assured that the Club would continue to fulfil its function to the community as envisaged by its founders. Elizabeth Monk UWCM President 1932-1938 Elizabeth Monk was born in 1898 in Montreal.  She completed her B.A. degree at McGill University in 1919 with first-class honours and received the Governor-General’s Gold Medal.  She then received an M.A. from Radcliffe College, followed by a year at Oxford on an I.O.D.E. Scholarship (Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire).  Returning to Montreal she was one of the first women admitted to the Faculty of Law at McGill, receiving her B.C.L. in 1923, as well as being the first woman to win the <a href=” />Faculty’s Gold Medal for academic excellence.  Quebec law did not permit women to be called to the Bar and practice law in the province.  Margaret Gillett in her book, We Walked Very Warily: A History of Women at McGill reports that when a petition was made to the Superior Court by Annie Langstaff – who was married but separated from her husband – the judgment by Mr. Justice Saint Pierre read as follows:

“… to admit a woman, and more particularly a married woman, as a barrister –that is to say as a person who pleads cases at the bar before judges and juries in open court and in the presence of the public, would be nothing short of a direct infringement upon public order and a manifest violation of the law of good morals and public decency.”

In view of the situation in Quebec, in 1934 Miss Monk wrote the bar examination for Nova Scotia and she was admitted to the Bar of that Province.

It was not until 1942 that the Quebec law was changed, and Elizabeth Monk and Suzanne Raymond-Filion became the first women to be admitted to the Bar of Quebec.  All her adult life Elizabeth Monk played an active role in women rights, pressing for changes in discriminatory laws, both federal and provincial, and serving as legal counsel to The League for Women Rights.  In 1940 she became one of the first women to win a seat on the Montreal Municipal Council and in 1955 she became a Queen’s Counsel. In 1980 she received the “Persons Medal” award from the Governor-General in commemoration of the struggle for women’s rights.

Elizabeth Monk was President from 1932 to 1938 and the Club was fortunate in those difficult Depression years to have the leadership of a woman with the legal training and devotion of Miss Monk.  Later, in 1960, she returned to the Board of Directors and helped negotiate the sale of the original Clubhouse at 3492 Peel Street and the agreement with the Themis Club.   I was fortunate to meet her in 1978 – I was working in the History of McGill Project and Miss Monk came in to talk with the author Dr. Stanley Frost.  She was tall with white hair – very elegant and soft spoken.

On International Women’s Day 2023, McGill University’s Faculty of Law announced its intention to establish the Elizabeth Carmichael Monk Chair in Business Law.  Fundraising efforts are underway to permanently create this prestigious chair.

Elizabeth Monk passed away on December 26, 1980. As part of her enduring legacy, she left a significant bequest to the Club with the stipulation that the annual income be used for the benefit of members. Her financial support has meant a great deal to the life of the Club.

This is just one example of how women in Montreal have been working together for a long time to make life better for others.