"I do not want to be the angel of any home; I want for myself what I want for other women, absolute equality. After that is secured, then men and women can take turns at being angels."
- Agnes Macphail
The 20th century has been a period of rapid and far-reaching change for many women but life for women in some parts of the world still remains harsh. Even where females have experienced great advances like those in Canada, there are still some similarities between their economic role today and the role of women in the 1900s. During the 19th and 20th century, attempts were made to define and extend human rights but most of these struggles ignored or denied the rights of more than half the human race ? women. It was unsurprising that this is the case because at the time, Canada was a patriarchal society, a society in which men have more power than women, readier access than women to what is valued in the society, and, in consequence, are in control over many, if not most aspects of women's lives. It wasn't until the women's movement that has touched the lives of most Canadian women and has transformed the structure of their daily existence; it was this movement that eliminated the fact that Canada was a patriarchal society and improved the economic role of Canadian women. Since the 1960s women have undertaken a vigorous assault on Canada's system of power and the nation now claims to be an equal society and emphasizes significantly on equality amongst all but are we all actually equal? Has the glass-ceiling effect been broken at last? That question still remains unclear but what will remain clear is that once women take up positions where men are unwilling to work, distinguish themselves independent from men in the labour force, and begin to set th ...