Trent University is pleased to host the Famous 5 Maquette exhibit in the Bata Library Atrium from December 10, 2024 to January 30, 2025.

Join us for a Pink Tea celebration on January 9, 2025 including presentations from inspirational women who will help us understand the history and legacy of the Famous 5, and the ongoing fight for gender equality.

Location: Bata Library Atrium & BL 206
1700 West Bank Drive, Peterborough, ON 
Map & Parking Information

Program:

• 3:00-3:30: Light refreshments in the Bata Library Atrium
• 3:30-4:30: Presentations in BL 206
  • Dr. Cathy Bruce, President & Vice Chancellor
  • Frances Wright, Founder and CEO, Famous 5 Foundation
  • Dr. Caroline Durand, Associate Professor, History & Canadian Studies
  • Dr. Dawn Lavell-Harvard & Jeanette Corbiere Lavell, Indigenous Women's Rights Activists & Scholars
• 4:30-5:30: Mingling and refreshments

About the Famous 5 Maquette

The Famous 5 Maquette is a miniature of the Women are Persons! monuments in Calgary and Ottawa, and a tribute to the five early Canadian feminists whose major achivements include securing the rights for some Canadian women to vote, to run for elected office and to serve as Senators. Notably, Indigenous women were not granted suffrage until 1960 changes to the Canada Elections Act permitted First Nations people to vote in federal elections without losing their status.

Why a Pink Tea?

When the Famous 5 campaigned for women's rights, their suffrage meetings were often interrupted by opponents. They began to call their organizing meetings "Pink Teas" as a form of subterfuge, as women traditionally held teas to celebrate the birth of children or other significant life events. Men didn't attend these women's gatherings, so suffragists termed their political meetings Pink Teas and very few opponents attended to disrupt their work.