1950 election promotion card for Ethel B. Fagan (Source: Law Society of Ontario)
The University of Alberta Faculty of Law's incoming Class of 2020 may have been an almost even gender split at 48.6 per cent female and 51.4 per cent male, but such gender parity wasn't always the case. A cursory glance at the graduation photos on the fourth floor walls of the Law Centre reveal a student body that was overwhelmingly male until well into the 1970s.
That said, UAlberta Law admitted women right from the time it was established and helped shape the careers of numerous trailblazing female lawyers, policymakers and activists. In fact, nine women earned LLBs from UAlberta before 1925.
Well-known female alumni include Margaret Crang (LLB, 1932), who became the youngest person ever to serve on Edmonton's city council; Violet King (LLB, 1953), who became Canada's first black female lawyer; and, Canada's first female Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin (LLB, 1969). Ruby Clements was the first women to earn an LLB from the university in 1915.
Less well known, however, is the story of female graduate Ethel Bertha Fagan, who received her LLB as a member of UAlberta Law's second graduating class in 1925.
Notably, entry into the legal profession was changed in the early 1920s, which resulted in an LLB being a prerequisite to articling. Before 1924, students could article and earn their degrees simultaneously. Ethel Fagan was the first woman to graduate under the new degree program at UAlberta Law.
Born in Hamilton, Ontario in 1887, Fagan first developed a love for the law as a stenographer at the Toronto law firm Biggar & Burton - a prestigious firm whose founding partner Oliver Mowat Biggar would later go on to serve as Canada's second Judge Advocate General and first Chief Electoral Officer. While officially a stenographer, Fagan actually articled with the firm and, according to archival records, even had legal clients of her own prior to enrolling in law school.
After nearly a decade of absorbing legal knowledge at Biggar & Burton, Fagan was accepted to the Faculty in 1921 at the age of 34, where she secured an internship at the Office of the Attorney General in Edmonton. After graduating in 1925 and passing the Bar in Alberta in 1927, she ran the debt adjustment office at the Alberta Legislative Council before embarking on extensive travel, which included legal work in Europe. Eventually she resettled in Hamilton in the 1940s where she established her own law practice.
In the 1950s, Fagan shifted gears once again by entering the political realm, first as a candidate for alderman in 1951 and then as a contestant for parliament in the riding of Hamilton South on the Social Credit Party ticket. While both her attempts at a parliamentary seat ended in defeat, she remained an important figure in the Social Credit Party, serving as the first female president of the party's Ontario organization.
A self-described 'all-around woman', Fagan was an entrepreneur who farmed ten acres of land and sold produce from a stall in Hamilton's Central Market. She was also a quiet champion of women's rights and other social causes who volunteered for the Women's Law Association, the Women's Civic Club, the Business and Professional Women's Club and many other organizations. While working in Buffalo, New York in the 1930s, she helped establish the Stenographer's Club of Buffalo, which provided assistance to the poor during the Great Depression.
The woman who was famously fond of telling people "I'm no pink tea lady; I'm a business woman" was also an indefatigable learner who pursued post-graduate courses in psychology and sociology to help with her social work.
Fagan died in Hamilton in 1967 after a life devoted to public service and breaking down gender barriers.
Special thanks are due to the Hamilton Public Library and the Law Society of Ontario for their assistance in the research for this article.