Retiring from union work in 1983 to Montréal, Parent continued her social activist role, focusing on women's rights.

Madeleine Parent received her early education in French at the L’Académie St. Urbain, the Villa-Maria Convent and in English at the Trafalgar School for Girls.

In 1943, she began working as a key union organizer, with Kent Rowley, for the United Textile Workers of America (UTW), in Québec.

These activities engendered a strong reaction from the provincial government of Maurice Duplessis against Parent, including arrests, legal proceedings for seditious conspiracy and charges that she was a communist.

Retiring from union work in 1983 to Montréal, Madeleine Parent continued her social activist role, focusing on women's rights.

[5] The Montreal Southwest Borough announced that it would spend CDN $1.6 million for a parcel of property along the Lachine Canal to turn into a park in Parent's name.

[7] In September 2023, Parent was one of three Quebec feminists and trade unionists, along with Léa Roback and Simonne Monet-Chartrand, honoured by Canada Post with a postage stamp.