[2] WCTU members argued that alcohol abuse was a problem in the dominion, and that it led to increased rates of domestic violence and poverty, of which women and children were the primary victims.
[4] The WCTU also circulated a petition across the island of Newfoundland, demanding the women be given the right to vote in local option elections.
Suffragists were active in other parts of the world, and news of their work was reported in Newfoundland newspapers and debated in local clubs and societies.
Its leaders included Armine Gosling, Fannie McNeil, Myra Campbell, Anna (Barnes) Mitchell, Agnes Miller Ayre, and Adeline Browning.
[6] In 1920, Armine Gosling, Adeline Browning, and Anna Mitchell founded the Newfoundland Women’s Franchise League.
League members embarked on an island-wide publicity campaign: suffragists screened advertisements in movie houses, published essays and letters in newspapers, canvassed homes and businesses, and circulated a petition throughout the island to garner support.
[1] Their efforts ended in success on March 9, 1925, when Prime Minister Walter Stanley Monroe introduced a suffrage bill to the legislature.