Irene Parlby, "A While Ago and Today" Canadian
Magazine July 1928.
Picture our absurd nervousness [at the early U.F.W.A.
convention] when we rose to give our reports or offer
suggestions. Where was the courage of the Pioneer? We were
scared to open our mouths; afraid to frame or move a
resolution! Shaking knees! Trembling voices! . . .
We were groping blindly at those first meetings, toward a
vision but dimly discerned; a vision which was to be made
clear to us as the years went on.
I was elected first President, with the gigantic and
rather terrifying task of building up a Provincial
organization, of evolving policies and fixing a goal toward
which to work. We had no money to work with, no prestige,
and were to co-operate with a men's group which, while
outwardly polite, did not at first realize the added
strength which the women would lend to their own movement.
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