What began with the first class of eight women has grown to include thousands of female McGill graduates as members. With over 125 years of activism and philanthropy behind them, these women have reason to be proud of the rich history of the McGill Women’s Alumnae Association (MWAA).

Throughout the years, McGill’s alumnae have supported many important causes. In 1891, the university’s 30 female graduates established the Girls Club and Lunch Room, an organization dedicated to Montreal’s working women. Female shop and factory workers – some of whom earned 60¢ for a 10-hour day – could buy meals for a few pennies at the Club. The organization created a support fund for unemployed women and ran dressmaking classes, children’s programs – even a library.

The MWAA has dedicated itself to encouraging scholars at McGill. The society established a scholarship committee and an endowment fund in 1932 to support scholarships, fellowships, prizes and bursaries. This fund continues today, and the association awards around $60,000 annually to women studying at McGill.

Members of the MWAA have fought for equal rights on campus and across Canada, battling alongside women in Quebec for the right to vote in the province and working until 1970 to end the men-only membership on McGill’s Board of Governors.

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