Amelia Yeomans (''née'' Le Sueur; March 29, 1842 – April 22, 1913) was a Canadian physician and suffragist. She and her adult daughter Lilian B. Yeomans, M.D., were the first female physicians in

Manitoba Manitoba is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population ...

Early life and education

Yeomans was born on March 29, 1842, in

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Canada East Canada East () was the northeastern portion of the Province of Canada. Lord Durham's Report investigating the causes of the Upper and Lower Canada Rebellions recommended merging those two colonies. The new colony, known as the Province of ...

, to Peter Le Sueur and Barbara Dawson. Her father was a civil servant. She was privately educated. Le Sueur married Augustus A. Yeomans, a medical doctor, on October 16, 1860, in Quebec City. They had two daughters.Vera K. Fast,
LE SUEUR, AMELIA
" in ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography'', vol. 14, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed April 11, 2019. After Augustus's death in 1878, Amelia Yeomans, along with her daughter Lilian, decided to enter the medical profession. Since Canadian medical schools did not accept women students, Yeomans and her daughter enrolled in the Ann Arbor Medical School at the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

. Yeomans received her degree in 1883. She then moved to

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...

, where Lilian was already practicing

midwifery Midwifery is the health science and health profession that deals with pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period (including care of the newborn), in addition to the sexual and reproductive health of women throughout their lives. In many cou ...

and medicine. Yeomans's second daughter, Charlotte, became a nurse and joined the family in Winnipeg in 1890.

Career

As physicians, Yeomans and her daughter frequently treated

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s, homeless women, and others being held in the local jail. These experiences led Yeomans to write a pamphlet educating women about

sexually transmitted diseases A sexually transmitted infection (STI), also referred to as a sexually transmitted disease (STD) and the older term venereal disease (VD), is an infection that is spread by sexual activity, especially vaginal intercourse, anal sex, oral ...

. The pamphlet was released by the

Women's Christian Temperance Union The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is an international temperance organization. It was among the first organizations of women devoted to social reform with a program that "linked the religious and the secular through concerted and far ...

(WCTU). The WCTU was the first English-speaking organization in Manitoba to espouse

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...

. In 1893, the first year of recorded WCTU activity, Yeomans served as an officer for the organization. On February 9, 1893, Yeomans and the WCTU staged a mock parliament in the Bijou Theatre in Winnipeg, organized by Arminda Myrtal Blakely, and invited the Manitoba legislature to attend. Yeomans played the

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, while other members, including Nellie Letitia Monney and

Ella Cora Hind Ella Cora Hind (September 18, 1861 – October 6, 1942) was a Canadian journalist, agriculturalist, Women's rights activist and suffragist. During the Great Depression, she became famous internationally for her accurate predictions of Canadia ...

, presented pro and con arguments. In 1894, Yeomans helped to form the Equal Franchise Association in Manitoba. Yeomans served as the provincial president of the WCTU from 1896 to 1897.

Later life and death

Yeomans's daughter Charlotte moved to

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

for work in 1904, and both Yeomans and Lilian followed her there. Lilian would later become a pentecostal evangelist. Amelia Yeomans died on April 22, 1913, in Calgary.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yeomans, Amelia Created via preloaddraft Canadian suffragists 1842 births 1913 deaths 19th-century Canadian physicians 20th-century Canadian physicians 19th-century Canadian women physicians 20th-century Canadian women physicians University of Michigan Medical School alumni 20th-century Canadian women scientists Presidents of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union