The Stories Behind the Barriers
“This is too hard for someone like me.”
We hear different versions of this sentence from students who are convinced they’re not cut out for specific school subjects, future careers, and even dreams. They have faced challenges that felt like permanent roadblocks rather than temporary problems. But most “impossible” things just haven’t been solved yet.
This October, we celebrate Women’s History Month with a reminder that progress happens when people refuse to accept the status quo and unfair systems and proactively work to make them better.
Here are seven Canadian women who faced real obstacles and found ways around them. They didn’t give up. They created educational opportunities that hadn’t existed before.
Elsie MacGill: Engineering Beyond Limits
When Elsie MacGill was diagnosed with polio in her mid-20s, doctors told her she would never walk again. She refused to accept that as her future. With determination and months of rehabilitation, she not only learned to walk with the aid of canes but also became the first woman in North America to earn a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering.
During the Second World War, MacGill served as Chief Aeronautical Engineer at Canada Car & Foundry, where she directed the production of Hawker Hurricane fighter planes for the Allied war effort. Her leadership ensured these aircraft were built to exacting standards and delivered on schedule, earning her the nickname “Queen of the Hurricanes.”
After the war, she brought the same resolve to the Royal Commission on the Status of Women. Drawing on her own experience of challenging limits, she worked to remove restrictions in education and engineering and to create opportunities for women and underrepresented groups in technical fields.
Elsie MacGill’s life shows what can happen when someone refuses to accept “no” as the final answer. Her story is a reminder that education, determination, and vision can transform not just a career but an entire profession.
Mary Two-Axe Earley: The Legal Strategy Behind the Victory
Mary Two-Axe Earley spent more than twenty years building a legal case against discrimination in the Indian Act. She gathered testimonies, prepared legal briefs, and documented how Section 12(1)(b) removed the rights of First Nations women who married non-status men. This loss of status extended to their children, often cutting them off from education and community life.
Politicians and community leaders dismissed her early efforts. She kept going, forming Indian Rights for Indian Women in 1967 and connecting with others across the country facing the same injustice. Her approach was deliberate, grounded in legal argument, and ready for the changes that came with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
In 1985, Parliament passed Bill C-31, restoring status to thousands of Indigenous women and their descendants. This also reinstated access to education and other rights that had been denied for decades.
At 82, she returned to court when some band councils refused to follow the new law. She spoke about how animals could be buried on reserve land, yet women stripped of status could not. This argument helped confirm that federal law applied to burial rights and membership decisions.
Her work shows how persistence, legal skill, and a refusal to accept “no” can bring lasting change. Her actions opened doors to education and equality for generations to come.
Roberta Bondar: Choosing Education Over Profit
After her historic space flight in 1992 as Canada’s first female astronaut, Dr. Roberta Bondar was presented with opportunities that could have brought in millions through speaking tours, book deals, and endorsements. She chose another path.
From 300 kilometres above Earth, she had seen how weather systems, ecosystems, and human activity connected across continents. That view shifted her focus. She wanted students to experience that same sense of connection without leaving their communities.
By establishing the Roberta Bondar Foundation, she made that dream possible. Through its programs, students used cameras to study their local environment, linking what they saw to larger global patterns. The work combined science, art, and environmental awareness in a way that made the learning personal.
Her decision traded short-term financial gain for long-term impact. Thousands of young people gained a new way of looking at their surroundings, discovering that science was not just something that happened in labs; it was alive in the fields, rivers, and skies outside their school.
Adrienne Clarkson: Making Citizenship a Welcome, Not a Procedure
When Adrienne Clarkson looked at Canada’s citizenship ceremonies, she saw events that felt more like licence renewals than celebrations. New citizens memorised facts, sat through formal proceedings in government buildings, and left with a certificate but little sense of belonging.
Having arrived in Canada as a refugee child, Clarkson knew what was missing: a genuine welcome. Through the Institute for Canadian Citizenship, she reimagined the process. Instead of simply testing people on political procedures, she provided museum passes, cultural invitations, and access to community events.
People could explore the Royal Ontario Museum, attend performances, and take part in local activities from their first day as citizens. This approach helped newcomers connect with their communities in meaningful ways, creating bonds that lasted well beyond the ceremony.
Maude Abbott: From Rejected Applicant to Leading Educator
In the early 1900s, McGill University’s Medical Museum was in disarray, with poorly catalogued specimens, scattered materials, and no clear system for teaching. The person they hired to fix it was Maude Abbott, the same woman they had refused admission to medical school 15 years earlier.
In the years since, Abbott had become one of the world’s leading heart specialists. Her research at Bishop’s University advanced cardiac surgery techniques, and her expertise in medical education was widely recognised. At McGill, the faculty soon found themselves learning from the woman they had once dismissed, and her cataloguing system became standard across Canadian medical schools.
The irony deepened in 1910 when McGill awarded her an honourary medical degree, eight years before the university began admitting all genders to its medical programme. Abbott went on to establish the Federation of Medical Women of Canada, building the support networks that helped future students navigate medical education more easily than she had.
Viola Desmond: The Business Model That Worked
When beauty schools across Atlantic Canada refused to accept Black students, Viola Desmond saw a business opportunity disguised as a social problem.
She opened the Desmond School of Beauty Culture in Halifax, but her business model went far beyond technical training. Students learned cosmetology alongside business management, customer service, and financial planning.
This wasn’t charity; it was entrepreneurship development. She understood that technical skills without business knowledge would leave her students dependent on others for employment.
Her graduates didn’t just find jobs; they went on to open shops across the Maritimes, creating a network of Black-owned businesses that generated economic independence for an entire community.
The movie theatre incident in 1946 brought Desmond public attention, but her business had already shown that alternative institutions could serve excluded communities better than trying to force integration into existing systems.
Many of her graduates built businesses that lasted decades, supporting families and communities in ways that traditional employment never could have achieved.
Rosemary Brown: The Campaign That Almost Changed Everything
In 1975, the federal NDP leadership race came down to the final ballot. Rosemary Brown needed 694 votes to win. She received 658.
Thirty-six votes separated Canada from having its first Black woman lead a major political party.
Brown had entered politics just three years earlier, winning her British Columbia seat as the first Black woman elected to a provincial legislature. She was now competing against candidates with decades more experience.
Her campaign speeches often became lessons in leadership. She didn’t simply outline policy; she demonstrated what representation could look like in government. Her legislative work had already made its way into political science course materials across the country.
The leadership race became an example studied in classrooms and community discussions, showing how political contests can shape public understanding of who belongs in leadership.
Her words from that campaign still hold weight: “We must open doors and see to it they remain open so that others can pass through.”
Your Turn
As autumn settles in and students fall into the rhythm of the school year, it’s important to trust your curiosity, lean into your determination, and stay open to trying new and different things. Like the people you’ve just read about, this mindset can open possibilities that didn’t exist before.
Our future is being written by young people who see challenges as opportunities to innovate. At School is Easy, that’s exactly what we’re here to support.
