Anne Molson

Anne Molson (8 April 1824 – 3 January 1899) was a Canadian philanthropist and proponent of access to education, best known for her work in opening admissions to McGill University to women.

Early life A member of the prominent Anglophone Molson family, Molson was born in Montreal, Quebec in 1824, the third child of William Molson and Elizabeth Badgley. Molson's maternal grandfather was politician Francis Badgley, and her maternal uncle was William Badgley.

Although her father believed in higher education for young men, he did not consider it important for women.

Marriage On 9 June 1845, at the age of 21, Molson married her first cousin John Molson, son of John Molson Jr. Molson's marriage settlement provided her a level of financial autonomy that was unusual for women of the time in Lower Canada.

Education advocacy

Anne Molson Gold Medal In 1864, Molson posed as a male friend to approach John William Dawson, principal of McGill University. She proposed the idea of providing an endowment to fund a gold medal, which would be awarded to the best student in physics and mathematics. As of the 2020s, the award continues to be offered by McGill's Faculty of Science.

Montreal Ladies’ Educational Association At the time of Molson's endowment to McGill, the university did not admit women as students, but public pressure was mounting on the institution's leadership to amend this policy.

On 10 May 1871, Montreal's English-speaking bourgeoisie formed the Montreal Ladies’ Educational Association during a meeting at Belmont Hall, selected due to its proximity to McGill's campus. Molson was elected president and her husband, treasurer.

When Edith died suddenly at the age of 19 in September 1872, Molson's involvement with the association slowly declined until she resigned as president in December 1873. Anne Molson would continue to attend meetings occasionally afterwards, and the association would credit her early active leadership as almost entirely responsible for its "existence [and] prosperity". 1898: Harriet Brooks, eventually a nuclear physicist, was the first woman to receive the award 1925: Mary Laura Chalk Rowles, eventually the first woman to earn a PhD in physics from McGill 1941: Louis Siminovitch, molecular biologist and pioneer in human genetics 1971: Jim Tilley, figure in business and later poet 1989: Victoria Kaspi, astrophysicist and McGill professor