Margaret Wadden was ahead of her time.
Wadden served as the town clerk in New Glasgow for 30 years, beginning in the late 1920s.
“She worked in a man’s world,” says Clyde Macdonald for the Pictou County Roots Society.
“She served under 10 different mayors – all males – and under numerous councilors, all males. She was New Glasgow’s Iron lady.”
Born in 1889 in New Glasgow, Wadden graduated from New Glasgow High School and attended business college. She was 29 years old when she started as a bookkeeper with the town and, after the death of town clerk James Roy in 1928, at a special meeting then-Mayor W.M. Hamilton spoke and “he didn’t appear to embrace equal opportunity regarding women,” Macdonald says.
“It was a man’s world according to Mayor Hamilton and he showed his bias when he implied in a number of ways that a man would be the new town clerk.”
Three male applicants, along with Wadden, applied for the job and on Dec. 31, 1928, Wadden was appointed town clerk.
In December of 1958, Wadden announced her retirement, and received special acknowledgment from town council, in particular, Mayor James Power.
“Deep appreciation for Miss Wadden’s devotion to duty, her great interest in the affairs of the town, her kindness to me personally and her whole-hearted co-operation,” Power said, according to the official minutes from the meeting.
“We did not always agree, but in any dispute, Miss Wadden felt that she had acted in the best interests of the town, and so I wish to express my gratitude.”
She died in February 1973, at age 83. At the time she had been living at Sunset Haven Nursing Home.
