Yellowknife (Mar 07/03) - They may have come here following their husbands but they've lived here following no one.

Pat McMahon and Jan Stirling have dedicated their lives to the North.

Jan Stirling poses with the many soap stone sculptures she's collected during her travels as a nurse around the NWT. Yellowknife former mayor Pat McMahon (below) has called Yellowknife home for 35 years.- Erin Fletcher/NNSL photos

McMahon was the first female Yellowknife mayor and the first female president of the Association for Municipalities of the NWT. She spent three terms and seven years watching Yellowknife expand to a city of 17,000 from 5,000.

"I'm incredibly proud of it," she said of Yellowknife.

"It's nice to know people are enjoying living in a community you helped guide."

McMahon moved to Yellowknife in 1968. She served eight years on city council before becoming mayor in 1987.

"I definitely ran into those who didn't fancy a woman being in that position," laughs McMahon, adding women aren't just social issue oriented as some think.

Stirling has had a few of her own obstacles to overcome. She moved here in 1971 with her husband and two years later was widowed with four kids.

As a public health nurse, Stirling travelled with medical evacuations all over the NWT helping people in remote communities. By 1972 she was appointed nurse-in-charge at the Yellowknife Public Health Centre. She remained there until retiring in 1997.

She loved going to work but admits "it wasn't my only career. My main career was being a mother."

Even with a large family Stirling managed to return to school for her Bachelor of Science in Nursing.

"It wasn't easy when I went back," she laughs, adding nurses of her day didn't usually get degrees.

When she wasn't nursing and raising a family Stirling was helping immigrant families adjust to Yellowknife and volunteering on service organizations all over the city.

In August 2000 Stirling was awarded the Caring Canadian Award, a citation for citizenship from Citizenship and Immigration Canada and 1991's Volunteer Service Award.

Being thankful

McMahon said Canadian women need to reflect on how lucky they are on International Women's Day.

"There are so many women in the world that don't have the rights and privileges we have," she said, adding women should extend help to others and work together.

Stirling couldn't agree more.

"We have so many more advantages than women in Third World countries," said Stirling.

"I think women are the backbone of a society and a family."

"(International Women's Day, March 8) reminds women it was a long and sometimes fruitless battle to gain acceptance and it's important that we remember those battles that were fought (and) there'll be new battles to be fought," said McMahon.

The Socialist International, meeting in Copenhagen, established International Women's Day in 1910. The first celebration was marked March 19, 1911 in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. The Triangle Fire in New York City's garment district less than a week later -- on March 25, 1911 -- where more than 140 women died, was the catalyst for the observance of International Women's Day in North America.

"It would be nice to be accepted for what we are -- half of society -- but we're not quite there yet," McMahon said.