The Canadian Women's Suffrage Association was originally called the Toronto Women's Literary Guild as a screen for suffrage activities: in effect, its members worked undercover. The Guild, founded in 1877, was renamed in 1883 as the Toronto Women's Suffrage Association. It was an influential women's suffrage organization founded in part by Emily Howard Stowe, Canada's second licensed female physician, to fight for women's rights and improved working conditions. It helped establish the Dominion Women's Enfranchisement Association in 1889. The CWSA successfully pressured schools of higher education in Toronto to accept women.