Ellen Fairclough became the first woman to be appointed to the cabinet of Canada.

Ellen Louks Fairclough was a Canadian politician. A Progressive Conservative member of the House of Commons of Canada from 1950 to 1963, she was the first woman ever to serve in the Canadian Cabinet.

The Canadian Ministry, colloquially referred to as the Cabinet of Canada, is a body of ministers of the Crown that, along with the Canadian monarch, and within the tenets of the Westminster system, forms the government of Canada. Chaired by the prime minister, the Cabinet is part of and acts on behalf of the King's Privy Council for Canada and the senior echelon of the Ministry, the membership of the Cabinet and Ministry often being co-terminal; as of March 2025 there were no members of the latter who were not also members of the former.