The time at which Carrie Derick lived was one of great political unrest in regards to women's rights. Under the provisions of the British North America act of 1867, women were not even technically considered "persons" until 1929 when an appeal to the Privy Council of Great Britain saw the personhood of women formalized (GOC 1867, 2025b). Women were only beginning to be able to take on employment or pursue education, with the fields allowed still being largely limited to mainly nursing, teaching, or office work (Bacchi 1983). In spite of the oppression of the time a number of prominent women were able to break free of the expectations of the society around them to pursue greater aspirations. Carrie Derick along with others such as Emily Stowe and Eliza Ritchie were able to pave the way forwards for women in all forms of higher education. Usually these women had to circumvent the restrictions on their education by learning abroad, often in the United States (Dalhousie University; GOC 2025b).

The lack of rights women experienced during Carrie Derick's life certainly extended to the disenfranchisement of women at all levels of government. Women's suffrage was, as a result, a large movement across the British empire and beyond, with Canada being no exception (Bacchi 1983). Many educated and non-educated women and men served as members of many prominent suffrage unions (Bacchi 1983). Some of the most prominent suffrage groups throughout the early 20th century include the Women's Christian Temperance Union, the Canadian Suffrage Association, and the National Equal Franchise Union, within which Derick served as an executive member (Bacchi 1983). Many suffrage groups also fought heavily for other forms of social change such as the prohibition of alcohol, the induction of women into higher education, and the limiting of child labour (Bacchi 1983).

Slowly, with the concerted effort of Carrie Derick and many other suffrage leaders, progress began to be made. Through her own efforts within academia and the suffrage movement as well as the efforts of those such as Emily Stowe, slow but significant progress was made as women slowly gained more ability to self actualize (GOC 2024). Slowly women were permitted into higher education, with the first woman to graduate from a medical school occurring in 1883; Augusta Stowe-Gullen, Daughter of Emily Stowe (Bacchi 1983). Eventually, enfranchisement would come as a result of the efforts of the suffragettes. With the dawn of the first world war, the wartime measures act was instated which gave women the right to vote is their husbands were away fighting in the war (GOC 1917). After the war women largely retained their ability to vote in federal elections and began to gradually gain the right to vote in municipal and provincial elections (NMF 2024).