Emily Murphy (born Emily Gowan Ferguson; 14 March 1868 – 26 October 1933) was a Canadian women's rights activist and author. In 1916, she became the first female magistrate in Canada and the fifth in the British Empire after Elizabeth Webb Nicholls, Jane Price, E. Cullen and Cecilia Dixon of Australia (all appointed to office in 1915). She is best known for her contributions to Canadian feminism, specifically to the question of whether women were "qualified persons" to serve in the Senate under Canadian law.

Murphy is known as one of "The Famous Five" (also called "The Valiant Five")—a group of Canadian women's rights activists that also included Henrietta Muir Edwards, Nellie McClung, Louise McKinney and Irene Parlby. In 1927, the women launched the "Persons Case," contending that women could be "qualified persons" eligible to sit in the Senate. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that they were not. However, upon appeal to the Judicial Committee of the British Privy Council, the court of last resort for Canada at that time, the women won their case.

However, there has been some criticism of her later work, mainly for her role in the Sexual Sterilization Act of Alberta and her allegations that a ring of immigrants from other countries, particularly China, would corrupt the white race by getting Canadians hooked on drugs. In her book The Black Candle, she wrote: "It is hardly credible that the average Chinese peddler has any definite idea in his mind of bringing about the downfall of the white race, his swaying motive being probably that of greed, but in the hands of his superiors, he may become a powerful instrument to that end."

Emily Murphy was born in Cookstown, Ontario, the third child of Isaac Ferguson and Emily Gowan. Isaac Ferguson was a successful businessman and property owner. As a child, Murphy frequently joined her two older brothers Thomas and Gowan in their adventures; their father encouraged this behaviour and often had his sons and daughters share responsibilities equally. Her brother William Nassau Ferguson became a judge of the Court of Appeal for Ontario.

Murphy grew up under the influence of her maternal grandfather, Ogle R. Gowan, a politician who founded a local branch of the Orange Order in 1830, and two uncles, one a Supreme Court justice and the other a senator. Her brother also became a lawyer and another member of the Supreme Court. Another uncle was Thomas Roberts Ferguson, an MP, and she was related to James Robert Gowan, who was a lawyer, judge, and senator.

Murphy benefited from parents who supported their daughter's receiving a formal academic education. She attended Bishop Strachan School, an exclusive Anglican private school for girls in Toronto where, through a friend, she met her future husband Arthur Murphy, who was 11 years her senior.

In 1887, they married, and subsequently had four daughters: Madeleine, Evelyn, Doris and Kathleen. Doris died. After Doris's death, the family decided to try a new setting and moved west to Swan River, Manitoba, in 1903 and then to Edmonton, Alberta, in 1907.

While Arthur was working as an Anglican priest, Murphy explored her new surroundings and became increasingly aware of the poverty that existed.