Women's suffrage in New Zealand
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Women's suffrage in New Zealand was an important political issue at the turn of the 19th century. It is still often said New Zealand was the first country in the world to extend the vote to women, or that "Among self-governing countries still extant today, New Zealand was the first to give women the vote in national elections." However this isn't so. In 1893 when the relevant measure was passed New Zealand was not a "country", or a "self-governing country" but a British colony. It had substantial control of its internal affairs through an elected assembly but this body didn't have the power to make treaties with other sovereign nations, to declare war or to control the most important aspects of economic policy, all of which matters were reserved to the Imperial parliament in London. Moreover it was preceded in extending votes to women by other sub-national entities such as Wyoming in the United States in 1869. The confusion seems to have arisen because New Zealand only slowly evolved into a sovereign nation - a status it acquired at some time between 1907 and 1947 - without any widely recognised event to mark it. This has helped to foster the impression it was already a "country", a sovereign nation, in 1893.[1] Nevertheless the legislation was a reflection of the fact the status of women in New Zealand was relatively advanced at that time.
The Electoral Bill granting women the franchise was given Royal Assent by Governor Lord Glasgow on 19 September 1893, and women voted for the first time in the 1893 election, on 28 November 1893. (Elections for the Māori seats were held on 20 December). In 1893, Elizabeth Yates also became Mayor of Onehunga, the first time such a post had been held by a female anywhere in the British Empire.[2]
Women were not eligible to be elected to the House of Representatives until 1919 though, when three women, including Ellen Melville stood. The first woman to win an election (to the seat held by her late husband) was Elizabeth McCombs in 1933, followed by Catherine Stewart (1938), Mary Dreaver (1941), Mary Grigg (1942) and Mabel Howard (1943). Melville stood for the Reform Party and Grigg for the National Party, while Stewart, Dreaver and Howard were all Labour Party. The first Maori woman MP was Iriaka Ratana in 1949; she succeeeded to the seat held by her late husband.
Women were not eligible to be elected to the New Zealand Legislative Council (the Upper House of Parliament) until 1941. The first two women (Mary Dreaver and Mary Patricia Anderson of Greymouth) were appointed in 1946 by the Labour Government. In 1950 the "suicide squad" appointed by the National Government to abolish the Legislative Council included three women: Mrs Cora Burrell of Christchurch, Mrs Ethel Gould of Auckland and Agnes Louisa Weston of Wellington.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ For an account of New Zealand's constitutional history see Colin Campbell Aikman, ‘History, Constitutional’ in McLintock, A.H. (ed),An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, 3 vols, Wellington, NZ:R.E. Owen, Government Printer, 1966, vol 2, pp.67-75.
- ^ Elizabeth Yates (from the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Accessed 2008-03-10.)
[edit] History
Women's suffrage was granted after about two decades of campaigning by women such as Kate Sheppard and Mary Ann Müller and organisations such as the New Zealand branch of the Women's Christian Temperance Union. They felt that female voting would increase the morality of politics; their opponents argued that politics was outside women's 'natural sphere' of the home and family. Suffrage advocates countered that allowing women to vote would encourage policies which protected and nurtured families.
From 1887, various attempts were made to pass bills enabling female suffrage; each bill came close to passing but none succeeded until a government strategy to foil the 1893 bill backfired. By 1893 there was considerable popular support for women's suffrage, and the Electoral Bill passed through the Lower House with a large majority. The Legislative Council (upper house) was divided on the issue, but when Premier Richard Seddon ordered a Liberal Party councillor to change his vote, two other councillors were so annoyed by Seddon's interference that they changed sides and voted for the bill, allowing it to pass by 20 votes to 18. Both the Liberal government and the opposition subsequently claimed credit for the enfranchisement of women, and sought women's newly acquired votes on these grounds.<ref>Atkinson, pp 84-94, 96.</li></ol></ref>
