New Zealand women and the vote

Suffrage and beyond

On 19 September 1893 the governor, Lord Glasgow, signed a new Electoral Act into law. As a result of this landmark legislation, New Zealand became the first self-governing country in the world to grant all women the right to vote in parliamentary elections.

In most other democracies – notably Britain and the United States – women did not win the right to the vote until after the First World War. New Zealand's world leadership in women's suffrage became a central part of our image as a trail-blazing 'social laboratory'.

The campaign for women's suffrage was led by Kate Sheppard. In recent years her contribution to New Zealand's identity has been acknowledged on the $10 note. Today, the idea that women could not or should not vote is completely foreign to New Zealanders. Almost a third of the Members of Parliament elected at the 2005 general election were female. In recent years, women have held the country's key constitutional positions: prime minister, governor-general, speaker of the House of Representatives and chief justice.