Seated portrait of Mrs Elizabeth Yates, c.1894. In 1893 Yates was
elected mayor of Onehunga, the first woman in the British Empire to
hold this position.
Elizabeth Yates' election as mayor of Onehunga on 29 November 1893
– the day after New Zealand women had led the world by voting in a
general election for the first time – cemented her place as a pioneer
of women's political rights. She was
the first woman in the British Empire to hold the office of mayor.
