Pages tagged with: suffrage

Did one of your ancestors sign the giant 1893 petition calling for women’s right to vote? This historic document records the names of one in five New Zealand women at the time. Now you can search their names in an online database and contribute comments and information about them.

A history of the movement that won New Zealand women the vote in 1893

Women's suffrage milestones from 1869 to 1999

Three years after the vote was won in 1893, a convention of representatives of 11 women's groups from throughout New Zealand resolved itself into the National Council of Women.

Although a number of other territories enfranchised women before 1893, New Zealand can justly claim to be the first self-governing country to grant the vote to all adult women.

Mary Ann Müller, about 1900

First-wave feminists argued that women's votes would clean up politics.

Amey Daldy, 1829–1920

Margaret Home Sievwright, 1844–1905

New Zealand was the first country in the world to grant women the vote. Kate Sheppard, leading light of the suffrage movement, was vindicated when 65% of New Zealand women took the chance to vote in their first general election.

Ada Wells contributed to the women's suffrage campaign in the 1880s and 90s, and for became the first women elected to the Christchurch City Council in 1917.

Ada Wells is remembered for her contribution to the women's suffrage campaign in the 1880s and 90s, and for becoming the first woman elected to the Christchurch City Council in 1917.

Elizabeth Yates was elected mayor of Onehunga on 29 November 1893, becoming the first woman in the British Empire to hold the office.

New Zealand women went to the polls for the first time, just 10 weeks after the Governor signed the Electoral Act 1893, making this country the first in the world to enfranchise all adult women.

As well as appearing on out $10 note, women's suffragist Kate Sheppard features in The A to Z of New Zealand stamp series produced by New Zealand Post in 2008.

Anna Stout was dedicated to the advancement of women, championing calls for equal political, legal, social and educational rights. She was particularly concerned for the education of Maori women.

Biography of a Maori woman suffragist

In 1893 Meri addressed the Maori parliament to ask that Maori women be allowed to vote for and become members of that body.

This is the first sheet of the Canterbury section of the huge 1893 suffrage petition, which was signed by more than 25,000 women.

‘Lady voters’ approach the polling booth at the Drill Hall in Rutland Street, just off Queen Street, Auckland, on 6 December 1899.