REUPLOADED: The Aotearoa History Show S2 | E12: Women's Suffrage | RNZ

Summary

The script traces the history of women's suffrage in New Zealand, beginning with the restrictive voting laws in 19th century Britain. It explores how Māori women held leadership roles yet lost rights under colonization, while Pākehā women fought for rights they never had. Influenced by international movements, Pākehā suffragists like Kate Sheppard campaigned through groups like the Women's Christian Temperance Union. Despite opposition, petitions from nearly a quarter of the country’s women helped pass the 1893 law allowing women to vote, making New Zealand the first self-governing nation to achieve universal suffrage.

Takeaways

• 😲 In early 19th century Britain, voting rights were heavily restricted based on class, sex and property ownership.
• 👩‍⚖️ The 'Great Reform Acts' of 1832 and 1867 in Britain expanded voting rights for men, but women were still excluded.
• 🌍 New Zealand had more inclusive voting laws than Britain, but most Māori men were still barred from voting.
• 💡 Liberalism and the French Revolution inspired early campaigns for women's equal rights.
• ⚖️ Many Māori women held positions of power and authority in traditional Māori society.
• 🍷 The Women's Christian Temperance Union campaigned against alcohol and for women's suffrage.
• ✍️ Mass petitions signed by nearly a quarter of European women helped demonstrate widespread support for suffrage.
• 😡 A minority of anti-suffragist politicians repeatedly blocked voting reform through dirty tricks.
• 🗳️ New Zealand became the first self-governing country to grant women the right to vote in national elections in 1893.
• 👩‍💼 It took many more years for women to gain the right to stand for Parliament and become MPs.

Q & A

Who was Mary Mueller and what was significant about her?

Mary Mueller was a feminist writer born in London in 1820 who migrated to New Zealand in 1849. She is celebrated as New Zealand's first feminist writer for her 1869 pamphlet 'An Appeal to the Men of New Zealand' which argued that women should have voting rights.

What reforms expanded voting rights in 19th century Britain and New Zealand?

In Britain, the Reform Acts of 1832 and 1867 expanded voting rights for men. In New Zealand, property restrictions on voting were dropped by the 1870s so virtually all men could vote, and 4 Māori seats were established in 1867.

How did gender roles and rights differ between Māori and Pākehā in the 19th century?

Māori women often held leadership roles and had rights regarding property and divorce that Pākehā women did not have. However, colonization started eroding many rights for Māori women.

What was the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and what was its role?

The Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was an anti-alcohol group that campaigned for social reforms like women's suffrage. Key leader Kate Sheppard later focused her efforts specifically on winning voting rights for women.

Who were some of the other people and groups important to the women’s suffrage movement?

Other groups like the Women's Franchise Leagues organized rallies and petition drives. Some Māori women like Meri Te Tai Mangakāhia advocated for suffrage, as did male politicians like Julius Vogel and John Hall.

How much support was there among New Zealand women for suffrage?

A 1893 petition calling for women's suffrage gathered nearly 32,000 signatures, representing almost a quarter of the country's Pākehā women. This demonstrated it was a mass movement.

Why did some conservative politicians support women’s suffrage?

Some conservatives believed women voters would support conservative candidates and policies, seeing women primarily as 'domesticated, home loving'. These views were later proven incorrect.

When were New Zealand women actually granted the right to vote?

The Electoral Act granting women's suffrage was signed into law on September 19, 1893. This made New Zealand the first self-governing country to grant women universal suffrage.

When were New Zealand women granted the right to stand for parliament?

It took much longer for New Zealand women to gain the right to stand for parliament - this didn't happen until 1919, 26 years after winning the right to vote. The first female MP wasn't elected until 1933.

What progress has been made in New Zealand politics since women’s suffrage?

There has been gradual progress, with New Zealand now having had 3 female Prime Ministers and women making up 48% of MPs after the 2020 election. But equal representation took well over a century.

Outlines

00:00

📜 The early days of the suffrage movement in New Zealand

The paragraph discusses the early days of the suffrage movement in New Zealand in the 1860s and 1870s. It introduces Mary Mueller, an early feminist writer who advocated for women's voting rights. It also provides context about voting rights in the UK and New Zealand at the time, and discusses the relatively progressive voting laws in the colonies compared to Britain. There is also discussion of traditional Māori views on gender roles and leadership.

05:02

👩‍🎓 The cultural context for Māori and Pākehā women

This paragraph compares the cultural context around gender rights for Māori and Pākehā women in the 19th century. It explains that Māori women held more rights and leadership roles traditionally, but these were eroded through colonization. In contrast, Pākehā women had very limited rights, especially related to marriage, divorce and child custody issues. The paragraph also notes the gender imbalance between European men and women in the colonies was a factor in the suffrage movement.

10:03

😇 The Women's Christian Temperance Union

The paragraph discusses the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), an anti-alcohol organization led by women that advocated for social reforms and women's rights. It profiles visiting suffragist Mary Leavitt and notes that while the WCTU had some problematic views, it played a key role in mobilizing conservative women to push for voting rights.

15:03

👭 Diverse groups unite for suffrage

This section overviews the various groups and key figures, both women and men, Māori and Pākehā, that came together to advocate for women's suffrage. This included the tailors union, the Women's Franchise Leagues, politicians like Julius Vogel and John Hall, and Māori women leaders Meri Te Tai Mangakāhia and Iriaka Rātana.

20:04

😡 Dirty tricks block voting reform

The paragraph examines the repeated legislative attempts to grant women's suffrage in New Zealand in the late 1880s and early 1890s, and the tactics used to block these reforms. There was clear majority support among MPs, but a small group of anti-suffragists, including Premier Richard Seddon, worked behind the scenes with procedural tricks to stop the Electoral Act changes.

25:05

🎉 New Zealand leads the way on universal suffrage

Finally, on September 19, 1893, the Electoral Act is signed into law, granting women the right to vote and making New Zealand the first self-governing nation to achieve universal suffrage. But the fight continued for women to gain the right to stand for Parliament, which comes decades later, and equal representation is still ongoing.

Keywords

💡suffrage

Suffrage means the right to vote. The fight for women's suffrage, or voting rights, was a key theme in the video. Women like Kate Shephard and the Women's Christian Temperance Union fought for decades to win New Zealand women the right to vote, which they achieved in 1893 when NZ became the first self-governing country to grant universal suffrage.

💡prohibition

Prohibition refers to the banning of alcohol. The temperance movement, led by the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), advocated for prohibition in late 19th century New Zealand. The fight for prohibition became linked to the fight for women's suffrage, since many women believed banning alcohol would reduce violence and poverty.

💡liberalism

Liberalism was an influential political ideology in the 19th century focused on civil liberties and rights. It inspired early campaigns for voting rights, but often still excluded women. Some conservatives supported women's suffrage believing women voters would support more conservative policies.

💡democracy

Democracy means a political system based on citizens voting, often for representatives. In early 19th century Britain and NZ, voting rights were limited by class and gender, but NZ had more inclusive rules, enfranchising a wider proportion of men.

💡patriarchy

Patriarchy refers to social systems dominated by men. Under British patriarchy, married women faced severely limited rights compared to Maori women. Maori had more gender balance in leadership roles before colonization began eroding women's status.

💡colonization

Colonization refers to the British settlement and imposition of political control over NZ. It disrupted Maori self-governance and brought patriarchal views limiting women's rights compared to their pre-colonial status.

💡activism

Activism refers to taking organized action to achieve political aims. The movement for women's suffrage involved activism from the WCTU, other women's groups, and ordinary women signing petitions to demand the vote.

💡representation

Representation refers to a group having people from that group present in leadership roles. Maori women fought alongside Pakeha women for suffrage. They also called for representation and speaking rights in tribal and NZ parliaments.

💡equality

Equality means enjoying the same rights and status in society. Early suffragists were inspired by liberal calls for equal rights, but faced arguments that women were unsuited for political participation or leadership.

💡empowerment

Empowerment refers to becoming stronger, gaining skills and confidence to self-determine. Winning suffrage politically empowered women. As Kate Shephard wrote, it resulted from a “larger vision of rights and duties” and “humanitarianism”.

Highlights

In early 19th century Britain, voting rights were heavily restricted based on class, sex and property ownership.

New Zealand had radically inclusive voting rights compared to Britain - about 34% of European men could vote in 1853.

Māori women occupied important leadership positions in traditional Māori society - positions of military, spiritual and political significance.

The relative scarcity of women in colonial NZ put a premium on them as wives, mothers and moral guardians - supporting arguments for suffrage.

The Women's Christian Temperance Union advocated for social reform on issues like prisons, kindergartens and women's rights.

Kate Sheppard focused her efforts on women's suffrage after realizing male politicians wouldn't care about women's concerns without their votes.

The 1893 petition for women's suffrage was signed by nearly 32,000 women - almost a quarter of European women in NZ at the time.

In 1893, NZ became the first self-governing country in the world with universal suffrage, allowing all adult citizens to vote regardless of gender or wealth.

Māori women won the right to vote and stand for election in the Māori parliament earlier than Pākehā women did in the colonial parliament.

Conservative support for women's right to vote didn't extend to supporting their right to stand for parliament, which wasn't achieved until 1919.

The first female MP wasn't elected until 1933, and equal numbers of male/female MPs wasn't achieved until recently.

Alcohol contributed significantly to land alienation - grog sellers targeted Māori attending Native Land Court to trap them in debt.

The Women's Franchise Leagues held the biggest rallies and collected the most petition signatures for women's suffrage.

Conservative politician Sir John Hall was a key supporter of women's suffrage, lending credibility to the cause among his peers.

Premier Richard Seddon secretly tried to block women's suffrage despite publicly claiming to support it.

Transcripts

it's

1869 and we're sitting in a house in

blenham there's a woman sitting at a

desk writing she started with a title an

appeal to the men of New Zealand at the

heart of this appeal was a question why

has a woman no power to vote no right to

vote when she happens to possess all the

requisites which legally qualify a man

for that right the name of our writer is

Mary Mueller she was born in London in

1820 and migrated to an in 18 49 these

days she celebrated as New Zealand's

first feminist writer but in 1869 very

few people knew Mary Mueller held these

views her husband disapproved of her

activism so she had her identity behind

a pen name famina in her own words she

worked like a mole underground in the

dark to some it might have seemed like a

hopeless struggle at the time there

wasn't a single self-governing country

in the world where women could vote in

national election but Mary Mueller could

see a different future as she wrote in

her pamphlet change is coming but why is

New Zealand only to follow why not take

the initiative and 24 years later that

initiative would be taken on September

19th 1893 alador became the first

self-governing country in the world

where women could

[Music]

vote

[Music]

[Music]

so let's start in the country which

brought this whole idea of democ ratic

elections to our Shores the United

Kingdom but actually Democratic might

have been a bit of a stretch yeah in

early 19th century Britain voting rights

were heavily restricted based on class

sex and the ownership of property

basically if you weren't a guy and you

weren't really really rich no votes for

you in Scotland it was estimated just

4,000 out of 2.4 million people could

vote and 1831 that's less than 0.2% of

the population so to deal with this lack

of representation Britain passed the

so-called great Reform Act of 1832 great

might have been a bit of an

overstatement it's estimated only one

out of every seven British men could

vote under that law so a second great

Reform Act was passed in 1867 still not

that great only about two and five men

could vote but compared to what was

happening in Britain Colonial New

Zealand had radically inclusive voting

rights about 34 of European men were

eligible to vote in our first

parliamentary election in 1853 and by

the standards of the time that was a lot

technically Marty men had the same

voting rights as parka but in practice

the vast majority were excluded to vote

you had to own or rent property but most

Marty men weren't counted as land owners

because they owned their land communally

rather than individually by the end of

the 1870s those property restrictions

were dropped so virtually all men could

vote in 1867 the government had also

established four Marty seats which

ensured some level of Marty

representation although based on

population numbers there should have

been about 15 Marty MPS these voting

reforms in Britain New Zealand and other

parts of the western world were part of

an international movement known as

liberalism liberalism was a big deal in

the late 18th and early 19th century

partly because of the French Revolution

and its Declaration of the Rights of Man

and of the citizen right at the top of

the page this declaration said men are

born and remain free and equal in rights

but more than a few women thought you

know maybe it's not just men who are

born free and equalent rights equal

rights sound pretty awesome we'd love to

get some of that too and a lot of

liberal men were like yeah we'll

definitely get around to that but look

let's just focus on some other stuff

first and they did get around to it

about 100 years later okay so that's the

European context what about the Mali

context well this idea that men should

be the only ones with the same politics

was something very new to Mai in Mali

Society leadership is substantially

based on fuckaa and female ranga of high

birth commonly became leaders of the

Habu there are oral and written

histories of some tribes refusing to

sign the Treaty of wangi because British

officials refuse to accept the

signatures of some female leaders but at

least 12 w Mii did sign the treaty on

behalf of their people and there may

have been more traditionally Marty names

weren't gendered so some of the

signatures assumed to be from men could

actually be from women as Marty law

expert Annie midi writes Marty women and

men featured in all aspects of life and

fulfilled all manner of roles it is

clear from oral histories that Marty

woman occupied very important leadership

positions in traditional Society

positions of military spiritual and

political significance of course course

you could say the same for some high

ranked European women Queen Victoria for

example but for most European women

their rights were severely limited in

most cases when women got married all

their property was transferred to the

ownership of their husbands custody of

children defaulted to the father and

divorce was extremely difficult the same

was not true for Mai as Annie mikid

explains marriage did not entail a

transferral of property from her father

to her spouse and in cases where

misconduct was shown divorce was

relatively simple so long as the correct

procedures were followed divorce carried

no Stigma in any issues as to custody

and ongoing support of children were

sorted out within the Faro context as

history Professor Barbara Brooks writes

some Pia woman may have actually been

inspired by the relative equality

between genders and Marty Society Pia

woman could see Marty woman

participating in Warfare acting as

eloquent and advocates in court and

exercising un rights with regard to

property mm all this goes to show the

fight for women's rights in the 19th

century looked different for Mai and P

Pia women were fighting to gain rights

they never had before while wahi andari

were often fighting to regain rights

they were losing through

colonization M women were also living in

societies with relatively even numbers

of men and women whereas PIAA women were

vastly outnumbered by men Yeah by 1871

it's estimated T had twice as many

European men than women between the ages

of 21 and 65 a lot of these men were

young single and pretty Rowdy which

upset a lot of the conservative

landowning men who dominated the

political establishment in history

Professor Katie pickles argues this was

a major factor in the battle for women's

rights as she says the relative scarcity

of women put a premium on women as wives

mothers and moral Guardians The Men Who

support Ed women's suffrage believed

that women's votes would have an orderly

conservative effect on society in the

colonial setting women's part as

maternal civilizing agents was

especially needed women's value in New

Zealand was on a high and that high kept

rolling through the 1870s in 1875 female

rate payers gained the right to vote in

Municipal elections and in 1878 a bill

to allow women to vote and stand for

Parliament was only narrowly defeated

and voting wasn't the only battle for

women's rights in the late 19th century

some people wanted equality and divorce

laws some wanted married women to have

more rights to property and to their

children some wanted an increase in the

age of consent which was just 12 years

old at the time and from about 1885

onward the movement for women's voting

rights became increasingly linked to

another political

movement prohibition the struggle to ban

alcohol traditionally Marty never made

alcohol that was brought to an by

Europeans and a social historian Jo

Phillips points out Europeans were big

drinkers in British and northern

European cultures alcohol especially

beer was regarded as an essential food

which helped make blood and give energy

milk could carry disease water was often

contaminated and alternative drinks such

as cordials tea and coffee had not yet

established themselves alcohol seemed a

daily necessity then as now alcohol

contributed significantly to domestic

violence and sexual assault it wasn't

uncommon for husbands to drink away

their weekly wages and in an era where

married women were usually unable to

find well-paid work that could leave

their families and dicts given all the

problems drinking caused for women it's

probably not surprising the most

prominent anti-alcohol group was led by

women the women's Christian Temperance

Union wctu for short Temperance by the

way is just an old timey word for no

drinking the wctu was an international

movement it was founded in the United

States in 1874 and its mission was

summed up in a single policy do

everything and they really meant

everything by the 1880s representatives

of the wctu were traveling all over the

world to build support for the movement

in 1885 one of these wom Mary livit came

to altior she made speeches and

delivered lectures all over the country

encouraging kiwi women to set up their

own chapter of the wct but she wasn't

just there to talk about booze Mary L

argued forcefully for women's equality

according to one report of a meeting at

St Paul's Church in Christ Church Mary L

considered that woman as an integral

part of humanity was entitled to freedom

under the law of God it was said that

woman could not fulfill certain duties

that they could not for instance be

judges but she contended that though all

women were not fit to be judges neither

were all men the latter fact did not

prevent men from being allowed to study

the law neither should the former fact

prevent women but the wct wasn't just a

narrow anti-alcohol Pro women's rights

movement as historian Dr rayan delzell

points out following the do everything

policy the wctu worked for social reform

on a broad front its members visited

prisons set up kindergartens and ran

clubs for young mothers the wctu

provided evening classes and cook

cooking sewing carpentry and Bible

instruction and a club for boys and even

though Mary Le advocated some radical

ideas the wct generally wasn't seen as a

radical Organization no after all it was

led by devoutly Christian Middle and

upper class woman it wasn't some coven

of anarchist communist agitators how

could any upstanding kiwi bloke object

to his wife or daughter signing a pledge

not to drink alcohol or helping out at a

Bible class as hisory Professor Ian Tyra

put it the wctu was a bridge between

home and church on the one hand and

social and political action on the other

but of course the temperance Union

wasn't some perfect organization which

never did anything wrong as Dr Tyrell

says historians have generally portray

the wct in Australia as a group of

religious bigots and fanatical wowers

wower by the way is a dismissive term

for someone who doesn't drink alcohol

and while New Zealand historians tend to

have a more positive view of the w C

than their Aussie counterparts there are

aspects which were problematic yeah with

the benefit of hindsight it's clear the

temperance Union's idea that outlawing

alcohol would lead to some kind of

Utopia was Pure Fantasy prish in the

United States lead to huge growth and

organized crime illegal beer houses in

Al were also hot beds for criminal

activity as late as the 1960s and 70s

Marty woman who joined the temperance

Union had to take a pledge that they

would never receive more Co

reflecting a prejudice against Mii

culture from many Europeans at the time

but many W Mii still set up their own

local wct chapters alcohol contributed

to land alienation Grog sellers targeted

Marty attending the native land Court to

trap them in debt and forc them to sell

land so while the wctu had some

skeletons in its closet many still saw

it as a positive force and of course it

played a central role in winning both

Mary and P women the right to vote in

ALA the woman who led the battle for

voting rights within the temperance

Union was of course Kate Shephard

Shephard was born in Liverpool and

migrated to Christ Church in 1868 when

she was 21 years old she was an

extremely intelligent well-educated

woman from a middle class background and

active in her local church and short

exactly the kind of person who' be drawn

to the wct one of Kate Shepherd's first

priorities was a petition to Outlaw bids

and ban the sale of alcohol to children

but when this petition was rejected in

188 5 she realized that male politicians

wouldn't give a hoot about women's

concerns unless they needed those

women's votes by 1887 shepher had risen

to become the wct's national

superintendent of franchise and

legislation in New Zealand what a title

and from that point on she focused

virtually all her efforts on women's

suffrage suffrage by the way just means

the right to vote shepher was exactly

the right woman for the job a skilled

organizer talented public speaker and

master of propaganda yeah shepher didn't

write long essays on political Theory or

philosophy instead she wrote short

Punchy pamphlets like her famous 10

reasons why the women of New Zealand

should vote the number two reason was

because it has not yet been proved that

the intelligence of women is only equal

to that of children nor that their

social status is on par with that of

lunatics or convicts shots F K but the

story of women's suffrage isn't just a

onew woman Crusade working alongside

sheepit and the wct with the women's

franchise leagues the leagues were all

about the vote not alcohol or religion

or anything else and according to

historian Jane tolton they held the

biggest rallies and collected most of

the signatures for the key 1893 petition

to Parliament it was led by women such

as Amy dely Marian Hatton and others who

probably don't get the credit they

deserve for organizing and motivating

women to speak out historian Helen

Simpson wrote a in 1940 that the leagues

were the effective factor in the

suffrage campaign but many groups helped

push the cause including the Tailor's

Union and some influential Marty women

like M Mahia and

Akana more on those two in a minute and

of course in a system dominated by male

politicians women couldn't have won this

fight without support from some men

there were plenty of guys who opposed

the campaign one to publish in the

Littleton times complaint that if women

got the vote instead of tempering

Society with Grace and softness women

would inviter it with the asperities of

debate instead of being man's comforter

and better Angel she would be his

intellectual

antagonist but a lot of men were

actually Keen for a bit of intellectual

antagonism from women including some of

New Zealand's most prominent politicians

as former Premier Julius Vogel said in

Parliament what right has man to demand

of a woman the sacrifice of what may be

called her higher intellectual qualities

in order that she may be a greater

pleasure to him one of the strongest

supporters of suffrage was the

conservative former Premier Sir John

Hall so John is a guy with shall we say

a mixed Legacy he supported the py

hucker raid and stood for the rights of

rich land owners in Canterbury at the

expense of poor Colonial Farmers but

that reputation was actually a big help

dare I say it and convincing other

conservatives to support women's

suffrage as Sir John put it himself the

fact that the proposal was made made by

an old man who is not an inexperienced

politician gives some assurance that it

is not a rash or dangerous proposal of

course that support frustrated some

other conservatives like George Steed

the editor of the Press newspaper who

told Sir John you are making a fatal

mistake in advocating the female

franchise it will double the majority

against us I have been among the poor in

Christ Church quite lately and it is

among women that one hears the most

democratic and revolutionary theories Le

toing members of the the Liberal Party

couldn't have agreed more as Liberal

Party MP William eraw said the greatest

thing the working men can do is to bring

their wives and sisters to fight the

battle against organized Capital so why

would conservatives like Sir John Hall

support women's voting rights if their

political enemies thought it would swing

the elections in the Liberals favor well

most of the people pushing for women's

right to vote including many so-called

conservatives were inspired by the

liberal writings British philosopher and

MP John Stewart Mill but they were also

influenced by their most UN liberal

views of paraha women as history

Professor Patricia Grimshaw put it for

conservative politicians woman was

undoubtedly a conservative element in

the community their belief in the

direction the women's vote would take

was conditioned by their view of women

as largely domesticated home loving

country wives and these they felt sure

would swell the conservative ranks but

spoiler alert both sides were wrong the

first election in which women voted did

swing in favor of the Liberals but

women's votes weren't decisive it turned

out women weren't all radical

progressives all di hard conservatives

their views on politics were just as

diverse as New Zealand men shocking

who'd have guessed but we're getting

ahead of ourselves a big problem faced

by the suffragists was the argument that

they only represented a radical Fringe

as Weller to the Littleton times asked

have the woman in New Zealand asked for

the franchise does one woman in 20 know

anything about the matter but the

suffragists knew how to answer that

question they organized a petition so

New Zealand women could speak for

themselves the first was circulated in

1891 and got about 9,000 signatures the

following year a second petition got

more than 20,000 signatures and in 1893

the wctu franchise leagues and all

presented their third and final petition

it turned out quite quite a bit more

than one in 12 women wanted suffrage the

1893 petition was signed by nearly

32,000 women almost a quarter of all

parkar women in the country and this is

a key point the battle for women's

suffrage wasn't just fought by a small

group of activists it was a mass

movement which involved direct action

from a huge chunk of New Zealand's

population and it wasn't like today

where you can sign a petition online

many of these signatories traveled long

distances from remote rural areas to

have their say and the petitions

themselves were seen all over the

country the sheets of the 1893 petition

were gathered in a real of paper 270 M

long which Sir John Hall dramatically

rolled down the aisle of parliament but

the weird thing is none of this should

have been necessary it was clear women's

suffrage was already supported by a

majority of members of the House several

times in the late 1880s and early 1890s

it looked like suffrage was going to be

passed only to fail at the last second

the problem was a relatively small

number of anti-suffragists who carried

out a bewildering campaign of backro

deals and dirty tricks to prevent the

law being changed the final bit of

trickery came from Premier Richard siden

himself sidan opposed suffrage but he

avoided saying so publicly because he

worried that if women knew he opposed in

voting and they did end up winning the

vote they' punish him at the next

election instead siden appears to have

worked behind the scenes to sabotage the

elector Bill ordering one pro-suffrage

politician to change his vote so it

would fall at the final hurdle but then

at the last second two conservative MPS

changed their votes to support the bill

without those two guys Edward Stevens

and William Reynolds suffrage would have

failed yet again finally on September

19th 1893 the Electoral Act was signed

into law Al became the first

self-governing country in the world

where women could vote and you can go

even further every country to this day

has some limits on who can vote but by

usual definitions we can say something

pretty damn cool in 1893 alador became

the first self-governing country in the

world with universal suffrage and get

this Richard Sid announced the news to

Kate sheber in the telegram which said I

trust now that all doubts as to the

sincerity of this government and this

very important matter has now been

effectively removed yep after all his

behindth scenes meddling to block

women's suffrage sedan turned around and

pretended he'd been for it all along no

wonder his nickname was King dick but

Kate Shephard and her allies were

probably too busy celebrating to care

one wctu member telegrammed Kate sheeper

from denan describing a splendid meeting

last night in City Hall crammed mostly

with women enthusiasm unbounded

thousands of handkerchiefs waving for

victory our old mate Geor Ste was less

enthusiastic saying we have now got the

female franchise as surely as we had the

measles it has come to stay and we must

make the best of it at the same time

paria woman were fighting for a voice in

the paria parliament wah Mii were

fighting for representation inside the

cahi Tanga Parliament as we mentioned in

our episode on the native land Court

tahi Tanga was set up in an attempt to

counterbalance the parkyard dominated

Colonial Parliament and especially to

put an end to the alienation of Mai land

the was established in 1892 and just

like the P Parliament it was a bit of a

sausage fest only men could vote or

stand for a seat Koba Mari researcher

Professor Leon pammer suggests that

although Mar women attended the in equal

numbers to Mii men the impact of

colonial gender beliefs and practices

were already embedded with M women at

that time being denied the right to vote

or stand as members but unlike the

Colonial Parliament women did have the

right to speak at the cahi Tanga

assembly and on May 18th 1893 media ofwa

delivered a speech challenging the rules

on voting she pointed out that many Mari

women were land owners and knowledgeable

in the management of their land and she

pointed out that when Marty men had

traveled to England to Lobby Queen

Victoria for an into Lance house had

been ignored as she said perhaps the

queen May listen to the petitions if

they presented by her M sisters since

she is a woman as well but later that

day another female speaker

addressed supported proposal but thought

a debate over the role of women in K

should wait until the movement won

official recognition from P politicians

and of course that recognition was never

received toana foron in 1895 toana

argued for many years the men the Chiefs

the members of parliament and the Kinga

have been searching for answers to our

issues regarding land and the betterment

of our people they even went to England

all of this was done without us the

woman and no benefit has come back to

our people we women have not yet tried

Mari won the right to vote in quah Tanga

in

1897 they also gained the right to stand

for election it was another 22 years

before women won that same right in the

colonial Parliament part of the problem

in Wellington was that those

conservative politicians who' supported

women's voting rights wouldn't support a

law change so women could become MPS

many conservatives were annoyed that

female voters hadn't rewarded them at

The Ballot Box as one wrote in a letter

to S John Hall the women have greatly

disappointed Us in the demand we thought

they would make for pure and safe

governments well the support of

conservatives like Sir John efforts to

get women the right to stand for

Parliament repeatedly failed they didn't

win that struggle until 1919 26 years

after women won the right to vote the

first female MP Elizabeth mums wasn't

elected until 1933 another 14 years

after that and it took another 16 years

before iak Katana became New Zealand's

first female Marty MP in 1949 it's only

been in the past decade that has

approached equal numbers of male and

female MPS after the 2020 election 48%

of our MPS were women an all-time record

also we've now had three female prime

ministers and while the slow progress

must have frustrated Kate shefford she

wasn't discouraged on the 21st

anniversary of women's suffrage she

wrote The M doing of such an act of

justice as INF franchising women was the

outcome of a larger vision of Rights and

duties a growing Enlightenment a broad

conception of humanity as it now is and

as it may become the enfranchisement of

women was in itself an expression of the

growing sense of justice and

humanitarianism in New

[Music]

[Music]

Zealand