5 Remarkable Kiwi women to celebrate on International Women’s Day
Published on Mon Mar 5 2018 in Community
International Women’s Day, held annually on 8 March, celebrates the extraordinary achievements of women and girls worldwide. New Zealanders are particularly lucky, with many remarkable Kiwi women making contributions locally, nationally and internationally every year. We take a look at some of the ladies who shaped our shared history and continue to inspire us today!
Kate Sheppard – suffragette
New Zealand is home to some impressive firsts, including becoming the first self-governing nation to grant all women the right to vote in parliamentary elections. However, the country may hot have held this honour if it not for the hard work of Kate Sheppard.
Sheppard is probably New Zealand’s most famous suffragette. She began her activism after reading and hearing speeches by women’s suffrage leaders in Britain and the United States. Adopting their ideas and strategies, Shepard gave speeches, wrote pamphlets and promoted petitions to Parliament calling for universal voting rights to be extended to Kiwi women. Thanks to her persuasive writing and public speaking, Sheppard gained the support of several politicians, who submitted new electoral bills to Parliament.
The bill granting women’s suffrage was finally signed into law in September 1893, and Sheppard wasted no time in encouraging women to register as voters. Despite only 10 weeks remaining before the next election, 88 per cent of women were enrolled by Election Day, and nearly 70 per cent ended up casting a ballot!
Jean Batten – aviatrix
The 1920s and 30s were filled with aviation firsts, and one New Zealander left her mark on the history of flight. Jean Batten pushed herself and her plane to the limit, setting records along the way.
Batten, like many people around the globe, became fascinated by flight thanks to news stories celebrating the achievements of pioneer pilots. Her mother encouraged her ambition, and accompanied Batten to London to obtain a pilot's license. After two failed attempts to fly solo from England to Australia, Batten not only succeeded, but beat the previous record by over four days! She later became the first woman to fly solo across the South Atlantic and made the first ever direct flight from England to New Zealand.
Despite international fame, Batten faded from public view before reemerging briefly in the late 1960s. Sadly, she passed away in 1983 after refusing medical treatment for a dog bite whilst living in Spain. She has been honoured around New Zealand, including a statue in the Rotorua Regional Airport, her town of birth.
Maud Basham – radio broadcaster
Throughout the depression, Kiwis across the country tuned their radios each morning to hear a friendly greeting from “Aunt Daisy.” As one of New Zealand’s first celebrity broadcasters, Maud Basham carved out a career not often available to women at the time.
Basham began her radio career in 1928 as a singer, before moving into classical music and children’s programming. When she joined 1ZR in Auckland, Basham opened each day’s transmission with a cheerful “Good morning everybody!” as her radio persona Aunt Daisy. She built an enormous following of listeners thanks to her positive energy, providing her audience with recipes, advice and handy hints. Basham also promoted products on her show, sometimes causing them to sell out in shops by the afternoon!
Following her radio success, Basham published several cook books and volumes of household hints as Aunt Daisy. She visited Kiwi men and women serving overseas during World War II, reporting back on her travels to her audience at home. Basham worked up until just days before her death in 1963 at the age of 84.
Mabel Howard – politician
New Zealand has had many remarkable women in government, but none may be quite as memorable or colourful as Mabel Howard. Her straight forward manner ruffled feathers, but got results.
Howard was first elected to Parliament in 1943, after years working with labour unions, assisting her father with his political career, and sitting on the Christchurch City Council. She became the country’s first woman cabinet member just three years later when she was appointed to oversee health and child welfare. Howard sought to improve mental health facilities and remove the stigma patients faced. She also advocated for equal pay for women and secured the passage of the Animals Protection Act in 1960.
In 1954, Howard turned a halfhearted debate on the Merchandise Marks bill into a bit of a spectacle. To make a point about standardised clothing sizes, she displayed two pairs of women’s bloomers before the House. The men were shocked, but she also received much support, and standard clothing sizes were soon made law.
Dame Whina Cooper – Māori leader
There may be no female Māori elder more well-known than Whina Cooper. Her long life of activism on behalf of her people left a permanent mark on New Zealand’s history.
From a young age, Cooper was highly intelligent, thoughtful and spirited. This tenacity continued her whole life. Frustrated that women were discouraged from speaking on marae, she opened her own community centre that worked alongside the traditional discussion grounds. Cooper helped create the Māori Women’s Welfare League in 1951. She travelled the country to establish local and regional branches. She helped start programmes to improve council housing conditions and the lives of Māori women and children. Cooper was given the title Te Whaea o te Motu (“Mother of the Nation”) in 1957 for her work.
Cooper thought her public life was over, but in 1975 she was asked to lead Māori groups concerned about the control and use of their traditional lands. At the age of 80, she led thousands of demonstrators on a two-month long march from Te Hapua to Wellington, presenting a petition to Prime Minister Bill Rowling at the end of the journey.
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About Author: Momentum Life is a leading provider of Life insurance and Funeral insurance in New Zealand.
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