18/09/2022
Today’s celebration is brought to you by the wāhine who walked the steps before us 👑
Women had to fight MANY obstacles to gain the right to vote.
At the time (and let’s be honest, for too many people still these days 😤) it was believed women were suited to cooking, cleaning + taking care of the children, impulsive + not intellectually fit to deal with important decisions like voting, that involvement in political affairs would be detrimental to what made women feminine + higher education would be destructive to women’s brains
HA HA HA. And one more - HA.
Thanks to Kate Shephard + her mates, FINALLY in June 1893 an Electoral Bill with provision for women’s suffrage was introduced. Debate in the House saw majority support for the enfranchisement of Māori + Pākehā women.
The bill was passed by the Legislative Council on 8 Sep and consented to by the governor on 19 Sep (HUZZAH!).
More than 90,000 wāhine went to the general election polls that year. The day after, Elizabeth Yates was the 1st wāhine in the British Empire to be elected mayor in ✌🏼💃🏼💪🏼
3 weeks later voting was held in the four Māori electorates - with 4,000 wāhine Māori voting.
Women could stand for MP from 1919 but it wasn’t until 1933 when Labour’s Elizabeth McCombs was elected (due to the death of her husband who held the role).
Labour’s Catherine Stewart was the first female MP to be elected in the 1935 general election. She was a “Member for Everywoman" + concentrated on issues in the interests of women, children and those in need.
On 29 Nov 1949, Lanour’s Iriaka Rātana became New Zealand’s 1st wāhine Māori MP ☄️
The 2020 election saw 58 women elected - 48% of Parliament 💃🏼🗳❤️
Aotearoa has had 3 female PMs:
Dame Jenny Shipley DNZM PC, the first wāhine to lead the National Party was the 1st female Prime Minister from 1997-1999.
Labour’s Helen Clark ONZ SSI PC held the position from 1999-2008.
Our current leader, Labour’s Jacinda Ardern has been in the job since 2017.
To all of you + the countless others who faught for our rights + have been elected or chosen to represent us - I salute you and thank you from the bottom of my uterus 🙇🏼♀️❤️🙏🏼
