New Zealand women have been voting since 1893 (over 117 years)
September 18, 2009
New Zealand women get the vote in 1893
Women’s suffrage 1893: New Zealand is the first in the world to give women the vote.
Every 19th September women in New Zealand celebrate and remembered with gratitude, the struggle for the right to vote.
(For more detailed information of this see online encyclopedia http://www.teara.govt.nz/ )
Here in Christchurch we are proud of the fact that Kate Shephard was a prime organiser of the 31,872-signature petition (collected over seven years) and every year we gather at the memorial (cnr Worcester Boulevard & Cambridge Terrace) which depicts the women and the wheelbarrow in which the petition was taken to Parliament in Wellington.
Suffrage day is often also called White Camellia day, as women who supported enfranchisement wore a white camellia, yesterday women both wore the flowers and lay them at the wonderful memorial. The memorial was unveiled at the 100 year anniversary and a new camellia verity was also created then and named ‘Kate Sheppard’. Today we celebrated 116 years of all NZ women being able to vote.
Kates home in Christchurch
So far, from my research, it seems only one of my ancestors, my great-grandmother Elizabeth Rowe, (married Herbert Bunny) signed the petition and during that same year, 1893, her daughter, Mabel, my maternal grandmother was born.
One of the great things about the 1893 Electoral Bill was passed was that Maori women were given the vote too … not just women with land. Unfortunately Chinese women, in fact all Chinese people, did not get the vote until the early 1950s.
Don’t waste the courage and strength of those 19th century women – make sure you always vote.
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