Looking back on the suffrage legacy
September 19 marks 125 years since New Zealand women won the right to vote.
As Margaret Gaze prepares to march with placards celebrating the efforts of New Zealand’s suffragists, the everyday injustices still endured by Kiwi women won’t be far from her mind.
Gaze is part of a New Plymouth collective who have organised events in the city to mark 125 years since women won the right to vote in New Zealand, an achievement for which she has ‘‘huge admiration’’.
The passing of the Electoral Act of 1893 was the result of years of effort by suffrage campaigners, led by Kate Sheppard and bolstered by petitions signed by close to 32,000 women from across the nation.
‘‘These women worked really hard to get us to where we are today.’’
But despite this world-beating triumph – Aotearoa being the first self-governing country across the globe to give females the voting right – Gaze admits there is a way to go for there to be true parity between the sexes.
‘‘We’re meant to be a democratic and First World country but we haven’t got equality in some areas.’’
She says the gender pay gap and the high rates of domestic violence against women were two stark examples. Shining a light on the past along with the challenges for the future is part of a hikoi Gaze has helped plan for September 19 in New Plymouth, alongside a group of others, including social advocate Lesley Olley.
Olley says the ‘‘mantra’’ for the occasion will be ‘looking back but moving forward’.
Part of the pair’s motivation to get involved in suffrage commemorations is about standing up and being counted as women, but also raising social awareness of the historically important moment.
The vote was ‘‘hard won’’ and Olley strongly believes women should honour that by making theirs count at every opportunity.
Information from the archives shows that in the first election since the landmark legislation was passed 125 years ago, there was an 82 per cent turn out from female voters. Of the 109,461 women enrolled, 90,290 voted. By 1905, the number of females enrolled climbed to 212,876.
How many women make use of
the hard-won right these days is unknown as the Electoral Commission does not hold statistics related to a voter’s gender.
But a 2016 Statistics New Zealand survey, completed after the 2014 election, found 87 per cent of women were likely to vote. The percentage for men was 83 per cent.
The report stated older people were more likely to vote than younger people and income was a factor regarding turnout at the polls too. It appears the more a person’s pay or salary meets their everyday needs, the more likely they are to vote. Conversely, feelings of disengagement were identified as the main reason why both men and women don’t get out and vote.
Giving a voice to Ma¯ ori women who struggle to be heard has been part of Waitara kuia Tiahuia Abraham’s life for 50 years.
As outgoing Aotea regional president of Te Ro¯ pu Wa¯ hine Ma¯ ori Toko i te Ora or the Ma¯ ori Women’s Welfare League (MWWL), Abraham says the roots of the organisation she has belonged to for five decades cannot be divorced from the work of the suffragists. Abraham says Ma¯ ori women were involved in the early days of the suffrage movement and continue to be trailblazers in their communities.
Since 1951, the kaupapa (purpose) of MWWL has been to promote the wellbeing of Ma¯ ori women and their families, to revive the practice of arts and te reo and promote fellowship between wa¯hine of all backgrounds.
‘‘Ma¯ori women today are still doing what they were doing back in the 1800s,’’ she says. ‘‘You pick up the phone and you never say no.’’
She points to wa¯ hine like Puna Wano-Bryant of Taranaki Iwi, Liana Poutu of Te A¯ tiawa, Nga¯ ruahine’s Daisy Noble and Nga¯ti Ruanui kaiarataki Debbie Ngarewa-Packer – just to name a few – who have picked up the baton of leadership and advocacy on behalf of their people. She says the ability to vote also opened the door to education, which she believes has been a real game-changer for women.
Through their involvement in the suffrage movement and social agencies like the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), Abraham says the skills Ma¯ ori women gained helped them to set up other organisations to fight other causes.
And it’s an ongoing battle as Ma¯ ori continue to top some of the country’s worst social statistics. For wa¯hine, this includes being the victims of crime, while also overpopulating the female prison system. While there were complex reasons behind this, Abraham says it is up to the women who have the ability to speak up to do so on behalf of those who can’t.
In her own efforts to do so, the 68-year-old has never let anyone’s sexist or racist attitudes get in her way. ‘‘You’re not going to be put me down as a Ma¯ ori woman.’’
Historian and author Jane Tolerton says the quest for New Zealand women to get the vote provides a perfect blueprint for how to affect real change in society.
She says enfranchisement was won through the power of words – through speeches, pamphlets and signatures on petitions.
‘‘It’s a great story. It’s a real role model for ourselves in terms of how to set out a political campaign and win.’’
A part of her published works is a book called Make Her Praises
Heard Afar, which chronicles the contributions women made during World War I. As nurses, munitions workers and land girls, their efforts were often lost in tales of heroics and hurts from the battlefield.
Tolerton believes men should not be left out of the suffrage story, in the same way women were left out of WWI history in the past. She says prominent, political figures like Julius Vogel, John Ballance and Robert Stout were in support of giving women the vote.
Tolerton says the #metoo movement, which sprung up in 2017 to raise global awareness about the prevalence of sexual assault and harassment, is linked to the suffrage movement and the ongoing push for gender equality.
She says the work of organisations like the WCTU around the issue of the liquor prohibition in the 1880s was driven by a desire to stop the associated domestic and sexual violence against females which was linked to alcohol abuse.
Legal researcher and #metoo blogger Zoe Lawton agrees.
‘‘Women are disproportionately subject to sexual harassment and assault in the workplace, in public and in their homes and we won’t have equality until all men, not just some, understand that treating women like this is wrong and stop,’’ she says.
Her advocacy work as part of #metoo has been exhausting and at times very frustrating, Lawton says. ‘‘It often feels like you’re swimming against a strong tide and you’re not making any progress. I sometimes wonder if Kate Sheppard and all the other women who are part of the suffrage legacy felt the same way but they ultimately achieved what they set out to do,’’ she says. ‘‘This gives me hope that we can reduce and hopefully one day totally eliminate sexual harassment and violence against women.’’