Suffragettes show their political savvy
IT WAS a historic first for New Zealand but women only gained the vote after overcoming fake petitions, alcohol lobbyists and plain old sexism.
It was ‘‘the most important Parliamentary event in the history of New Zealand’’, The Evening Post said after MPs voted 20-18 to award women suffrage on September 8, 1893. It was the first self-governing country to do so.
The road to suffrage had been long and fraught with obstacles. It was first suggested in Parliament in 1878 by a group of politicians led by MP Charles Bowen. But by 1898, the whole group had become bitter opponents of suffrage.
‘‘Have women become worse, or the gentlemen in question wiser, since 1878?’’ the Post wondered.
An explanation lay with the alcohol industry, which strongly lobbied politicians to reject votes for women because many suffragettes were members of the anti-liquor Women’s Christian Temperance Union.
In 1887,
former
prime
minister Julius Vogel introduced another bill for women’s suffrage, which MP Richard Seddon opposed as a former publican and self-styled friend of the common man.
But women’s main enemy was Dunedin MP Henry Smith Fish, who hired men to circulate anti-suffrage petitions in pubs. The tactic backfired as many signatures were proved to be fake. In the meantime, suffrage leaders like Kate Sheppard in Christchurch and Jane Plimmer in Wellington had organised their own huge petitions, with as many as 32,000 signatures.
Fish filibustered a decision on the issue in 1891, a tactic of wasting parliamentary time by making a speech last for hours. Furious women wrote to the Post.
‘‘Who are they who are opposing the rights of women to the suffrage at this stage? Let the country mark them well,’’ a suffragette wrote.
‘‘A more outrageous proceeding than these obstructive tactics has never been witnessed in the whole annals of the high-handed methods pursued by the supporters of the present degradation of women.’’
On Waitangi Day, 1893, the Post expressed a similar frustration at a Parliament that promised suffrage but backtracked during votes.
‘‘It has fooled and betrayed women in regard to the franchise in the most flagrant manner. The promise of the franchise is being dangled before the feminine nose like the proverbial bunch carrots,’’ the paper wrote.
‘‘Ministers became seriously frightened at the prospect of being taken at their word. They felt like Frankenstein in the presence of his monster, and had to exercise the utmost ingenuity to escape and kill their own creation.’’
When the vote was put again in September, many feared Seddon, now prime minister, would block progress. But two opposition MPs changed their vote to embarrass him, and the act passed.
The general election on November 28 that year was the most orderly in history, and resulted in a much better standard of government, the Post said.
‘‘[Women] showed far less credulity than men are accustomed to display in politics. They have properly regarded the franchise as a sacred trust, and have refused to abuse it at the request or dictation of male relatives.
‘‘Taken together we regard the result of the general election as a most complete, emphatic and triumphant vindication.’’ GET THE BOOK The Dominion Post – 150 Years of News is available via dompost.co.nz or 0800 50 50 90. Priced at $34.95 + $3 postage and handling or $29.95 + $3 p&h for subscribers.
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