NZ media divided as ballot on votes goes in women’s favour

courage to take a manly and independent stand.’’

Apparently there was even a large proportion of women from the colony who did not ask for or desire the franchise. The Press suspected they would ‘‘shrink from having to go to the polling booths on election days’’, instead preferring to stay home and attend to their household duties.

But Wellingtonians were into it. ‘‘Logically, the objection about bearing arms has no more relevancy as against women’s claims to the franchise than the incapacity of men to bear children,’’ the Evening Post rebutted on September 8, 1892.

On Waitangi Day, 1893, the Post wrote in frustration at a Parliament that promised suffrage but back-tracked 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 of carrots.’’

Seven months later, when MPs voted 20-18 to award women suffrage, the newspaper called the globally historic moment ‘‘the most important Parliamentary event in the history of New Zealand’’.

‘‘We heartily congratulate the women of New Zealand on being at last admitted to a direct voice in the government of the colony. The battle has been a long and severe one.

‘‘We have borne our part in it unflinchingly for many years,’’ the Evening Post said, including in its sheets an enrolment application form for the nation’s newest eligible voters.

Little did they know, just over a century later, Jenny Shipley would become the country’s first female prime minister, followed closely by Helen Clark and now by Jacinda Ardern.

Take that, cucumbers . . . and carrots.

PRESS ARCHIVES Three anonymous women are photographed entering Christchurch’s Tuam Street Hall, through a predominantly male crowd, to cast their votes for the first time.