Acceptance and respect was hard-earned
Eve Poole QSO served three terms as an Invercargill City Councillor and was elected mayor four times between 1983 and her death in 1992. Her youngest daughter, Michele, reflects on a pioneering woman in local body politics.
There was a period in my childhood when I wished my mother had been more like everybody else’s. It had partly to do with her European accent, her habitual lateness and her dislike of poor service in shops (a recurring source of embarrassment when we went to town).
Childishly though, what I remember most was that when my friends’ mums lined up for the mothers’ race at the school sports every year, mine never did.
By the time my mother announced in 1971 that she was standing for the council, I had given up hoping for conformity.
When my siblings all left home within six months of each other, they created a gap that teaching speech and drama, acting and directing for the Invercargill Repertory Society and keeping house didn’t adequately fill.
The solution lay in the City Council’s plan to move the Troopers Memorial from the middle of Bank Corner to improve traffic flows. As an exservicewoman she was infuriated by the proposal and that sentiment propelled her to stand for election and ‘‘save the monument’’.
During the campaign some grumbled that a woman’s place was in the home, but their voices weren’t loud, nor were they influential.
Never a burn-your-bra feminist, my mother nevertheless expected equality. She aimed to be judged by the work she did, the contribution she made and the results she achieved.
While more women were elected to join her through the years, the constant need to prove her worth as a woman in a male-dominated arena remained as she served her next two terms as deputy mayor and later won four elections as mayor.
Work-life balance wasn’t ‘‘a thing’’ while she was in office, but if it had been she would have scoffed at the notion.
Teatime discussions had always been lively in our family but for the 21 years of her public service, the council was an uninvited guest at every meal. Holidays were scheduled around meetings.
Both parents taught me that principles were worth fighting for and, once won, rights must be exercised and protected.
The right to vote was one of these, and another was the right to choose your own path in life.
She arrived in Invercargill as a war bride in 1944 and despite the city’s traditional conservatism, earned acceptance, popularity and respect – as an elected member and as a woman.