Council president wanted a better lot for all women
National Council of Women president b December 23, 1934 d August 29, 2018
Janet Hesketh, who has died aged 83, had a social conscience and believed in equity for all. Her contributions to society were all working towards achieving this.
As president of the National Council of Women, she once argued that men should be forced to pay their former wives to have job retraining when marriages broke down.
She said proposed legislation in 1998 to update matrimonial property laws failed to acknowledge that women tended to earn less than men.
If men were required to pay for their former spouses to train for a decent job, it would help address the inequality in earnings, said Hesketh, whose own marriage had ended after 46 years some years earlier.
‘‘Women had to put their careers on hold while bringing up their children. At the time of separation, he usually has a good job and can go on earning, but she is quite likely to be out of the workforce or doing part-time work and have nothing like the level of her husband’s skills, ‘‘ she told a Sunday newspaper.
During her time at the council she was the author of many submissions on all sorts of topics, from casinos and licensing laws to domestic violence. She fought for religious festivals, like Christmas and Easter, to be acknowledged in state schools.
The majority of her submissions had the wellbeing of women at their heart. She supported and mentored many women, believing passionately in women’s ability to do anything.
Hesketh was born in Hamilton in 1934 during one of the hottest summers on record and lived there until 1940 when the family moved to Nelson.
The only child of Bruce and Lilian Mackenzie, her father’s jobs in electricity saw them move around the country. They lived in Nelson during the war before settling in Karori in 1950. Karori remained her home for almost 70 years.
After her high school years at Wellington East Girls’ College, Hesketh went on to study for a degree in geography at Victoria University.
In her teens she had met Clive Hesketh and, after her graduation, the pair spent a year together in Dunedin, where she taught geography while Clive finished his dentistry studies. They married in 1957 and had three daughters and a son.
Hesketh once described herself as one of those ‘‘now rare women’’ who did not go into paid employment, but became involved in community activities often connected with children’s activities.
In this vein she became involved with the Mothers Union and the Girl Guides, becoming a commissioner for the latter from 1969-78. Her garage was often filled to bursting with boxes of Girl Guide biscuits.
When her children took up swimming, she became a nationally qualified swimming timekeeper and judge, which led to her decade-long involvement with the Water Safety Council.
She was active in the Anglican Church all her life and was a foundation member of the Association of Anglican Women (AAW). She led groups in the Karori parish and was diocesan president of AAW in the mid-1980s.
She was a feminist and believed totally in the equality of men and women. She had a real concern that lay women in the church needed to stand up and be counted, and feared all decisions would be left to those with dog collars. This was not a trend she approved of at all.
When her youngest child started school, a friend suggested she join the National Council of Women. Over more than 25 years she worked with the council to achieve a better lot for women. She was its president from 1994-98.
During her time at NCW she was a member of its parliamentary watch committee and editor of its circular.
She attended many international conferences over the years, representing her various committees, including the committee on status of women in New York in 2005, as the NZ Anglican observer and at the International Council of Women triennial conferences in Ottawa, Bangkok, and Washington.
Former colleague Beryl Anderson said Hesketh worked tirelessly for the betterment of women.
Following the 1995 Beijing United Nation Women’s Conference, Hesketh was keen to progress the issues raised within the Beijing Platform for Action to improve the status of women’s human rights, Anderson recalled. ‘‘Janet spoke strongly of the need to reduce violence against women, for reform of matrimonial and de facto property legislation, and energy conservation.’’
Between 1995-2001 Hesketh became a Legal Services Board member. She was vocal in her belief that a confident understanding of the legal issues that underlie almost all aspects of living and the ability to seek specialist information when it is needed should be the right of every citizen.
She was awarded the Queen’s Service Medal in 1988 and was made a Companion of the NZ Order of Merit in 1996 for services to the NCW. – By Bess Manson