The Women Jurors Act provided for women aged between 25 and 60 to have their names placed on the jury list on the same basis as men – if they so desired.
Women
Events In History
3 June 1941
Calls for policewomen had been made since the 1930s, when the National Council of Women started lobbying for women officers.
16 January 1941
The Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) was formed to enable the Royal New Zealand Air Force to release more men for service overseas during the Second World War.
13 September 1933
The Labour Party’s Elizabeth McCombs became New Zealand’s first female Member of Parliament, winning a by-election in the Lyttelton seat caused by the death of her husband, James McCombs.
28 November 1893
New Zealand women went to the polls for the first time, just 10 weeks after the governor signed the Electoral Act 1893, making this country the first in in which women had the right to vote in parliamentary elections.
19 September 1893
When the governor, Lord Glasgow, signed a new Electoral Act into law, New Zealand became the first self-governing country in the world in which women had the right to vote in parliamentary elections.
14 August 1891
These petitions, signed by 9000 women, contributed to the introduction of a Female Suffrage Bill in Parliament. This received majority support in the House of Representatives but was defeated in the Legislative Council.
11 July 1877
Kate Edger became the first woman in New Zealand to gain a university degree and the first woman in the British Empire to earn a Bachelor of Arts (BA).
Articles
Hospital ships
The Maheno and Marama were the poster ships of New Zealand's First World War effort. Until 1915 these steamers had carried passengers on the Tasman route. But as casualties mounted at Gallipoli, the government - helped by a massive public fundraising campaign - converted them into state-of-the-art floating hospitals. Read the full article
Page 5 - Life on board
What was life like aboard a hospital ship? That largely depended on your job, your rank and your
Women Together
Service
Women's groups offering a differently defined form of service, based on traditional womanly care and skills, rather than cash. Read the full Women Together Theme
Association of Anglican Women
An umbrella organisation for many groups of women linked with the Anglican Church, the Association of Anglican Women (AAW) was formed to offer support and fellowship to women of varying ages and stages of life Read the full Women Together Essay
Association of New Zealand Embroiderers' Guilds
The Association of New Zealand Embroiderers' Guilds (ANZEG) was founded to co-ordinate and promote the needlework activities of local embroiderers' guilds. Read the full Women Together Essay
Broadsheet Collective
Broadsheet was one of the world's longest-lived feminist magazines. Read the full Women Together Essay
Business and Professional Women New Zealand
The New Zealand Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs was formed to encourage and assist business and professional women joining the clubs to take an active role in public life and in community affairs. Read the full Women Together Essay
Catholic Women's League of Aotearoa-New Zealand
In 1983 the league claimed that it was 'the major lay organisation in the Church both in numbers and activity'. Read the full Women Together Essay
Chinese Women's Organisations
Women's organisations have been essentially alien to Chinese culture and society, which are traditionally patriarchal and family-centred. Read the full Women Together Essay
Church Women United in Aotearoa / New Zealand
Church Women United in Aotearoa New Zealand emerged from the former Women's Committee of the National Council of Churches which was formerly established in 1945 Read the full Women Together Essay
Dominion Federation of Townswomen's Guilds
The Dominion Federation of Townswomen's Guilds aimed to educate women and to encourage 'their development as citizens' Read the full Women Together Essay
Girls' Friendly Society
The Girls' Friendly Society (GFS) was set up by Anglican churchwomen to provide for the welfare and protection of young women and girls. Read the full Women Together Essay
Inner Wheel Clubs of New Zealand
Women's division of Rotary Read the full Women Together Essay
Ladies' Committee of the Canterbury Female Refuge
The Canterbury female refuge, or 'Linwood Refuge', was established in 1876 as a provincial government institution in what became Gordon Street, Christchurch. Read the full Women Together Essay
National Collective of Independent Women's Refuges
Women's Refuge in Aotearoa / New Zealand can be seen as continuing the tradition of women responding to other women's needs. Read the full Women Together Essay
National Collective of Rape Crisis and Related Groups of Aotearoa
Rape Crisis and Related Groups (RCRG) were set up to provide both support services for women and children survivors of rape and sexual abuse, and education and prevention programmes in the community Read the full Women Together Essay
New Zealand Co-operative Women’s Guild
The New Zealand Co-operative Women's Guild was the female wing of the expanding co-operative trading movement of the 1930s Read the full Women Together Essay
New Zealand Federation of Country Girls' Clubs
The intentions of CGC's founders—that it should train young women for citizenship, homemaking and community responsibility within the farming sector—were eventually defeated by a shrinking rural economy and the migration of young women to the cities. Read the full Women Together Essay
New Zealand Federation of Home and Family Societies
When the Society for the Protection of Women and Children was formed in Auckland in 1893, its name was a public statement that women and children required protecting Read the full Women Together Essay
New Zealand Women's Royal Army Corps Association
The aims of this organisation were to foster esprit de corps, affiliate with other ex-WAAC and kindred associations, and arrange functions. Read the full Women Together Essay
Onehunga Ladies' Benevolent Society
Although not the first women's organisation in New Zealand, the Onehunga Ladies' Benevolent Society (OLBS) was thought to be the oldest surviving in 1993, its uninterrupted existence dating back to 1863 Read the full Women Together Essay
Presbyterian Women Aotearoa New Zealand
Under the leadership of Jane Bannerman and Margaret Hewitson, both ministers' wives, the foundations were laid in the early 1890s for a women's mission organisation within the Presbyterian Church. Read the full Women Together Essay
Rebekah Lodges of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows
The Rebekah Lodges were the Women’s Associate Lodges of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Read the full Women Together Essay
Rural Women New Zealand
In 1925, at a tea-party in Wellington for wives of delegates to a Farmers' Union (FU) meeting, sixteen women agreed on the need for their own organisation. Read the full Women Together Essay
Sophia
Network of Catholic feminist women interested in feminist theology and spirituality, and in the promotion of more inclusive liturgy, theology and decision making in the Catholic Church. Read the full Women Together Essay
Women Climbing
Women Climbing was established to encourage women's participation in mountaineering, related alpine activities, and rock climbing Read the full Women Together Essay
Women in Agriculture
Women in Agriculture began as a loose coalition of individuals, groups and networks focusing on the role of women in the agricultural sector. Read the full Women Together Essay
Women in Science Education
Women in Science Education was set up in 1985 in response to a growing concern among women science educators at the low participation rates of girls and women in science education. Read the full Women Together Essay
Women's Health Action
Fertility Action (now Wol=men's Health Action), originally founded to publicise the dangers of one particular intra-uterine contraceptive device (lUD), the Dalkon Shield, soon developed into one of the most visible and active of the modern women's health consumer advocacy groups. Read the full Women Together Essay
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) aimed to bring together women of different political and philosophical beliefs in order to study, make known and abolish the political, social, economic and psychological causes of war, and to work for a constructive peace. Read the full Women Together Essay
Young Women's Christian Association of Aotearoa New Zealand
The first YWCA in the southern hemisphere was the YWCA of Dunedin, established in 1878, just one year after the amalgamation of the English association Read the full Women Together Essay
Zonta International (New Zealand)
Zonta International became a world-wide service organisation of women executives in business and the professions, working to improve the legal, political, economic, educational and professional status of women. Read the full Women Together Essay
Biographies
Jean Batten was New Zealand's greatest aviator, celebrated around the world for her heroic solo flights during the 1930s.
Annie Lee Rees (or Lily) was one of the 20 New Zealand women selected to work as teachers for the Boer children living in the concentration camps in South Africa.
Main image: WRNZAF recruitment poster
Cover of recruitment booklet for the Women's Royal New Zealand Air Force (WRNZAF), 1955
