Events In History
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26 October 1942Women Jurors Act allows women to sit on juriesThe 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. Read more...
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3 June 1941First women enter police trainingCalls for policewomen had been made since the 1930s, when the National Council of Women started lobbying for women officers. Read more...
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16 January 1941Women's Auxiliary Air Force foundedThe 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. Read more...
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13 September 1933New Zealand's first woman MP electedThe 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. Read more...
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28 November 1893Women vote in first general electionNew 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. Read more...
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19 September 1893Women win the right to voteWhen 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. Read more...
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14 August 1891Women's suffrage petitions presented to ParliamentThese 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. Read more...
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11 July 1877First woman graduates from a New Zealand universityKate 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). Read more...
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.
- Page 5 - Life on boardWhat was life like aboard a hospital ship? That largely depended on your job, your rank and your
Biographies
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Batten, Jean Gardner
Jean Batten was New Zealand's greatest aviator, celebrated around the world for her heroic solo flights during the 1930s.
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Rees, Lily
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.
Read more...
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Main image: Female telephone exchange operators
Female telephone exchange operators in Christchurch, 1914
