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This is a List of New Zealand suffragists who were born in New Zealand or whose lives and works are closely associated with that country.
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This is a List of New Zealand suffragists who were born in New Zealand or whose lives and works are closely associated with that country.
Katherine Wilson Sheppard was the most prominent member of the women's suffrage movement in New Zealand and the country's most famous suffragist. Born in Liverpool, England, she emigrated to New Zealand with her family in 1868. There she became an active member of various religious and social organisations, including the Women's Christian Temperance Union New Zealand. In 1887 she was appointed the WCTU NZ's National Superintendent for Franchise and Legislation, a position she used to advance the cause of women's suffrage in New Zealand.
Women's suffrage was an important political issue in the late-nineteenth-century New Zealand. In early colonial New Zealand, as in European societies, women were excluded from any involvement in politics. Public opinion began to change in the latter half of the nineteenth century and after years of effort by women's suffrage campaigners, led by Kate Sheppard, New Zealand became the first nation in the world in which all women had the right to vote in parliamentary elections.
The National Council of Women of New Zealand was established in 1896, three years after women in New Zealand won the right to the vote, as an umbrella organisation uniting a number of different women's societies that existed in New Zealand at that time. Its founding president was Kate Sheppard, who had led the campaign for women's suffrage. The NCWNZ went into recess in 1906 but was reformed in 1919. As of 2021, the NCWNZ remains a leading and influential organisation that works to achieve gender equality in New Zealand. Since 1896, members have agreed resolutions by majority vote at national conferences, which form policies for the NCWNZ's work. These resolutions inform submissions made by the NCWNZ to Parliament, government departments and other organisations.
Annie Jane Schnackenberg was a New Zealand Wesleyan missionary, temperance and welfare worker, and suffragist. She served as president of the Auckland branch of the Women's Christian Temperance Union New Zealand 1887 to 1897, and national president for WCTU NZ from 1892 to 1901 – overseeing the final push for petitioning the government to grant women the right to vote in national elections. She also was a charter member of the National Council of Women of New Zealand.
Margaret Home Sievwright was a New Zealand feminist, political activist and community leader. She was particularly active in the temperance and suffrage movements, and became president of the National Council of Women of New Zealand.
Lucy Masey Lovell-Smith was a notable New Zealand editor, feminist, temperance and welfare worker. She wrote under the pen-name "Vesta" when contributing to newspapers about women's rights. In 1926, she changed her surname to Lovell-Smith.
Hēni Te Kiri Karamū, known later as Hēni Pore, was a New Zealand Māori wāhine toa 'woman warrior'. In later life she worked in the Women's Christian Temperance Union, and was elected corresponding secretary of its Ohinemutu chapter and served as the WCTU NZ honorary secretary for the Māori Mission of Rotorua.
Isabella May was a New Zealand temperance worker, suffragist and dress reformer.
Cybele Ethel Kirk was a New Zealand temperance and welfare worker, suffragist, and teacher. Kirk was one of the first women appointed Justice of the Peace in New Zealand. After serving for many years as president of the Wellington chapter of the Women's Christian Temperance Union of New Zealand, she was elected in 1930 as the national Union's recording secretary. She simultaneously served as president of the National Council of Women of New Zealand from 1934 to 1937. She was elected president of the WCTU NZ in 1946, serving in that role through 1949.
Sophia Hinerangi was a New Zealand tourist guide and temperance leader. Of Māori descent, she identified with the Ngāti Ruanui iwi.
Christina Kirk Henderson was a New Zealand teacher, feminist, prohibitionist, social reformer and editor.
Catherine Henrietta Elliot Fulton was a New Zealand diarist, community leader, philanthropist, social reformer and suffragist. She was a founding member of the Dunedin chapter of Women's Christian Temperance Union of New Zealand in 1885 and national president of the WCTU NZ from 1889 to 1892.
Lily May Atkinson was a New Zealand temperance campaigner, suffragist and feminist. She served in several leadership roles at the local and national levels including Vice President of the New Zealand Alliance for Suppression and Abolition of the Liquor Traffic (1898–1921); president of Women's Christian Temperance Union New Zealand (1901–1905); and, Vice President of the National Council of Women of New Zealand (1901–1903).
Anne Ward was the first national president of the Women's Christian Temperance Union New Zealand from 1885 to 1887, and a prominent member of the women's suffrage movement in New Zealand.
Sarah Mary Catherine Stirling, known as Hera Stirling and, after her marriage, as Hera Munro, was a New Zealand Māori activist, suffragist, and missionary of Ngāi Tahu descent.
Women's Christian Temperance Union of New Zealand is a non-partisan, non-denominational, and non-profit organisation that is the oldest continuously active national organisation of women in New Zealand. The national organisation began in 1885 during the visit to New Zealand by Mary Clement Leavitt, the first world missionary for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. The WCTU NZ was an early branch of the World Woman's Christian Temperance Union and a founding affiliate of the National Council of Women of New Zealand. Men may join the WCTU NZ as honorary members.
Emma Eliza Packe (née de Winton of Christchurch, New Zealand was the founding president of the Christchurch Women's Christian Temperance Union in May 1885 and National President of the Women's Christian Temperance Union New Zealand from 1887 to 1889.
Fanny Buttery Cole was a prominent temperance leader and women's rights advocate in New Zealand. Cole was a founding member then president of the Christchurch chapter of the Women's Christian Temperance Union New Zealand and national WCTU NZ superintendent of the Press from 1897 through 1903. In 1906 Cole was elected national president of the WCTU NZ, a position she held until her untimely death shortly before her fifty-third birthday.
Rachel Don was an accredited Methodist local preacher who became a local and national leader in the Women's Christian Temperance Union New Zealand, serving as president from 1914 to 1926. Under her leadership, the WCTU NZ focused on white slavery, promoting national prohibition, and expanding women's career opportunities, especially in the New Zealand Police Force and judicial system. She represented New Zealand at a world-wide temperance convention in London in 1920, and at the U.S. Woman's Christian Temperance Union Jubilee in 1924. She served in many other local charitable organisations, and after visiting India, became a fervent leader of the Dominion Stocking League to send refurbished clothing for impoverished children and women to Christian mission stations in India.
Jessie Ann Hiett was a New Zealand temperance activist. A Baptist deaconess for thirty years, she was president of the Dunedin chapter of the Women's Christian Temperance Union New Zealand from 1916 to 1955, and meanwhile served as vice-president at the national level from 1926 to 1934 and again between 1946 and 1949. She was elected president of WCTU NZ in 1935 and served for ten years. Her most notable contributions at the national level was to lead the fight against the government's supplying of World War II troops with alcohol, maintaining the six-o'clock closing of public bars, and against the alcohol trade in the "dry" King Country.