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.
Vida Jane Mary Goldstein was an Australian suffragist and social reformer. She was one of four female candidates at the 1903 federal election,the first at which women were eligible to stand.
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.
Dame Miriam Patricia Dell was a New Zealand women's advocate,botanist and schoolteacher. She was the president of the National Council of Women of New Zealand from 1970 to 1974 and the first New Zealand president of the International Council of Women from 1979 to 1984. She established the Committee on Women,the forerunner to New Zealand's Ministry for Women. Her work promoting women's rights and advancement led to her being appointed a Member of the Order of New Zealand in 1993,New Zealand's highest civilian honour.
Dame Patricia Rose Bergquist was a New Zealand zoologist who specialised in anatomy and taxonomy. At the time of her death,she was professor emerita of zoology and honorary professor of anatomy with radiology at the University of Auckland.
Marilyn Lee Lake,is an Australian historian known for her work on the effects of the military and war on Australian civil society,the political history of Australian women and Australian racism including the White Australia Policy and the movement for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander human rights. She was awarded a personal chair in history at La Trobe University in 1994. She has been elected a Fellow,Australian Academy of the Humanities and a Fellow,Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.
Professor Susan Margaret Magarey,is an Australian historian and author,most notable for her historic works and biographies of Australian women.
Women's suffrage in Australia was one of the early achievements of Australian democracy. Following the progressive establishment of male suffrage in the Australian colonies from the 1840s to the 1890s,an organised push for women's enfranchisement gathered momentum from the 1880s,and began to be legislated from the 1890s. South Australian women achieved the right to vote and to stand for office in 1895,following the world first Constitutional Amendment Act 1894 which gained royal assent the following year. This preceded even universal male suffrage in Tasmania. Western Australia granted women the right to vote from 1899,although with racial restrictions. In 1902,the newly established Australian Parliament passed the Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902,which gave women equal voting rights to men and the right to stand for federal parliament. By 1908,the remaining Australian states had legislated for women's suffrage for state elections. Grace Benny was elected as the first female local government councillor in 1919,Edith Cowan the first state Parliamentarian in 1921,Dorothy Tangney the first Senator and Enid Lyons the first Member of the House of Representatives in 1943.
Harriet Russell Morison was a New Zealand tailor,trade unionist,suffragist and public servant.
Gill (Gillian) Matthewson is a New Zealand architect,scholar and educator,based since 2016 at Monash University in Melbourne,Australia.
Philippa Mein Smith is a New Zealand-Australian academic and historian who specialises in Australian history,New Zealand history,the history of Australia-New Zealand relations and health history.
Melanie Claire Nolan is a historian and university academic from New Zealand,specialising in labour and gender history. She is the director of the National Centre of Biography at the Australian National University,and general editor of the Australian Dictionary of Biography (ADB).
Joy Damousi,is an Australian historian and Professor and Director of the Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences at Australian Catholic University. She was Professor of History in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne for most of her career,and retains a fractional appointment. She was the President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities from 2017 to 2020.
Judith Ann Whitworth is an Australian medical researcher in the areas of kidney function and blood pressure. Now an emeritus professor,she is the former director of the John Curtin School of Medical Research and Howard Florey Professor of Medical Research at the Australian National University (ANU).
Vivien Kirk is a New Zealand mathematician who studies dynamical systems. She is a professor of mathematics at the University of Auckland,where she also serves as associate dean,and was president of the New Zealand Mathematical Society for 2017–2019.
Susan Kathleen Foley is an Australian historian who specialises in French history,particularly in relation to French gender history,feminism and socialism. From 1992 to 2000,she published under her married name of Susan K. Grogan.
Patricia Marcia Crawford,was an Australian historian of women. She featured in a conference,London's Women Historians,held at the Institute of Historical Research in 2017.
Marian Quartly is an Australian social historian. She is professor emeritus in history at Monash University.
Ann Margaret McGrath is an Australian historian and academic. As of 2023 she is the WK Hancock Chair of History at the Australian National University in Canberra.
Angela Cheryl Wanhalla is a professor of history at the University of Otago in New Zealand. Her book about interracial marriage in New Zealand won the 2014 Ernest Scott Prize. Wanhalla was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi in 2022.
