124 years ago - on 19 September 1893 - women in New Zealand got the vote.
On the day after, The Press editorial shows that some of the population felt this was an imposition upon women who would much rather be "staying at home and attending to their household duties". Yeah right. Kia ora to our founding mothers who fought for the vote, and to all wahine who have carried on fighting ever since.
The colony, however, has now got female franchise, and we must endeavour to make the best of it. Obviously it is now the duty of every woman in New Zealand to get her name placed on the electoral roll. To refuse to do so will be to give the shrieking sisterhood an influence in the elections out of all proportion to their legitimate claims. Here again, we admit, coercion makes its appearance. We believe that a very large number of women do not desire to vote. They shrink from having to go to the polling booths on election days. They would much prefer staying at home and attending to their household duties. But the right of voting has been forced upon them against their wishes. They must now realise that if they refrain from exercising their newly acquired privileges, others will not. The noisy agitators, the advocates of fads, and the "advanced" women generally, will not be so retiring. If then, the womanly women of New Zealand desire to counteract these influences they can only do so in one way. They must take part in the elections. They, too, must study public questions, and seek to make their influence felt. We admit frankly that it is unfair to the great majority of women to force this duty upon them. But it cannot now be helped. They are practically being coerced, in self-defence and in the best interests of the colony, to take this fresh responsibility on their shoulders.
Suffrage resources
- Find information about women’s suffrage in New Zealand in our collection
- Kate Sheppard
- The Kate Sheppard Memorial
- Elizabeth McCombs
- Unsung heroines: Biographies of Christchurch women
- A to Z of Christchurch people
- Photos of Christchurch women
- Previous blog posts on suffrage
More on votes for women
- New Zealand women and the vote (Ministry for Culture and Heritage) updated 12-Jul-2016
- DigitalNZ suffrage sets
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