Dr Jackie Blue MP National Party Women's Affairs Spokeswoman

17 September 2007

114 years since suffrage - but still work to do

It is 114 years since women were given the vote, but there is still work to do, says National's Women's Affairs spokeswoman, Dr Jackie Blue.

"Many women's groups established in the first half of the 20th century still exist today and continue to be strong advocates for women's rights.

"Just three years after women were given the vote in 1896 the National Council of Women, with Kate Sheppard as president, was the first to set up. This organisation is still going strong today, influencing policy and keeping successive governments firmly to account."

Others quickly followed and it is a credit that they remain active today:

Plunket (1908); New Zealand Federation of Country Women's Institutes (1921); New Zealand Federation of Graduate Women (1922); The Women's Division of Federated Farmers - now known as Rural Women (1925); The Sex Hygiene and Birth Regulation Society - now known as Family Planning (1935); The New Zealand Federation of Business and Professional Women (1939); The Maori Women's Welfare League (1951).

"Anyone who considers that women have reached equality and that these pioneering groups are redundant, should look at the grim statistics on violence against women and children and talk to the volunteers at women's refuges.

"A recent example of a modern-day advocacy group is the Breast Cancer Aotearoa Coalition, which was established in 2004 and is fighting to obtain funding for a 12-month course of Herceptin, which is the international standard of care for women with an aggressive form of breast cancer.

"Suffrage week is an ideal opportunity to congratulate the groups, both past and present, that continue the fight."

ENDS

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