Margaret Wilson’s Activism, Feminism, Politics And Parliament Released

This is the story of one of New Zealand’s most eminent political actors.

Margaret Wilson has always lived a political life. From her days as a child growing up in the Waikato in a Catholic family attuned to fairness, an unlikely law student in the 1960s in a class with a few other women, and an emerging socialist feminist who read radical texts and attended women’s conventions, her key concerns became cemented early: the rights of women and equality for all under the law.

Such conviction was borne of parents who instilled independence through the values of hard work and women earning their own money. Losing a leg to cancer in her late teens was also formative for Wilson. ‘I realised my identity had changed: I was now a member of a group that lived on the margins of society … it required a fundamental rethinking — not only of my future but of how I would cope with daily life.’

Wilson’s decision to attend law school saw her marginalised in a different way as one of only seven women in a class of 200 and belittled by one professor as an ‘unnecessary distraction’ to male students. An academic career followed, with Wilson establishing the University of Waikato School of Law and becoming its founding Dean as well as New Zealand’s first female Professor of Law.

Although reluctant to join a political tribe and uncomfortable with the combative attitudes and personal jockeying that politics seemed to entail, Wilson joined the Labour Party in 1976 and rose to become party president during the turbulent mid-1980s.

A policy-focussed campaigner, Wilson went on to become a central, far-sighted minister in the Clark government, championing issues based on long-held principles – pay equity, employment relations and paid parental leave. She held significant roles as Minister of Treaty Negotiations, Attorney-General and Speaker of the House, and led the establishment of a home-grown Supreme Court.

The responsibility for so many contentious policies came with its fair share of criticism. A true conviction politician, Wilson was uncompromising and remains comfortable with her reputation as ‘politically correct’, ‘the minister from hell’ and a ‘difficult woman’.

As Wilson says, difficult women often do not last long in politics but their ideas last much longer. ‘In New Zealand’s history there have been many difficult women who are no longer remembered or with us but who through their lives made an impact on the lives of many.’

In recounting her own experiences, Wilson hopes to help other women better understand the need to become engaged with feminism and politics so that society can sustain the drive for equality for all peoples.

‘Recent events and upheavals wrought by the coronavirus pandemic or indeed economic neoliberal policies provide the opportunity to organise society afresh through engagement in politics. Any rethinking must incorporate feminism if there is to be transformative change.'

Over four decades, Wilson has made a formidable contribution to legal education as well as politics, recognised in the awarding of the title of Emeritus Professor by the University of Waikato in 2020 and DCNMZ in the 2009 New Year’s Honours.

‘I hope that this story is a testament to the opportunities New Zealand provided women of my generation to contribute to public life and make a difference for other women.’

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