Women's suffrage in Hawkes Bay 1885-1893

Abstract

New Zealand women were the first in the world to win the right to vote in Parliamentary elections, but relatively little historical research has been done on the subject. In 1972, Patricia Grimshaw's study, Women's Suffrage in New Zealand presented a national picture of New Zealand women's struggle for the vote. She placed this struggle in the wider context of international feminism, and emphasised the importance of the role played by the Women's Christian Temperance Union(WCTU). Raewyn Dalziel and Phillida Bunkle have offered different interpretations of the women's suffrage movement in New Zealand, but very little work has been done at a local level. Only two local suffrage histories exist: J.L Patterson's study of Dunedin and Bronwyn Labrum's study of Wanganui. This essay looks at the struggle for the vote in Hawkes Bay, and attempts to show that the local women's suffrage movements in New Zealand often varied considerably.