NZ History.net.nz|
An illustrated essay by ROBERTA NICHOLLS,
based on her book,
In 1902 the former Liberal politician and radical labour legislator, William Pember Reeves, wrote that there was no real suffrage movement in New Zealand. He argued that all the agitation for the vote had been carried out by teetotallers who wanted prohibition, that the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), which had led the campaign, had merely been capturing the women�s vote for the male temperance politicians, and that outside the temperance movement women were only passively interested in suffrage. Reeves also contended that once women had the vote, they had very little influence anyway. He said that `the enfranchised women knew at first very little more of public affairs than so many children. They are slowly beginning to learn.' His findings were largely accepted by later historians. They viewed the period between 1893, when the first wave of feminists won the women's suffrage, and the second wave in the 1970s, who sought `women's liberation', as a fallow period, if not a failure. However, the primary research that I did for my book, The Women�s Parliament, shows that the women's movement was active throughout the years 1896 to 1920, although it fluctuated in strength and effectiveness. The Women's Christian Temperance Union The WCTU was a powerful force in leading the suffrage campaign. It was the only national women's organisation at the time, had international links and used organisational techniques imported from the World's WCTU under the leadership of Frances Willard in the United States. Pamphlets, petitions, letters, the press and delegations to politicians were used to publicise the campaign. From 1892 the WCTU also helped to set up the Women's Franchise Leagues across the country, which accepted non-temperance women as members. Leading Suffrage Campaigners But while most leading suffrage campaigners were temperance women, they also had strong equal rights and humanitarian objectives. Let's identify some of these women: Anna, Lady Stout, wife of
the leading politician and lawyer, Robert Stout. Also a stalwart of the
WCTU. She lived in Dunedin and then moved to Wellington in 1895.
Tairawhiti Museum Museum Collection, 900 Margaret Home Sievwright, 1844-1905 (click on image for enlargement) Margaret Sievwright, founder of the Gisborne branch of the WCTU. Together with Sheppard, in 1893 she had presented a franchise petition containing nearly 32,000 signatures to Sir John Hall, who rolled it out in parliament. The actual membership of the WCTU at this time was only 600, so it is obvious that the desire for suffrage was far more widespread than the confines of the temperance movement. Back to top 'First-Wave' Feminist Philosophy After the vote was won, these and other
key suffragists were aware that they and their countrywomen were still
excluded from most of the institutions and bodies to which men belonged.
They wanted to be in a position to put pressure on the government to pass
legislation which they considered necessary to the moral well-being of
the colony and to ensure that women would gain acceptance to all places
where men worked or wielded power.
New Zealand Graphic, 29 April 1899 Auckland Public Library. A13150 (click on image for enlargement) The Coming Social Upheaval The early feminists, or so-called `first-wave' feminists, differed from those of the 1970s, who have come to be known as `second-wave' feminists, in agitating not only for equal political, social and economic rights for women but also for the moral reform of society. They drew on two traditions: the evangelical revival of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century (most of the women belonged to nonconformist and evangelical religious sects), and the equal rights movement that had emerged from the eighteenth century Enlightenment. Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Women and John Stuart Mill's The Subjection of Women were a source of inspiration. While many early feminists in New Zealand, Britain, America and Australia believed themselves to be equal to men because they shared a common human spirit, they also regarded themselves as different. They thought that their role as mothers was vitally important and that nature had fitted them for this purpose. Occupations outside the home were sought only for unmarried women or those without dependents. For married women, their status within the home was the main concern. Feminist wives wanted greater control over their property, finances and children. Convinced that they had a unique maternal identity, the women wanted to take the `mother influence' into politics. Many were critical of male cut-throat competition and corruption in business and politics. They wanted government to be more caring and moral. They demanded the right to participate in politics not only because they were citizens but also because they thought they had distinctive womanly attributes that would be of benefit to the government. Basing their arguments on a mixture of natural rights and expediency, they contended that their intervention was both just and necessary; legislation would be more equitable and humanitarian as a consequence of their involvement. The 1896 Convention
Hocken Library, c/n F222/1 The first meeting of the NCWNZ, April 1896 (click on image for enlargement) In 1895 some prominent women made moves to reunite the suffragists in order to bring about the desired legislative changes. One initiative came from the Women's Franchise League in Dunedin, which suggested that women's organisations throughout the colony should federate. Another came from England: the foreign corresponding secretary of the International Council of Women (ICW) asked Kate Sheppard to start a National Council of Women for New Zealand. As a consequence of this two-pronged approach, on 13 April 1896 a women's convention with representation from throughout the colony met in the Provincial Chambers, Christchurch, and resolved itself into a national council. Its aim was to `unite all organised Societies of Women for mutual counsel and co-operation, and in the attainment of justice and freedom for women, and for all that makes for the good of humanity.' This organisation still exists. In the humanitarian field, the NCW passed
resolutions asking for free and longer education for children and better
care and training of those who were orphaned or neglected, universal old
age pensions and prison reform, with remedial rather than punitive methods
employed, the classification of criminals, improved conditions, and the
abolition of capital punishment. They also agitated for the appointment
of women inspectors, police, doctors, lawyers, jurors and government officials.
New Zealand Graphic, 29 April 1899 Auckland Public Library, A 13151 Annie Schnackenberg, formerly a Wesleyan missionary, a vice president of the NCWNZ in 1896, and national president of the WCTU from 1892 to 1901, features in this cartoon (click on image for enlargement) The women were imbued with an ethic of self-improvement, a belief in self-discipline and a sense of moral mission. They considered that their duty to the `Unfit', who were defined as the idle wealthy as well as the mentally, morally or physically weak, was to help them gain self-respect by assisting them to become independent. They asked the government to categorise the unemployed and establish bodies in each centre to see to their welfare. They wanted the age of consent to sexual intercourse to be raised to 21, scientific temperance to be taught in schools, homes for alcoholics to be established and liquor laws to be enforced more rigorously. In the area of equal rights the NCW urged that women be entitled to sit in parliament or be elected or appointed to any public office or position. The Council also demanded that the law be made absolutely equal for men and women: in particular it wanted equality in the marriage laws, equal pay for equal work, and the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Act 1869. This legislation empowered police to force women who were suspected of prostitution to have their genitals examined by the police surgeon and, if they were found to be infected with venereal disease, to lock them up. Their clients, however, got off scot free. The legislation embodied the sexual double standard, whereby women were punished for promiscuity and men were not. The early feminists considered the legislation to be a glaring violation of constitutional law and also useless in preventing the spread of disease because afflicted men continued infecting other women, including their wives. The solution, as they saw it, was for both men and women to be chaste, with sex reserved for the marriage bed and the procreation of healthy Anglo-Saxons to strengthen the race. How Successful was the NCWNZ in Achieving its Aims? In implementing its humanitarian objectives, the NCW made considerable progress. This was partly because of the timing. By 1895 Premier Richard Seddon wanted to slow down the pace of change in labour legislation, but Reeves wanted to please the unionists. As a consequence, Seddon offered Reeves the job of agent general for New Zealand in London, mainly to get him out of the country, and Reeves left in January 1896. When the early feminists united under the umbrella of the NCW in April, they were well positioned to help usher in the humanitarian legislation they wanted. Most of the Liberals were pragmatists, with the exception of well-read individuals such as Robert Stout and Pember Reeves. With Reeves gone, there was a vacuum of ideas, and the NCW stepped in to fill the gap. Initially, Seddon had been opposed to women getting the vote, but once they had it, he used them to his advantage, to help promote New Zealand as a country at the cutting edge. Traditionally in colonial New Zealand women had been expected to elevate the moral tone of society, to suppress the drunkenness and licentiousness that flourished in a country where the number of men vastly outnumbered that of women, and `to be the leading principle of good order, peace and refinement in man's sole remaining paradise-his own Home'. As long as the NCW was seen to be purifying politics, strengthening the role of wife and mother and resolving social problems, and not challenging male power directly, politicians were prepared to concede to its demands. The women inspired Seddon and helped him to keep his popularity at the polls by giving him the opportunity to seemingly bow to their collective will and superior morality. However, to ensure that the government legislation was palatable to the general public and agreeable to himself, Seddon would make modifications where the women would not. Thus watered down versions of NCW resolutions found their way onto New Zealand's statute books. Between 1896 and 1900 16 Acts were passed on which the NCW claimed to have had an influence, including the Criminal Code Amendment Act 1896, which raised the age of consent from 14 to 16, and the Inebriates Institutions Act 1898, which established institutions for alcoholics. However, only two of the 16 Acts dealt directly with equal rights for women. These were the Female Law Practitioners Act 1896, which enabled women to practise law, and the Divorce Act 1898 which, after 13 years' agitiation by women's groups, finally made conditions of divorce equal for men and women. Previously, the wife had had to prove that the husband had both committed adultery and been cruel or committed bigamy, while the husband merely had to prove that his wife had committed adultery. This had been yet another instance of the sexual double standard. However, the early feminists had made no headway with regard to removing what they called the `civil and political disabilities of women', or obstacles to their holding any office or position, they still did not have equal pay for equal work and the Contagious Diseases Act had not been repealed. While Seddon was pleased to boast of women's
influence on New Zealand's social and humanitarian legislation when travelling
overseas, his attitude at home remained firmly patriarchal. Women were
to be allowed to exert pressure in `womanly spheres' pertaining to nurture
and morality, but he obdurately refused to relinquish any real political
or financial power to them. Dissent, Divorce and a Dangerous Proposal By 1900 the NCW leadership had fallen out with some feminists within and outside the organisation, many members of the public and the press. Anna Stout left the organisation in 1897
because she thought it was too political in its aims and did not invite
sufficiently broad representation from all areas of the community. At
the time, along with many of her sex in New Zealand, she did not think
that women were ready to sit in parliament-they should only gain that
right when they had shown that they had the ability through better informing
themselves of the issues and processes involved, she contended.
Hocken Library, c/n F420/14 (click on image for enlargement) Ethel Rebecca Benjamin, New Zealand's first woman lawyer, 1875-1943 A young feminist, Ethel Benjamin, New Zealand's first woman lawyer, who had benefited from the law that the Council had helped to push through, was critical of the organisation. In 1898 she wrote a paper, which the April convention rejected and the press publicised, stating that `It is really absurd for a few women, as yet political infants, to meet and in a moment "carry unanimously" motions which few of them understand ... or which, if given effect to, might revolutionise society in a way that few of them thoroughly appreciate.' Margaret Sievwright retaliated by asking `does the poor child fully understand what she talks about -so "glibly." The "political infants"-those of them, at least, who have taken a prominent part in the discussion-are grey-haired women, who for a quarter of a century or more (before Miss Benjamin was born) have been working for the emancipation of women, and, through them, of men.' Sievwright had made herself especially unpopular with politicians, the press and the public because of her advocacy of the economic independence of married women. To raise the status of married women, she proposed that half the husband's earnings should be paid into his wife's bank account. Some people were irritated when they heard this. They suspected that the aim of the NCW was to make it `possible for women to live without man and renounce marriage'. The Lyttelton Times exclaimed that `If carried into effect it would mean ... the degradation of woman from the position of man's equal to that of paid housekeeper.� Amey Daldy retorted that `many a wife would rejoice to be raised to the level of a paid housekeeper, in that case she would have fewer duties, more leisure and more pay.' Sievwright's attitude toward protective legislation was also controversial.The generally held view was that the health and morals of working women should be protected to enable them to fulfil their primary reproductive role, thereby preserving the strength of the British race. Hence, special legislation, such as that entitling female shop assistants to chairs and the right to sit on them, had been brought in. Sievwright argued that these privileges to women only had to be paid for in the long run, in terms of lost job opportunities. She declared that the same concessions should be made to all, regardless of sex. The NCW was divided on this issue and some members, such as Sheppard, were quite ambivalent. Patriotism or Sedition? The turning point for the NCW came in Dunedin in 1900. The annual conference was held there in May, at a time when patriotic fervour in support of the war in South Africa was at its height. Sievwright and Wilhelmina Sherriff Bain, a peace activist, cast the Council into disrepute with their controversial views on the war. Bain urged the New Zealand government to engage in international arbitration rather than fighting. The people who protested against the war were `true patriots�, she announced. Sievwright said that the real cause of the war was Britain's interest in South Africa's land, gold and diamonds. These public statements `offended the patriotic soul of Dunedin'. Some people accused the Council of sedition and branded its members as `pro-Boer', even though most of the other Council members disagreed with Bain and Sievwright. After this disastrous session, some societies that had been affiliated to the Council, such as the Salvation Army, began to withdraw. Death and Decline After 1900, the NCW began to go into decline for a number of other reasons as well. Sievwright took over the presidency from Kate Sheppard. A forthright, uncompromising woman, she lacked Sheppard's tact and charm, and her record of public relations was poor. There was also a general perception that by 1900 most of the goals of the women's movement had been attained. The economy had begun to improve from the mid-1890s and, as the country became more prosperous, continued demands for change from the NCW began to seem overly zealous or radical. The NCW was relegated to the fringe of mainstream New Zealand society and its members were regarded as cranks or eccentrics. The organisation's influence in the political domain waned as a consequence. Most women in New Zealand appeared to be satisfied with the progress that had been made; their country, at the time, had one of the highest living standards in the world outside North America. Exposure to hostile public opinion and time took its toll on the key members of the executive. Sheppard had a nervous collapse in 1903-4 and Sievwright developed a `very nervous disposition'. Daldy acknowledged that she could not have coped with the `odium of publicity and an unpopular movement' without the support of her husband, Captain William Crush Daldy, a leading Auckland merchant and politician. By 1905 five members of the executive, including Margaret Sievwright, had died, and that year Amey Daldy had a massive stroke from which she never recovered. The NCW went into recess in 1906. The Interregnum After the NCW went into recess, the WCTU continued to agitate for the moral health and welfare of women and children, as did the newer Society for the Protection of Women and Children. In the 1890s and early 1900s New Zealand
and Australia had been in the international spotlight because of their
early successes with women's suffrage. From 1906, however, with the return
to power of a Liberal government in Britain and a suffrage victory for
the women of Finland, the hopes of the British suffragists were raised
and they began to stir into action. International attention with regard
to the women's rights movement began to focus once again on the northern
hemisphere.
The New Zealand contingent in the suffrage procession, London, 1910. Anna Stout is standing left of centre, in front of the banner. Kate Sheppard went to Europe and North America but felt herself unable to take up the opportunities to present herself to the world's greatest forums because she was too nervous to speak in public. She did, however, make an impact with her letters and reports. Wilhelmina Sherriff Bain was present at and addressed the ICW conference in Berlin in 1904 as New Zealand's representative on the ICW's standing committee on peace and arbitration. And from 1909 to 1912 Anna Stout was in England, where she threw herself into supporting the militant suffrage campaign. Like Vida Goldstein from Australia, she had a powerful influence there because she advertised her country as a successful example of the workings of women's suffrage. She argued that as a result of the suffrage women in New Zealand had developed a much higher standard of womanhood. She cultivated links with feminist leaders and liberal members of the aristocracy, spoke at meetings, marched in processions, had interviews with the press and published letters and articles in defence of the women's cause. She was treated as a celebrity by suffrage campaigners in England. The Revival and the Great War In 1913, after her return to New Zealand,
Anna Stout embarked on a crusade throughout the Dominion to win support
for the WSPU, the militant wing of the English suffrage movement. She
also tried to promote social reform. Resolutions calling for the extension
of women's suffrage to all parts of the Empire were passed unanimously
at each of Stout's meetings and local women's organisations signed them
and sent them to the Prime Minister, William Massey. At the same time
Stout campaigned to protect young women. Resolutions were passed asking
to have the age of consent raised to 18, the age of marriage raised from
16 to 18, the time limit for prosecution for offences against young girls
abolished, farm colonies established for the `morally degenerate' and
women appointed to visit female prisoners.
Auckland Public Library, A 10643 Eliza Ellen Melville, LLB, 1882-1946 (click on image for enlargement) That same year, a young woman named Ellen Melville began a new phase of feminist activity in New Zealand. An Auckland lawyer, she founded the Auckland Civic League, which aimed to increase the number of women holding public office, and she was elected as New Zealand's first woman city councillor. Some would say that the resurgence of the women's movement in New Zealand was due to problems caused by the First World War, but I see the pivotal year as 1913, with the main impetus provided by Stout and Melville. However, the war did serve to exacerbate
problems that were already in existence. Widespread venereal disease was
already believed to threaten the fitness and efficiency of the Dominion,
the fertility of its women and the health of its children. Increased geographical
mobility and social dislocation caused by the war hastened the spread
of VD at a time when the need for a strong Empire was most evident.
Ettie Rout with 1st NZEF Medical Corps soldiers (click on image for enlargement) The Contagious Diseases Act had finally been repealed in 1910, but WCTU members feared that it would be reimposed under the exigency of war, especially when instances began to occur in New Zealand of women being punished and forcibly examined for suspected prostitution while the servicemen involved disappeared overseas without being inspected or publicly named. The WCTU was also incensed to hear of Ettie Rout's activities in France and England, where she was distributing prophylactic kits to New Zealand soldiers. WCTU members thought that this was a temptation to vice, and they believed that their boys should keep themselves pure. `Let our soldiers have the higher ideal of "a white life for two"', they argued. An enraged Anna Stout led a deputation to Massey demanding that Rout's activities be stopped. As a consequence, Rout's name was banned from newspapers for the remainder of the war. However, the military authorites continued to distribute the kits, unbeknown to the WCTU. Rout received no credit for her work. During the war, it seemed that the position of women and children was deteriorating. The WCTU and other women's organisations believed that young women who were joining the workforce because of the growth of industry and bureaucracy or because of the exodus of men overseas, needed guidance and protection, as did neglected children whose mothers had gone out to work or whose fathers had gone to the war. And illegitimate births were a continuing problem. As a consequence, following an initiative from Kate Sheppard and Christina Henderson, both former members of the early NCW executive, the organisation was revived, with the first conference being held Wellington in April 1918. Its object was `to unite all organised societies of women, to arouse them to a keener sense of their responsibilities as citizens, and to support all social movements which make for the welfare of the community.' It immediately rejoined the campaign for parliamentary representation and on 29 October 1919 the Women's Parliamentary Rights Act enabling women to be elected to the House of Representatives became law. The revived organisation has survived because it has the broad representation that Stout had demanded earlier on. Although it has both equal rights for women and humanitarian goals on its agenda, it is much more conservative than the earlier model, and this has helped to ensure its survival. It is also more democratic, with initiatives and decisions being made from the grass roots level rather than by a small executive, and the leadership changes constantly. In the early NCW, which had a more narrow political focus, the same few women held executive positions and when several died in the early 1900s, the organisation collapsed. Conclusion To sum up, in the period 1893 to 1920, the women's movement in New Zealand did not die away. It experienced great difficulties, but at the same time there was a stream of continuity. During the Council's period of recess this was mainly maintained by the WCTU, and also by the Society for the Protection of Women and Children, to which many former members of the NCW belonged. In 1913 Stout and Melville rekindled the movement and in 1919 the torch was passed from the old generation to the new; Kate Sheppard resigned from the presidency and the much younger Ellen Melville took her place. Essays on most of the people mentioned in this exhibition can be found on the online Dictionary of New Zealand Biography website. |
