The definitive account of the New Zealand suffrage movement, Women's Suffrage in New Zealand remains the only study of how New Zealand became the first country in the world to give women the vote. It tells the fascinating story of the courage and the determination of the early New Zealand feminists led by the remarkable Kate Sheppard, whose ideas and attitudes still resonate today.

Essay from the year 2006 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 2,0, University of Trier, language: English, abstract: On 19 September 1893 New Zealand became the first state in the world, which granted women the vote . At this time Kate Sheppard, who was of great importance for the feminist movement, perceived the feelings of women in New Zealand as follows: “The General Elections have come and gone. For the first time the women of New Zealand have joined with men in choosing members of Parliament, and we have waited with bated breath for the deluge of calamities which it was prognosticated would follow the admission of women into the political arena.” Although this step seemed to be revolutionary and sudden considering the restricted political rights of women in many other countries, the development of the women’s suffrage movement in New Zealand was without violence and the outcome of a long historical process.

What would a history of New Zealand look like that rejected Thomas Carlyle’s definition of history as ‘the biography of great men’, and focused instead on the experiences of women? One that shifted the angle of vision and examined the stages of this country’s development from the points of view of wives, daughters, mothers, grandmothers, sisters, and aunts? That considered their lives as distinct from (though often unwillingly influenced by) those of history’s ‘great men’? In her ground-breaking History of New Zealand Women, Barbara Brookes provides just such a history. This is more than an account of women in New Zealand, from those who arrived on the first waka to the Grammy and Man Booker Prize-winning young women of the current decade. It is a comprehensive history of New Zealand seen through a female lens. Brookes argues that while European men erected the political scaffolding to create a small nation, women created the infrastructure necessary for colonial society to succeed. Concepts of home, marriage and family brought by settler women, and integral to the developing state, transformed the lives of Māori women. The small scale of New Zealand society facilitated rapid change so that, by the twenty-first century, women are no longer defined by family contexts. In her long-awaited book, Barbara Brookes traces the factors that drove that change. Her lively narrative draws on a wide variety of sources to map the importance in women’s lives not just of legal and economic changes, but of smaller joys, such as the arrival of a piano from England, or the freedom of riding a bicycle.

Bringing together such eminent scholars as Nancy Cott, Ellen Dubois, and Carole Pateman, this book offers a comprehensive look at the political history of suffrage on a global scale.

Reproduction of the original: Women's Suffrage by Millicent Garrett Fawcett

This edited collection examines the campaign for women's suffrage from an international perspective. Leading international scholars explore the relationship between suffragism and other areas of social and political struggle, and examine the ideological and cultural implications of gendered constructions of 'race', nation and empire. The book includes comprehensive case-studies of Britain, India, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Palestine.

Women, Politics, and Power: A Global Perspective provides a clear, detailed introduction to women’s political participation and representation across a wide range of countries and regions. Through broad statistical overviews and detailed case-study accounts, the authors document both historical trends and the contemporary state of women’s political strength. Readers see the cultural, structural, political, and international influences on women’s access to political power, and the difference women make once in political office. The fourth edition includes the latest information available on women in politics around the world, including current events as they have unfolded across the globe. The newest thinking in the field is presented, including on violence against women in politics. Approach and Features Nine thematic chapters explain women’s access to office in the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, and why it matters. Six chapters cover women’s political power in specific geographic regions with recent research and events. The book’s intersectional perspective attends to the ways gender interacts with other forms of difference, both throughout the volume and in a dedicated chapter. A bounty of figures, maps, and tables provide visual accounts of the variations in women’s access to political power around the world, the growth in women’s political power over time, and persistent obstacles to gender equality in politics.

The first women representatives in the United States were elected in 1894 when Colorado votes sent three women to the state legislature. Now, a century later, women almost everywhere are the majority of voters but a distinct minority of elected officials. This discrepancy is a puzzle for those who thought democratic institutions would incorporate newly enfranchised women, and a problem for those working to expand democratic representation. Darcy, Welch, and Clark examine women candidates and candidacies in the United States and several other democratic nations. Their careful analysis reveals that male voters and political elites are not the barriers to women's election that common wisdom suggests. Instead, they find that a party's ability to determine candidate selection, along with election procedures that benefit incumbents, produces slow turnover of elected officials and few opportunities for new women candidates. In addition, the authors analyze nomination procedures and election systems to document both the conditions that lead political parties to nominate more women and the mechanisms that yield more victories by women candidates. Women, Elections, and Representation is an extensively revised and expanded edition of a successful text that provides a thorough and up-to-date account of research on women and politics.

Offers a unique analysis of abortion policy worldwide focusing on effects of civil society, national governments and intergovernmental organizations.

This edited collection asks how key New Zealand judgments might read if they were written by a feminist judge. Feminist judging is an emerging critical legal approach that works within the confines of common law legal method to challenge the myth of judicial neutrality and illustrate how the personal experiences and perspectives of judges may influence the reasoning and outcome of their decisions. Uniquely, this book includes a set of cases employing an approach based on mana wahine, the use of Maori values that recognise the complex realities of Maori women's lives. Through these feminist and mana wahine judgments, it opens possibilities of more inclusive judicial decision making for the future. 'This Project stops us in our tracks and asks us: how could things have been different? At key moments in our legal history, what difference would it have made if feminist judges had been at the tiller? By doing so, it raises a host of important questions. What does it take to be a feminist judge? Would we want our judges to be feminists and if so why? Is there a uniquely female perspective to judging?' Professor Claudia Geiringer, Faculty of Law, Victoria University of Wellington 'With this book, some of our leading jurists expose the biases and power structures that underpin legal rules and the interpretation of them. Some also give voice to mana wahine perspectives on and about the law that have become invisible over time, perpetuating the impacts of colonialism and patriarchy combined on Maori women. I hope this book will be a catalyst for our nation to better understand and then seek to ameliorate these impacts.' Dr Claire Charters, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Auckland 'The work is highly illuminating and is critical to the development of our legal system ... It is crucial, not only for legal education, so that students of the law open their minds to the different ways legal problems can be conceptualised and decided. It is also crucial if we are going to have a truly just legal system where all the different voices and perspectives are fairly heard.' Professor Mark Henaghan, Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Otago 'I believe this project is particularly important, as few academics or researchers in New Zealand concentrate on judicial method. I am therefore hopeful that it will provoke thoughtful debate in a critical area for society.' The Honourable Justice Helen Winkelmann, New Zealand Court of Appeal