Kate Sheppard

Kate Sheppard (1847–1934) was a leader of New Zealand’s women’s suffrage movement. Her organizing and advocacy helped secure women’s right to vote in parliamentary elections in 1893.

New Zealand women’s suffrage: The campaign that won women in New Zealand the right to vote in parliamentary elections in 1893. Sheppard’s organizing helped turn this campaign into a successful national movement.
Women’s Christian Temperance Union of New Zealand: A New Zealand organization whose women’s rights work included campaigning for suffrage. Sheppard led its franchise department and used its networks to organize campaigners.
Mary Ann Müller: A nineteenth-century New Zealand advocate who wrote for women’s political rights under the name Femmina. Her earlier suffrage advocacy helped establish a tradition that Sheppard later expanded.
Christchurch Women’s Institute: A New Zealand women’s organization formed in 1892 to promote social and political reform. Sheppard helped establish it as a local base for women’s public activity.
Electoral Act 1893: New Zealand legislation that extended the parliamentary vote to women in 1893. The law gave effect to the suffrage victory she had campaigned for.
New Zealand suffrage petitions: Petitions presented to New Zealand Parliament in the 1890s seeking votes for women. Sheppard helped coordinate the 1893 petition, which carried nearly 32,000 signatures.
Amey Daldy: A New Zealand women’s rights activist involved in the campaign for women’s suffrage. Daldy worked alongside Sheppard in organizing and sustaining the suffrage movement.
Temperance movement: A social movement advocating reduced or prohibited consumption of alcoholic beverages. Temperance networks provided organizational structures through which Sheppard and other women campaigned.
New Zealand general election, 1893: The first New Zealand general election in which women could vote. Women exercised the newly won franchise in this election soon after Sheppard’s campaign succeeded.
New Zealand Parliament: The national legislature of New Zealand, responsible for passing laws and scrutinizing government. Petitions and public pressure targeted legislators whose support was needed for franchise reform.

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History of New ZealandRelated: Her organizing became central to one of the country’s landmark democratic reforms.