Chrystal Macmillan
Chrystal Macmillan was the first female science graduate at Edinburgh University and the first female honours graduate in Mathematics. She became active in the Women’s Suffrage Movement and went on to become a lawyer.
Category Archives: Activism > Suffrage
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Belva Ann Lockwood
Belva Ann Lockwood (1830-1917) was an American lawyer and reformer.
Frances E Willard
Frances E. Willard (1839-1898) was an American educator, suffragist and temperance reformer.
Kate Milligan Edger
Kate Milligan Edger was the first woman in New Zealand to gain a university degree
Christina Kirk Henderson
Her mother’s mission work led Christina to take an active role in the Presbyterian Women’s Missionary Union of New Zealand. She served as secretary (1917–20) and president (1930–32), but her main contribution was her editorship, from 1923 until 1946, of Harvest Field, the union’s magazine.
Elizabeth Caradus
Her interests in women and temperance led Caradus to the first meetings of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, established in Auckland in 1885. She quickly became a key member of the WCTU and the Auckland branch of the Women’s Franchise League, formed in 1892. Throughout the franchise campaign, and later, in the Auckland branch of the National Council of Women of New Zealand, Elizabeth Caradus was a leading figure. However, she rarely took a prominent office, perhaps because of financial restraints or business or family commitments. Caradus differed from most of the suffragist leaders in that she was of working-class origins and upbringing and had a large family to care for. Although she became treasurer of the WFL in 1893, she turned down the post of president of the Auckland branch of the WCTU. However, she frequently spoke publicly, moved resolutions and took part in deputations.
Sophie Willock Bryant
Sophie Willock Bryant was an Irish mathematician who also published on many other topics: Irish history, religion, education, women’s rights, and philosophy.
Marion Hatton
New Zealand suffragist, women’s equality activist and temperance advocate
Cybele Ethel Kirk
In 1926 Kirk was one of the first four Wellington women to be appointed justice of the peace. She had been president of the Wellington branch of the National Council of Women of New Zealand for several years, and from 1934 to 1937 was president of the national body.
Harriet Russell Morison
Morison left behind an important legacy, not only as a trade unionist, but also as a feminist. She provides an example of the strong connections between women workers and the battle for women’s rights in New Zealand. Her belief that women had a duty to care for the morals of society as well as a right to be protected from its evils extended into her approach to trade unionism.