Category Archives: Activism > Women’s Rights

On 18 May 1893 the Speaker of the lower house of the Kotahitanga parliament introduced a motion from Meri Mangakāhia, requesting that women be given the right to participate in the selection of members. It was suggested that she come into the house to explain her motion, and later that day she addressed the parliament – the first woman recorded to have done so. She requested not only that Māori women be given the vote, but that they be eligible to sit in the Māori parliament