Muriel Carrick Moody
Muriel Moody’s reputation rests primarily on her ceramic sculptures and some bronzes cast in the 1980s. Her work was original and distinctive, usually based on the human figure.
Category Archives: Activism
Continue reading
Kate Milligan Edger
Kate Milligan Edger was the first woman in New Zealand to gain a university degree
Frances Jane Ross
Frances Ross is remembered as a pioneer in women’s education and an outstanding teacher who combined knowledge and dignity with a sense of fun.
Helen Connon
Helen Connon played a pioneering role in the education of New Zealand women.
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.
Nellie Euphemia Coad
Throughout her teaching career Nellie Coad was concerned about educational opportunities for women.
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.
Susanna Hanan
A concern about the lack of early educational opportunities for children prompted Susanna Hanan to turn her attention to the New Zealand Free Kindergarten Union in 1912. She worked to secure government subsidies for kindergartens and was the first secretary and treasurer. She maintained a lifelong interest in the free kindergarten movement and was honoured with a life membership of the union.
Elizabeth Reid McCombs
Elizabeth McCombs dedicated herself to improving the lot of women and demonstrated that women were the equal of men in political life in New Zealand.
Catherine Campbell Stewart
Catherine became the first secretary of the Wellington After-care Association, established to mind intellectually handicapped children, in 1928 and represented it on the National Council of Women of New Zealand. She also became active in the Wellington women’s branch of the New Zealand Labour Party and was the first president of the party’s Melrose–Houghton Bay branch.