For more than 20 years Frame had been annually nominated by PEN (the New Zealand Society of Authors) for the Nobel Prize for Literature. She was shortlisted twice, the second time in 2003, the year she was diagnosed with leukaemia. That year, along with Hone Tuwhare and her biographer Michael King, Frame was the recipient of an inaugural Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement.
In 1960, when the government set up the Commission on Education in New Zealand, she was appointed a member. She had had wide educational experience, including service from 1938 to 1946 as the first woman on the Council of the University of Otago.
Painist Jennie Macandrew accompanied singers and instrumentalists, notably the violinist Edith Whitelaw, and performed as a soloist with local orchestras. She was official accompanist to the competitions society in Gisborne for some years from 1913, and toured New Zealand for five months as accompanist to the tenor Philip Newbury. She was also a pianist at Auckland cinemas, and gave radio broadcasts.
In 1941, she won the Waitematā seat in a by-election, becoming the third woman to enter the New Zealand Parliament. Her particular triumph there was to introduce the Women Jurors Bill, which became law in 1942.
Although lacking formal education, Isabella Siteman was aware of the benefits it could confer. She decided to devote a large part of her savings to the better education of students who required financial help. Her will left the residue of her estate in trust for this purpose. The Isabella Siteman Scholarship was founded in 1923 and was intended to provide assistance to young men and women who wished to obtain a university education in New Zealand.
She is remembered for pioneering the teaching of modern geography in New Zealand secondary schools.
Helen Connon played a pioneering role in the education of New Zealand women.
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.
Throughout her teaching career Nellie Coad was concerned about educational opportunities for women.
Kate Milligan Edger was the first woman in New Zealand to gain a university degree