The Useful Woman

Episode Two of Beyond Kate explores politics, the reality of women at the polling booths, and Victorian attitudes that kept women in the home.

It's 2018 and we have our third female Prime Minister. Back in 1893 when women's right to vote was being debated in parliament, opponents mocked the mere idea of women MPs and laughed at the scenario of a nursing mother handing over her baby to address the House.

So much has changed in the 125 years since women won the vote, and having a Prime Minister who has given birth while in office is empowering to women like me. It challenges even my own stereotypes of women who make it to the top and the choices they make to get there.

It reflects new ideas of womanhood and, lest we forget, having our third female Prime Minister is a big deal. Most countries still have never had a single woman leader, let alone three.

Professor Charlotte McDonald from Victoria University says the vote - and the leadership roles that have come since - were not easily won.

"It wasn't something whereby you woke up the next day and low and behold, women have got the vote. It was a big, energetic campaign," she says from her sunny Wellington office.

"They had to rely on pretty labour-intensive forms of political agitation most of didn't have vast amounts of money or time."

If we look back to the 1890s, while the class structure was flatter than back in 'the home country', it wasn't exactly an egalitarian landscape for a woman. Public life was for men; women stayed at home and church. Polling booths and parliament were definitely no-go zones for "the fairer sex".

They were seen as raucous environments where foul language was freely used, and which, women would be best protected from.

That was one of the key points used by those opposed to women's suffrage. On the surface it was an argument purporting to support women, but from the 21st century it looks more like a male attempt to maintain the status quo and keep women out of the business of politics.

So why was New Zealand the first self-governing nation where women could vote?

Kate Hunter, professor of history at Victoria University, says it was partly out of practicality.

"In Victorian Britain, women's roles were narrowly confined the stereotype was that were the 'angel' in the home," she says.

That angel might have been doing needlework by the fireplace, learning French and playing piano. But here in New Zealand the demands for women were very different.

Hunter says the places where women gained the vote were those where women as workers were crucial to daily existence. …

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details