All posts tagged: Women’s Suffrage

How to dress like a New Zealand Suffragist

Published by The Dreamstress

Today is the 124th anniversary of New Zealand becoming the first country in the world to allow women the right to vote.  September 19th is celebrated as White Camellia Day or New Zealand Suffrage Day, the first name after the emblem of the New Zealand suffrage movement: the white camellia. White Camellia Day is particularly exciting this year, as Saturday is a parliamentary election, early voting is already open, so lots of women I know are planning to vote today, and there is a reasonable chance that New Zealand will elect its third female prime minister.  I’m going to vote on Saturday (Mr D & I have a tradition of walking to the polls together ((d’aww)) and I’ll be voting based on policy, not gender, but I still think it’s fantastic that New Zealand has already had two female prime ministers, and might have another. In honour of the elections and Suffrage Day falling so close together, and since there has been discussion of people going to the polls dressed as suffragettes, I thought I’d …

White Camellia day

Published by The Dreamstress

Today New Zealand celebrates White Camellia Day, also known as Kate Sheppard Day, or Suffrage Day. New Zealand was the 1st country in the world to give women the right to vote.  Universal suffrage was achieved on 19 September 1893: 9 years before Australia (1902),  27 years before women in the US were given the right to vote (1920), and 35 years before women in Britain could elect their own representatives (1927). The campaign for universal suffrage was led by a few notable women, including Kate Sheppard, who is commemorated on the NZ $10 note. For two decades leading up to 1893 these women wrote, campaigned, and petitioned, finally in 1893 assembling a petition with 31,872 verified signatures: the largest petition ever assembled in Australasia up until that point.  Pretty impressive considering that New Zealand’s population in 1893 was just over 700,000! Those who signed the petition and supported women’s suffrage were given a white camellia as thanks and to wear to signal their support, and the white camellia is still linked with women’s rights …