New Zealand Celebrates 125 Years of Women Voting

New Zealand became the first nation in the world to allow women to vote 125 years ago, and hundreds of people celebrated the anniversary by turning out to gatherings and speeches.

New Zealand’s female lawmakers marked the occasion by re-enacting an all-male photograph of lawmakers taken more than a century ago. This time, the photograph featured New Zealand’s third female Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in the centre, holding her 3-month-old baby Neve.

Liberal lawmakers introduced a new bill on 19 September that they say is aimed at addressing historic lower pay for women by making it easier for workers to make claims for pay equity.

“It reminds us that that is what we are here for,” Acting Minister for Women Eugenie Sage said, referring to the photo session, proposed law change and other advancements for women. “That is why we got the vote.”

Earlier in the day, Ardern spoke to hundreds of people gathered in Auckland, telling them her own great-great-grandmother had signed the petition for women to get the vote back in 1893.

Original article by AP, The Sydney Morning Herald, September 21, 2018.

Photo by AP.