The Vote, The Pill and the Demon Drink - A History of Feminist Writing in New Zealand, 1869-1993

Bridget Williams Books, 1993. Some wear to covers.

The starting point of this collection is Mary Ann Müller's An Appeal to the Men of New Zealand (1869), followed closely by Mary Taylor's First Duty of Women (1870) and Mary Colclough's feisty columns in the Auckland newspapers (1870-1872). Articles and pamphlets from the suffrage movement of the 1880s and 1890s take the story on to the early 20th century, where an apparent lull in the fight for women's rights still yields up documents on women's issues, such as lobbying for the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Act, and concern for the welfare of destitute women and children. With the end of WW1, women's organizations were more active, and campaigning more vigorously again for women's rights. The next resurgence came with the 1960s and 1970s... Through the writings of all these groups and individual women, the history of the fight for women's rights is traced...