The Suffragists - Women Who Worked for the Vote - Essays from the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography

The struggle to secure the vote for women in 1893 was long and hard. Auckland suffagist Amey Daldy saw that those working for the suffrage cause would have to be 'wise as serpents, harmless as doves' if they were to 'win the day'.

The story of how they succeeded is told here by Dorothy Page in an introductory essay, and in the 28 biographical portraits that follow. We find New Zealand suffragists united in the belief that women should have the vote as an 'undoubted right - not as a privilege but as a right'.

These biographies have been selected from THE DICTIONARY OF NEW ZEALAND BIOGRAPHY. They describe the lives of a range of women who worked in different ways towards the goal of suffrage. Some were leading figures in the campaign - Kate Sheppard, Margaret Sievwright, Mary Ann Muller. The contributions of others - Marion Hatton, Lizzie Rattray, Lily Atkinson - though no less important, are not so well known.

The illustrations have been carefully chosen to complement the text. Through THE SUFFRAGISTS we can discover the excitement and commitment of these women to gain rights which are now taken for granted.

- from the back cover.

Published by Bridget Williams Books Limited, 1993.
Very good secondhand condition.