Kate Sheppard

Who is Kate Sheppard?

Katherine Wilson Sheppard was born on 10 March 1848 in Liverpool, England, and emigrated to New Zealand, settling in Christchurch. She became the most prominent leader of the New Zealand women's suffrage movement, working through the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, of which she led the franchise campaign. A gifted organiser and writer, she coordinated a series of mass petitions to Parliament; the 1893 petition gathered nearly 32,000 signatures from women across the country. Largely as a result of this campaign, New Zealand in 1893 became the first self-governing nation in the world to grant women the right to vote in parliamentary elections. Sheppard continued to campaign for women's rights and other social reforms for the rest of her life and helped found the National Council of Women of New Zealand. She died in Christchurch on 13 July 1934 and is honoured on the New Zealand ten-dollar note.

Sources: Judith Devaliant, 'Kate Sheppard: A Biography' (1992) · Tessa Malcolm, 'Sheppard, Katherine Wilson', Dictionary of New Zealand Biography (1993)