[Women's franchise]. 1968.

Rights Information
Year
1968
Reference
282401
Media type
Audio
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Rights Information
Year
1968
Reference
282401
Media type
Audio
Categories
Interviews (Sound recordings)
Sound recordings
Duration
00:05:26
Credits
RNZ Collection
Radio New Zealand. National Programme (estab. 1964, closed 1986), Broadcaster
BRYANT, Rodney, Interviewer
Lovell-Smith, Hilda Kate (b.1886, d.1973), Interviewee

An unidentified woman introduces edited interviews with two women, Miss Lovell-Smith and another woman [possibly Mrs J.H. Grigg?] about their memories of the campaign for women to get the vote in the general election in New Zealand on November 28, 1893.

Miss Lovell-Smith [probably Hilda Kate Lovell-Smith, who became Kate Sheppard's step-daughter] recalls her brother driving her mother [Jennie Lovell-Smith] around Canterbury in a buggy to ask women to sign the suffrage petition, and the mixed reactions she received.

The other woman recalls Kate Sheppard's patience and tact in gaining support, and 'great intellectual vigor' petitioning the house three times in three years on the suffrage question. She remembers the MPs who supported the franchise for women, such as Sir Robert Stout and Sir John Hall.

Miss Lovell-Smith recalls the scenes at her home when the Franchise Bill was passed on September 19, 1893. Her mother came out to tell the children the news.

The other woman says there was then a rush to get women enrolled so they could vote in the upcoming election. 82 percent of eligible women voted.

She says polling day was generally 'less rowdy' as a result of the presence of female voters.