1800

1816

A Mission school for 33 Māori boys and girls was established at Rangihoua, Bay of Islands.

1840

Image: Painting by Marcus King The signing of the Treaty of Waitangi

13 Māori women were signatories to the Treaty of Waitangi including: Anna Hamu, widow of Te Koki, the original patron of the Paihia Mission; Kahe Te Rau o te Rangi (Ngāti Mutunga, Ngāti Toa, Te Ati Awa); Rangi Ropeora, Rangatira of Ngāti Raukawa and Ngāti Toa; Rere O Maki, a woman of rank from Wanganui; and Erenora, a high-born wife of Nopera, Chief of Te Rarawa. There is evidence that some Pākehā men did not allow Māori women to sign, because they presumed Māori women had as few rights as Pākehā women.

1852

The Constitution Act gave the vote to men who individually owned land, which excluded women and most Māori. 

1853-71

Image: ATL E-079-005 ©  copyright conditions

12,000 young single European women arrived in New Zealand as government assisted passengers. Eligible females needed to be aged between 12 and 35, sober, industrious, of good moral character and free from any bodily or mental defect.   

1860

Married Women's Property Protection Act allowed deserted women to keep their earnings and own property. 

1864

Heni Pore, the daughter of a high born Arawa woman and an Irish sea captain, physically fought for the King movement and distinguished herself at Gate Pa. She later became the Secretary to the Māori Women's Christian Temperance Union. She became known as an expert on Māori land title. 

1867

The Municipal Corporations Act enabled "every person of full age of twenty-one years in occupation or ownership" of rateable property the right to vote or share voting in accordance with property values, this enabled women to vote but not to stand for election. 

1871

The Otago Girls' High School was established. 

1873

The Employment of Females Act, regulated the working conditions for women in workrooms and factories, forbidding night work, limiting work to eight hours a day and provided holidays and weekends. 

1874

Census 1874: -

45,470 Māori and 256,393 Pākehā;
twice as many Pākehā men than women in the 21-65 age group;
only 15% of women aged over 20 were single,

and 5% of those over 30;

only 20% of women worked outside the home (c.f. 45% in England). 

1877

The Education Act provided for a national system of free, secular, compulsory education for boys and girls 7-13 years old. 

1878

The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) established in Dunedin, the first in the southern hemisphere. An international organisation dedicated to women's holistic growth and leadership. 

1884

The Married Women's Property Act enabled married women to own property in their own right. 

1885

Women won the right to vote for hospital and charitable boards, licensing and school committees and local body elections. 

1886

The New Zealand Women's Christian Temperance Union was established promoting control, and sometimes prohibition, of liquor, votes for women, charity work, social reform and supporting family cohesion.  

1889

The first kindergarten was opened in Dunedin by Lavinia Kelsey in response to inadequate Pākehā child care networks and the need for paid work during the depression. 

1893 

Image: ATL PUBL-0126-1894-01 © copyright conditions

The Electoral Act allowing women's suffrage. Päkehä and Māori women won the right to vote in general elections, the first in a self-governing country. 

Elizabeth Yates became New Zealand's first woman mayor in the British Empire, when she won the mayoralty for Onehunga.  Image: ATL C16118 © image copyright conditions

The age of sexual consent for girls was raised from 12 to 14 years, and then increased to 16 years in 1896.  

The Society for the Protection of Women and Children was set up to press for legislative change to protect women and children, particularly from domestic violence. In 1955 it was renamed the Society for the Protection of Home and Family, then the Home and Family Society. 

1894

The Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act allowed the formation of trade unions and gave women the right to negotiate legally enforceable awards and agreements. Despite this, many awards and agreements had lower rates of pay for females than for males, for the same work. 

1895

The first women's hockey club was established.

Minnie Dean, hanged for the murder of a child in her care, was the first and only New Zealand woman to hang. 

1896

Image: ATL 1/2-041798 © copyright conditions

The National Council of Women of New Zealand was set up following the campaign for women's enfranchisement, with Kate Sheppard as president. It was a political but non-party organisation, interested in social reform and the status and conditions of women. 

Kate Sheppard Image: ATL PUBL-0089-1914-001  © copyright conditions

Emily Siedeberg became the first woman doctor to graduate. 

Mary Ann Bacon became the country's first woman stockbroker. 

1897

Ethel Benjamin became the first woman law graduate.  Image: Hocken Library - c/n F420/14   © image copyright conditions

1898

The Divorce Act 1898 was the first major reform of the original Divorce and Matrimonial Causes Act 1867 and made the grounds for dissolution of marriage virtually equal for women and men. Previously, it was more difficult for a woman to divorce her husband than vice versa.

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