Kate Malcolm Sheppard (1847-1934) was one of the pioneers of the womens' movement in New Zealand. She championed the cause of the right of women to vote and was an advocate of women and children in this country.

She is our inspiration, we admire her knowledge, strength and compassion.

We chose her as our emblem because she represented a single minded voice that was prepared to challenge the status quo. In our own lesser way we continue that tradition by daring to bring about change by breaking down barriers between midwives and the community.

Kate Sheppard is recognized as the key figure in the suffrage movement in New Zealand - the first country in the world to grant universal adult suffrage to men and women equally.

Born Catherine Wilson Malcolm in Liverpool in 1847 she arrived in New Zealand with her recently widowed mother together with her sister in 1868. The family settled in Christchurch and in 1871 Kate married Christchurch merchant Walter Sheppard.
Kate Sheppard became involved in the temperance movement early in her life. This link shaped her early thinking helping to forge the two themes of temperance and womens suffrage into a cohesive movement. She was elected president of the Womens Christian Temperance Union in 1887.

While acknowledging that womens' suffrage and prohibition were seen as tools of moral reform, Kate Sheppard also shared views more compatible with 20th century feminism. She was a strong champion of womens' rights and argued for womens' rights during divorce, equal rights to the guardianship of children, the advantages of contraception and the rights of women to participation in an active lifestyle.
With Kate Sheppard at its head the WCTU campaigned vigorously for the right of women to vote. This was achieved by a combination of lobbying politicians, raising public awareness by newspapers and political meetings and organizing petitions which were presented to parliament.

This eventually culminated in the passage of the Electoral Act of 1893-granting universal suffrage to all New Zealanders.
This victory for New Zealand women would precede similar success in Britain (1918) and the US (1920) by decades.

Having succeeded in obtaining the right of women to exercise their right to vote the next step was mobilizing NZ women for the election which occurred 8 weeks later. At the 1893 election it is estimated that 65% of all eligible women voted.

Kate Sheppard, as a result of her success in NZ became a world figure for the international womens' movement and toured America and Britain speaking to women to inspire their own suffrage movements.
In 1896 Kate Sheppard was elected president of the National Council of women but ill-health forced her to limit her activity over the next decade.]

She continued to write and publish regularly and effectively became an elder stateswomen of the cause in the early years of the new century.

Kate's only child Douglas died in 1910 and her husband died in1915. In 1925 at the age of 78 she re-married to William Lovell-Smith.
She died in 1934 at the age of 87. In her obituary in the Christchurch Times on 16th July 1934 it was written:
"A great woman has gone, whose name will remain an inspiration to the daughters of New Zealand while our history endures."

In 1991 women were granted the right to stand for Parliament and in 1934 just before her death Kate Sheppard had the satisfaction of seeing the first woman MP enter Parliament.

The poet Jessie MacKay - a contemporary of Kate Sheppard described her as:
"the woman whose life and personality made the deepest mark upon New Zealand history."

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