[Kate] New Zealand Powerful Women Homework Project

On this trip there are three main components of our homework. The math (which is completed online), posting on the blog, and our overarching project. This project is unique to each one of the three kids. We each picked a topic that interests us, and research that topic in the countries that we go to. The topic that I have chosen is powerful women.

What follows is what I discovered in my research concerning powerful women in New Zealand.  I found some of it really intriguing!

In New Zealand the native people are called the Maori.  Some women were powerful in that culture; they had significance to their religion and were a key part of the communities as a whole.  They kept their last names when they married, and there are even some records of women who became very powerful leaders in their tribe and community.  In any case, the Maori views are just one part of New Zealand culture.  As it was a British colony, there is a lot of British influence in the society.  They speak English, for instance, albeit with their own accent.  So it follows that many of the traditional views from British culture on women continue, at least somewhat, in New Zealand.  These views have been limiting in some years of Britain, viewing women as those with housework, rather like the stereotypes of women from early America (which again makes sense, as America started as British colonies as well).  When New Zealand was colonized it appears a lot of the British laws and ideas affected the view on women in Maori culture, significantly lowing their position.

However, New Zealand gave women the right to vote earlier than the United Kingdom and the United States.  In fact, when it did so in 1893 it became the first self-governing country that had the right given to all women.  There have been (as of 2017) three female Prime Ministers of New Zealand, the first being Jenny Shipley in 1997.

New Zealand’s current Prime Minister (the leader of government in a parliamentary government system) is also a woman (making her the third Kiwi female Prime Minister).  Her name is Jacinda Ardern, and she is only thirty seven years old.  Her age makes her the youngest ever leader of the New Zealand Labour party.  Not only that, but she became the leader of that party only two months before the election was set to take place.  Jacinda Ardern was an adviser to Helen Clarke, who was the second female Prime Minister of New Zealand, and also the first elected one (Jenny Shipley, the first Kiwi female leader, got her post after her predecessor resigned).  Until Jacinda Ardern’s became leader of the Labour party, the National party in New Zealand was far ahead in the election predictions, as it had been in the past for many recent elections.  Yet at her appearance in the forefront of politics, there was a wave of support for the Labour party.  This was referred to in one article written during the election as ‘Jacindamania.’

Even though during its period of colonization the value of women was decreased in society, New Zealand’s views are far beyond that now, as many significant women have risen to power, and as it has passed significant laws early on granting Women's Suffrage.

I found all this really interesting! I hadn't know this history beforehand, and it was something I enjoyed learning about.