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Katherine Wilson Sheppard was a New Zealand suffragist known for organising the 1893 Women's Suffrage Petition which resulted in New Zealand becoming the first country to establish universal suffrage.
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culture · New Zealand suffragist (1848–1934) · women's rights activist · political activist · suffragette · economist · publisher · journalist · suffragist · feminist · also Kate Sheppard, Katherine Wilson Sheppard, Catherine Wilson Sheppard, Katherine Wilson "Kate" Sheppard, Catherine Wilson Malcolm, Katherine Wilson Lovell-Smith
Born 10 March 1847 · Died 13 July 1934 · Q455072
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Public attention spiked: 4,073 Wikipedia readers in one day, 42.4× the usual 96, with 2 article edits. Editors noted: Was better before. Undid revision 1363934114 by ~2026-28931-12 (talk)
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The Conversation: Kate Sheppard’s kitchen: an old recipe sheds new light on the feminist pioneer’s life
Published “Array programming with NumPy” in Nature — cited 23,677 times.
And 2017 the production That Bloody Woman, which re-imagined Kate Sheppard's life as a punk rock musical, toured New Zealand
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Eight intersections near Parliament in Wellington were fitted with green pedestrian lights depicting Kate Sheppard
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Whangārei Girls' High School renamed a house that was named after Richard Seddon, an opponent of women's suffrage, to Sheppard House at the request of a student
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The centenary of women's suffrage in New Zealand, a group of Christchurch women established two memorials to Sheppard: the Kate Sheppard National Memorial, on the banks of the Avon River / Ōtākaro, and the Kate Sheppard
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Published “A new family of mesoporous molecular sieves prepared with liquid crystal templates” in Journal of the American Chemical Society — cited 9,957 times.
Patricia Grimshaw's book Women's Suffrage in New Zealand identified Sheppard as the leading figure of the suffrage movement
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Died 1934-07-13.
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“We are tired of having a 'sphere' doled out to us, and of being told that anything outside that sphere is 'unwomanly'. We want to be natural just for a change … we must be ourselves at all risks.”
“All that separates, whether of race, class, creed, or sex, is inhuman, and must be overcome.”
And Sheppard and William Lovell-Smith married in 1925
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Asking him to urge the British government to enfranchise women, and she revitalised the National Council of Women along with a group of other prominent suffragists in 1918
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And 1913, she travelled with the Lovell-Smiths through India and Europe
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And her only grandchild, Margaret Isabel Sheppard, had died of tuberculosis at the age of 19 in 1930, Sheppard left no living direct descendants
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Stepped down from her positions at the National Council of Women, and moved to England without any fixed date to return
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And helped reform the organisation in 1918
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Before travelling to England with her husband and son
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Election won: 1893 general election and further women's advocacy.
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Campaign: 1893 general election and further women's advocacy.
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Included provision for women's suffrage and again it easily passed in the House of Representatives, but the Upper House requested that women's votes be postal rather than by ballot
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As a new Electoral Bill went into committee
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Sheppard was one of the founders of the Christian Ethical Society, a discussion group for both men and women, not limited to the members of a single church
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Sheppard was President of the Christchurch branch of the WCTU NZ, and presented a report to the national convention in Dunedin, where the convention decided that prohibition and women's suffrage would be the organisation
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That would continue to exclude women from suffrage, and Sheppard organised a petition requesting that the exclusion be removed
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Was appointed the WCTU NZ's National Superintendent for Franchise and Legislation, a position she used to advance the cause of women's suffrage in New Zealand
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With the Female Suffrage Bill, and Sheppard campaigned for its support
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Leavitt toured New Zealand speaking not only about the problems caused by alcohol consumption, but also the need for women to have a "voice in public affairs"
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Was elected secretary of the newly formed Trinity Ladies' Association, a body established to visit parishioners who did not regularly attend church services
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Universal male suffrage had been granted to all men over the age of 21 whether they owned property or not, but women were still excluded as electors
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And spent a year there, then returned to Christchurch
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And in 1877 women "householders" were given the right to vote in and stand for education boards
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And may have impressed Kate with his knowledge of local matters
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And their first child was born the following year
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In his early forties, but left his widow with sufficient means to provide for the family
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Born 1847-03-10.
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Was described in various documents as either a lawyer, banker, brewer's clerk, or legal clerk; he married Souter in the Inner Hebrides on 14 July 1842
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