Women Then, Women Now Wāhine o Mua, Wāhine o Nāianei

Five leading women meet in the 125th year since the 1893 granting of female suffrage in New Zealand.  Feminists Fiona Kidman, Sandra Coney, Lizzie Marvelly, and Golriz Ghahraman join Carol Hirschfeld to explore the position of women in Aotearoa now. What’s led us here, what’s changed, what hasn’t, and what’s still to be done?

The session brought together a diverse range of women with a wealth of lived experience. A self-confessed radical feminist and pioneer of the women’s rights movement, a literary legend with more than 30 published books, an Iranian born NZ human rights lawyer and Green MP, an award-winning columnist and campaigner for presenting credible information on sex, sexuality and relationships. Together, they  talked with a current affairs maestro on the legacy of female suffrage in New Zealand and what it means to grow up feminist in Aotearoa. 

Hirschfeld introduced this 2018 Going West session, in a venue packed to capacity, with the following provocation: “Just a year before Kate Shepphard and her fellow suffragists achieved the vote, the electoral law in New Zealand excluded women from the definition of ‘person’. So, when we cast our minds back, what do you think these suffragists would think about where we’re at, and what we’re proud of”.

The Women Then, Women Now session was inspired by the publication of Women Now: The Legacy of Female Suffrage, which featured essays from Coney, Kidman and Ghahraman; and Marvelley’s That F Word: Growing Up Feminist in Aotearoa.

Note: This podcast contains a brief but explicit discussion of sexual practices

Going West’s audio archive is made possible by the generous support of Auckland Libraries.