Communication

Communication, both with the public and the New Zealand government, was an integral part of Sheppard's successful campaign.

Sheppard was a persuasive writer and public speaker. To spread support for suffrage, she organized protests and travelled New Zealand giving speeches. She and other members of the WCTU wrote and distributed pamphlets containing information about the suffrage movement and rebutting arguments presented by anti-suffragists. Sheppard wrote newspaper articles and started a suffrage page in The Prohibitionist, a national temperance magazine.

"International Activism," 1910, Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand

"He Doesn't Like It, suffrage cartoon," 1893, The New Zealand Observer

Sheppard communicated with political unions across the world, sharing ideas and building a united movement. She wrote to suffragettes in Wyoming, where women had recently won the vote, to get ideas for her campaign. She forged friendships with suffragettes in Britain, Australia, and America, and they shared methods that had been succesful in their movements. Sheppard also won the support of various New Zealand unions, who collaborated with the WCTU throughout the suffrage movement.

Thanks to Sheppard’s speeches and writings, public support for suffrage skyrocketed. Then the suffragettes began the most important stage of their campaign - organizing petitions to Parliament. Signatures were collected at campaign events and workplaces, and suffragettes also went door-to-door. Thousands of women signed the petitions, proving that the public largely supported suffrage.

"Women's Suffrage Petition," He Tohu, 2017

"Suffrage Petition," 1893, Archives New Zealand

"Women's suffrage petition cartoon," 1893, Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections

Sheppard won the support of crucial members of Parliament, including Sir John Hall, who aided the suffragettes by presenting their petitions. The first petition, with 9,000 women's signatures, was submitted to Parliament in 1891. When it failed, an 1892 petition with over 19,000 signatures was introduced. The third petition, presented in 1893, had 31,872 signatures and was so large it had to be brought to Parliament in a wheelbarrow. That petition resulted in the passage of the Electoral Act on September 19, 1893, enfranchising New Zealand women.

As a result of the suffragettes' communication, 109,000 women registered to vote in the 1893 election - approximately 80% of eligible women - and 82% of them voted.

After this triumph, Sheppard represented New Zealand at the WCTU's global convention. Suffragettes from all over the world heard Sheppard's speeches, and they incorporated her ideas and methodology in their own movements.

"Lady voters going to the polls," 1894, Christchurch City Libraries

"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."
~ Kate Sheppard