In the long term, future generations of women across the globe employed communication tactics used in the New Zealand suffrage movement to fight for their rights.
Women in Australia, Britain, and the United States won the right to vote in the early 1900s, women in France, Japan, Israel, and Italy in the 1940s, and Ghanian women in 1950.
"Elizabeth Reid McCombs," ca 1933, Alexander Turnbull Library Collections.
In New Zealand, women campaigned for the right to run for national Parliament. They convinced men who had opposed the Electoral Act to support their cause, reminding them that allowing women to vote had no detrimental effects. In 1919, the Women's Parliamentary Act was passed, allowing women to run for and be elected to New Zealand’s Parliament. In 1933, Elizabeth McCombs, the first female member of Parliament was elected. Women also succeeded in changing divorce, pension, and labor laws to make them equal for both sexes.
"Kate Sheppard National Memorial," 2021, Christchurch City Libraries.
Today, New Zealand is one of the world's most progressive countries in terms of sexual equality. It has had three female prime ministers, starting with Jenny Shipley in 1997, and including its current PM, Jacinda Ardern. New Zealand has erected memorials to Kate Sheppard across the country. It teaches her story to its citizens, inspiring them to fight for what they believe.
"We stand on the shoulders of giants ... we pay tribute to the women who led the change, to Kate Sheppard, to the 25,000 women who signed the petition in 1893, to the women who were the first to enter into Parliament ... to every single trailblazer who has led the way for women in this country."
~ Jacinda Ardern
"Jacinda Ardern," 2017, BBC News.
"Kate Sheppard on the 10 dollar note," 2012, Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand.