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Salient. Official Newspaper of Victoria University of Wellington Students Association. Vol 40 No. 23. September 12 1977

[Introduction]

The position of women in the new colony was a mirror image of the suffering and oppression that existed in England. The same kinds of hardships that had forced families to flee from England were duplicated in New Zealand. Both working class and middle class women were placed under individual and collective suppression, both groups had a great deal to gain from fighting against their conditions.

A report from the Otago Daily Times in 1888 shows the typical conditions which the majority of working women suffered under. One example was of women who received 2d a pair for moleskin trousers which they sewed, and in a twelve hour day could earn from 2s to 2s 6d. Girl apprentices worked for 12 months without pay, supposedly learning a trade and when the time came for them to receive wages, they were sacked. Often even the low wages that women earned were lowered further as manufacturers vied with each other to produce the cheapest goods.

In the next year, the Premier of New Zealand said that it would be impossible to provide a minimum wage of 6s a week for women. Impossible because the demands of capital for cheap and uncomplaining labour were more important than the demands of women for just and adequate living standards. While the wages of women were not always as low as those discussed above, they were not substantially better anywhere in New Zealand.

By and large women were not protected by trade unions. The conditions of middle class women, while not as dire in terms of actual survival, were both inhibiting and unfullfilling. There was little outlet for these women to produce anything useful apart from children, and those brave souls who ventured out of established family discipline met with the undisguised violence of male society. At the Otago Medical School male students in the dissecting rooms threw human flesh at one of the first women medical students in an effort to discourage her.

THE FIGHT FOR THE VOTE EQUALITY FOR ALL

The laws governing marriage and divorce were of equal bondage to both working class and middle class women. Divorce was only available through having a private Act of Parliament passed to dissolve the marriage. It was therefore available only to the very rich and determined. If a husband deserted his wife, which was very prevalent among the working class, then he could periodically return and legally assume all the property and money that the women may have managed to accumulate during the time he was away. A woman when she married, gave up all rights to own property in her own right and any property or money she may have had before she married became the property of her husband. Maori women who were allowed to hold property in their names were apparently very unwilling to marry Europeans as this meant that they gave up some of the rights in regard to the ownership of property.