LEONIE Morris and Julie Fairey are passionate about women's rights and hope this evening's Suffrage Eve Debate will clarify where New Zealand's political parties stand on the issue.
The pair have helped organise the event, which is a collaboration between Auckland Women's Centre, The Hand Mirror bloggers and Auckland University's Campus Feminist Collective.
Ms Fairey helped establish The Hand Mirror three years ago as "an explicitly feminist New Zealand blog" and says promoting women's voices in politics is a strong aim of the debate.
"We've been heartened by the response of parliamentary parties, with three confirming they are sending current MPs and two more highly-ranked female candidates," she says.
"Each candidate will give a stump speech, speaking from a party perspective with a focus on the policies relating to women."
"The first Suffrage Eve Debate was held prior to the 2008 elections. This one will be slightly more formal; we want to be sure that it's women's issues being predominantly discussed."
Leonie Morris manages the Women's Centre in Grey Lynn and expects the pay gap between the sexes to be a hot topic at the debate.
"Alasdair Thompson did a great job of publicising the pay gap, so that will definitely be raised. The question of course is what will the government do about it, and the parties have different ideas so that will make for an interesting discussion."
Ms Morris says violence against women and girls will be another key issue.
"In New Zealand, our sexual assault laws are completely unjust," she says.
"The few people that are charged are rarely convicted and women are losing faith in the system and, unfortunately, in some cases, no longer seeking justice."
Ms Fairey agrees: "We'll be very interested in what each party will do to reform the justice system around sexual violence.
"The other big issue for us is mothers in poverty, with unemployment, low wages and high costs of living as they are. There's a lot of focus on the child poverty aspect, and that's great, but my observation is that if children are going without food, the mother probably is, too."
Ms Fairey says she thinks some parties have a good awareness of women's issues. "But I don't think they necessarily see it as something to put out front in terms of policy.
"There's a really vibrant discussion online from young feminists and there's a lot of social activity happening ... As someone who's been involved in these issues for about 15 years this new wave of feminism really revitalises me."sophie.bond@theaucklander.co.nz
ALL IN THE FAMILY
Did one of your ancestors sign the 1893 petition calling for women's voting rights? You can now search for their names online and contribute information about them. To mark Women's Suffrage Day on September 19, Manatu Taonga/Ministry for Culture and Heritage has made the signatories' details available as a searchable database. See: www.nzhistory.net.nz/politics/womens-suffrage/petition.
INFO
Tonight, Sept 22, 7-9pm in lecture theatre LibB10, University of Auckland.
Confirmed speakers are: MPs Dr Jackie Blue (National); Carol Beaumont (Labour); Catherine Delahunty (Greens); and candidates Kath McCabe (ACT) and Sue Bradford (Mana Party).
Free admission.
