Women’s Day of Action to mark suffrage anniversary with pay equity march in Gisborne

Pay equity supporters will march from the Town Clock to Fitzherbert St near the Margaret Home Sievwright Memorial monument on September 20. Universal suffrage was signed into law in New Zealand on September 19, 1893. Sievwright, a Gisborne woman, was prominent in the New Zealand suffrage movement, but her surname was still spelt incorrectly (Sievewright) on the monument.

Organisers of a Women’s Day of Action campaign for pay equity on Saturday, September 20, are asking supporters to wear the suffrage colours of purple, green, and white ... and “show up!”

The Day of Action will be held across the nation. Those involved in the Gisborne event will meet at the Town Clock at 10.30am.

They will march to Fitzherbert St near the Margaret Home Sievwright Memorial monument in the Rose Garden near the Gisborne District Council administration building.

Gisborne-based PSA national organiser Margaret Takoko said the date – September 20 – was appropriate as it was 132 years (and one day) after Kiwi women became the first in the world to be able to vote, regardless of their property ownership status.

Sievwright was a social reformer and a prominent figure in the New Zealand suffrage movement.

New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (NZCTU) secretary Melisa Ansell-Bridges said people in Aotearoa had “stood strong for pay equity”.

The Government had “gutted” pay equity legislation that would have eased the cost of living and lifted pay for more than 182,000 people, Ansell-Bridges said.

“No Government can dismantle pay equity. We have won it before and we will win it again. Now is the time to keep the pressure on.

“This Day of Action is more than protest ... it is a celebration of the women who nurture, lead and resist. It honours the suffrage legacy and amplifies our collective power to shape the future.

Ansell-Bridges said all were invited to participate.

“These events welcome everyone – whānau, communities and individuals of all genders, backgrounds and identities – to stand together for pay equity and justice.”

Gisborne-based Sievwright (1844-1905) and suffragist Kate Sheppard took a petition of nearly 32,000 signatures to Parliament in 1893 which led to a new Electoral Act being signed into law by Governor Sir David Boyle, Lord Glasgow, on September 19, 1893.

Women voted in the next general election on November 28, 1893, and in the Māori electorates on December 20 that year.