1871, Learmonth Dalrymple: Women's champion

Learmonth Dalrymple of Port Chalmers persuaded Otago University to admit women. (Otago Settlers Museum)

Learmonth Dalrymple of Port Chalmers is New Zealander of the Year for persuading Otago University to admit women to its degree courses.

The Herald of 1871 approved of efforts to educate women.

"That for which practical minds will strive, will be to see woman qualified to play her part well in the great drama of life," it wrote in an editorial just before Dalrymple achieved the objective of her eight-year campaign to break down the rules and attitudes that barred the doors of the university to women.

However, that approval came with an important limitation.

"The question is a purely social one," said the editorial, "and any attempt to give it political significance is proof of great ignorance or bespeaks a love for notoriety which has overcome all regard for sound judgment and sober sense."

That's not the view of the 21st century Herald. Clearly it was not simply a matter of educating women for a social role. Within a few years women were graduating in medicine as well as arts and their campaign for political rights was bearing fruit.

So, for different reasons, the 21st century Herald agrees with the hypothetical choice of the 19th century newspaper in making Learmonth Dalrymple New Zealander of the Year for 1871.

From the Herald archives:
Editorial on the education of women, New Zealand Herald, 24 July 1871

'Clippings from Southern Papers', New Zealand Herald, 21 August 1871

Further reading:
Biography of Learmonth Dalrymple, Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand