Mabel Howard is New Zealander of the Year for 1947 - the year she became minister for health and the first woman appointed to a Cabinet position.
The Herald warmly applauded the move.
"It is strange that New Zealand which gave an example to the world more than 50 years ago in the matter of women's suffrage, should have delayed so long in admitting a woman to the central direction of public affairs," it said in an editorial marking the occasion.
"Both Great Britain and the United States responded much more quickly to feminine claims once those claims had been belatedly admitted.
"Certainly in New Zealand today there is every need for a woman's voice in the Dominion's highest council. So many legislative and administrative acts, conceived ostensibly in the interests of at least a substantial section of the people, have reacted of late to the disadvantage of women."
