Barry Soper: Dame Fran Wilde, a true trailblazer

COMMENT: Over the past 24 hours we’ve heard a lot about the achievements of women over the past 125 years as we celebrate Suffrage Day when legislation was passed through Parliament giving women the right to vote - the first self governing country in the world to do so.

Women's achievements since then have been recorded and celebrated, and there's plenty to celebrate. For the first time our three women Prime Ministers posed together for a photo and just like 2001, the top three jobs in the country are again held by women.

There's one woman who appears to have missed out on all the adulation of the 125 Kiwi women trailblazers who have, we're told, changed the world though, and one who most certainly deserves to be there. In a political sense Fran Wilde was most certainly a trailblazer and in my view much more worthy than many of those who've been listed as examples.

Mary Batchelor, Ruth Richardson, Fran Wilde, Marilyn Waring, Helen Clark and Anne Hercus after the anti-abortion bill had been voted out by the House on October 19, 1983. Photo / Paul Estcourt

Wilde's efforts have had a greater impact on people's lives than most in this country, regardless of their gender. Thirty two years ago Wilde saw the culmination of unrelenting work on behalf of tens of thousands who'd been discriminated against and criminalised in this country. At the time she received the most vile mail that would have seen many giving up the fight on behalf of homosexuals.

Parliament's debating chamber was packed on the night the Homosexual Law Reform Act passed into law and Fran Wilde justifiably felt a great sense of achievement in finally ridding the country of a cruel injustice.

Her other significant political achievement also impacted on many lives, reforming the adoption laws making it easier for adopted people and their birth-parents to contact each other.

After more than a decade in Parliament as Wellington Central MP, Wilde went on to achieve even more, becoming the first woman to serve as Mayor of the capital. People walking along the concrete expanse to Wellington's Westpac Trust Stadium to witness the Springboks beating the All Blacks last Saturday night would have made their way along the Fran Wilde Walk, rightly dedicated to her tireless work in getting the sports arena up and running.

She's been the boss of a significant Government department, Trade New Zealand, and for more than a decade continued in her public service on the Wellington Regional Council.

Ironically 25 years ago she was awarded the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal.

The trailblazer listed in the latest lineup as an early champion of LGBTQ rights was former Wellington strip club owner Carmen.