Fighter for women's rights dies at 81

Sonja Davies (centre) as Federation of Labour vice-president with president Jim Knox (left) and secretary Ken Douglas.

Tributes are flowing after the death of women's rights, disarmament and labour movement campaigner Sonja Davies.

She died at a Wellington rest home yesterday, several months after being admitted to hospital with pneumonia.

Ms Davies' life, which was marred by tragedy, including the deaths of both her children, was immortalised in the film Bread and Roses, based on her autobiography.

Prime Minister Helen Clark was the first to pay tribute to the 81-year-old, saying she had devoted her life to the interests of "ordinary New Zealanders".

"Sonja's life epitomised the triumph of the human spirit over great adversity ... many have been moved to tears by the story of her life."

Ms Davies was born in Upper Hutt and became a cause celebre in the 1950s when a group of Nelson women were arrested for occupying a train track that was about to be ripped up.

Direct action in those days was a "sensation", Ms Davies later wrote.

She would have many more battles against authority.

Council of Trade Unions president Ross Wilson said Ms Davies was a remarkable woman and a great New Zealander.

"Her life is marked by milestones of activism and leadership on issues relating to workers' rights and low pay, childcare and equal pay and opportunities for women, nuclear disarmament and peace."

Ms Davies rose through the ranks of the trade union movement to become the first woman vice-president of the Federation of Labour, serving from 1981 till 1987.

The path was not easy. "When women got up to speak ... the men all got up to read their newspapers or have a beer," she once said.

Ms Davies was also a founder president of the New Zealand Childcare Association, a founder of the NZ Working Women's Council and an executive member of the World Peace Council.

In 1987, she entered national politics but was deeply disillusioned - she had wanted to arrest the progress of Labour's so-called lurch to the Right but recalled it as a lonely "them and us" experience.

She was awarded the Order of New Zealand, the country's highest honour, in 1987. Ms Davies had previously turned down the chance to become a dame, saying she preferred a homegrown honour.

She had two children, a daughter and a son. Her daughter Penny died in 1994 after a long fight against motor neuron disease. Penny's father, a US Marine whom Ms Davies had met while she was a nurse, died in the war in the Pacific.

Ms Davies' son, Mark, died in an accident in Turangi in 1978.

Her husband, Charlie Davies, a trade unionist, died in 1971.

Ms Davies herself had many escapes from serious illness. She was admitted to hospital in May 1994 suffering from a relapse of pneumonia.

"I cannot climb mountains any more, which is sad," she said at the time.

She spent years in and out of hospital with tuberculosis.

- NZPA