Women in agriculture have always played an important role on and off the farm, pushing against the “grass ceiling” to have their voices heard in what was traditionally seen as a male-dominated sector.
This is a far cry from back in the day when, in 1927, rural women were in the papers for monopolising party telephone lines with “gossip and trivial conversations”.
Or in 1940, when a letter to the NZ Herald asked why rural women couldn’t vote in county council elections, while their “city sisters” could at the municipal elections.
In 1941 the Auckland District Federation of Women’s Institutes passed a remit against “unsatisfactory and unfair” petrol restrictions to country residents — and Taranaki farmers sang the praises of the hardworking land girls, in the NZ Herald in 1942.
Those people who monopolise party telephone lines for gossip and trivial conversations of unreasonable duration had few friends at a meeting at the Palmerston North Chamber of Commerce.
“Every time I go to ring a subscriber on a rural line,“ said one member, “there is always the chatter of women’s voices on the wire.”
“They talk about babies and how many currants they put in their cakes,” interrupted another.
“Last week,” a businessman declared, “I had to get in touch with a party line subscriber very urgently, and for over half an hour the line was engaged, it being the same two women who were doing all the talking.”
A suggestion was made that check might be kept by the postal authorities on the length of conversations over party lines, but discussion on the proposal made it clear that such was quite impractical.
A protest against the petrol restrictions as they stood at present was embodied in a remit passed at the annual meeting of the Auckland District Federation of Women’s Institutes held yesterday in the Milne and Choyce Reception Hall.
The remit stated that the restrictions at present were unsatisfactory and unfair to country residents.
It suggested that they should be lightened to some extent for the benefit of the rural population and that less petrol should be allowed to city and suburban dwellers who had every facility of transport by buses and trams.
NZ Herald, November 7, 1940.
The president, Mrs. A. H. Blackmore, presided, and associated with her on the platform were Miss Amy Kane, of Wellington, Dominion president, Mrs. J. B. Macfarlane and Mrs. L. S. Rickerby, president and chairman respectively of the Victoria League, and members of the federation executive.
A visit ‘was also paid to the meeting by Miss B. E. Carnachan, who received socks knitted by the members for soldiers, on behalf of Patriotic headquarters at Yorkshire House.
Sir, — May I inquire the reasons, if any, for the following anomaly: Why is every woman over the age of 21, who resides in the city, whether property owner or not, entitled to a vote at the municipal elections, while the wives and daughters of farmers and rural dwellers, with just as many interests at stake, have no vote at county council elections?
Surely these women should have the same rights as their city sisters.
