The date September 13, which is today, holds special importance in the political history of New Zealand.
In the year 1993, it was on September 13 that the Labour Party’s Elizabeth McCombs became New Zealand’s first female Member of Parliament. Interestingly, this happened forty years after women in Aotearoa received the right to vote in the year 1893.
McCombs won a by-election in the Lyttelton seat caused by the death of her husband, James McCombs. While James had only won by a narrow margin in 1931, she achieved a majority of 2600 votes. During her time in the Parliament, McCombs tried to highlight women’s issues at the forefront.
It may be noted that although New Zealand women had won the right to vote in 1893, they were not allowed to stand for Parliament until 1919.
From then to now, it won’t be an exaggeration to say that women’s representation in NZ Parliament has come a long way.
The 53rd New Zealand Parliament, which is the current session of Parliament in New Zealand, is headed by a woman Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. And out of the 120 current members of Parliament, 58 (48.3%) are women — the highest number since women were first allowed to stand for Parliament in 1919. Of them, 35 are from Labour Party, 11 are from National Party, seven from Green Party, four from ACT Party and one from Te Paati Maori Party.
Interestingly, as far as the Indian female MPs in the current Parliament is concerned, Priyanca Radhakrishnan, the Labour MP for Maungakiekie, is the only one. Moving on while the youngest Member of Parliament in New Zealand is 28-year-old female Chlöe Charlotte Swarbrick, who is a Green MP for Auckland Central; the oldest female MP in Parliament is Jacqui Dean (National MP for Waitaki), who is 65 years old.
It is a matter of pride that New Zealand has the highest rate of female MPs in the OECD.
United Kingdom: There are 225 women in the House of Commons. This is a new all-time high at 34.6% and is the first time that female representation in the House of Commons is at more than a third.
Australia: Out of 151 members in the House of Representatives, there are 40 female Members in the 45th Parliament (26.4%)
Canada: Of the 338 members of the House of Commons, 103 are women (30.4%) in the 44th Canadian Parliament. Of those 103 women, 22 were elected for the first time in the 2021 election
USA: Out of the total 435, 126 women Parliamentarians are currently in the House of Representatives, accounting for 28.04% of the total.
