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Kate Sheppard

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Advocate

The Resume

    (March 10, 1847-July 13, 1934)
    Born in Liverpool, England, United Kingdom
    Birth name was Catherine Wilson Malcolm
    Founding member of the New Zealand Women's Christian Temperance Union (1885)
    Organized three petitions for female suffrage to the New Zealand Parliament (1891-93)
    President of the National Council of Women of New Zealand (1895-1903)

Why she might be annoying:

    Like many temperance leaders, she began advocating for women's suffrage because of the belief that women would be more likely to support the prohibition of alcohol.
    She petitioned to have women banned from working as barmaids.
    Although she was successful in getting women the right to vote, other political changes that she advocated -- including eliminating political parties, having the cabinet elected by Parliament, and limiting the Prime Minister to one-year terms -- went nowhere.

Why she might not be annoying:

    She outlived two husbands, her only son and her only grandchild.
    She was described as 'quietly determined, persuasive and disarmingly feminine.'
    Her last suffrage petition was signed by a third of the women in New Zealand.
    Poet Jessie Mackey said she was 'the woman whose life and personality made the deepest mark upon New Zealand history.'
    She appears on the New Zealand ten dollar note.
    She said, 'We are tired of having a 'sphere' doled out to us, and of being told that anything outside that sphere is 'unwomanly.''

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 8 Votes: 25.00% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 9 Votes: 77.78% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 94 Votes: 54.26% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 50 Votes: 54.00% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 245 Votes: 37.14% Annoying