Female New Zealand MPs have celebrated suffrage day by recreating a famous photograph from 1905 shot in the country’s parliament featuring no women.
Instead of an all-male lineup, it features 39 of the country’s 46 women MPs.
Jacinda Ardern – the country’s third female prime minister – sat front and centre in the modern update, cradling her infant daughter Neve Te Aroha on her lap.
Side-by-side: for #SuffrageDay, women MPs recreated an iconic photo of MPs taken in 1905 in the Reading Room of the Parliamentary Library. #WhakatūWāhine #WomenInPolitics #nzpol
— NZ Parliament (@NZParliament) September 19, 2018
Read more about today's #Suffrage125 celebrations: https://t.co/9FF2t5f73C pic.twitter.com/F4FF7E3E90
“What a difference 113 years makes!” tweeted Green MP Golriz Ghrahraman, New Zealand’s first refugee MP, who featured in the updated photograph taken on Wednesday.
The black and white picture taken in the reading room of the parliamentary library in 1905 captured 23 men in three-piece suits. The 2018 version featured women of diverse age and ethnicity – and one baby girl.
Celebrating all NZ women today including the 149 women parliamentarians who have been elected to Parliament in our history. 125 years on since NZ women secured the right to vote we acknowledge the suffragettes for their courage and fight to deliver this.Still so much more to do.. pic.twitter.com/XXUaAg10mH
— Hon Nikki Kaye (@nikkikaye) September 19, 2018
The 2017 general election saw 46 women elected to New Zealand parliament, taking the proportion of female MPS to 38%. It is still shy of the prime minister’s professed goal of an equal 50/50 split. At 75%, the Green party has the highest percentage of women among its caucus.
Suffrage day celebrates the 125th anniversary since New Zealand women won the right to vote in parliamentary elections. More than 90,000 New Zealand women went to the polls on 28 November 1893 and despite concerns about harassment and violence, the atmosphere was relaxed, and in some places, festive. Women were first allowed to stand for election in 1919 and the first female MP was elected in 1933.
