AUCKLAND, Wednesday: The NZ Herald today marks the 125th anniversary of women’s suffrage with a special edition guest edited by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
The commemorative edition marks the anniversary of New Zealand women winning the right to vote on September 19, 1893, becoming the first country in the world to do so.
The Prime Minister was in the newsroom on Tuesday night to help put the edition together and send it to the printers: “It has been an honour to guest edit this Suffrage anniversary edition of the Herald,” she said (in a release from NSPR Auckland).
“I felt an enormous sense of responsibility to not only capture something of what a newspaper would look like if the stories and voices of women were heard on a more regular basis, but to highlight how, within the ordinary, sits the extraordinary,” Ardern said.
“As I said when the idea was first put to me, summing up 125 years of women’s experience in one issue was going to be an impossible task. However I hope that wherever you are, whatever you do, whether young, older or in between, this edition has captured your voice in some way.”
“The edition features an historic first photograph of NZ’s three female PMs – Ardern, Jenny Shipley and Helen Clark.”
The edition features an historic first photograph of New Zealand’s three female prime ministers – Ardern, Jenny Shipley and Helen Clark. And today’s Viva insert magazine carries a picture essay of 125 trailblazing New Zealand women.
A personal essay from the Prime Minister revealed her family connections to the suffrage petition.
Herald Premium Content Editor Miriyana Alexander said: “It has been fantastic for the newsroom to work with Ardern on such a special edition.
“This issue marks such an important occasion for Kiwi women. As well as celebrating trailblazing wahine toa and their achievements, we felt it was just as necessary to celebrate and acknowledge the efforts of all New Zealand women,” Alexander said.
“This is an historic edition, and seems all the more remarkable when you consider the global position. Australia barely knows who its prime minister will be week to week, and the US is in the astonishing position of having a president who thinks journalists are the enemy of the state.
“This a Herald edition for the ages.”
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