{"id":2685,"date":"2023-10-06T09:45:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-06T08:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/liverpoolka.com\/?p=2685"},"modified":"2025-09-12T11:02:49","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T10:02:49","slug":"catherine-sheppard-is-a-famous-new-zealand-suffragette-who-was-born-in-liverpool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/liverpoolka.com\/en\/eternal-2685-catherine-sheppard-is-a-famous-new-zealand-suffragette-who-was-born-in-liverpool","title":{"rendered":"Catherine Sheppard is a famous New Zealand suffragette who was born in Liverpool"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Liverpool has been the birthplace of many famous and talented individuals. Today, we&#8217;re focusing on the prominent suffragist Katherine Sheppard, who was born right here in the city. Read more about the life of this celebrated woman on the <a href=\"https:\/\/liverpoolka.com\/en\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/liverpoolka.com\/\">liverpoolka.com<\/a> website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Who Were the Suffragists?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The suffrage movement was a campaign for women&#8217;s right to vote, and its supporters were known as suffragists. These women campaigned against discrimination in legal, political, and economic spheres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The movement first began to gain momentum in Great Britain before being embraced by women in the United States. The primary methods used by suffragists included demonstrations, hunger strikes, and other forms of civil disobedience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What We Know About Katherine Sheppard<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The future suffragist was born in Liverpool in 1847 to a Scottish family. She received a good education and was known for her sharp intellect. Following the death of her father, Katherine, along with her mother and siblings, emigrated to Christchurch, New Zealand. Some time later, she married.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1885, this Liverpool native was a founding member of the Women&#8217;s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) in New Zealand. The organisation&#8217;s membership was predominantly female, and the union gradually evolved to also champion the cause of women&#8217;s suffrage. Thanks to her excellent public speaking and organisational skills, Katherine quickly garnered the support of other women. She argued that people should not be divided by class, gender, faith, or race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Katherine Sheppard didn&#8217;t just talk; she took action. In 1887, she supported the first bill concerning women&#8217;s suffrage. A year later, a key pamphlet was published outlining reasons why the women of New Zealand should be allowed to vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With Katherine Sheppard&#8217;s backing, several petitions for women&#8217;s suffrage were sent to the New Zealand Parliament. As a result, in 1893, New Zealand became the first self-governing country in the world to grant women the right to vote in parliamentary elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"476\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.liverpoolka.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/75\/2023\/10\/sheppard1.jpg\" alt=\"A black and white portrait of Katherine Sheppard.\" class=\"wp-image-2196\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.liverpoolka.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/75\/2023\/10\/sheppard1.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/cdn.liverpoolka.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/75\/2023\/10\/sheppard1-300x143.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.liverpoolka.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/75\/2023\/10\/sheppard1-768x366.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.liverpoolka.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/75\/2023\/10\/sheppard1-696x331.jpg 696w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Continuing Fight for Women&#8217;s Rights<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1894, she returned to Great Britain. While there, Katherine met with fellow suffragists and delivered lectures. She later returned to New Zealand and was elected president of the National Council of Women of New Zealand. She also helped to establish the newspaper <em>The White Ribbon<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Katherine Sheppard&#8217;s role in the development of the suffrage movement was colossal. Her efforts led to an improved status for women in society, granting them greater legal and economic independence from men. She was also instrumental in promoting several other political reforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kate Sheppard eventually stepped down from her position at the National Council due to failing health. She and her husband even lived in England for a time, where she continued to actively campaign for women&#8217;s rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1904, Sheppard returned to New Zealand once more and resumed her political activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Her husband passed away in 1915. Ten years later, Kate remarried, but her second marriage was also short-lived, ending with her new husband&#8217;s death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Katherine Sheppard passed away in 1934.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It must be noted that this woman from Liverpool played a pivotal role in New Zealand&#8217;s history. That is why her image appears on the country&#8217;s ten-dollar banknote. A street and several educational institutions have also been named in her honour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And that is the story of the remarkable suffragist who was born in the city of Liverpool. We hope you found this article informative and learned something new about this famous figure from our city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What do you know about Katherine Sheppard&#8217;s work? Let us know in the comments on our social media channels. We value your opinion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Liverpool has been the birthplace of many famous and talented individuals. Today, we&#8217;re focusing on the prominent suffragist Katherine Sheppard, who was born right here in the city. Read more about the life of this celebrated woman on the liverpoolka.com website. Who Were the Suffragists? The suffrage movement was a campaign for women&#8217;s right to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":402,"featured_media":2688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1035],"tags":[1857,1848,1854,1853,1856,1855,1851,1852,1850,1846,1845,1849,1858,1847],"moimportance":[34,33],"motype":[1045],"moformat":[66],"class_list":{"0":"post-2685","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-psychology-of-women","8":"tag-catherine-sheppard-activism","9":"tag-catherine-sheppard-biography","10":"tag-catherine-sheppard-feminism","11":"tag-catherine-sheppard-history","12":"tag-catherine-sheppard-legacy","13":"tag-catherine-sheppard-political-role","14":"tag-catherine-sheppard-suffragette","15":"tag-famous-new-zealand-suffragette","16":"tag-liverpool-born-suffragette","17":"tag-new-zealand-voting-rights","18":"tag-new-zealand-womens-rights","19":"tag-pioneer-of-womens-suffrage","20":"tag-suffrage-movement-new-zealand","21":"tag-womens-right-to-vote-nz","22":"moimportance-golovna-novina","23":"moimportance-retranslyacziya-v-agregatori","24":"motype-eternal","25":"moformat-vlasna"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/liverpoolka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/liverpoolka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/liverpoolka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liverpoolka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/402"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liverpoolka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2685"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/liverpoolka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2689,"href":"https:\/\/liverpoolka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2685\/revisions\/2689"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liverpoolka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/liverpoolka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liverpoolka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liverpoolka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2685"},{"taxonomy":"moimportance","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liverpoolka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/moimportance?post=2685"},{"taxonomy":"motype","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liverpoolka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/motype?post=2685"},{"taxonomy":"moformat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/liverpoolka.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/moformat?post=2685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}