Women’s influence on N.Z. politics

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32678, 6 August 1971, Page 5

Women’s influence on N.Z. politics

(N.Z. Press Association)

WELLINGTON, August 5. More than 780,000 eligible women voters at the next General Election would have a very great effect on the preparation of political policies, Mrs E. I. Tombleson, member of Parliament for Gisborne, in Wellington last evening. Addressing a group of women of the Wellington branch of the New Zealand Society of Accountants on "The role and influence of women in politics,” she said that politically women were rather like an iceberg.

“An estimated two-thirds of an iceberg is unseen and extremely dangerous. In the case of women, the visible portion of their influence is limited to those relatively few women who become publicly prominent and vocal,” she said. But the force to be reckoned with politically was the hundreds of thousands who were not heard in public. They were the big and dangerous part of the iceberg. “And you can be assured that no political captain of any line wants a Titanic-type pile-up on the unseen and hidden depths of the women's vote.”

In the wide field of lawmaking, women imposed a very great influence. Their views had far-reaching effects on laws concerned with certain crimes and were paramount in the sweep of social legislation. “This ability to express

their views with their votes is the great power of women in politics,” Mrs Tombleson said.