N.Z. woman head of I.C.W.

Press, 11 August 1979, Page 2

N.Z. woman head of I.C.W.

Mrs Miriam Dell, of Web lington, has been elected president of the International Council of Women at its twenty-second triennial conference, now being held at Nairobi, Kenya. She is the first New Zealander to hold the top office in the world’s most influential women’s organisation. News of her election was announced yesterday . by headquarters of the National Council of Women of New Zealand, Wellington. A former president of the N.C.W. of New Zealand (1970 to 1974), Mrs Dell was elected to the executive of the International Council of Women in 1971 and a vicepresident in 1976. Mrs Dell has been prominent in public affairs for many years and was awarded the C.B.E. in 1975. She was the first woman member of the Commission of Inquiry into Equal Pay in 1971 and became a member of the national executive of the Council for Equal Pay and Opportunity. She was the only woman on the National Development Council when appointed. The chairman of the Committee on Women since its inception, Mrs Dell was national co-ordinator of International Women’s Year, 1975. She is now projects’

co-ordinator on the New Zealand Commission for the International Year of the Child and is a member of the New Zealand National Commission of U.N.E.S.C.O. In family-life education, marriage guidance, and church affairs, Mrs Dell has given outstanding community service. She was » member of the Education Depart-

ment’s working party which planned a family-life education curriculum for primary and secondary schools, and was a participant in the Educational Priorities Conference, 1972.

A member of the national executive of the Marriage Guidance Council, she has been a council tutor in personal and family relationships at secondary schools since 1964 and is now in charge of tutor-training for the Hutt Valley council. Mrs Dell was a member of the Provincial Commission on the Ordination of Women and a member of the InterChurch Council on Public Affairs, For some years she was national chairman of the Young Wives’ Section of the Association of Anglican Women. At various times she has been a member of working committees of the Standards Association of New Zealand and, over the years, has done a considerable amount of writing and broadcasting on her wide range of interests. She is also a Justice of the Peace.

After graduating B.A. with honours from Auckland University, Mrs Dell became a post-primary teacher. She is married to Dr R. K. Dell, director of the National Museum, Wellington.