‘Power not automatic with vote’

Press, 20 September 1985, Page 5

‘Power not automatic with vote’

The nineteenth century fight for women’s suffrage is paralleled in importance today with women’s fight for control over their bodies, safe contraception, and the right to a safe abortion, according to a Wellington author, Ms Christine Dann. The suffragettes last century fought for women’s right to participate in public life, she said. “The vote did not automatically give them power,” Ms Dann said. “It was symbolic.” Sharing in that symbolism, 92 years later, was the present struggle for women to gain control over their bodies. “Without that right, the syriirbolic right to participate in public life is mean-

ingless,” Ms Dann said. Ms Dann was in Christchurch yesterday to launch her book, “Up From Under,” a non-academic history of the women’s liberation movement in New Zealand since 1970. The book was launched yesterday to celebrate Suffrage Day, which commemorates the granting of the vote to New Zealand women in 1893. Ms Dann claims that people involved in conventional politics generally misunderstood the importance of the need for women to control their fertility. “Generally they are men, who are used to avoiding responsibility for fertility control,” she said. “But women have tfo. They pay for it with tlsSir

bodies and their feelings. It affects their lives, because it shapes all their other options. A child is a big

responsibility. Sometimes they want them (children), but they want to have the choice as to when they want them and how they have them.” Although Ms Dann applauds the achievements of the women’s movement she argues that women’s rights still have a long way to go. She recalled meeting a farmer’s wife in Marlborough whose husband and near-adult sons felt threatened by her weekly cakedecorating classes. "She spoke with a quiet air of desperation,” Ms Dann said. “They saw those classes and the fact that she might be ‘indoctrinated’ with feminist ideas by meeting other women as the thin efld of the wedge.” Many men still felt a

strong resistance to being identified with such feminine occupations as baking and child-minding, or wearing anything as daring as a skirt, even thought it might be more comfortable, especially in the North Island, she said. Although fairly pessimistic about the progression of men in the 15 years of her book, Ms Dann believes that men are quite capable of change. “I know that some of the feminist separatists have given up hope, but I believe that leaves you at a political dead end. As a political person I have got to believe in political processes and that people who are mobilised can change,” she said. “But I don’t see Ijien

changing very fast.” Ms Dann, aged 33, is well known in the New Zealand women’s movement. She gained a master’s degree in political science from the University of Canterbury, and in 1971 and was a founding member of the Christchurch Women’s Liberation Group. Between 1977 and 1978, she edited the feminist magazine, “Broadsheet.” “Up From Under” begins with a chronology of events in the years 1970 to 1985. Other chapters examine developments in work, health, education, fertility control, the news media, creativity, and violence against women. Ms Dann wrote the book to remind women of how far they had come in those

15 years, she said. “History is really important politically. It is really encouraging to see where we have been. The women’s liberation movement is not just a short-term campaign. It involves big changes, spanning a lifetime. “It is particularly important for young women to know what women have achieved — things which they now take totally for granted, like equal pay. The first women’s refuge centre, for example, was set up in Christchurch in 1974. Now, in 1985, there are 34 throughout New Zealand. “We need to know our history because there is strength in knowing what we have achieved, and that we on achieving.”