Kate SheppardToday is Suffrage Day – a day to celebrate those feisty women who worked so hard for New Zealand to become the first country in the world to give women the vote.

As we celebrate today with the suffragists of the Auckland women’s suffrage memorial looking down on us, I wonder why we don’t celebrate women’s achievements more generally.

Last week our own Lydia Ko became the youngest golfer to win a LPGA major title. Where is the place where we can learn about Lydia and commemorate the myriad of kiwi women whose achievements have helped put New Zealand on the world map?

I am just back from two weeks in outback Australia. The trip had a profound effect on me, especially my visit to the National Pioneer Women’s Hall of Fame museum in Alice Springs, where I spent several hours. I had intended to visit the museum before I left these shores but I hadn’t expected the amazing positive celebration of Australian women housed within the walls of what had previously been the Alice Springs Gaol.