Mabel Howard
Mabel Bowden Howard (* 18th April 1894 in Bowden , Adelaide , South Australia ; † 23. June 1972 in Christchurch ) was a New Zealand politician of the New Zealand Labor Party (NZLP), first female secretary of a male-dominated trade union and first minister in the history of New Zealand.
Life
Union official
Mable Bowden Howard, daughter of House Representative Ted J. Howard, attended the Christchurch Technical Institute and in 1911 became an assistant to the male-dominated Canterbury's General Labor Union . When she became secretary of Canterbury's General Labor Union in 1933 , she was the first woman to hold such a position in a New Zealand union.
At the same time she began her political career in local politics and was a member of the Christchurch City Council for the first time from 1933 to 1935.
In December 1935, she became deputy government spokeswoman for the first government of the NZLP under Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage . Between 1938 and 1941 she was again a member of the Christchurch City Council.
In 1943, she was at a by-election ( by-election selected) as the fifth woman in the New Zealand Parliament history itself to members of the House of Representatives and represented in this first until 1946 the interests of NZLP in the constituency Christchurch East and then from 1946 to 1969 in the constituency Sydenham .
First Minister of New Zealand
When she was appointed Minister of Supply to Prime Minister Peter Fraser's cabinet in 1947 , she was the first female member of government in New Zealand's history. A short time later, Fraser named her Minister of Health as part of a government reshuffle; in this capacity she was a member of the government until the end of Fraser's tenure on December 13, 1949. In 1950 she was again a member of the Christchurch City Council and was a member of this until 1959.
In 1954 she again received national attention when she showed two pairs of her bloomers in the House of Representatives to show that clothes for the same person are different sizes. This led to a legislative initiative that resulted in a statutory definition of clothing sizes .
After the NZLP's electoral victory, she was appointed to Prime Minister Walter Nash's cabinet on December 12, 1957, and was Minister of Social Affairs and the Welfare of Women and Children there until the New Zealand National Party was defeated on November 26, 1960. Most recently she was again a member of the Christchurch City Council between 1963 and 1968.
After her retirement from politics, the never married Mabel Howard suffered from paranoia , so that she was admitted to the psychiatric clinic Sunnyside Hospital on the basis of a court order , where she finally died a few years later.
In a TV show about the 100 most important New Zealanders called New Zealand's Top 100 History Makers , she was voted 28th in 2005, just one place behind Helen Clark , the then Prime Minister of New Zealand.
Web links
- Jim McAloon : Howard, Mabel Bowden . In: Dictionary of New Zealand Biography . Ministry for Culture & Heritage , September 1, 2010, accessed August 21, 2012 .
- First Female Ministers . Worldwide Guide to Women in Leadership,accessed August 20, 2012.
Individual evidence
- ^ Mabel Bowden Howard - Christchurch City Libraries - accessed August 21, 2012
- ^ Women in parliament 1933-2005 . Electoral Commission New Zealand , May 9, 2006, archived from the original February 8, 2013 ; accessed on February 1, 2016 (English, original website no longer available).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Howard, Mabel |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Howard, Mabel Bowden (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | New Zealand Minister |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 18, 1894 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bowden , Adelaide , South Australia |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 23, 1972 |
| Place of death | Christchurch |