The Women's Parliament: National Council of the Women of NZ 1896–1920

Three years after New Zealand women became the first of any country to win the vote, a group of leading feminists established an organisation which survives to this day. The National Council of Women, dubbed the 'Women's Parliament', was founded in 1896 and lobbied for radical change. It recognised that women needed more than the vote to have an influence in parliament – it demanded the full participation of women in the State as the equals of men, through legislative and social reform.

Roberta Nicholls' lively account of the early years of this long-lasting feminist organisation seeks to explain the Council's recess in 1906 and the reasons for its revival 12 years later. Nicholls also provides vivid biographies of the women at the heart of the Council: Anna Stout, Kate Sheppard and Margaret Sievwright, and shows how these powerful women shared many concerns of feminists of the present day. 

Roberta Nicholls co-edited with David Hamer The Making of Wellington 1800–1914 and worked as an editor at the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography.