New Zealand celebrates 125 years of women having the vote

2018-09-20 06:32

New Zealand became the first nation in the world to allow women to vote 125 years ago, and hundreds of people celebrated the anniversary by turning out to gatherings and speeches with some wearing period costumes or the white camellia flowers — a symbol of the movement.

New Zealand's female lawmakers also marked the occasion by re-enacting an all-male photograph of lawmakers taken more than a century ago. This time, the photograph featured New Zealand's third female Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in the centre, holding her 3-month-old baby Neve.

Ardern was also the guest editor for the "suffrage edition" of the country's largest daily newspaper, The New Zealand Herald, although some questioned whether that move could taint the political neutrality the paper seeks in its journalism.