Alice Eleanor Cossey

As ATU secretary, Cossey was a leading advocate of higher wages for women. When she retired in 1945 she left behind a strong union which was the oldest surviving women’s union in New Zealand.

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Ellen Melville

Although she worked tirelessly to complete the work of the nineteenth century feminists in attempting to remove so-called women’s disabilities, Ellen Melville represented a new breed of feminism. She was an independent professional woman who vigorously sought full participation in public life. She encouraged other women to follow her and to form strong women’s societies, which would take women’s concerns into the arena of public affairs. Melville was one of the key figures in the revival of the feminist movement in the twentieth century.

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