Hedwick Wilhelmina McDonald’s greatest achievement as a racehorse trainer does not appear in record books; nor does her real name. She trained the winner of the 1938 Melbourne Cup, but because women were not permitted to be professional trainers in Australia at the time, her husband temporarily took over the role. As for her name, most of her life she was known simply as ‘Granny’.
In an era when the achievements of women in sport received scant regard from New Zealand newspapers and radio, Dot Simons made the field her own.
Du Faur is significant as the best amateur climber of her day and as the first woman to take up high climbing in New Zealand
New Zealand show-jumper
Elected to the board of the Essendon Football Club in 1993, she was the first woman to hold that position at an Australian Football League (AFL) club. Knight is also well know for the leading role she has taken in bringing the work of Aboriginal artists to public notice. She is a former president of the Australian Commercial Galleries Association and helped develop a code of conduct to protect Aboriginal artists from exploitative dealers.
Esther Marion Pretoria James was remarkable for the diversity of her achievements, and in the 1930s became a national celebrity during a sponsored walk of the length of New Zealand.
American mountain climber and suffragist
Eve Rimmer was one of New Zealand’s greatest paraplegic athletes, winning 32 medals – including 22 gold medals – for athletics and swimming at international sporting events. A household name during the late 1960s and 1970s, she was also an outspoken advocate for the rights of the disabled in sport and society.
Romanian author, translator feminist, painter, scholar and mountaineer
Taglicht’s ideas on the importance of relaxation were advanced for the time. When the Wellington Parents’ Centre was formed in the early 1950s, she was employed to teach pregnant women relaxation and breathing exercises, which many found invaluable during the rigours of childbirth. She tutored aspiring actors in movement and relaxation, working with the New Zealand Drama Council’s annual summer schools over many years and the New Zealand Players during the 1950s. The New Zealand Opera Company also employed her. Her work has been continued and expanded by her followers.