The Dunedin City Council is taking steps to change that.
The council yesterday announced the names of nine influential women it hoped to add to its road naming register, a list pre-approved names that can be chosen for new roads in the city.
Group manager transport Jeanine Benson said before it added the names to the list it needed consent from family members of the women.
"We are reaching out to family members of each of these women, asking that they come forward and approve their use.
"Without family consent, we cannot add these names to the register."
The historic figures it hoped to add to the list included Yvette Winifred Corlett, the first woman from New Zealand to win an Olympic gold medal.
Laura Maria Hayward was included for her work with refugees in Dunedin during World War 1 for which she was awarded the Belgian honour, the Medaille de la Reine Elisabeth.
Harriet Morison, the founding member of the women’s franchise league in Dunedin was also on the list.
The additions come after the council was criticised in 2016 when staff came up with 18 names to be added to the list that only included white men.
Ms Benson said the council was also in the process of including more Māori options to the list.
About 20 Māori naming options were being reviewed.
Anyone with a family connection to the nine women were asked to contact council transport staff within the next three months.
Cr Christine Garey, who as part of Women of Ōtepoti Recognition Project, has been campaigning for better recognition of women on Dunedin’s street signs, welcomed the move.
"For too long the women who helped to shape this city have not been recognised in the street names chosen thus far. That is slowly starting to change," she said.
She challenged developers who chose from the list when building subdivisions to go with more diverse names.
The right signs
The nine women whose names are proposed to be included in the road naming register are. —
- Rachelina Hepburn Armitage (1873-1955)
- Yvette Winifred Corlett (nee Williams, 1929-2019).
- Margaret Cruickshank (1873-1918).
- Laura Maria Hayward (1870-1966).
- Rachel Reynolds (nee Pinkerton) (1838-1928).
- Eileen Louise Soper (nee Service) (1900-89).
- Mary Ann Wellbourn (1835-1918).
- Catherine Redmayne (1825-1869).
- Harriet Morison (1862-1925).
By Mark John
