The milestone was reached this week with the swearing in of former speaker Trevor Mallard’s replacement on the list, Soraya Peke-Mason, our 177th woman member of Parliament.
It may have taken more than a hundred years to get to the half-way mark, but only a handful of countries have done so.
The United States of America, the United Kingdom and Canada are still a long way behind us.
Many might assume women achieving the right to vote in New Zealand under the Electoral Act 1893 also meant they could stand for election. However, that did not come until 1919 when the Women’s Parliamentary Rights Act came into law. It allowed women to stand for the then lower house, the House of Representatives, but they could not enter the upper house, the Legislative Council.
It would take until 1933 before the first woman MP entered the House. She was Elizabeth McCombs, who served in the Lyttelton seat for Labour until 1935.
(For the sake of transtasman rivalry, it is worth noting the Australians had a head start on us legislatively regarding representation, passing the Commonwealth Franchise Act in 1902. This allowed women to vote and stand for election. However, it would be another 41 years before their first woman MP was elected.)
It was 1953 before we saw a woman MP from this neck of the woods, with the redoubtable Ethel McMillan who held the Dunedin North seat for Labour until 1975. (She was also a long-serving member of the Dunedin City Council, known for her advocacy for the library service.)
Another long-term southern MP was Whetu Tirikatene Sullivan, who held the Southern Maori seat from 1967 to 1996. In 1970 she was the first MP to become a mother while Parliament was in session and was back at work two weeks after giving birth. She later became the first cabinet minister to give birth.
Increasing the number of women MPs was a slow business. Only 14 women were elected to Parliament between 1935 and 1975, compared with 298 men. The introduction of mixed member proportional (MMP) voting in 1996 helped progress.
It has taken a long time for Parliament to become a more family friendly place.
Former Dunedin National list MP Katherine Rich (1998-2008), who famously became the first woman to breastfeed her baby in the debating chamber in 2002, has previously spoken of criticism from her colleagues.
"I was delivering a speech and a fellow female MP shouted out, ‘Go home to your kids’. It stopped me in my tracks", she told Newshub.
We would hope such behaviour is long gone.
What has not gone away outside the House, and may be getting worse, is the rancour and vitriol hurled at women representatives, both nationally and locally.
Much of this behaviour has been enabled by the anonymity afforded by social media and the poor monitoring of such outlets. Nobody should have to tolerate rape and death threats or hideous comments about their appearance.
Former National leader Judith Collins illustrated the pervasive nature of harassment when she told RNZ of getting lengthy phone calls from men at her home in the early hours of the morning.
While the representation milestone should be recognised and applauded, we agree with Ms Collins we must remember having equal numbers in Parliament does not necessarily translate to all women in New Zealand having a fair go.
That pay equity is still an issue, 50 years after the passing of the Equal Pay Act, illustrates that all too well.
