Kate Sheppard: Pay Taxes Voice

Posted by admin on Sunday, March 10, 2019

Kate Sheppard Money Quote saying as a New Zealand suffragist that because women must obey the law and pay taxes, they should reasonably be expected to have a say in how they are affected by them. Kate Sheppard said:
 

 

“If we have to obey the law, then we ask for a voice in the making of that law. If we pay taxes … we want to have a voice in saying how that money is spent” — Kate Sheppard

 

 

Birthday March 10, 1847 – Died July 13, 1934 (Her work led to New Zealand becoming the first country to grant women the vote in 1893)

 

In this quote, Kate Sheppard seems to be advocating for women’s suffrage and equal political participation. By stating that if women have to “obey the law” and “pay taxes”, then they “want to have a voice in the making of that law” and “saying how that money is spent”, Sheppard implies that women deserved the right to vote since they were still subject to laws and taxation without representation.

The quote conveys Sheppard’s perspective that it was unfair and undemocratic for women to be denied a say in governing systems that they were equally ruled by and supported financially through their labor and consumer spending.

Overall, Sheppard appears to be arguing that if women faced the responsibilities of citizenship, they deserved equal rights of citizenship through the franchise in order to have a stake in political decisions directly impacting their lives, families and communities.

 

Sheppard pictured on NZ $10 Note, Issued in 1999 by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand