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New Zealand may be a small country in relation to the rest of the world. However we can lay claim to a number of women who have changed the world with their ideas.
Over the last few weeks you've read about the inspirational nzgirls from the Air Force, now you can check out the women that inspired them.
We’ve put together a timeline of the New Zealand heroines who are a source of inspiration and make us proud to be nzgirls.
Kate Sheppard 1847 - 1934 Kate Sheppard was the leader and main figurehead of the suffragist movement in New Zealand. Thanks to her, our little country in the South Pacific was the first in the world to grant universal adult suffrage to men and women equally. Kate was a source of inspiration to suffragists and campaigners for equality between the sexes, both in New Zealand and throughout the world. It's inspiring that a woman from a distant colonial settlement was the catalyst to rectifying something that over half the Western world had struggled against for over a century.
Kate was a natural leader and she argued for suffrage at public meetings and in her own persuasive writings. On limited means, she organised pamplets, letters to the press, talks, petitions and personal contacts with politicians. Writing in The Prohibitionist, she kept women up to date not only in the New Zealand suffrage movement, but also those in other countries. On her death, the Christchurch Times reported; “A great woman has gone, whose name will remain an inspiration to the daughters of New Zealand while our history endures.”
Frances Alda 1879 – 1952 Born in Christchurch, Frances Alda was a New Zealand operatic soprano. She has been called “New Zealand’s most famous daughter” due to her successful operatic career which began in Europe singing at Covent Garden, La Scala and the Opera-Comique in Paris. She later became a star member of the New York Metropolitan Opera, one of the world’s most distinguished opera companies. She became one of the Opera’s enduring stars until her retirement, triumphing over early critics and her turbulent marriage.
Frances brought opera to small towns in America and became one of the first opera stars to appreciate the developing medium of radio. She also toured around New Zealand and lauded its virtues, recording Maori music and being associated with New Zealand in the American imagination. Frances Alda has been described as “one of the great voices of the Twentieth Century” and a woman we are proud to call a New Zealander.
Katherine Mansfield 1888 – 1923 Wellington born Katherine Mansfield was a writer of short stories, poetry, letters, journals and reviews. Her writing has been translated into more than 25 languages and she has acquired an international reputation for her work. Katherine made extraordinary achievements in the literary world. She created a mode of short fiction that was new in many ways and she is regarded as a central figure in British modernism. Her lasting appeal is due to the fact that in the best of her writing, she communicates her individual experience in such a way that different readers can identify with.
Katherine understood that literature is created from experience, and expressed this in a letter in 1922: 'I think the only way to live as a writer is to draw upon one's real familiar life - to find the treasure in that.…And the curious thing is that if we describe this which seems to us so intensely personal, other people take it to themselves and understand it as if it were their own.' She was a truly inspiring nzgirl.
Dame Whina Cooper 1895 - 1994 Dame Whina Cooper was born Hohewhina Te Wake, of the Te Rarawa iwi at Hokianga in Northland. After a brief stint as a teacher she became stirred up by a local land dispute and soon developed a taste for a form of home-spun politics, including passive resistance. Whina took a leading role in community activities and her flair and abilities led to her becoming the undisputed Maori leader of northern Hokianga. She later moved to Auckland where she was elected first president of the new Maori Women’s Welfare League. The league was highly successful and Whina was rewarded with the title ‘Te Whaea o te Motu’ (Mother of the Nation).
Whina was later involved in Maori land rights and was asked to lead a coalition of Maori groups in a protest against the loss of their land. She proposed a hikoi – a symbolic march from the northern tip of the North Island to Parliament in Wellington, which she walked at the head of, at 80 years of age. Many New Zealanders will always remember the image of this determined figure, no longer strong in body but strong in mana. In 1981 Whina was made a Dame Commander in the Order of the British Empire and in 1991, a member of the Order of New Zealand.
Jean Batten 1909 – 1982 One of the great international aviators of the 1930s, Jean Gardner Batten was born September 15 1909 in Rotorua, the only daughter of a dentist, Frederick Harold Batten, and Ellen Blackmore. Jean was to become the finest woman pilot of the golden age of aviation. She brought great honour to New Zealand and a perfection to her flying that kept her alive through many frightening crises in the air. Utterly fearless, she sometimes took huge risks and flew in dangerous weather conditions, but she was an exceptionally accomplished navigator.
Her superior skills made her a more professional pilot than her better-known colleagues, Osa Johnson and Amelia Earhart. Behind her beauty lay qualities of ruthlessness and determination that were unique among her women pilot contemporaries. Jean is the epitome of an inspirational New Zealand heroine.
Nancy Wake born 1912 Nancy Wake was the Allies' most decorated servicewoman of WWII, and the Gestapo’s most-wanted person. They code-named her 'The White Mouse' because of her ability to elude capture. When war broke out she was a young woman married to a wealthy Frenchman living a life of luxury in cosmopolitan Marseilles. She became a saboteur, organiser and Resistance fighter who led an army of 7,000 Maquis troops in guerrilla warfare to sabotage the Nazis.
Her story is one of daring, courage and optimism in the face of impossible odds, meaning she will be forever remembered in New Zealand history for her heroic actions.
Janet Frame 1924 – 2004 Janet was born into a working class family in Dunedin and from a young age was a misfit. She had a love of words, literature and nature and her writing talent was recognised early on. However writing was not viewed by society as a suitable vocation for a woman. The fact that she shunned the traditions of marriage and family for intellectual pursuits made people even more suspicious of her. Society didn’t know how to deal with her unusual personality, so she was sent to a series of mental institutions, undergoing numerous sessions of electric shock therapy and almost underwent a lobotomy.
Her talent saved her from this potentially devastating operation, when her debut book ‘The Lagoon’ won the Hubert Church Memorial Award. Janet continued to write for the rest of her life. She didn't conform to living the life expected of her by society, but instead dedicated her days to fulfilling her passion. As well as achieving success as a writer, Janet Frame is an example of an nzgirl who has overcome incredible adversity to be a happy, independent person, and a New Zealand icon. Squadron Leader Sarah Hodges Squadron Leader Sarah Hodges grew up next to the old Wigram Air Force Base in Canterbury and was exposed to flying from a very young age. “Jets would literally stop the teacher in his tracks when they flew over my school – it was far too noisy to teach.” After joining a Royal New Zealand Air Force Wings course in 1992 she went on to become the first female member of the prestigious Red Checkers aerobatic team.
Her flying career also saw her fly Iroquois helicopters with the Ohakea based 3 Squadron. It was in this role that she earned the New Zealand Order of Merit after conducting a difficult Search and Rescue operation in high winds to rescue the lives of two climbers lost on Mount Aspiring in 1996. She remained in the Air Force until 2004 when she took up a career as a civilian pilot. Sarah showed us all that flying isn’t just for the boys.
Flight Sergeant Lisa Franken It’s not easy to get Flight Sergeant Helicopter Crewman Lisa Franken to talk about her New Zealand Bravery Medal. A reluctant heroine, Lisa is quick to describe the incident as “just part of the job”. While on an Air Force exercise in Fiji her helicopter received instruction that a Taiwanese Fishing boat called the Kin Sin II had caught fire. Lisa was winched down over the burning vessel along with a crewman from another RNZAF helicopter to help rescue the boat’s crew. Despite the raging flames, she helped to rescue all 23 crew members as well as the ships dog.
Lisa’s level headed approach served her well throughout her Air Force career and allowed her to thrive as a helicopter crewman and later as a physical training instructor. She truly is a heroic nzgirl.
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Inspired to do something heroic in your life? Get in touch with the Airforce on 0800 AIRFORCE text RNZAF to 223 or visit www.airforce.mil.nz to find out how you too can be an everyday New Zealand heroine.
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the world. However we can lay claim to a number of women who have changed the world with their ideas. 
Kate Sheppard was the leader and main figurehead of the suffragist movement in New Zealand. Thanks to her, our little country in the South Pacific was the first in the world to grant universal adult suffrage to men and women equally. Kate was a source of inspiration to suffragists and campaigners for equality between the sexes, both in New Zealand and throughout the world. It's inspiring that a woman from a distant colonial settlement was the catalyst to rectifying something that over half the Western world had struggled against for over a century. 
Frances Alda 1879 – 1952
Wellington born Katherine Mansfield was a writer of short stories, poetry, letters, journals and reviews. Her writing has been translated into more than 25 languages and she has acquired an international reputation for her work. Katherine made extraordinary achievements in the literary world. She created a mode of short fiction that was new in many ways and she is regarded as a central figure in British modernism. Her lasting appeal is due to the fact that in the best of her writing, she communicates her individual experience in such a way that different readers can identify with. 
Dame Whina Cooper was born Hohewhina Te Wake, of the Te Rarawa iwi at Hokianga in Northland. After a brief stint as a teacher she became stirred up by a local land dispute and soon developed a taste for a form of home-spun politics, including passive resistance. Whina took a leading role in community activities and her flair and abilities led to her becoming the undisputed Maori leader of northern Hokianga. She later moved to Auckland where she was elected first president of the new Maori Women’s Welfare League. The league was highly successful and Whina was rewarded with the title ‘Te Whaea o te Motu’ (Mother of the Nation). 
Jean Batten 1909 – 1982 
Nancy Wake born 1912
Janet was born into a working class family in Dunedin and from a young age was a misfit. She had a love of words, literature and nature and her writing talent was recognised early on. However writing was not viewed by society as a suitable vocation for a woman. The fact that she shunned the traditions of marriage and family for intellectual pursuits made people even more suspicious of her. Society didn’t know how to deal with her unusual personality, so she was sent to a series of mental institutions, undergoing numerous sessions of electric shock therapy and almost underwent a lobotomy. 
It’s not easy to get Flight Sergeant Helicopter Crewman Lisa Franken to talk about her New Zealand Bravery Medal. A reluctant heroine, Lisa is quick to describe the incident as “just part of the job”. While on an Air Force exercise in Fiji her helicopter received instruction that a Taiwanese Fishing boat called the Kin Sin II had caught fire. Lisa was winched down over the burning vessel along with a crewman from another RNZAF helicopter to help rescue the boat’s crew. Despite the raging flames, she helped to rescue all 23 crew members as well as the ships dog.