The 1893 Women's Suffrage Petition, New Zealand
The 1893 Women's Suffrage Petition led to New Zealand becoming the first self-governing nation in the world where women won the right to vote.
It was signed by close to one quarter of the female adult population and was, at that time, the largest petition of its kind signed in New Zealand and other Western countries.
Today, equality of men and women in the political sphere is an almost universally accepted political right, and this documentary heritage is testament to the struggle that made this possible.
The 1893 Women's Suffrage Petition was inscribed on the International Memory of the World Register in 1997.
Want to learn more?
See the New Zealand National Archives and UNESCO Register for further information.
A detailed description of the archive can be found in pages 96-97 of the publication Memory of the World: Documentary Heritage in Asia and the Pacific.