Mary Ann Müller ( Wilson and then Griffiths; 22 September 1820 – 18 July 1901) was a New Zealand campaigner for
women's suffrage
Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...
and, more generally,
women's rights
Women's rights are the rights and Entitlement (fair division), entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st c ...
. She is described by the ''
Dictionary of New Zealand Biography
The ''Dictionary of New Zealand Biography'' (DNZB) is an encyclopedia or biographical dictionary containing biographies of over 3,000 deceased New Zealanders. It was first published as a series of print volumes from 1990 to 2000, went online ...
'' as "New Zealand's pioneer suffragist".
Life
Müller was born in London on the 22 September 1820. Little is known about the background of her mother, Mary Cott. Her father, James Norris, was an insurance and stock broker. Her parents never legally married each other. Cott provided the last name Wilson on official records for Müller and her sisters.
She moved to New Zealand with her two sons in 1849. It is uncertain whether she was a widow or whether she had left her husband on account of his cruelty. She worked for two years as a teacher in
Nelson
Nelson may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Nelson'' (1918 film), a historical film directed by Maurice Elvey
* ''Nelson'' (1926 film), a historical film directed by Walter Summers
* ''Nelson'' (opera), an opera by Lennox Berkeley to a lib ...
and married her second husband, Stephen Lunn Müller, a surgeon and a fellow immigrant from Britain, there in 1851. Her first husband is known to have been dead by this point.
In 1864, she met British women's rights advocate
Maria Rye
Maria Susan Rye (31 March 1829 – 12 November 1903) was a British social reformer and a promoter of emigration from England, especially of young women living in Liverpool workhouses, to the colonies of the British Empire, especially Canada.
Ea ...
, who was visiting New Zealand. Müller began to closely follow
feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...
movements in Britain and the United States. She also began to write articles on the topic of women's rights, which her friend
Charles Elliott, the editor of the ''
Nelson Examiner
''The Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle'' (also known as ''The Nelson Examiner'' and then ''The Nelson Daily Examiner''), was the first newspaper published in New Zealand's South Island. It was launched in 1842 by Charles Elliott (1811â ...
'', published in his newspaper. Müller wrote under the pen name "Fémmina", primarily because her husband, a local politician, objected to her views.
[
In 1869, still under a pseudonym, she wrote ''An appeal to the men of New Zealand'', the first pamphlet on the issue of women's suffrage to be published in New Zealand. Müller's argument was that it was necessary for women to obtain the vote in order for them to contribute fully to the progress of the nation. She also asked for the repeal of discriminatory legislation, and appealed to men – particularly members of Parliament – to take up the cause of women's suffrage. Her pamphlet "created considerable interest both in New Zealand and abroad".]John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 7 May 1873) was an English philosopher, political economist, politician and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of liberalism and social liberalism, he contributed widely to s ...
. Unwilling, because of her husband's position, to become a public activist, Müller nonetheless met William Fox in private to discuss her views. According to the Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 500,000 objects. Located near the Prospect Heig ...
, "the ''Married Women's Property Act'' of 1870 incorporated many of her ideas".[
]
See also
*Kate Sheppard
Katherine Wilson Sheppard ( Catherine Wilson Malcolm; 10 March 1848 – 13 July 1934) was the most prominent member of the women's suffrage movement in New Zealand and the country's most famous suffragist. Born in Liverpool, England, she emig ...
*List of suffragists and suffragettes
This list of suffragists and suffragettes includes noted individuals active in the worldwide women's suffrage movement who have campaigned or strongly advocated for women's suffrage, the organisations which they formed or joined, and the publi ...
*Timeline of women's suffrage
Women's suffrage – the right of women to vote – has been achieved at various times in countries throughout the world. In many nations, women's suffrage was granted before universal suffrage, in which cases women and men from certain Social ...
*Women's suffrage in New Zealand
Women's suffrage was an important political issue in the late-nineteenth-century New Zealand. In early colonial New Zealand, as in European societies, women were excluded from any involvement in politics. Public opinion began to change in the ...
References
External links
"An appeal to the men of New Zealand"
full text, reproduced on a website of the New Zealand Ministry of Culture and Heritage
Review of "An appeal to the men of New Zealand"
in the ''Nelson Examiner'', 1 September 1869, reproduced on a website of the New Zealand government
Outlines of the women's franchise movement in New Zealand
W Sidney Smith's book on wikisource.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Muller, Mary
New Zealand feminists
1820 births
1901 deaths
19th-century New Zealand people
New Zealand suffragists
Burials at Omaka Cemetery