Story: Women’s movement

Cleaning up politics

Cleaning up politics

Politics was seen as a dirty business, and many people believed that when women had the vote they would clean it up. The man being thoroughly scrubbed in this 1893 cartoon wears a badge saying ‘MHR’ (Member of the House of Representatives), while the woman is saying, ‘You dirty boy!’

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Manatū Taonga – Ministry for Culture and Heritage, History Group
Reference: New Zealand Graphic, 18 November 1893
Cartoon by Ashley Hunter

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How to cite this page:

Megan Cook, 'Women’s movement - The 19th-century women’s movement', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/en/cartoon/27883/cleaning-up-politics (accessed 19 March 2024)

Story by Megan Cook, published 5 May 2011