Fran Collett, the only woman reporter in the parliamentary press gallery in 1966, is seated second from right in this photograph of the gallery reporters, taken in front of the former Bellamy's bar. The bewigged speaker of the House, Sir Ronald Algie, is seated in the centre. Collett entered the press gallery in 1965 for the New Zealand Press Association, after heated opposition from male members of the gallery, partly on the grounds that 'there were no social rooms for a woman, nor any provision for a woman of any kind'. In the 1970s more women reporters joined, and the gallery's reputation as a male bastion began to diminish.
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