By the early 2000s women made up about one third of honours recipients. The first civilian New Zealand woman to receive an honour was Sarah Brock, who worked for the New Zealand Post and Telegraph Department and won an Imperial Service Medal in 1915. However, women didn’t have regular access to honours until the Order of the British Empire was opened to women in 1918. The unusually high proportion of women honoured in 1993, to mark the centenary of women’s suffrage in New Zealand, was still greeted by some with outrage. Shown here after their 1993 investiture at Government House, Wellington, are three of the women honoured that year: (from left) Margaret Clark, Sister Annette Green and Dame Patricia Evison, with Governor-General Dame Catherine Tizard and Sir John Jeffries.