Mary Ann Müller was a New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 campaigner for women's suffrage

Women's suffrage

Women's suffrage or woman suffrage is the right of women to vote and to run for office. The expression is also used for the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending these rights to women and without any restrictions or qualifications such as property ownership, payment of tax, or...

 and, more generally, women's rights

Women's rights

Women's rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies.In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed...

. She is described by the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography

Dictionary of New Zealand Biography

The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography contains biographies for over 3,000 New Zealanders. It is available in both English and Maori. All volumes of the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography are available online....

as "New Zealand's pioneer suffragist".

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, New Zealand

Nelson is a city on the eastern shores of Tasman Bay, and is the economic and cultural centre of the Nelson-Tasman region. Established in 1841, it is the second oldest settled city in New Zealand and the oldest in the South Island....

 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 Rye

Maria Susan Rye, , was an English social reformer and a promoter of emigration, especially of young women living in Liverpool workhouses. She was the daughter of solicitor Edward Rye and Maria Tuppen.-Achievements:...

, who was visiting New Zealand. Müller began to closely follow feminist

Feminism

Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...

 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, published in his newspaper. Müller wrote under the pen name

Pen name

A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...

 "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 ever 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. According to the Encyclopedia of New Zealand (1966), her pamphlet "created considerable interest both in New Zealand and abroad". She received a letter of support and congratulations from John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill was a British philosopher, economist and civil servant. An influential contributor to social theory, political theory, and political economy, his conception of liberty justified the freedom of the individual in opposition to unlimited state control. He was a proponent of...

. Unwilling, because of her husband's position, to become a public activist, Müller nonetheless met William Fox

William Fox (New Zealand)

Sir William Fox, KCMG was the second Premier of New Zealand on four occasions in the 19th century, while New Zealand was still a colony. He was known for his eventual support of Māori land rights, his contributions to the education system , and his work to increase New Zealand's autonomy from...

 in private to discuss her views. According to the Brooklyn Museum

Brooklyn Museum

The Brooklyn Museum is an encyclopedia art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At 560,000 square feet, the museum holds New York City's second largest art collection with roughly 1.5 million works....

, "the Married Women's Property Act of 1870 incorporated many of her ideas".

She revealed her true identity only in 1898, seven years after her husband's death.

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, September 1, 1869, reproduced on a website of the New Zealand government