Rona Stevenson

Rona Miriel Stevenson MBE JP (13 February 1911 – 4 September 1988) was a New Zealand politician of the National Party.

New Zealand Parliament
Years Term Electorate Party
1963–1966 34th Taupo National
1966–1969 35th Taupo National
1969–1972 36th Taupo National

Born in Wellington in 1911, she served on the executives of the Women's Division of Federated Farmers, the YWCA and the Presbyterian Church.[1]

She represented the Taupo electorate from 1963 to 1972, when she retired.[2] In the 1966 election, she narrowly beat (by 258 votes) Labour's Barry Gustafson.[3] The Taupo seat was a marginal one and the women's section of the National Party raised a large sum of money to ensure her re-election.[4] Also in 1966 she also called for the names of women in 'so-called rape cases' to have their names published on the grounds that they may have been provocative, a move that may not have gained her support from women voters.[4]

Stevenson was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire, for services to the community, in the 1976 Queen's Birthday Honours.[5] She died on 4 September 1988, and her ashes were buried at Taupo Public Cemetery.[6]

Notes
  1. Gustafson 1986, p. 344.
  2. Wilson 1985, p. 236.
  3. Gustafson 1986, p. 91.
  4. Wallace, Sandra (1993). "Members for Everywoman? The campaign promises of women parliamentary candidates" (PDF). NZJH. 27 (2): 187–98.
  5. "No. 46921". The London Gazette (3rd supplement). 12 June 1976. p. 8057.
  6. "Deceased details". Taupō District Council. Retrieved 17 January 2015.

References
  • Gustafson, Barry (1986). The First 50 Years : A History of the New Zealand National Party. Auckland: Reed Methuen. ISBN 0-474-00177-6.
  • Wilson, James Oakley (1985) [First ed. published 1913]. New Zealand parliamentary record, 1840–1984 (4 ed.). Wellington: V.R. Ward, Govt. Printer. OCLC 154283103.
  • Women in Parliamentary Life 1970–1990: Hocken Lecture 1993 by Marilyn Waring, page 35 (Hocken Library, University of Otago, 1994) ISBN 0-902041-61-4


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