Women Workers of the National Museum and National Art Gallery, 1866-1966

The names listed here are part of an ongoing research project that investigates the women who were employed by New Zealand’s National Museum and National Art Gallery during their first 100 years. It has been undertaken under the umbrella of the 125th anniversary of New Zealand women achieving universal suffrage in 1893. An initial list was gathered from the Appendix of R. K. Dell’s The First Hundred Years of the Dominion Museum, commissioned by the Museum as its official history, with the female staff selected from the list for further research.

As all of the staff on this list were only referred to by the first initial and surname, the first goal was to determine the full names of the women staff. This, along with other biographical information, was found through looking in Te Papa’s archive and cross-referencing these names with official records (probates, electoral rolls, birth/death/marriage certificates etc), newspaper articles, and cemetery records to build a biographical database of these female employees.

So far we have discovered that the majority of female staff were young and unmarried. They were typically employed in roles such as typists, assistants, or secretaries. However there were a number of women who were university educated working in their specialised fields, such as Amy Castle, Nancy Adams, Margaret Crozier, Ursula Tewsley, and Susan Davis. Many of these women were highly recognised in their respective fields, and were clearly thought of as great assets to the museum. This is evident from correspondence between the directors, employees, and Public Services Commission.

However, the women working in less specialised roles (e.g. typists) were often hired on low wages, yet were expected to do things daily that were above their pay grade and job classification. There is evidence in several women’s personnel files that often they were involved in battles with their employer for pay increases as a result. These requests for pay increases appear to be whole heartedly supported by the museum Director, but were often declined at a Governmental level by the Under-Secretary and State Services Commissioner.

This is clear evidence of the historical undervaluing of women's work, that some would argue still exists to this day (2018) with the existence of a 12% gender pay gap, with 80% of the gaps being categorised as "unexplained." As these women were part of the Public Service, they were also expected to leave once they got married. Yet some women were still hired despite being married while others, in the case with Eileen Plank (who held an MSc with First Class Honours), were forced to leave the service once they married.

The research also highlights the difficulties faced by young widows due to the lack of government welfare prior to 1930. Katherine Phillips lost her husband in an accident in 1916 and therefore had to work full time to support herself and three young children. She was very unwell for much of her time employed at the National Museum, and ended up passing away from an undisclosed illness in 1926. As Katherine was not a war widow, she was not entitled to the same assistance offered to these women at this time.

This research is ongoing, as there is much information still to be located about each of the approximately 60 female staff over the first century of the National Museum and Art Gallery. The number of women employed over these 100 years is in itself significant, as today, the GLAM sector is predominantly staffed by women, until you look at the upper levels of management in various institutions, where there is still a significant gender imbalance.

Ashley Tvrdeic, July 2018