Mary Dorothy Batchelor was a New Zealand trade unionist, feminist and Labour Party politician.
19 Facts About Mary Batchelor
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Mary Batchelor attended St Mary's College until she left at 13 to begin work.
3.
Mary Batchelor began training as a hat maker, but depreciating eyesight forced her to leave the trade.
4.
Mary Batchelor married young to Arthur Batchelor and had two children.
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Mary Batchelor was later elected both president of the Canterbury branch of the Council for Equal Pay and Opportunity and appointed a delegate to the Canterbury Trades Council and the National Council of Women.
6.
Mary Batchelor worked as a campaign manager for Roger Drayton, Labour's successful St Albans candidate in 1969.
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Mary Batchelor was then elected a member of the Christchurch City Council in 1971.
8.
Mary Batchelor was appointed chairperson of the council's health and general committee in her first term.
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Mary Batchelor was re-elected three years later but in 1977 decided not to seek another term.
10.
Mary Batchelor served as Member of Parliament for the Avon electorate in Christchurch for 15 years from 1972 to 1987.
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Mary Batchelor became known as a champion of the underdog, but later said she did not push feminist issues too strongly to avoid alienating others.
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Mary Batchelor notably became a victim of Muldoon's routine name-calling.
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Mary Batchelor referred to her as "orange roughy" after she dyed her hair a startling shade of red, one of the few times she achieved any semblance of prominence in her parliamentary career.
14.
Mary Batchelor was taken to hospital and had several tests before being discharged to her home.
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Mary Batchelor later stated that she was overcome by exhaustion following a strenuous travel schedule.
16.
The battle went to a second vote before Mary Batchelor finally emerged victorious.
17.
Mary Batchelor was re-elected that year, which saw the formation of the Fourth Labour Government.
18.
Mary Batchelor took up painting and was a member of the Royal Queensland Art Society.
19.
Mary Batchelor was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal in 1977, the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal, and, in 1993, the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal.