22 Facts About Miriam Dell

Dame Miriam Patricia Dell was a New Zealand women's advocate, botanist and schoolteacher.

Miriam Dell was the president of the National Council of Women of New Zealand from 1970 to 1974 and the first New Zealand president of the International Council of Women from 1979 to 1984.

Miriam Dell established the Committee on Women, the forerunner to New Zealand's Ministry for Women.

Miriam Dell was the daughter of Ruby Miriam Crawford and Gerald Matthews.

Miriam Dell's family moved to Mount Albert in Auckland in 1931, and she attended Owairaka School, and later Epsom Girls' Grammar School.

Miriam Dell subsequently attended the Auckland Teachers' Training College and became a science teacher at Otahuhu College.

In 1946, at age 22, she married Richard Miriam Dell and moved with him to Wellington the following year.

Miriam Dell was a founding member of the Hutt Valley Branch of the National Council of Women of New Zealand.

Miriam Dell became national president of the council in 1970.

In 1971, Miriam Dell was the only female member of a five-person Committee of Inquiry into Equal Pay set up by the government to investigate equal pay in New Zealand.

Miriam Dell was the only woman to sit on the National Development Council from 1969 to 1974.

In 1974, Miriam Dell became chairperson of the Committee on Women and was coordinator for the landmark International Women's Year in 1975, as well as attending all three of the United Nations Conferences for the Decade of Women as a member of the New Zealand Government delegation.

Miriam Dell worked with government departments to convene important conferences such as the 1976 Conference on Women Social and Economic Development and 1977 Conference on Women and Health, both held in Wellington.

Miriam Dell was elected to the Board of Officers of the International Council of Women in 1976, and was elected International President in 1979.

Miriam Dell was the first New Zealander to hold this position, and remained in post until 1986.

Miriam Dell was coordinator of the ICW Development Project Program until her retirement.

In July 1991, Miriam Dell was appointed to chair the Suffrage Trust, set up to promote the centennial of women's suffrage in New Zealand and to allocate NZ$5 million in funding to projects reflecting different aspects of women's lives.

Miriam Dell died in Carterton on 22 March 2022, at the age of 97.

On 6 February 1993, Miriam Dell was the 22nd appointee to the Order of New Zealand, New Zealand's highest civil honour.

Also in 1993, Miriam Dell was awarded the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal.

Miriam Dell was the patron of the New Zealand Association for Women in Science.

The biennial Miriam Dell Award is awarded to someone who demonstrates outstanding mentoring efforts to retain females in science, mathematics and technology.