A database launched in Napier will provide genealogists and other researchers the opportunity to easily research women who have pursued academia in New Zealand.

Napier-based educational historian Kay Morris Matthews, a research professor at the Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT Hawke’s Bay) compiled the database alongside her successful book In Their Own Right.
It tells the story of women and higher education in New Zealand up until 1945 but there was not room in the book to include all the profiles of the women or the schools.

Dr Morris Matthews has traced the educational and career pathways of over 700 women graduates from the University of New Zealand 1877-1920 back to their secondary schooling and through to their careers in teaching and other professions in the period 1878-1950. In addition, there is a listing of over 130 New Zealand girls’ secondary schools (1850>) with the names of the foundation principals.

The database has been designed for easy use and can be accessed atwww.womenandhighereducation.eit.ac.nz.

It will be of particular use to family historians, secondary school and tertiary students providing unique information about individual educated women and a first-time listing of the girl’s secondary schools.   There is no charge for its use.

Contact Kay Morris-Matthews on 06-974-8000 ext 5470