Who is Kate Sheppard, you may ask? And how could her house teach anything about Congressional readiness to change U.S. tax residency? Keep reading, and all will be explained.
Many years ago, I had the privilege to spend a year attending high school in Christchurch, New Zealand as an AFS foreign exchange student. I’ve had the equal privilege to spend more time in New Zealand since. My most recent visit in early 2023 was my first opportunity to tour Kate Sheppard’s house, which opened to the public in late 2020. (Her house is not all that far from the high school I attended).
Kate Sheppard was a prominent member of the women’s suffrage movement in New Zealand. Her house in Christchurch is described as the epicenter of the movement; it is where letters were written, petitions were organized, and meetings with other members of the suffrage movement were held. Sheppard was in the garden of the house when, in 1893, she learned that New Zealand women had finally gained the right to vote.
Getting to that moment was not easy. One part the house tells the story of just how long and difficult the path was. Via a timeline mounted on the walls, visitors learn about more than two decades of campaigning, beginning with an 1869 anonymously published pamphlet by Mary Ann Müller. In the 1870s Mary Ann Colclough, using the name Polly Plum, published articles and gave speeches advocating for, among other things, temperance, women’s rights, and notably their right to vote. In the 1880s the New Zealand branch of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union took the mantle. With the help of other groups, it organized not one, not two, but three nation-wide petitions, in 1891, 1892, and 1893. It was in Sheppard’s dining room that the iconic third petition, with 32,000 signatures from around the country, was pasted together and wrapped around a wooden handle to be rolled down the aisle in parliament.
Most notably, not just one bill seeking to grant women the right to vote was introduced. On the contrary, there were multiple attempts in the New Zealand Parliament before the successful attempt in 1893. Five unsuccessful attempts were made, with bills or amendments introduced in 1878, 1879, 1887, 1891, and 1892. Some were nearly successful. Should those attempts not have been made? Would New Zealand have acheived women’s suffrage as early as it did – again, in 1893 and before any other country in the world – without those previous attempts? Considered with hindsight, were the previous attempts really failures, or just necessary steps on the path to ultimate success? Would New Zealand’s Parliament have been “ready” to grant women the vote in 1893 if the previous five bills had not been introduced when the Parliament was not “ready”?
What did my visit to Kate Sheppard’s house in Christchurch, New Zealand teach me about the readiness of the U.S. Congress for changing U.S. tax residency policies? It taught me this: that we cannot wait for Congress to be “ready” before introducing a bill. I’m not talking about the watered-down, half-measure bills that have been introduced in the past (that would solve little to nothing and that few people really want), but a bill that would genuinely address our problems and end the violations of our constitutional and human rights. (The New Zealand suffrage movement did not seek the right to vote for only some women or in only some elections – and one can question whether the movement would have succeeded if it had been so limited in its ambition).
Waiting will only stall progress to ultimate success. The failure of a bill need not – and should not – end our movement. On the contrary, unless we allow it to stop us, each failure is a necessary step towards ultimate success. Each failure will serve to push Congress – and the public more generally – towards an ultimate “readiness.” And even if ultimate success is elusive or even impossible, that is still not a reason to not make repeated attempts. It is necessary to use all tools in the toolbox to fight injustices simply because they are unjust, not because victory is guaranteed or even likely.
Obviously, it is not necessary to travel to Sheppard’s house in New Zealand to learn these lessons. I just happened to visit her house at a time when, for whatever reason, I was receptive to such lessons. Other movements also have and will face “failure” after “failure” before finally achieving legislative success(es). Their lessons are available online; anyone can learn them from the comfort of their home.
– Laura Snyder – @TAPInternation
