‘Our resources were ourselves’: Women and grassroots survey research in Aotearoa New Zealand, 1960s–1980s

Abstract

Māori and Pākehā women in Aotearoa built a field of grassroots survey research in the 1960s to 1980s that generated extensive survey data, transformed experiences of research participation, and germinated collective, feminist and mana wāhine (the strength and power of Māori women) research methods. The first grassroots social survey organization in Aotearoa New Zealand was established in 1966 to record the unknown lives of contemporary women. Leaders of the Society for Research on Women (SROW) met while participating in the parent-led organization Playcentre, and turned their skills in collective action to the project of improving women’s lives. This was typical of Aotearoa’s voluntary ecosystem, which trained women in prominent organizations focused on families, such as Playcentre (founded in 1948), the Māori Women’s Welfare League (1951), Parents’ Centre (1951) and Te Kōhanga Reo (1982). The progressive slant of each of these national groups lowered the barriers that existed elsewhere between family-focused groups and emerging feminist and Indigenous projects. As a result, New Zealand feminists engaged closely with motherhood and early childhood education compared to their international counterparts, while Māori organizers developed world-leading approaches to language revitalization.