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, .. 

I' 

... 

WOMEN AT MASSEY 

Female Academic Staff 1963-1988 

A research exercise presented in partial 
fulfilment of the requirements 
for the degree 
of BA (Honours) 
in History at 
Massey University 

MASSEY UNIVERSITY 

111111111111111 Ill Ill II Ill Ill 
1061265828 

Jan-Maree Reid 
1997 



1 

2 

3 

Contents 

Acknowledgement 

Introduction 

Glass Ceilings - A Statistical Outline 

Signs of the Times - A Personal Outline 

Mothballs at One End - An Overview 

Bibliography 

Massey University Library 
: '.ow Zealand & Pacific Collection 

11 

1 

6 

18 

28 

35 



11 

Acknowledgement 

This Research Exercise draws heavily from recorded interviews with several 
long term staff of Massey University. I gratefully acknowledge the following 
people for creating time in their hectic schedules to share their thoughts 
and memories: 

Glynnis Cropp - Dean of Humanities. 
Graeme Fraser - Assistant Vice Chancellor, Academic. 
Ephra Garrett - Senior Lecturer, Sodal Policy and Social Work. 
Sylvia Rmnball - Dean of Science. 
Margaret Tennant - Associate Professor, History. 



INTRODUCTION 

Massey University has a relatively short history. What is the Turitea campus 

now was, from 1927, the "Massey Agricultural College". It offered, as the name 

suggests, a curriculum of agricultural and horticultural courses. 1 AJso in Palmerston 

North from 1960 was a branch of Victoria University, Palmerston North University 

College (PNUC), offering internal and extramural courses. After the dissolution of the 

University of New Zealand at the end of 1961 and in response to growing demand for 

university places, Massey Agricultural College and PNUC merged as from 1 January 

1963. The move was reflected in the Massey University ofManawatu Act, 1963, 

granting autonomy and degree-conferring powers to the fledgling institution from 

1 January 1964.2 From four faculties - Agricultural and Horticultural Science, Food 

Technology, Veterinary Science and General Studies - it grew to eight faculties with 

over 20,000 students and 700 staff by 1988.3 

The purpose of this research exercise is to attempt an historical examination of 

the role that female academic staff played in that growth. New Zealand women had 

made some headway into the professions by the 1960s even though a career was not 

considered a long term necessity for 'normal' girls who would soon go home to 

produce and nurture healthy families and economic reality meant most families could 

not afford higher education for future housewives. Historically the range of jobs open 

to girls in New Zealand has been "terrifically small. There was a lot of domestic 

servant work, hotels ... not terribly many office and shop assistantjobs".4 Women 

tended to predominate in low status, low pay positions to a marked extent. Even in 

1980 an academic publication could claim that "There have been so few women in 

1 T. W.H. Brooking, .Massey its early years. A history of the development of lvfassey 
Agricultural College to 1943, Palmerston North, Massey Alu..-nni Assoc., 1977. 
2Jvfassey University Calendar, 1977, p 65. 
3Jvfassey University Calendar, 1988, pp 5-35. Student numbers included those on the 
extramural roll. 
4Interview with Ephra Garrett, August, 1997. 

1 



some professions here that there is little to do except to note their absence". Teaching 

has been something of an exception, possibly because it "can be viewed as an extension 

of women's traditional and approved role of looking after other people". 5 Even witbin 

teaching however the proportion of women decreases as the age of the students and the 

position of responsibility increases. 

Part of this examination will involve an outline of statistical and official 

sources and part will be of a more personal nature, dravving on interviews with some of 

the staff who have taught at Massey over the years. The period 1963-88 has been 

chosen because it was the first 25 years of Massey as a University. The decision to 

focus on Massey's women academics has two main aims: first, to highlight the 

experience and achievements of a group of staff and a part of our history that may 

othenvise go unrecorded and second, to promote understanding of the status of 

academic women at Massey specifically and in the New Zealand tertiary education 

sector in general. 

There is a range of literature around this topic but little collated material on the 

subject of Massey itself, the people or the place. The two main histories, by 

T.W.H. Brooking and J.M.R. Owens,6 focus respectively on an earlier period and a 

special aspect of the university's development. Brooking ends his inspection at 1943, 

outside the range of this exercise, but he does provide insight on what has continued to 

be a significant aspect of Massey's character, the agricultural and horticultural 

programmes. However he makes no substantive attempt to highlight or separate 

experience by gender. This can be attributed to the simple fact that there were very few 

women at Massey in the period he surveys. Owens covers the first 25 years of the 

extramural programme from 1960-85 with an emphasis on course development and 

increasing student participation. All of the women interviewed for this research 

exercise have been heavily involved in extramural teaching but where Owens does 

5Phillida Bunkle and Beryl Hughes (eds), Women in New Zealand Society, George 
Allen and Unwin, Auckland, 1980, p 120. 
6see footnotes l and 2. 

2 



mention the importance of extramural education to women students, women staff are 

named in passing with no explicit attempt at gender analysis. While this exercise 

cannot claim to breach this gap it is intended to provide another perspective to the 

history of Massey. 

While it could be argued that it is unnecessarily restrictive and unrealistic to 

focus on one gender, this study supports the viewpoint that "the experiences of male 

and female academics are different because of the social construction and reality of 

gender roles". 7 This is a complex issue with significant implications for the 

reproduction of 'knowledge' - "as a social institution the university is the pivotal 

gatekeeper of knowledge in our society. If women are not present in the creation and 

dissemination of that knowledge, then its very nature is incomplete".8 While 

recognising that men as well as women are affected by gender constructions of their 

role, the limitations of this short study have necessitated a focus on women as a 

distinctive minority within the university setting. 

Chapter One looks at statistics and policies, charting the numbers and 

distribution of female academics at Massey through 25 years: from 7% of academic 

staff in 1963 to 24% in 1989.9 Drawing mainly on official and archival sources such as 

Department of Education annual reports and the Massey Calendars, it reviews the 

period 1963-88 for the percentage of women staff and the regulatory framework within 

which they functioned. In this section of the report a profile of Massey women is 

outlined by looking at numbers, positions - in terms of faculty and seniority - university 

policies and changes in working conditions such as the provision for maternity leave 

and promotion policies. It also examines briefly the contribution of women in terms of 

7Margaret Wilson "Academic Women in the 1990s" in N. Alcorn (ed), Education and 
the Equality of the sexes: twenty years on, Proceedings of the conference held at the 
School of Education, University of Waikato, 2-4 July, 1995, p 62. 
8A.ni1e-Marie O'Neill, "The Equal Opportunity Myth. Women in New Zealand 
Educational Institutions", in Suzann Olsson (ed), The Gender Factor. Women in 
New Zealand Organisations, Dunmore Press, Palmerston North, 1992, p 68. 
9Massey University College ofManawatu, Calendar, 1963, pp 9-13 and 
Massey University, Calendar, 1989. pp 15-40. 

3 



university development, course expansion and participation in higher administration. In 

addition it outlines the broader academic climate of the times so that the Massey 

research can be placed within that context. 

Part of this process involves a review of related literature, with specific 

reference to reports compiled by Margaret Wilson and Elizabeth Ponter. 10 While these 

reports take a sociological rather than historical perspective they are important because 

they demonstrate the fact that men and women academics were not experiencing the 

same work situation in universities in an era of 'equal' opportunity. In her report 

Wilson used Department of Statistics tables and a questionnaire sent to 1065 men and 

women teaching in New Zealand universities in 1984, of which 700 replied, li to profile 

the status of academic women. She explored questions of background, career 

development and personal circumstances in her analysis; providing substantial data and 

highlighting many issues impacting specifically on women. The Ponter report took the 

general form of the Wilson research and applied it to the situation at Massey in 1988. 

Again, while it was a sociological analysis, concerned principally with the elimination 

of discrimination, it did, in the process, both provide data and highlight issues specific 

to women. 

Chapter Two draws on interviews with four women and one man who are, or 

have been, teaching staff at Massey. It is not claimed that the women are fully 

representative of staff at Massey but they have all made significant contributions to 

their disciplines and are recognised as such: again, the confines of space have 

necessitated strict criteria for selecting sources. The aim is to recreate the personal side 

of the story of "Women at Massey", where possible in their own words. The 

interviews with the women asked for responses to questions on educational background, 

career development, personal circumstances and future objectives. In addition to 

10Margaret Wilson, Report on the Status of Academic Women in New Zealand, 
Prepared for the Association of University Teachers of New Zealand (Inc.) 1986 and 
Elizabeth Ponter, Report on the Status of Academic Women at Massey University, 
Sociology Department, Massey University, 1989. 
11Wilson, Report on the Status of Academic Women in New Zealand, p 2. 

4 



describing their experience at Massey this chapter makes some attempt to highlight 

areas of specific significance for female staff. The male interviewee offered 

perspective into, among other things, the role that men have sometimes played as 

mentors for female staff. 

In Chapter Three the aim is to integrate statistical and personal evidence in 

order to draw some conclusions from the research. To do this it is necessary to step 

back a little and look again at a range of influences both from both inside and outside 

Massey such as family circumstances and responsibilities. Chapter Three attempts to 

place this research within the framework of these influences and the possibilities of 

choice they allowed. Some of the issues raised by Wilson and Ponter are discussed, ie. 

domestic responsibilities, appointment and promotion. Other issues considered are the 

increasing importance of a PhD qualification and the tendency for some faculties to be 

more favourable to women than others. In conclusion the final part of the research 

exercise also looks at the whole period, 1963-88, and briefly outlines the changes and 

developments evident during that time, comparing the experience of women who 

started at Massey in the early 1960s with those who came later. 

Above all the aim is simply to recreate the story of the first 25 years of female 

academic staff at Massey. The statistics and sociological analyses are an important part 

of that story but they do not describe individual lives or give any idea of the richness 

and diversity of personal histories. Oral sources contain the flavour of life but on their 

own can be open to attack as biased or selective. This study draws on both sources, 

hoping in the process to capture some of the variety or the spirit of these women, 

despite the sometimes depressing statistics. 

5 



CHAPTER ONE 

GLASS CEILINGS - A STATISTICAL PROFILE 

Massey did not open with a hiss and a roar on January 1, 1963 as the choice of 

date may imply. The academic training system had been under review for some time. 

From as early as 1960 "it was clear that the University of New Zealand was going to be 

closed down and the university colleges were going to gain autonomy". 12 Demographic 

trends - the coming of age of the post-war baby boomers - and the need to supply 

university places for Teachers College students in Palmerston North led to the idea of 

combining PNUC and Massey Agricultural College. It actually took several years of 

negotiating between Government and the two Colleges before details of the 

amalgamation were finalised. During 1963 "The Massey University ofManawatu Act" 

was passed and so from January 1, 1964 Massey became "a fully autonomous 

university". 13 

The Calendar for 1963 lists 104 academic staff teaching in 20 departments. 

There are seven female staff listed, in six departments; Botany (2), Chemistry, English, 

Food Technology, Modem Languages and Zoology. One was a Senior Lecturer, one a 

Lecturer, three Junior Lecturers and two Technicians. There were no women Council 

or Professorial Board members, Officers or Deans. 14 Although there was no 

deliberate bar to the employment of female academics in any New Zealand university 

the figures reflect the fact that few women at the time had the necessary qualifications 

for some academic positions. This was not something peculiar to females as the annual 

reports of the Department of Education complain of "some difficulty recruiting suitably 

qualified staff' 15 across the board, but there were far fewer women with university 

12Owens, p 23. 
13Appendices to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1964, E3, Annual 
Reports of the Department of Education, Universities, p24. 
14Massey U11iversity of Afanawatu Calendar, Palmerston North, 1963, pp 9-13. 
15 AJHR, 1964, E3, p 25. 

6 



degrees than men. While women were never banned entry to the universities, growth in 

female student numbers in New Zealand had been slow. In 1959 women made up only 

25% of the student body at Victoria University. 16 

The reasons for this go back into homes and communities, where attitudes and 

circumstances dictated the choices open to daughters. It is not intended here to review 

the history of educating girls in New Zealand, the focus being primarily on tertiary 

teaching as a career, but as academic qualifications are a prerequisite for that career the 

point does need to be made that even as late as the 1950s university was an expense that 

relatively few families could afford for their daughters. In the 1940s "the only full time 

(female) students at Victoria were some wealthy farmers' daughters doing- usually 

language - degrees and there would be some science people who had got 

scholarships ... there was no way ordinary girls could go to University". 17 By 1965 

females still made up just 24.5% of full-time and 30.1 % of part-time students in New 

Zealand universities. 18 

Three of the women interviewed for this exercise came to Massey during the 

1960s, a time "marked by a desperate shortage of New Zealand academics, a really 

desperate shortage, you just couldn't get people" 19. Two were appointed at their first 

application and one, Ephra Garrett, "thought I'd had a mirage" when Professor Hill 

pulled up beside her one morning in 1967 and offered her a job. The 1960s were years 

of steady extension at Massey with increases in student numbers of up to 30% a year. 20 

While not wanting to detract from their ability to achieve appointment by academic 

merit, the fact that some areas were still finding it hard to recruit staff up to around 

16Beryl Hughes and Sheila Ahern, Redbrick and Bluestockings. Women at Victoria 
1899-1993, Victoria University Press, Wellington, 1993, p 148. 
17Ephra Garrett. 
18Report on the Universities Review Committee to the New Zealand Vice Chancellors' 
Committee, "New Zealand's Universities. Partners in National Development", 
National Library, Wellington, 1987, p 65. 
19Ephra Garrett. 
20AJHR, 1966, E3, p 20. 

i 



197021 created openings for academics ofhoth genders. The numhers of female staff, 

however, rose very slowly. In 1969 there were 18 females listed from 209 academic 

sta,ff22 (8.6% ). This is lower than the average for a11 the universities of 12%23 . 

A noticeable feature of the 1960s at Massey in terms of the female staff is not 

so much the rules governing their options but rather the lack of them. In theory at least 

women were employed on the same basis as men, with no specific provision for gender. 

As one put it "I don't think there was anything you could say was, sort of, particular 

about being a woman staffmember".24 On one level this was certainly good in that 

women were able to work their way through the ranks without serious structural 

impediments - "you worked your way up doggedly, step by step". 25 On another, there 

was no provision for the special circumstances of women, such as maternity leave and 

part-time status. These were largely left to the discretion of Heads of Department, 

as was promotion until 1976. While the women interviewed for this exercise felt on the 

whole that their HODs had been supportive and encouraging, this is perhaps to be 

expected as they have been able on an individual basis to negotiate and appropriate 

their place in the university hierarchy. The lack of written guidelines may have 

worked against others whose HODs were not required to consider the specific needs of 

their female staff It may also be a significant element in the fact that only 10 of 26 

departments in 1969 listed female staffmembers.26 

During the 60s and 70s the steady growth of staff and student numbers at 

Massey continued. By the time of the Jubilee in 1977 there were 10,479 students 

(internal and extramural), and 425 staff.27 The proportion of females enrolled as 

21Difficulties in filling appointment are repeatedly mentioned inAJHR, E3, Annual 
Reports of the Department ofEducation,1963-70. 
22Massey University Calendar, Palmerston North, 1969, pp 9-20. 
23From Department of Education Statistics, Wellington, 1969. 
Table 11.30, Staffing of University Institutions, p 69. 
24Interview with Glynnis Cropp, July 1997. 
25Interview with Sylvia Rumball, August, 1997. 
26Massey University Calendar, 1969, pp 9-20. 
27AJHR, E3, 1978, p 22. 

8 



university students had also increased to around 39.5%.28 A good proportion of those 

were adult women enrolled extramurally but scholarships, bursaries and a living 

allowance for full-time students had also eased the financial burden and made it easier 

for younger women to continue with their education. The proportion of female staff 

however fell slightly before recovering and then gaining a little ground. In 1972 women 

made up 9.2% of staff of all the New Zealand universities. 29 They reached 10% by 

1977 and 11.4% in 1979.30 At Massey they were 8.4% of total staff in 1972, 7.5% in 

1975, 9.2% in 1977 and 11.4% in 1979. 31 The dip in proportions coincides incidentally 

with a turn around in the staffing problems of the previous decade; by 1973 

advertisements were attracting "good fields of well qualified applicants from all over 

the English speaking world". 32 

Throughout the 1970s, aided by the revival of the feminist movement, there was 

an increasing level of political interest in the position of women in New Zealand 

tertiary education. In 1975 Dr Juliet Lodge of the Department of Political Studies in 

the University of Auckland carried out a research project into the role of female staff 33 

The resulting report provided a snapshot of university life in 1974. Based on a mail 

survey returned by 68 women and 41 men academics holding an appointment of 

lecturer or above, Lodge determined that "there are significant discrepancies in the 

employment and career advancement patterns of men and women". 34 She noted, for 

example, that women tended to concentrate in "the arts" and that they "were 

under-represented in higher positions and relatively over-represented in untenured, 

28O'Neill, p 61. 
29Juliet Lodge, "New Zealand Women Academics: Some Observations on their Status, 
Aspirations, and Professional Advancement", in Political Science, Vol. 28, No. 1, July 
1976, p 24. 
30Department of Statistics, Profile of Women. A statistical comparison of females and 
males in New Zealand 1945-1984, Wellington, 1985, Table 21, p 26. 
31Source, Massey University Calendar, University Staff Lists, 1972-1979. 
32AJHR. E3, 1973, p 27. 
33Julie+ Lodgo "Non, Z<>a]<>nd 1•7om"'n Anatiomtnc<" -.. ll t.. \,,J, \,,JVV \,,,, £.U 1/V 1 llV I V U.Vlllt'-,.,.:, . 

34Ib'd ?3 I ., P- . 

9 



servicing positions".35 She also reviewed promotion patterns and found that women 

were taking longer to gain seniority than men, despite equivalent qualifications. She 

argued that "Promotion is not merely contingent upon objective criteria of excellence 

but also on attitudes towards professional advancement and towards competition for 

senior positions. Women may well be more humble where promotion is concemed".36 

The figures cited do suggest that women would wait longer than men to apply for 

promotion or be more willing to accept positions below their ability level. 

Lodge identifies social attitudes towards the role of women and a consequent 

unwillingness to view them as 'serious' professionals as the prime factor in their poor 

statistical standing on university staff lists. Her argument is that stereotypical views of 

women's prime role as being to raise families were not being seriously challenged in 

the 1970s, even within the university environment - as evidence of this the lack of 

adequate creche facilities and formal maternity leave arrangements.37 One of the 

Massey women interviewed had four children during the 70s and continued to work 

part-time around raising her family. She had, she said "a very supportive Head of 

Department. .. who - probably against the times - ensured that [she] was allowed to keep 

[her] full permanent position" but felt in retrospect that "I may have been a bit too 

generous with my time because there was no upfront arrangement made, it was just by a 

cozy sort of informal way. I think people are better off with knowing what their 

entitlement is and its not being on a grace and favour arrangement. "38 

An interesting note to make is that some of the universities, including Massey, 

contained an "anti-nepotism" clause in their staff employment regulations. The clause 

was intended to prevent married couples from competing professionally within the 

same department39 or senior staff being accused of aiding their relatives. While not 

being gender specific it was in practice discriminatory against women because the 

35Lodge, New Zealand Women Academics, p 24. 
36Ibid., p 28. 
37Ibid., pp. 37-39. 
38Interview with Sylvia Rumball. 
39Lodge, p 38. 

10 



expectation was that the female would give precedence to the male career. At Massey 

the clause was specific to Heads of Department who were not allowed to have their 

"husband or wife" employed within the same department. It apparently stayed part of 

the Staff Handbook until the late 70s when it came under the fire of human rights and 

anti-discrimination le2"islation. 40 
'-' 

At Massey there were more women staff every year but the proportions 

remained very low and the trends identified by Lodge are clearly evident. The most 

obvious is the shrinking proportion of women at each ascent on the seniority scale. 

In 1977 women were 26.8% of Junior Lecturers, 14.2% of Lecturers, 7% of Senior 

Lecturers/Reader/ Associate Professors and a mere 1.8% of Professors nationallv. 41 ., 

At Massey they were 21.7% of Junior Lecturers, 18.5% of Lecturers and 4.2% of Senior 

Lecturers/Reader/Associate Professors. There were no female Professors. 42 While 

women were more visible in the arts and social science departments they were still in a 

minority and some 16 out of the university's 37 departments (43%) continued to be 

completely male dominated with no female teaching staff 43 Tt has been argued that 

these trends at Massey and at the other universities are a clear reflection of "the wider 

feminisation of the workforce and the location of women in the lower echelons of all its 

occupational groupings". 44 

However, some women were challenging the odds and moving into the ranks of 

senior staff at Massey and the other universities. Victoria appointed its first female 

Dean in 1976.45 The highest position held by a woman at Massey in the late 70s was 

Reader (now Associate Professor) of whom there were two. The first was Mary Earle 

in Food Technology in 1971. 46 Glynnis Cropp completed a Doctorate in France in 

4°Conversation with John Jav. former Human Resources Re2:istrar. Massev Universitv. 
41 Source, Department of Statistics, Education Statistics of New Ze~land, 1978. -
T<>hlP 7, '-;t,;,f'fino- nf'T Tn1uprc1tu Tnctitntinnc 1077 

..LIL-4,,1...J'..1.'--' f,..,J, )..Jl.l...t...A....1....1..1....l.f:,'-'.L \...J..1...1...l.'l''-,l..l.~..1.L-J ..L..1...1.UL-.l.L-~l....l.'-'..l.Jl.U' ..L./11. 

42A1assey University Calendar, University Staff List, 1977, pp. 15-33. 
43roid. 
44O'NeiH, p 65. 
45Hughes and Ahem, p 175. 
46Massey University Calendar, 1971. 

11 



1969-70 and on her return was promoted to a Senior Lectureship. In 1976 a new system 

of promotion was introduced and instead of recommendations being made by the Head 

of Department individual academic staff could themselves apply. Glynnis Cropp did 

this in 1978 and was granted a Readership.47 Another woman testing the ceiling was 

Sylvia Rumball. She made Senior Lecturer in Chemistry in 1975, a role she combined 

with producing four children born in 1970, 1972, 1973 and 1977 (two conveniently 

arrived during vacations!)48 Her career was precedent setting in that she was the first 

permanent half-time academic at Massey. In this, she says, "The university was well 

ahead of its time .. .I later met many women on other campuses both in this country and 

in the USA and UK who envied my position. "49 

Women were also making their contribution in the areas of research and course 

development. An outstanding example is again Sylvia Rumball who set up teaching 

courses in chemistry, developed the first science extramural offering and established a 

research unit for protein crystallography that has earned recognition as a world leader in 

its field. 50 The responsibilities of a family however certainly had an impact both 

because of the safety aspects of using x-ray equipment while pregnant and the 

amount of time available for working on research. Ephra Garrett, too, had completed 

her masters thesis and in 1976 became a foundation member of the Department of 

Social Policy and Social Work, in those days a unit of the Sociology Department.51 Her 

Professor at the time described her as being "decisive" in subsequent course 

development. 52 In addition, in 1975 she became the first woman elected as a staff 

representative on the Professorial Board.53 Certainly, where women were able to break 

47Glynnis Cropp. 
48Interview with Sylvia Rumball. 
49Sylvia Rumball, "Life as a Female Scientist in the New Zealand University System: 
A response to the question 'How was it for you?". in M. Cresswell (ed), Celebrating 
Women in Science, Proceedings of the Women's Suffrage Centennial Science 
Conference, Wellington, 2-4 September, 1993. 
50Ibid., p 73. 
51Ephra Garrett. 
52Interview with Professor Graeme Fraser, October, 1997. 
53Prior to this Glynnis Cropp had attended meetings as Acting Head of the Dept. of 

12 



into the ranks they made their presence known and contributed their own views to the 

growth of courses offered. 

The early 1980s saw the number of women staff continue to creep up. In 1983 

they comprised 13.5% of all academic staff at New Zealand universities.54 By 1985 

16% of the staff at Massey were female. 55 Women were also increasing their 

representation at every step on the scale but there were still very few in the highest 

posts. The most senior women teaching at Massey in 1984 were Readers who 

comprised 5. 9% ( 4) of the total at that level. There was one woman Council 

member, appointed by the Governor General.56 

Margaret Wilson's 1986 Report on the Status of Academic Women in 

New Zealand is a valuable source of collated data on this period. The study was 

ordered by the AUTNZ Council Standing Committee on Staffing Issues in 1983 to 

investigate why women were not achieving equal representation on university staffs 

despite legal opportunity. Based on an extensive mail survey and a cross-section of 25 

interviews it aimed to "define and identify discrimination within specific institutions 

and devise a response to reverse any discriminatory practices that have been 

identified". 57 The Report outlines a general profile of the statistical location of 

women within the New Zealand tertiary sector in 1984 and then attempts to explain that 

location by examining some of the differences in educational background, university 

career and outside responsibilities between male and female academics. 

The study found that nationally most academic women were still employed in 

low status positions - only 6.9% were Readers, Associate Professors or Professors (as 

against 33.4% of men) and almost half (46%) were in an arts or social science faculty. 

Women were more likely than men to work part-time and less likely than men to hold a 

Modem Languages in 1967-68 and 1973-74. 
54Department of Statistics, Profile of Women, Table 21, p24. 
55Massey University Calendar, 1985, pp 12-37. 
56Massey University Calendar, 1984, pp 12-37. 
57Margaret Wilson, Report on the Status of Academic Women in New Zealand, 
Introduction. 

13 



tenured position. 58 At Massey in 1984 72.2% of male and only 49.4% of female 

academics held tenured positions. 59 Wilson also found that the figures were reflected 

in administration and policy making where "women, because of their low status, are not 

well-represented in the authority decision-making positions within the university". 60 

One significant difference to emerge was that proportionately fewer women 

than men had completed a doctorate degree (35.6% to 58% of men) which had 

"important implications for the level at which women were appointed to their first 

academic position, and also their prospects for promotion".61 The figures are partly a 

reflection of the fact that although the proportions of girls at every level of tertiary 

study had been steadily increasing there was a persistent drop at each level of 

attainment. By 1987 females outnumbered males enrolled for Bachelors degrees at 

51.9% but at Masters level they dropped to 43% and continued dropping to 31% of PhD 

students. 62 Even so, as O'Neill points out, "Given the overall increase in the numbers 

of women undertaking university study over the last decade, it would seem logical to 

assume a corresponding increase in the number of university teachers ... This has not 

happened". 63 

The Wilson Report had two major effects at Massey. One was the establishment 

of the Committee on the Status of Academic Women in 1987, and the other was more 

localised scrutiny of the situation in relation to female staff. Elizabeth Ponter of the 

Sociology Department at Massey University took up the challenge in a Report 

commissioned by the Massey University Committee on the Status of Academic 

Women. Based on a survey of all female academic staff listed in September 1988 and 

representative interviews, it closely resembles the Wilson research both in approach and 

58Wilson, Report on the status of academic women in New Zealand, p 9. 
59Ibid., Table 15, p 20. 
60Ibid., p 24. 
61Ibid., p 16. 
620'Neill, Table 4.2, p 62. 
63Ibid., pp 63-64. 

14 



conclusions. 64 The statistical profile Ponter outlines shows the same steady increases 

in female staff representation and the same gulf between actual and equal experience 

evident in the other universities. Despite legal redress for equality in employment 

provided by the 1977 Human Rights Commission Act, "progress to reality [had] been 

slow".65 

Table 1, compiled by Ponter from information supplied by the Personnel Office, 

shows the proportion of total academic staff for each grade. 66 

Table 1 

Distribution of Female and Male Academic Staff at Massey University, May 1989 

Position 

Professor 
Reader 
Sen. Lecturer 
Lecturer 
Jun. Lecturer 
Graduate 

Assistant 
Tutor 
Research 

Officers 
Post Doctoral 

Fellow 
Other 

Total 

Female 
no. 

4 
3 

25 
66 
27 

21 
13 

12 

2 
7 

180 

% of total 
academic staff 

.5 

.4 
3.3 
8.7 
3.5 

2.8 
1.7 

1.6 

.3 

.9 

23.7 

Note: figures do not equal 100% due to rounding. 

Male 
no. 

55 
75 

232 
95 
35 

24 
6 

19 

15 
27 

583 

% of total 
academic staff 

7.7 
9.8 

30.4 
12.5 
4.6 

3.1 
.8 

2.5 

2.0 
3.5 

76.4 

64 Ponter, Report on the Status of Academic Women at Massey University, October, 
1989. 
65Ponter, Introduction. 
66Ibid., Table 2, p 5. 

15 



According to the results of Ponter's research, in 1988 women comprised less 

than a quarter of the academic staff at Massey and almost a third of departments 

employed no women at all. 67 The first comment under "Key Issues" is that "Although 

there have been some advances for some women at Massey since the Wilson Report the 

overall position of women is not improving significantly". 68 

The differences are most obvious at the level of Reader (1 in every 8 men but 

only 1 in every 59 women), Senior Lecturer (1 in every 2.5 men and one in every 7 

women) and Lecturer (1 in every 3 women but only one in every 6 men).69 The good 

news was that one of the eight Deans was female: Glynnis Cropp became Dean of 

Humanities in 1987.7° From 1985 it became even harder for women to advance when 

the lecturer scale was extended from six steps to eight and then to eleven. Some 

women who had been in the expected two years wait for promotion at the top of the 

scale got caught twice by the extensions - "Every time I got to the top of the lecturer 

scale ... they extended the scale so I'd have another three steps to go through before I 

could get promoted to Senior Lecturer". 71 The changes were particularly 

disadvantageous for women because of their relative over-representation at the lecturer 

level.72 

Statistically in 1988 women on the academic staff at Massey were outnumbered 

by men 4: 1, the ratio increasing to 12: 1 in the senior ranks. 73 Similar trends were 

evident in the other universities. The figures cannot be adequately explained by 

legislated policy or differences in levels of educational achievement but are largely a 

reflection of attitudes, both inside and outside the university, towards the 'natural' role 

of women and the responsibilities that result. As such they were difficult to attack but 

67Ponter, p 4. 
68Ibid., p 31. 
69Ibid., p 1. 
70Glynnis Cropp. 
711nterview with Margaret Tennant, August, 1997. 
72Ponter, p 21. 
73Ibid., p 1. 

16 



some women were challenging the odds, taking on new roles and moving_into the ranks 

of the gate-keepers. As they went they made policy, wrote rules and tested attitudes. 

17 



CHAPTER TWO 

SIGNS OF THE TIMES - A PERSONAL PROFILE 

There is about a 30 year age gap between the oldest and the youngest of the 

women interviewed for this research exercise. Glynnis Cropp, Sylvia Rumball and 

Ephra Garrett were first employed at Massey in the 1960s. Margaret Tennant was a 

student there in the 1970s and started as a junior lecturer in 1978. Because of this 

difference their stories have been grouped thematically rather than strictly 

chronologically. Professor Fraser's comments have been taken into account to include 

some male perspective and because he has been actively involved in helping to get 

resources and recognition for women at Massey. Despite the division in ages, personal 

circumstances and the growth and change of25 years of university expansion, similar 

themes emerged from the interviews. 74 This personal profile attempts to follow them. 

All of the women who took part in this research exercise had families who were 

"keen on education"75 and wanted their daughters to continue. Fathers particularly 

were seen to want an education for their children that they themselves had been unable 

to achieve and to take advantage of any opportunity that enabled them to provide it. 

Sylvia Rumball, commenting on her family says that "Looking back I realise that my 

father, clever, intelligent but ninth of nine children, and who after only one year of 

secondary schooling had been needed on the farm, was very proud of some of his North 

Island cousins who had had tertiary education". 76 The comment was echoed by 

Margaret Tennant who was the first in her family to have a tertiary education: 

My parents both started secondary school but never had much of a 
secondary school education and dad in particular was very bitter about that, 
that he'd been forced to leave school during the war, when they were looking 
out for apprentices to fill gaps. He became a motor mechanic and he really 

74This is to be expected in view of the fact that they were asked the same general set of 
questions but prompts were kept to a minimum to allow the interviewees to speak about 
what was relevant to them. The paths they chose to follow varied considerably. 
75Ephra Garrett, 1997. 
76Rurnball, Life as a Female Scientist, p 71. 

18 



pushed me educationally so I was kind of getting the education that he wasn't 
able to have. I think that was quite important.. .that I had a father who 
wanted me to stay on. 77 

Once given access to higher education these women, outstanding scholars as they all 

are, rose to the top like cream. Three of the four ( at least - one did not say) earned 

scholarships by academic merit. 

Another significant feature to emerge from the interviews was the importance 

and influence of secondary school. Two of the women attended Christchurch Girls' 

High School in the 1950s, "an all-girl's school dedicated to academic excellence".78 

Christchurch Girls' has a long reputation of encouraging high standards of educational 

achievement. It was originally founded under the control of the University of 

New Zealand "Which moulded the school to its requirements". 79 There, and in other 

schools with an ethos of high achievement, earlier female graduates provided role 

models of women who had themselves excelled in academic pursuit and who 

"encouraged their pupils to go on to higher education at a time when this was not 

common for girls"_80 

Family finances were always a deciding factor as was pointed out early on. 

"We were a somewhat poor family but there were only two ofus .. .ifthere had been 

more we would not have been able to stay at secondary school.. .in those days finances 

were such that you couldn't have kept a big family in education". 81 In the 1950s the 

"wool-boom years" brought an increase in income to the parents of one woman "and 

while many ofmy older female cousins had dutifully returned home to help their 

mother, attend Young Farmers' Club dances and marry suitably, my elder sister and I 

were given the freedom to continue on with our education and go to university". 82 In 

77Margaret Tennant. 
78Rumball, Life as a Female Scientist, p 71. 
79Winifred MacDonald, Footprints of Kate Edger. A Histmy of the New Zealand 
Federation of University Women 1921-1981, New Zealand Federation of University 
Women Inc., Auckland, 19 82, p 31. 
80Ibid., Rumball. 
81 Ephra Garrett. 
82Rumball, Life as a Female Scientist, p 71. 

19 



the early 1970s the fact that scholarships and bursaries covered fees and a Teachers' 

Studentship provided a living allowance "was important because, what I came from, 

given my family background, I'm not sure if my parents could have afforded today to 

send me to Varsity".83 

Teaching also proved significant because it was an acceptable profession for 

girls to train in, paid a living allowance and gave them access to university. In the 40s, 

to get out of the 'terrifically small' range of occupations for women "you either went 

nursing or you went to Teachers' College because both of those jobs you got paid". 

At Wellington Teachers' College "a good liberal arts college with a bit of training for 

teaching thrown in ... they really pushed for you to go and do some subjects at university. 

I never would have got there otherwise". 84 In the 70s too "the big aspiration in the 

family was for me to become a school teacher. That was the traditional avenue of 

social mobility I think - if you were 'bright' you could move into a professional kind of 

life via teaching". 85 

Some women it seems found education addictive and followed a "natural 

progression"86 through to post-graduate degrees. Three of the women interviewed 

went straight from Bachelors' degrees to post-graduate study. The ability to complete 

Masters and PhDs had obvious career implications for all the women. Ephra Garrett 

trained as a teacher, completing part of a degree simultaneously, and taught for several 

years before returning to university to complete a Diploma of Social Science in 

1951-52. She then worked for four years as a Maori Welfare Officer until "I had my 

first baby and in those days you stopped work. .. so I was sitting on eight units of a nine 

unit degree". 87 When Peter Freyberg, the first Director of Extramural Studies, 88 was 

recruiting staff in the 1960s he offered Ephra work as a sessional assistant for Human 

83Margaret Tennant. 
84Ephra Garrett. 
85Margaret Tennant. 
86Ibid. 
87Ephra Garrett. 
88Owens, Campus Beyond the Walls, p 14. 

20 



Development and she was encouraged/motivated/sucked back into completing her own 

studies. While part way through her MA she had the "mirage" that resulted in her 

appointment as a Junior Lecturer. 

When Massey began to open up and grow in the 1960s positions were created 

for academic staff of both genders. In theory at least there was nothing to stop suitably 

qualified women from applying for teaching positions to which they-were appointed, 

when successful, on the same basis as men. That prnportionately few were, was simply 

a "sign of the times",89 a manifestation of society's expectation that the "natural' 

sphere for women was domestic. It should be noted too that although Massey was a 

relatively new university half the base was the almost exclusively male Agricultural 

College staff. Fortunately in any age there are always a few females who cannot leave 

well enough· alone and insist on asserting their individuality. As Massey began to 

develop and grow qualified women did apply-and gained positions on the academic 

staff 

Glynnis Cropp had an MA in French from Canterbury University and· had 

already been appointed to PNUC when it merged with the Agricultural College. Then 

"There weren't many staff at all in the General Studies area, probably about 20 to 30 

academic and general staff. Most of the women would have been in the library·and in 

secretarial positions. There would have been about three women lecturers". 90 · After 

completing a Doctorate in France in 1969-70 she was promoted to Senior Lecturer, a 

Readership in 1979, Head of the Department of Modem Languages in 1985 and Dean of 

the Faculty of Humanities in 1987. She has also published around 40 articles and 30 

critical reviews, most in the area of medieval literature. 

She is only one example. She, and others like her, "broke the ground for 

subsequent female staff' and "provided exemplary role models"91 for staff and 

students. While there was no formal system of mentoring between women, blamed on 

89This comment was made repeatedly in the interviews. 
90Glynnis Cropp. 
91 Interview with Professor Fraser, October, 1997. 

21 



"the busyness of lives here and the fact that people are really flat out in their teaching 

and research"92, they had more effect on others than they gave themselves credit for. 

Glynnis Cropp again "was a marvellous teacher, high standards but a marvellous 

teacher". 93 'Successful' women helped also to feed a growing recognition "that they 

should be there". 94 

There were no specific rules or allowances made for female staff at Massey for 

many years. Guidelines for working conditions, leave, promotion, for example, were 

gender neutral and details worked out by negotiation with HODs. There was no help 

with child care until the 1970s and no legal right to parental leave until 198295 . A very 

real awareness came from the interviews that women on staff had to learn the rules of 

the game. The rules were to work hard both on teaching and on increasing personal 

development, again gender neutral. The consequence that emerges most strongly from 

this for the first years is that lives were so busy on an individual level that there was 

little time left for worrying about female solidarity. It was not until the 80s that 

gatherings like the Inter-Faculty Women's group and the Status of Academic Women 

Committee began to appear. 

This is not meant to imply that women could not negotiate on an individual 

basis for working conditions that could be combined with personal circumstances. In 

fact "some people argue if you don't have any regulation, you [could] actually, with a 

supportive HOD, be treated better".96 However, the fact that there were no written 

regulations could have worked against women whose HODs were not supportive of 

them wanting to combine work and domestic responsibilities. As already mentioned 

Sylvia Rumball was the first permanent part-time academic on staff at Massey, a 

considerable breakthrough when previously women who could not work full-time were 

92Interview with Sylvia Rumball. 
93Ephra Garrett. 
94Professor Fraser. 
95Wilson, Report on the Status of Academic Women in New Zealand, p 24. 
96Interview with Sylvia Rumball. 

22 



lucky to retain temporary status. In 1986 she also had sabbatical leave regulations 

reviewed because they were not appropriate for part-time workers. She says: 

Sabbatical leave rules were very inappropriate - they were not written to 
cover a part-time person because there never had been a part-time pennanent 
person before ... no-one had ever thought of it, but in the end we got the rules 
rewritten .... That was a matter of showing people that it wasn't inappropriate for 
me to be permanent and yet part-time and that the rules could be written to 
allow for that. 97 

It should be noted that some women did find employment at Massey conducive to 

combining professional and domestic responsibility. 

While it may not have been easy, especially in the days before the creche and 

paid maternity leave, some women were able to combine an academic life with the 

demands of family commitments. In the 60s when Ephra Garrett's children were small 

her family role brought her back to Massey and "it was a life saver. My husband was 

out every night because he ran the university extension and I'd get the kids to bed, clear 

the house, get everything ready for the morning and sit down with my books and my 

marking and it was marvellous". 98 She used the time that she was needed at home to 

finish her degree, leading to employment as a junior lecturer in 1968. 

A prime example of the demands of home is again Sylvia Rumball. Her whole 

academic career has been a balance between personal and professional lives. She came 

to Massey in 1967, cutting short a Post-doctoral Fellowship at Oxford University, to be 

with her fiance who already had a job in Palmerston North. Appointed as a lecturer in 

chemistry, she had the job of setting up a new research unit: "About the time I finally 

acquired the equipment (it took 2-3 years), I was pregnant. .. Once again, research work 

took second place to my personal life".99 She did however negotiate a 50% job, 

increasing to 80% in 1985 - "to coincide approximately with the school day" - and 

full-time in 1989. 100 While the years of part-time certainly had a major effect on 

97Interview with Sylvia Rumball. 
98Ephra Garrett. 
99Rumball, Life as a Female Scientist, p 72. 
100Rumball, Life as a Female Scientist, p 73. 

23 



upfront research and publications she did find time to co-author some 20 scientific 

articles. 

Massey expanded rapidly in the 1970s, taking in more female students every 

year. Margaret Tennant ("an outstanding student")101 is a Massey graduate. She too 

had to make choices to accommodate her personal life: "I got married at the beginning 

of my third year of undergraduate study and I think that was probably why I didn't go 

overseas [ my husband] had a job and other options opened up here and it just seemed 

easier to stay and do my research here. Massey was very good to me, very 

supportive". 102 At the time she was appointed to the History Department as a Junior 

Lecturer in 1978 there was one other woman on the staff That was "both good and 

bad. I did actually feel quite isolated but it was good in one way because it meant I 

made contacts with women in other departments". 103 

Another important theme to emerge through the years was the part that male 

mentors have played for women staff at Massey, significant because, as the statistics 

illustrate, "the gate keepers in those days were all men". 104 When Ephra Garrett was 

involved in developing a paper in the 70s with "a strong thread about women .. .luckily 

Professor Fraser was very interested, and also my Professor from Social Policy, he had 

been interested in women's issues. They were important in terms of gate keepers 

otherwise it might not have been easy to get a paper on the books". 105 While some men 

in key positions of authority at Massey may have continued over the years to maintain 

"conservative attitudes" 106 there was growing recognition among others of the need to 

actively encourage female participation at all levels of the university system. 

Sometimes this could take the form of encouraging able female students to continue 

with post-graduate study or reticent female staff to apply for promotion. Or there was 

101Professor Fraser. 
102Margaret Tennant. 
103Ibid. 
104Ibid. 
105Ephra Garrett. 
106Ponter, p 31. 

24 



the more practical approach of selling beer to raise funds for the first creche. 107 

Incidentally, this man considered his "greatest triumph" to be convincing the then 

Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Alan Stewart, to pay for the creche supervisor. 

The extramural function at Massey has also been significant to female staff, 

partly because the hours can be manipulated to suit the demands of personal lives. 

Sylvia Rumball volunteered to do the first extramural teaching in chemistry "because I 

had small children and I knew that it would be something that didn't tie me to quite the 

same rigid timetable as internal teaching". 108 Glynnis Cropp spent her first weekend in 

Palmerston North writing an extramural study guide. It could also be "one of the nice 

things about lecturing at Massey" because of the contact with "a more varied 

clientele". 109 The growing numbers of female students studying extramurally, 

increasingly in untraditional areas such as veterinary science and agriculture, 

additiona11y "challenged us to take into account their circumstances" 110 and helped 

raise awareness among male staff into the dual role of many female academics. 

Female staff did also to some extent play a part in the creation and development 

of papers both extramurally and internally. As women joined in increasing numbers 

and gained seniority they were able to contribute some ideas on new courses. In the late 

1970s Ephra Garrett helped create and implement the first Women's Studies 

programme beginning with a 200 level paper titled "Women in Society". 111 The 80s 

saw other departments add papers that sought to account for the experience of women. 

In History "we've always been able to have our say and to promote the teaching of 

women's history or social history .. .! was given the opportunity to develop women's 

history and I had total control over what went into that paper and how it was taught". 112 

As they gained the necessary seniority they did also take part in mainstrain development 

107Professor Fraser. 
108Interview with Sylvia Rumball. 
109Margaret Tennant. 
110Professor Fraser. 
111Ibid. 
112Margaret Tennant. 

25 



- "the same as anyone I think. There's a process of peer review in all departments to 

make sure no-ones doing anything too wacky .. .! think we've always had a reasonable 

kind ofvoice". 113 

As women staff rose through the ranks they eventually began to appear on the 

administrative and management committees of their departments. In the late 1970s it 

was still "99% male in those meetings"114 in some areas, but by the 1980s there was a 

growing effort to appoint women to serve as committee members. Awareness was 

however "more powerful in certain faculties than others - some parts of the university 

were more enlightened than others". The fact that there were relatively few women to 

call upon to fill positions on committees meant they were "in a sense exploited", 115 or 

asked to spend more time on administrative chores than men. On the other hand "it 

[could] be an advantage or a disadvantage depending on how you [saw] it...I got to do 

quite a lot of committee work, probably more than a lot of men of equivalent status 

which takes away from research time but it was really good experience". 116 

By 1988 Glynnis Cropp was Dean of Humanities, Sylvia Rumball was a Senior 

Lecturer in Chemistry, Ephra Garrett was a Senior Lecturer in Social Policy and Social 

Work and Margaret Tennant was a Lecturer in History. This profile is necessarily 

selective. There are other areas that could be discussed, however it seems appropriate 

to end this personal section of the exercise with a quote from each of the people 

interviewed in order to create it: 

"I've never felt hindered by the fact that I'm female. The most opposition 
was really in the 70s and it came from other postgrads, potential competitors 
for jobs. On the whole I think my colleagues have been really good. I've been 
so incredibly lucky and here I am in a job where you've got this real 
combination where you teach and research and do administration, you can focus 
on whichever one you feel your talents are best directed at". 117 

113Margaret Tennant. 
114Interview with Sylvia Rumball. 
115Professor Fraser. 
116Margaret Tennant. 
l 17Ibid. 

26 



"Nothing stands still over 25 years. The number of women staff has increased 
and the University has made an effort to recruit women ... even though there are 
some areas where there are just not applicants coming forward. The University 
is now very much more conscious, very much more committed, since the 1980s, 
to equal employment opportunities and equal opportunities in education". 118 

"I'm paid half a lecturers salary because I'm only teaching one paper. I 
wouldn't want more. I'm here most days because there's work to be done 
but I can take my time. I can come early or not early as long as I get the 
work done. It's been good for my aging brain cells, yes it has. It's given me a 
second lease of life. So I have a very long and grateful connection with 
Massey." 119 

"It's a mindset you know because you have to make yourself find out what 
you want to know, put yourself on the inside - don't forever behave as if 
you're always on the outside looking in. I guess over the years I've been 
very much more a person who saw myself as working on the inside and 
making certain that I was on the inside where I felt I could be much more 
effective - and not standing on the outside looking in."120 

"They've had to battle their way through byzantian attitudes .. .it took a long 
time. From the early 80s there was increased momentum for recognition of 
women's needs and it has been a more constructive and positive environment. 
They were great teachers, gave outstanding service beyond the call of duty ... 
but I suspect there may still be work to do". 121 

118Glynnis Cropp. 
119Ephra Garrett. 
120Interview with Sylvia Rumball. 
121Professor Fraser. (This statement is reconstructed from notes due to tape difficulties) 

27 



CHAPTER THREE 

MOTHBALLS AT ONE END - AN OVERVIEW 

In the 1960s demographic trends in New Zealand created a need for more 

university places and consequently more university teachers, including women. From 

1963 to 1988 Massey University grew from a small institution with less than a thousand 

staff and students to a substantial organisation with over 700 people employed on the 

teaching staff alone. 122 So far this exercise has outlined a statistical profile of female 

staff at Massey over this 25 year period and a personal profile of some of the 

individuals those figures represent. The two stories are seeming opposites; one 

emphasising the 'failure' and one the 'success' of women at Massey. This section of 

the exercise integrates the two perspectives in order to identify and discuss some of the 

trends suggested by both as representative of the history of "Women at Massey". In 

conclusion it briefly discusses the wider context of university development and the 

changing environment for female staff 

In 1963 Ella Campbell held the highest post for a female on the academic staff 

at Massey as a Senior Lecturer in the Chemistry Department, 123 a distinction she 

maintained until 1969 when a female Associate Professor was appointed. 124 Victoria 

University had one female Associate Professor in 1963, a Professor by 1965 and a 

second in 1968. 125 In fact Massey lagged slightly behind the other New Zealand 

universities in terms of female staff representation right through until the late 1970s, 

particularly in senior posts. There were two likely reasons for the differences: first, 

the strong agricultural history and continuing influence at Massey showed particular 

resistance to female staff and second, the relative newness of Massey in relation to the 

other universities where there had been more time for some women to gain promotion. 

122Massey University Calendar, 1988, pp 8-35. 
123Massey University College oflvfanawatu Calendar, 1963, pp 9-13. 
124Massey University Calendar, 1969, pp 9-20. 
125Hughes and Ahem, pp 149-150. 

28 



On the other hand Massey was ahead of the other universities in some ways 

such as the granting of permanent part-time status and, in the late 70s and early 80s, the 

recognition of the need to positively encourage female participation at all levels. One 

contributing factor may have been the extramural function. Extramural teaching was 

significant for the female staff at Massey both because the hours could be manipulated 

to suit domestic demands and because it raised perceptions among male staff into the 

dual role expected of many female academics. As the numbers of females enrolled in 

extramural papers continued to grow "You were faced with significant numbers of 

women having to deal with home and also striving to complete university degrees. A 

lot of them were adult women who knew what they wanted and it became a challenge 

to take into account their circumstances". 126 For some women too extramural provided 

access to a tertiary education during years they were tied to a home by children. Ephra 

Garrett worked as a sessional assistant for Massey and completed her Masters papers 

while her children were young. In her 1989 study Elizabeth Ponter found that "The 

demands of extramural work weigh heavily on many Massey academics and may 

restrict research work". 127 This was of concern because of the relative low prestige of 

extramural teaching and the importance of publishing for promotion. While it may 

have been true, the evidence also suggests that where there were gender differences in 

extramural teaching loads they could be a matter of choice. 

It is arguable which university was "pre-eminent". In a history of Victoria it is 

said that the environment there was "more supportive and progressive than that at any 

other" 128 but apart from the differences in degree the situation for female staff was 

markedly similar in all the New Zealand universities. Despite the fact that by 1985 

females constituted 46.3% of internal and 62% of extramural university enrolments 

nationally129 they were still only 17.7% of university teachers in 1987. 130 On the other 

126Professor Fraser. 
127Ponter, p 32. 
128Hughes and Ahem, p 173. 
129,i\nne Horsfield, Women in the economy. A research report on the economic position 
of women in New Zealand, Wellington, Ministry of Women's Affairs, 1988, Table 6.19, 

29 



hand there were considerable advances in the period under review: women at Massey 

increased their representation on the academic staff by around 400%. 131 The growth 

was due both to a gradual change in attitudes towards acceptable roles for women and 

to the academic excellence and determination of the women themselves. 

In the 1960s when the women interviewed began their careers at Massey 

University they were among the proportionately few females who had been able to 

complete an education to the necessary level for academic employment. While 

numbers of girls enrolled in Bachelors degrees had been steadily increasing the figures 

for post-graduate enrolments were much slower to rise. In 1971 females were 24.8% of 

Masters and 11.6% of Ph.D. students. In 1978 when Margaret Tennant was doing her 

Ph.D. the figures were 32.6% of Masters and 21.4% of Ph.D. enrolments nationally. 132 

One of the constraints preventing more girls from continuing at university was 

undoubtedly financial but the main reasons for interruption to study reported in this 

exercise were family considerations. It is notable that the three women who had 

completed Ph.Ds were childless when they did so. Women were, it seems, also more 

likely to have to give up the chance to gain research experience overseas. Later in the 

period, as the pool of qualified candidates grew and the "desperate shortages" of the 

1960s eased it became increasingly important to hold a Ph.D, both for level of initial 

appointment and prospects of promotion. 

By 1987 women were actually a majority of Humanities (54%) and Social 

Sciences (52%) Ph.D. candidates nationally but they were the distinct minority in 

Science (26.7%), Technology (26%), Agriculture (24%), Business (17.7%) and 

Engineering (7%). 133 This helps to explain the continued lack of female representation 

in some departments at Massey in 1988. The Arts and Social Sciences faculties did 

p 375. 
130O'Neill, p 64. 
131From 7% in 1963 to 24% in 1988. 
132Department of Statistics, Profile of Women, p 25. 
133O'Neill, Table 4.3, p 63. 

30 



prove to be more amenable to female staff but they never outnumbered men and a third 

of departments employed no women at all. 134 

The major influence on both the ability to complete a Ph.D. and the choice of 

speciality in the 60s and 70s was the generally held view that the natural sphere for 

women was domestic. The assumption was that a woman would not need to work once 

she had a husband to support her. In a modem era of a democratic society there was no 

justification for denying education to girls, in fact it was a desirable attribute, but this 

did not necessarily disturb the prevailing attitude that most women would "marry 

suitably" and stay home to raise babies. Sylvia Rumball says that "Interestingly, I do 

not remember any discussion at all about what one might do with this education". 135 

Ephra Garrett thought the fact that she had a husband with an income was a 

factor in her level of first appointment - "It wasn't personal discrimination but because 

these two men were married and had families and my husband was working ... the men 

were given temporary Lectureships and three years to get their Masters done and I had 

my papers and I was doing my thesis and I was given a Junior Lectureship". 136 In the 

1970s too Margaret Tennant felt some resentment from other post-graduates that she, as 

a married woman, was competing for jobs. She didn't let it stop her. 

In 1986 the Wilson report found that there were discrepancies between 

appointment levels of men and women, despite equivalent qualifications. Where 52.6% 

of men holding Ph.Ds were first appointed Lecturer or above, only 39.5% of women 

began at those levels. With Masters as the highest qualification, 50% of men and 21 % 

of women were appointed as Lecturer or above. The report states that "It is difficult to 

assess why there should be such a difference ... unless appointments are made on 

potential and it is assumed that women with this qualification are not potential career 

academics". 137 This exercise found no evidence to suggest that women with Ph.Ds 

134Ponter, p 1. 
135Rumball, Life as a Female Scientist, 71. 
136Ephra Garrett. 
137Wilson, Report on the status of academic women in New Zealand, p 19. 

31 



were appointed at a lower ranking than men but that they were appointed to the lowest 

possible ranking for their qualification. 138 Changes in procedures in 1976 to allow staff 

to apply for their own promotion were beneficial for female academics, however the 

extensions to the Lecturer scale between 1985 and 1988 "caused consternation among 

women lecturers because of their predominance in this position". 139 

The first major effort to research the role of women in New Zealand universities 

was the Lodge study in 1976. It found that "attitudes" were often more important than 

"objective criteria of academic excellence" to both appointment and promotion. Lodge 

also highlights an interesting distinction in views at the time towards "normal" women 

who had babies and "deviant" women who modelled themselves on men and remained 

childless. 140 Sylvia Rumball was reminded that the roles of mother and academic were 

not seen as compatible when her Postdoctoral scholarship to Cornell University was 

withdrawn after she informed them that she would have a young baby with her. "After 

much pleading it was restored but the incident left me with bitter memories. It was 

clear that one could be a woman scientist, even a married woman scientist but not a 

woman scientist with children". 141 

Perhaps the clearest indication of expectations as to the correct role for women 

in the 60s and 70s was the lack of written guidelines for maternity leave and permanent 

part-time status or provision for child-care. That leave and status had to be negotiated 

on an individual basis supported the view that personal and professional responsibilities 

belonged in separate spheres. It also left women, who were more likely than men to 

work part-time, particularly vulnerable to budget considerations. Sylvia Rumball had 

no difficulty increasing her appointment to 80% in 1985 but when she wanted to return 

to full-time employment in 1989 "the transition was less easy due to much increased 

pressure on departments to keep staffing levels down". 142 

138 Admittedly the sample is too small to support generalisations. 
139Ponter, p 21. 
140Lodge, p 32. 
141Rumball, Life as a Female Scientist, p 72. 
142Ibid., p 73. 

32 



All of the women interviewed had domestic responsibilities and commitments 

that meant at times "struggling to find the right balance between these two sides of their 

lives. It's often very hard for women because they are still expected to meet the 

demands made on them in a traditional sense by their family". 143 Glynnis Cropp was 

single but she had the care of an elderly parent for 10 years. Marital status emerged as a 

significant difference between male and female academics in both the Wilson and 

Ponter reports. Ponter was led to wonder if "Perhaps it is no coincidence that the three 

women professors at Massey in October 1988 were not married". 144 The results of this 

exercise would support the view that an equally effective strategy was to marry an 

academic man. 

In view of the difficulties it is not surprising that those women who did have 

'successful' careers at Massey were outstanding in their fields. They taught, 

researched, published, contributed to course development, provided role models and 

earned recognition as leaders. Despite this there were no meteoric rises to fame. 

They started on the bottom and worked their way up, slowly, step by step. There were 

"no breaks - and you can't bend the rules". 145 Glynnis Cropp got a Ph.D. in 1970 and 

was appointed Dean of Humanities in 1987. Ephra Garrett got her Masters in 1970 and 

was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1976. Sylvia Rumball began in 1967 with a Ph.D., 

she was promoted to Associate Professor of Chemistry in 1989. Margaret Tennant 

finished her Ph.D. around 1979 and in 1988 was a Lecturer. 

There is a huge amount of variety and change in any 25 year period. The history 

of "Women at Massey" between 1963 and 1988 has proved to be no exception. In the 

late 50s and early 60s the whole university system in New Zealand began to open up, 

Massey University was itself a product of that period of growth. Attitudes in society 

however did not make it easy for women to diverge from the 'normal' path of marriage 

and raising children. There were no formal support systems in the university system to 

143Glynnis Cropp. 
144Ponter, p 24. 
145Interview with Sylvia Rumball. 

33 



allow women to combine the roles of academic and mother. In the 70s there was a 

growing consciousness, among both genders, of the need to encourage women 

at all levels of representation in Massey University and some efforts were made to 

recruit female staff but for the most part these were on an individual basis. Only in the 

mid to late 1980s was there a comprehensive effort made to investigate the reasons for 

female under-representation and to implement strategies for increasing it. On an 

individual basis women were always able to negotiate and appropriate their own niche 

and as they made progress in achieving formal recognition of the special circumstances 

of women they wrote new guidelines for those who came after. The last word belongs 

with the people who made this research exercise: 

"In the late 70s and early 80s there was an effort to develop Women's 
Studies. The female staff developed those themes and in the 80s other 
departments added courses ... there was this image of the house goddess ... 
No, I know there's still work to do". 146 

"There have been interesting shifts in consciousness in terms of what's said 
down in the common room and what isn't. Basically I think you have to 
accept people for what they are and most of the men have made real efforts I 
think. And as I say some of them have been really supportive to my 
career and had they not been I might not have gone on". 147 

"It's not easy. But I think it's important that the University reflect the changes 
in society outside and responds not just to legislation which is imposed but to 
changes in other organisations and in society at large". 148 

"From my humble background I never thought of myself as actually being on 
the University staff I've had a very good run at this University as has been my 
lot. You're talking to some younger women? Oh good, good, because that's 
a different world, it's a different time and I can't speak for them". 149 

"But it's true there are some very different views of the world and what's 
appropriate. A mothball at one end ... .I think I see us all as a continuum you 
see"_ ISO 

146Professor Fraser. 
147Margaret Tennant. 
148Glynnis Cropp. 
149Ephra Garrett. 
150Sylvia Rumball. 

34 



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