Miriam Dell, Vivienne Boyd ... Rachel Cumberbeach, Mavis Tiller, Ellen Melville ... Amey Daldy, Kate Sheppard, Jessie Mackay ... these are but a few of the women who have worked for women's rights through the National Council of Women of New Zealand over the last one hundred years.

They came together at the time of the suffrage campaign in the 1890s, to plan how to use the vote - but the National Council of Women has since worked for equal access to education, for prison reform, for protection of women from alcohol-related violence, for equal pay, for peace, and for the effective control of sexually transmitted diseases.

As women are affected by all aspects of society, so the National Council of Women has worked in all areas of political life, local and national, through debate, lobbying and activism. This is a book about issues, and about personalities. It is a book about women's history - and about women's struggle for equality. The exhilarating variety of women's lives is reflected throughout as it carefully charts the history of a major national organisation.