On a crisp winter's morning, the NCW Dunedin Branch hosted its eighth annual Inspiring Young Women breakfast. The venue reached capacity as 103 senior secondary school students and teachers gathered to enjoy a cooked breakfast and be inspired by our panel of speakers.

Dunedin branch members were shocked and saddened to hear of the sudden death on 23 November 2023 of a valued and loved branch member, Anne Rodger. Just days before, she had been MC at the 100th birthday celebrations of the Dunedin Women’s Branch of the Labour Party, after returning from a South Seas cruise with daughter Gillian. She had been ill, but this was unexpected.

The citation for a well-deserved MNZM in the New Year’s Honours List of 2019 stated:

"Anne Rodger had been a member of the National Council of Women since 1983 and served as both Secretary and President of the Dunedin Branch. She was instrumental in establishing the NCW’s Alexandra’s Branch.

"She represented the Dunedin Branch on the Dunedin Forum for Non-Violence for three years, facilitated the 1993 forum ‘Towards a Non-Violent Society’ and was a member of the NGO Coordinating Committee for the Beijing World Conference on Women from 1992 to 1996.

"At Catholic Social Services in Dunedin she established a ‘Birth Support Group’ for very young parents and co-facilitated a post-natal programme for women raising infants alone. She initiated a group to address issues for grandparents responsible for the upbringing of their grandchildren, which is now a nationwide service run by Presbyterian Support services.

"Anne had held numerous voluntary executive and committee roles including with the Dunedin Childcare Association, Dunedin Māori Women’s Welfare League, Otago Co-ordination Committee for the Disabled, the Young Women’s Christian Association, the Council for Equal Pay and Opportunity, the Help Sexual Abuse Foundation, the Mosgiel University of the Third Age, the Dunedin University Club, SeniorNet Otago, and Abbeyfield (Residences for the Elderly) Dunedin which she helped establish."

The Dunedin Branch of National Council of Women held its sixth annual “Inspiring Young Women Breakfast” recently, at which six women, successful in their chosen careers, spoke to Years 12 and 13 girls from 9 local secondary schools, about their journey to where they are, the obstacles they met and how they overcame them. Sixty-five students came at 6.45am to hear the speakers, who were from a range of occupations and whose journeys were very different.

Panelists (l-r): Megan Gibbons (CEO Otago Polytech); Julia Imo (post-graduate studying bioengineering and founder of Wayfinder); Elisabeth Cunningham (Convenor of Breakfast); Emma Burke (Lawyer); Alison Lambert (Chef); Jay Phillips (Programme Manager of YES -Youth Employment Success); Abbey Brice (Auto Electrician).