Jill Ovens

We want to give women, and men, an option on the ballot paper if they no longer have a political home because the mainstream parties have stopped listening to women and our concerns.

She attended the University of Auckland in the early 1970s where women’s liberation had a big impact. She graduated with a BA in History and Education and went on to work as a Research Officer for Fletcher Holdings.

She was involved in women’s rights issues when she lived in the United States from 1977 to 1986 and campaigned for the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would explicitly prohibit discrimination based on sex.

In 1986 she graduated with a Master’s Degree in Journalism from the William Allen White School of the University of Kansas.

On her return to New Zealand in 1986, she took a leading role in opposing the “corporatisation” of State Coal Mines in Huntly that led to massive job losses and social dislocation. She lost her job as the PR Officer and her then husband lost his job as the East Mine geologist.

She edited the Waikato Weekender, a community newspaper in Hamilton, and later in Taupō she founded the Taupō Women’s Health Collective to fight the closure of the Taupō Hospital in opposition to the then National Government’s health reforms.

She was a Senior Lecturer in Journalism at the Auckland University of Technology and was involved in the AUT staff union, later elected as National President of the Association of Staff in Tertiary Education (ASTE) and Co-Convenor of the Women’s Council of the Council of Trade Unions.

She was actively involved in women’s issues as Women’s Representative on the Alliance National Council and later as the Alliance President. She later joined the Labour Party in 2006 and served on the Labour Party Council until 2018. She was also President of the Labour Party Affiliated Unions during that time.

She was recruited to work for the Service and Food Workers Union (SFWU) in 2004 specifically to lift the wages and conditions of the low-paid women workers. She was elected as Northern Regional Secretary and negotiated Collective Agreements for the mostly women hospital and commercial cleaners, food services workers, and aged care workers.

As Co-Leader (Industrial) of MERAS, the Midwives’ Union, she served on the CTU National Affiliates Council until her retirement in May 2023. It was in that capacity that she raised objections to the replacement of “women” with “people of different gender identities” in the Equity Priorities of the CTU Strategic Plan. She also objected to the replacement of the word “women” with the term “birthing people” in documents relating to midwifery.

With 20 other women, she founded the Women’s Rights Party in April 2023 within days of the violence at the Auckland “Let Women Speak” event at Albert Park on 25 March. She has been National Secretary and a Co-leader since then. The Women’s Rights Party will be on the ballot in November 2026 in every polling booth across the country so women, and men, can vote for a party that is focused on protecting and promoting sex-based rights.

With Sally Simmonds, Jill has edited the book Don’t Let Women Speak, with almost 50 contributions from women and men about the experiences of the Albert Park riot, both on the day and in the aftermath. The book is to be published by Spinifex on 25 March 2027.

Jill has three adult sons and seven grandchildren—five young men and two little girls. She lives on a lifestyle block near Waiuku.