Born in Adelaide, Mabel Howard came to New Zealand at the age of nine, when her mother died. She was devoted to her father, an active trade unionist and a Labour MP from 1908, and Mabel’s own involvement with politics began early. She learned shorthand and typing, working in the office of the Canterbury General Labourers’ Union from the age of eighteen and in 1942 was the first woman to become national secretary of an all-male trade union. In 1943 she was elected to Parliament, and became the first woman cabinet minister in 1947, as Minister of Health and Child Welfare, responsibilities she retained in the 1957 Labour Government.

Mabel Howard was capable, forthright, and dedicated to social change and socialist principles. She had a sharp tongue and a passionate heart, and was noted for her down-to-earth and colourful gestures to make her points. One of her legendary comments is her assertion that she fully supported equality of the sexes - “I truly believe that men are just as equal as women in the work they do. I believe that a man should have equal chances with a woman.” She gave her most active years to fighting against poverty, discrimination, and injustice, but could herself be inconsistent and vitriolic, with particular scorn for self-proclaimed experts. Her concern for the needy extended also to animals: she presided over the Canterbury SPCA for nearly twenty years. Direct and courageous, she spoke for the powerless.