N. E. Coad

Nellie Euphemia Coad (1883 – 1974) was a teacher & writer who held strong proto-feminist views regarding the education of young women. Born in New Plymouth, after a short period living in Australia her family moved to Wellington where she began her secondary education at Wellington Girls' College. She continued on to study at Victoria College (later to become Victoria University of Wellington), graduating with an MA (Hons) in 1914. Coad then returned to her former high school, this time as a teacher. She would teach there for the next 21 years becoming the Head of Department for history, civics and geography. Becoming active as a reformer in the education movement, she advocated for higher salaries for female primary school teachers, opposed the compulsory teaching of home-science to female students and was critical of the disparity between the size of playing fields in girls schools compared with those in boys schools. She retired from teaching in 1938 and went to live in England where she remained for the rest of her life except for short visits back to New Zealand. She died in Essex in 1974, aged 90.

See the link to the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography for further information.