WOMEN in WOOL
Philippa Wright, MNZM
When most girls her age were choosing between careers in nursing or teaching, a teenaged Philippa Wright was dipping her toes into an industry where few females had gone before.
Woolsheds in the 1970s were very much a bloke’s domain, and the further up the ladder you went in the Kiwi wool industry, the more entrenched the gender bias became. But after taking a temporary job as a shed hand in Canterbury to earn a bit of cash for travel, Philippa discovered a passion for wool, and after that, even the most eye-watering sexism couldn’t deter her from her path.
“You wouldn’t believe some of the things that went on back then,” says the 63-year-old founder of Wright Wool, a hard-working family business that sells New Zealand wool to markets around the world. She’s doing her best to be diplomatic about what it was like as a young woman in the traditionally male rural setting 45 years ago, but it’s clear what was acceptable then certainly wouldn’t pass muster today.
“I look back now and wonder how I stuck with it, because I certainly wouldn’t want my daughter to ever be in a position like that. But I saw it as a challenge. I was very strong and very tough and I was determined
