Dame Miriam Patricia Dell ( Matthews; 14 June 1924 – 22 March 2022) was a New Zealand women's advocate, botanist and schoolteacher. She was the president of the National Council of Women of New Zealand from 1970 to 1974 and the first New Zealand president of the International Council of Women from 1979 to 1984. She established the Committee on Women, the forerunner to New Zealand's Ministry for Women. Her work on promoting women's rights and advancement led to her being appointed a Member of the Order of New Zealand in 1993, New Zealand's highest civilian honour. Early life and family Dell was born in 1924 in Hamilton. She was the daughter of Ruby Miriam Crawford and Gerald Matthews. She attended Epsom Girls' Grammar School. Dell studied botany at the Auckland University College, and in later years recalled how she had been at first prevented from speaking at the university science club because she was a woman. She subsequently attended the Auckland Teachers' Training College and became a science teacher at Otahuhu College. In 1946, at age 22, she married Richard Dell and moved with him to Wellington the following year. She continued working as a science teacher after her marriage, which was unusual at the time, and said of her decision, "I was always very keen for women to take their place in the wider world, not just to be at home." Dell and her husband had four daughters, and in the late 1940s and 1950s she raised them while working as a schoolteacher. Her advocacy for women began in 1947 when she joined the Association of Anglican Women, an organisation for young married women. Career Dell was a founding member of the Hutt Valley Branch of the National Council of Women of New Zealand. She became national president of the council in 1970. In 1971, Dell was the only female member of a five-person Committee of Inquiry into Equal Pay set up by the government to investigate equal pay in New Zealand. Her work on this committee directly led to legislative change in New Zealand, such as ensuring equal citizenship rights, matrimonial property sharing and parental leave, and supported the passing of the Equal Pay Act 1972. Dell was also the only woman to sit on the National Development Council from 1969 to 1974. In this role she established a subcommittee to investigate the role of women in