Talk:Marilyn Waring

Waring did not bring down the New Zealand Government.
I have removed this sentence:

"Her action brought down the government, and led to the next administration making New Zealand the first country to ban nuclear ships from its harbours."

She contributed to the declaration of a snap election by the National Government, but if you look at The General Election of 1984 the claim that Waring brought that government down all by herself is patently false.

I also don't see how you can argue that Waring had any influence on the policy and legislation of the incoming Government, let alone caused it as the sentence implies.

NZ forever 07:25, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

Working-Class Hero
In 1991 Marilyn Waring recorded a version of John Lennon's song Working Class Hero. I added reference to this and a link to its entry at discogs.com, which features a scan of the single cover, but someone deleted it saying it "had nothing to do with Marilyn Waring". This makes no sense to me (she recorded the song, it was released as a single under her name) so I'm reinstating it. Pearce.duncan (talk) 01:14, 3 August 2009 (UTC)

Political affiliations
It would be helpful if the article could shed some more light on her political affiliations, such as why she joined the National Party. I bring this up because what is written about her politics in the article leaves me scratching my head as to why she was ever a member of the National Party - it's not exactly the most natural place for someone with environmentalist, anti-nuclear, feminist, gay rights views. 121.73.7.84 (talk) 18:48, 31 May 2010 (UTC)
 * Janet McCallum, in Women in the House, pp 126-127, indicates that Waring was working part time as a researcher in the (National Party) Opposition research unit. As part of a PhD she decided to do a participatory paper on the National Party's candidate selection process and her straight talking so impressed the voting delegates that they selected her, to her own amazement. Also, at the time she was studying music as an honours graduate, her political views only solidified later as a result of her involvement in politics. - Cameron Dewe (talk) 12:55, 25 October 2010 (UTC)

Introduction may be too long
I moved the comment about Marilyn Waring being the 15th woman elected to the New Zealand House of Representatives into the body of the article. Waring herself claimed, in a tribute to Colleen Dewe dated 27 May 1993, that they together were the 14th and 15th women elected. It is only by alphabetical order that she is placed 15th and not 14th. Also she was 23 when she entered Parliament, - Cameron Dewe (talk) 13:07, 25 October 2010 (UTC)

D Phil or PhD?
I was just looking at the bio section of Marilyn Waring's website http://marilynwaring.com/html/bio.html On that site it says that she got a PhD in 1989 not a D Phil. Maybe this needs to be fixed in the article text? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.168.13.108 (talk) 04:16, 19 August 2011 (UTC)

According to the library catalogue record for Waring's thesis at the University of Waikato, her degree is a D.Phil in politics (i.e., political science). For confirmation, see http://waikato.lconz.ac.nz/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=135467 unsigned comment added by 201.223.250.122 (talk) 15:05, 15 May 2012 (UTC)
 * I may well be wrong, but I thought the terms PhD and D.Phil are interchangeable, at least in some instances. It may also be that "politics" is an accepted abbreviation for either political science or political economy. I'm open to persuasion otherwise.- gadfium 20:53, 15 May 2012 (UTC)

The point is simply that "D. Phil. politics" was the way the thesis was catalogued at the time by University of Waikato librarians, for whom cataloguing theses done at the university is part of their daily job. The reference to a "PhD in Political Economy", on the other hand, was taken from a press release issued 17 years later by a different institution (the Auckland University of Technology). Unless there are reasons to think otherwise, the University of Waikato library should clearly be considered the more authoritative source.


 * PhD (Oxford Uni and etc) and DPhil (Cambridge Uni and etc) are both abbreviations for Doctor of Philosophy, which is the name of the degree and what will appear in the certificate. Politics (or political science, or whatever) is the name of the field in which the recipient studied, but it's not actually part of the degree name. Stuartyeates (talk) 06:12, 12 December 2012 (UTC)

She has a D.Phil. in political economy as the sources cited in the article demonstrate, eg. and. Political economy in this context can be seen as a sub field of "politics." D.Phil. and PhD are both abbreviations for the same degree and interchangeable terms. People with doctorates often choose to use the more familiar term PhD in an Anglo-American context regardless of whether that term is used in their home country/university. Claireclear (talk) 23:34, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

I'm sorry, but the University of Waikato library entry is clearly a more authoratative source. As for the term "political economy", it is not a subfield of politics (or of economics). Its use as a synonym for economics by some universities was abandoned decades ago, since when it has no well-defined meaning as a field of study. As for D.Phil., in certain Commonwealth countries it tends to refer to research doctorates, that is, doctorates that do not require taking courses with their attendant examinations. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 181.160.206.15 (talk) 05:06, 19 June 2013 (UTC)


 * My certificate from Waikato says neither PhD nor DPhil but "Doctor of Philosophy" I just checked. Stuartyeates (talk) 09:45, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

Intro too long
Added Lead rewrite because the intro is way too long. — Hugh 00:50, 25 September 2017 (UTC)
 * Working on it! --Gertrude206 (talk) 22:44, 7 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Great! Have you seen MOS:BLPLEAD?  Schwede 66  00:14, 8 July 2019 (UTC)
 * Yes thanks--Gertrude206 (talk) 00:36, 9 July 2019 (UTC)

Introduction and reorganisation of content
I have rewritten the intro and removed the maintenance template: Lead rewrite. Also removed the Focus section and changed the heading of the Career section from History. The content from the original Introduction and Focus sections has been incorporated into the body of the article, principally in the Career section. There was quite a bit of duplication of content. Some more references have been added, but not all links for existing references have been checked to see if they are still live. --Gertrude206 (talk) 22:51, 10 July 2019 (UTC)