Sandra Coney

Sandra Lorraine Coney, QSO (born 22 October 1944) is a New Zealand feminist and women's health campaigner who is currently an Auckland Councillor.

Activist career

She is best known for her co-authorship (with Phillida Bunkle) of a Metro magazine article that alleged that women had been experimented on, without their consent, at National Women's Hospital in Auckland. The article, titled 'The Unfortunate Experiment', led to the controversial Cartwright Inquiry, which confirmed the article's allegations. The article and the subsequent inquiry are seen as a turning point in healthcare ethics in New Zealand.^{[citation needed]}

Coney has been involved in other women's health causes, and in 1984 co-founded with Bunkle Women's Health Action to co-ordinate claims by women who had been injured by the Dalkon Shield IUD. Coney was the co-founder of the feminist magazine Broadsheet, which she co-edited for 16 years. She is the author or editor of 14 books, including the major Suffrage Centennial publication Standing in the Sunshine (1993), which was also a television series. She wrote a regular column of political and social comment for the Sunday-Times for 16 years from 1986.

She is also involved in the local politics of the Piha area such as the unsuccessful campaign against the Piha cafe. She has also written an history of Piha and is currently researching Anzac soldiers from the Piha area.

Her father was Tom Pearce, who was ARC chair from 1965 to 1976 and a New Zealand Rugby Football Union administrator.

Political career

Auckland Council
Years	Ward	Affiliation
2010–2013	Waitakere	Best for the West

Between 2001 and 2010 Coney represented Waitakere City on the Auckland Regional Council (ARC) and served as Chair of the Parks and Heritage Committee between 2004 and 2010.

In October 2010, she was elected as a representative of the Waitakere Ward on the Auckland Council on the Best for the West ticket. She was also elected as an independent representative on the Waitemata District Health Board.

Honours

In the 2010 Queen's Birthday Honours List, Coney was made an Companion of Queen's Service Order.

Selected bibliography

• 2009: Piha: guardians of the iron sands: the first 75 years of the Piha Surf Life Saving Club. Piha Surf Life Saving, ISBN 9780473149062
• 1998: Stroppy sheilas and gutsy girls: New Zealand women of dash and daring. Tandem Press, ISBN 1877178292
• 1997: Piha: a history in images. Keyhole Press, ISBN 0473048833
• 1996: Feeling fabulous at 40, 50 and beyond. Tandem Press, ISBN 0908884834
• 1995: I do: 125 years of weddings in New Zealand. Moa Beckett (NZ), ISBN 1869581717
• 1993: Standing in the sunshine: a history of New Zealand women since they won the vote. Viking, ISBN 0670846287
• 1993: Unfinished business: what happened to the Cartwright Report? Women's Health Action, Auckland. ISBN 0473020181
• 1991: The Menopause Industry: How the Medical Establishment Exploits Women. Penguin ISBN 0897931610 (U.S. Edition 1994)
• 1990: Hysterectomy. Heinemann Reed (NZ), ISBN 079000089X
• 1988: The Unfortunate Experiment: The full story behind the inquiry into cervical cancer treatment. Penguin. ISBN 0140116710
• 1986: Every girl: a social history of women and the YWCA in Auckland 1885-1985. Auckland YWCA ISBN 090863627X