ABSTRACT
The chapter explains an examination of the intersections among gender, race and class in Dame Whina Cooper and Grace Mera Molisa lives as they served apprenticeships in activism, prior to their emergence into national prominence as organizers. De Haans aim that such women's organizing should be acknowledged for its significance within transnational studies of the international women's movement, while paying heed to the specificity of local women's struggles. The shift of emphasis in women's activism, from local or national struggles in countries where the women were also integral components of anticolonial struggles, to broader spheres of women's organizing, extends the scope of their agendas in crucial directions. Molisas participation in the Fiji Women's Conference in 1975, where she heard Cooper praised for her leadership of the Maori land march, marked the beginning of her advocacy for women in Vanuatu and the islands and for Pacific Island women's participation in international women's forums.
