Charlotte Macdonald


Charlotte Jean Macdonald is a New Zealand historian. After studying as an undergraduate at Massey University, she earned her PhD from University of Auckland and is now a professor at Victoria University of Wellington.

Early life

Macdonald has a Bachelor of Arts from Massey University, and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Auckland. The title of her 1986 doctoral thesis was Single Women as Immigrant Settlers in New Zealand, 1853–1871.

Professional career

Macdonald is a professor of history at Victoria University of Wellington. Her areas of expertise include: 19th century colonies and empires; New Zealand history; gender and women's history; and cultural history of bodies, modernity, sport and spectating. Her work has been marked by innovative approaches to historical research methodology and story-telling. For example, in her 1990 book A Woman of Good Character, she analysed the data connected to the lives of over 4,000 women, in combination with more conventional historical archival work, to understand a large migrant group: single women who came to New Zealand in the 19th century. She has also edited a number of collections of New Zealand women's historical primary material, greatly increasing the availability of such material.
Macdonald wrote the Te Ara – Encyclopedia of New Zealand entry on "Women and Men" in New Zealand history.
Macdonald was awarded a Marsden Fund grant in 2014 for a project entitled "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Settler: Garrison and Empire in the Nineteenth Century", which has developed into the project. A book stemming from this project, Garrison World: Redcoat Soldiers and the British Empire, was published in 2025 by Bridget Williams Books.
She was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Apārangi in 2017.

Selected works

Garrison World: Redcoat Soldiers and the British Empire, Bridget Williams Books, 2025. A Woman of Good Character: Single Women as Immigrant Settlers in Nineteenth-century New Zealand Allen & Unwin, 1990. The Book of New Zealand Women / Ko kui ma te kaupapa with Merimeri Penfold, Bridget Williams Books, 1991. The Vote, the Pill and the Demon Drink: A History of Feminist Writing in New Zealand, 1869–1993, Bridget Williams Books, 1993. Women in History, Bridget Williams Books, 1992.