The Christchurch house where Kate Sheppard ran the campaign that made New Zealand the first country to give women the vote has been added to the country’s World Heritage Tentative List.

Inclusion on the list is an appropriate next step towards possible inscription as a World Heritage Site, a review panel has concluded.

Kate Sheppard House is managed by Heritage New Zealand, which said the decision acknowledged the site’s international significance.

“Kate Sheppard House has global resonance for its direct association with the world’s first successful campaign for women’s suffrage that was led by Kate Sheppard,” the agency’s southern region director, Christine Whybrew, said.

Kate and Walter Sheppard lived in the house from 1888 to 1902, and it became the nerve centre of the push for universal women’s suffrage.

Activities were planned and speeches prepared there, along with a vast number of letters, pamphlets and articles making the case for women’s right to vote and greater equality, Whybrew said.

Sheppard also prepared three large suffrage petitions at the house, including the “monster petition” of 1893, which eventually gathered more than 31,000 signatures.

The campaign succeeded that year, when New Zealand became the first country in the world to enfranchise women.

“It was an important event which resonated around the world and was a major step towards women achieving greater equality within society,” Whybrew said.

She said visitors could experience that moment in history through the strong sense of place at the house, because it was where internationally significant social change had happened.

“Inclusion on the Tentative List for consideration of World Heritage status directly reflects the importance of this place, not only for New Zealanders but the world.”