The exhibition includes Hocken collections artworks and items linked to women gaining the vote.
Curator of art Andrea Bell said the exhibition reflected ''an inclusive approach to feminism and the diversity of women's experiences''.
Sisters Communing (1974), by Timaru-born artist and writer Jacqueline Fahey, celebrated the artistic, social and political lives of New Zealand women, she said.
The new show includes a collection of suffragette badges, artist Doris Lusk's painted still life of flowers (1940), and Robyn Kahukiwa's Mana Wahine Maori (1993).
The show runs Monday to Saturday until October 3.
Another related exhibition, at the Blue Oyster Project Space in Dowling St, features new works of art created in response to some Hocken items, and runs from today until September 29.
