Set up as an umbrella organisation for special interest groups and projects, its four foundational aims were equal pay, quality childcare, women's control of their own bodies, and an end to sex stereotyping.
In its ten years of existence, members of the Collective set up a preschool and a women's refuge, published books and exhibitions, and promoted better and legal access to fertility control and abortion services in New Zealand.
[1] The first eight members were Denny Boothe, Jocelyn Harris, Pat Lawson, Andrée Lévesque, Judith Medlicott, Edith Mercier, Penny Moore, and Diana Strang.
All members were encouraged to write and produce the “Woman” newsletter, and to stand up and speak at many different public engagements to numerous community groups.
[6] Collective members with a common interest in fertility control set up Knowhow, an advisory service on sexual matters, in 1973.