Rosemary Yolande Levinge Seymour

Rosemary Yolande Levinge Seymour (1919-1984) was a sociologist who had a progressive influence on women's studies. She was the daughter of Mabel and Walter Seymour, and the wife of the late William Arthur Sewell.

Seymour first studied English literature at Auckland University College and later moved into the Social Science field. She briefly taught at her old secondary school, Woodford House, before moving to London in 1945 and living overseas. She returned to New Zealand in 1965. 

In 1973 she graduated with a Master of Social Sciences with first-class honours from the University of Waikato. Her master's thesis explored women's roles in a variety of world religions. In 1981, she earned her PhD for her doctoral thesis titled Women at stake: ideological cross-currents in misogyny and philogyny.

Seymour was instrumental in helping to establish the Sociology Department at the University of Waikato and the first Women's Studies Department in New Zealand. She was a founding member of a number of feminist organisations, including the Waikato branch of the Society for Research on Women, and helped to establish branches of the Women's National Abortion Action Committee and the Women's Electoral Lobby.

In 1985, her son Dr William Sewell presented 220 boxes of Dr Seymour's papers with the majority of the content centring on women's studies.