Sandra Coney

Sandra Lorraine Coney, QSO (born 22 October 1944) is a New Zealand local body politician, writer, feminist, historian, and women's health campaigner.

She is best known for her co-authorship (with Phillida Bunkle) of a Metro magazine article that alleged that women had been experimented on, without their consent, at National Women's Hospital in Auckland. The article, titled 'The Unfortunate Experiment', led to the controversial Cartwright Inquiry, which confirmed the article's allegations. The article and the subsequent inquiry are seen as a turning point in healthcare ethics in New Zealand.

Coney has been involved in other women's health causes, and in 1984 co-founded with Bunkle Women's Health Action to co-ordinate claims by women who had been injured by the Dalkon Shield IUD. Coney was the co-founder of the feminist magazine Broadsheet, which she co-edited for 14 years. She is the author or editor of 14 books, including the major Suffrage Centennial publication Standing in the Sunshine (1993), which was also a television series. She wrote a regular column of political and social comment for the Sunday-Times for 16 years from 1986.

She is also involved in the local politics of the Piha area such as the unsuccessful campaign against the Piha cafe. She has also written an history of Piha and is currently researching Anzac soldiers from the Piha area.

Her father was Tom Pearce, who was ARC chair from 1965 to 1976 and a New Zealand Rugby Football Union administrator.

Between 2001 and 2010 Coney represented Waitakere City on the Auckland Regional Council (ARC) and served as Chair of the Parks and Heritage Committee between 2004 and 2010.

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