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The descriptive representation of women in cabinet is a necessary but not sufficient condition to achieve women-friendly policy outcomes. Rather, substantive representation of women by women political leaders also requires women's political activism. In this article, I explore the idea that institutionalised separate spaces are important sites of labour women's activism which promote and sustain women's policy leadership and the substantive representation of women. Through an examination of the New Zealand Labour Women's Council and four Labour women ministers who have used this space to pursue positions of influence and implement women-friendly policies, it becomes evident that it is not always possible for women leaders to publicly represent a ‘feminist’ claim, but this does not diminish their attempts at substantive representation. Rather, I suggest that an active and influential feminist reference …