Women's suffrage - the right to vote - has been achieved at various times in countries throughout the world. In many nations women's suffrage was granted before universal suffrage, so women and men from certain classes or races were still unable to vote. Some countries granted it to both sexes at the same time.
This timeline lists years when women's suffrage was enacted. Some countries are listed more than once as the right was extended to more women according to age, land ownership, etc. In many cases the first voting took place in a subsequent year.
New Zealand in 1893 is often said to be the first country in the world to give women the right to vote. A contestant for being the first nation to grant women the right to vote would be Sweden, where conditional woman suffrage was granted during the age of liberty between 1718 and 1771 to taxpaying women listed in their guilds as professionals.[1]
For other women's rights, see Timeline of women's rights (other than voting).
18th century [edit]
- 1718
Sweden Female taxpaying members of city guilds are allowed to vote in local elections (rescinded in 1758) and national elections (rescinded in the new constitution of 1771).[1]
- 1755
- 1756–1778
- 1776
19th century [edit]
- 1838
- 1861
South Australia (Only property-owning women for local elections universal franchise in 1894)
- 1862
Sweden (only in local elections, votes graded after taxation, universal franchise in 1919, which went into effect at the 1921 elections)[2]
- 1863
The Grand Principality of Finland was part of the Russian Empire from 1809 to 1917 and enjoyed a high degree of autonomy. In 1863, taxpaying women were granted municipal suffrage in the country side, and in 1872, the same reform was given to the cities[2]
- 1864
-
Women in Victoria, Australia were unintentionally enfranchised by the Electoral Act (1863), and proceeded to vote in the following year's elections. The Act was amended in 1865 to correct the error.[3]
In the former Kingdom of Bohemia, taxpaying women and women in "learned professions" were allowed to vote by proxy and made eligible to the legislative body in 1864.[2]
- 1869
- 1869–1920
-
- 1870
- 1872
- 1881
Isle of Man (only property-owners until 1913, universal franchise in 1919.)
- 1884
Canada Widows and spinsters granted the right to vote within municipalities in Ontario (later to other provinces).[4]
- 1889
Franceville grants universal suffrage.[5] Loses self-rule within months.
- 1893
-
- 1894
South Australia grants universal suffrage, extending the franchise to all women (property-owners could vote in local elections from 1861), the first in Australia to do so. Women are also granted the right to stand for parliament, making South Australia the first in the world to do so.
United Kingdom extends right to vote in local elections to married women.
- 1896
- 1899
20th century [edit]
- 1902
- 1903
- 1905
- 1906
The Grand Principality of Finland was the first country to have universal suffrage. First country to give the right to vote and right to stand for elections to everyone of age regardless of wealth, race or social class.[6]
New Hebrides Perhaps inspired by the Franceville experiment, the Anglo-French Condominium of the New Hebrides granted women the right to vote in municipal elections and to serve on elected municipal councils. (These rights applied only to British, French, and other colonists, not to indigenous islanders.)[7]
The argument over women's rights in Victoria was lampooned in this
Melbourne Punch cartoon of 1887
- 1920
- 1921
- 1922
- 1924
- 1925
- 1927
- 1928
- 1929
Puerto Rico (to vote)
Ecuador (The right of women to vote was written into the Constitution)
- 1930
- 1931
Ceylon (Sri Lanka)
Chile (only at municipal level for female owners of real estate; Legislative Decree No. 320)
Portugal (with restrictions following level of education)
Spain
- 1932
- 1934
- 1935
British Raj (same year as men) (Retained by India and Pakistan after independence in 1947).
Burma
- 1937
- 1938
- 1939
- 1940
Canada Quebec becomes the final Canadian province to give female suffrage (April 25).
- 1941
- 1942
- 1944
- 1945
- 1946
- 1947
- 1948
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the UN includes Article 21: The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.
Belgium
Israel (Upon its establishment)
Iraq
South Korea
Niger
Surinam
- 1949
- 1950
- 1951
- 1952
- 1953
- 1954
- 1955
- 1956
- 1957
- 1958
- 1959
- 1960
- 1961
- 1962
- 1963
- 1964
- 1965
- 1966
- 1967
- 1968
- 1970
- 1971
Switzerland (on the federal level; introduced on the Cantonal level from 1958–1990)
- 1972
- 1974
- 1975
- 1976
- 1977
- 1978
- 1990
- 1994
- 1997
Qatar (allowed for municipal elections in 2007)
21st century [edit]
- 2002
Bahrain (Bahrain did not hold elections prior to 2002)[14]
- 2003
- 2005
- 2006
- 2015
See also [edit]
References [edit]
- ^ a b * Åsa Karlsson-Sjögren: "Männen, kvinnorna och rösträtten : medborgarskap och representation 1723–1866" (Men, women and the vote: citizenship and representation 1723–1866) (Swedish)
- ^ a b c d P. Orman Ray: Woman Suffrage in Foreign Countries. The American Political Science Review. Vol. 12, No. 3 (Aug., 1918), pp. 469-474
- ^ "Women in Parliament - Parliament of Victoria". Parliament.vic.gov.au. Retrieved 2013-05-06.
- ^ "Canada-WomensVote-WomenSuffrage". Faculty.marianopolis.edu. 1916-01-27. Retrieved 2013-05-06.
- ^ "Wee, Small Republics: A Few Examples of Popular Government," Hawaiian Gazette, Nov 1, 1895, p 1
- ^ http://www.aanioikeus.fi/en/articles/strike.htm
- ^ Bourdiol, Julien (1908), Condition internationale des Nouvelles-Hebrides, p 106
- ^ (Italian) Extension to the women of the right to vote
- ^ "Women's Suffrage". Ipu.org. 1997-05-23. Retrieved 2013-05-06.
- ^ Gregory Hammond, The Women's Suffrage Movement and Feminism in Argentina From Roca to Peron (U of New Mexico Press; 2011)
- ^ "Pakistan Ministers". Guide2womenleaders.com. Retrieved 2013-05-06.
- ^ "Woman Suffrage Timeline International - Winning the Vote Around the World". Womenshistory.about.com. 1908-04-25. Retrieved 2013-05-06.
- ^ "El Voto Feminino en Ecuador, published 6 April 1991, accessed 1 November 2010". Hoy.com.ec. 2011-10-14. Retrieved 2013-05-06.
- ^ Darwish, Adel (October 25, 2002). "Bahrain's women vote for first time". The Daily Telegraph (London). Retrieved May 25, 2010.
- ^ "Women in Saudi Arabia 'to vote and run in elections'". BBC News (London). September 25, 2011. Retrieved September 25, 2011.
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