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|publisher=[[Library of Congress]]}}</ref> and [[Utah Territory|Utah]] (1870), although Utah women were disenfranchised by the [[United States Congress|U.S. Congress]] in 1887. The push to grant Utah women's suffrage was at least partially fueled by the belief that, given the right to vote, Utah women would dispose of [[polygamy]]. It was only after Utah women exercised their suffrage rights in favor of polygamy that the U.S. Congress disenfranchised Utah women.<ref>Van Wagenen, Lola: "Sister-Wives and Suffragists: Polygamy and the Politics of Woman Suffrage 1870–1896," BYU Studies, 2001.</ref> By the end of the nineteenth century, Idaho, Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming had enfranchised women after effort by the suffrage associations at the state level.
|publisher=[[Library of Congress]]}}</ref> and [[Utah Territory|Utah]] (1870), although Utah women were disenfranchised by the [[United States Congress|U.S. Congress]] in 1887. The push to grant Utah women's suffrage was at least partially fueled by the belief that, given the right to vote, Utah women would dispose of [[polygamy]]. It was only after Utah women exercised their suffrage rights in favor of polygamy that the U.S. Congress disenfranchised Utah women.<ref>Van Wagenen, Lola: "Sister-Wives and Suffragists: Polygamy and the Politics of Woman Suffrage 1870–1896," BYU Studies, 2001.</ref> By the end of the nineteenth century, Idaho, Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming had enfranchised women after effort by the suffrage associations at the state level.


National women’s suffrage, however, did not exist until 1920. During the beginning of the twentieth century, as women's suffrage gained in popularity, suffragists were subject to arrests and many were jailed. Finally, President Woodrow Wilson urged Congress to pass what became, when it was ratified in 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment. Today the [http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/ Center for American Women and Politics] keeps alive the push for more women to continue to participate in government.
National women’s suffrage, however, did not exist until 1920. During the beginning of the twentieth century, as women's suffrage gained in popularity, suffragists were subject to arrests and many were jailed. Finally, [[Woodrow Wilson|President Woodrow Wilson]] urged Congress to pass what became, when it was ratified in 1920, the [[Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Nineteenth Amendment]]. Today the [http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/ Center for American Women and Politics] keeps alive the push for more women to continue to participate in government.


===Women's suffrage denied or conditioned===
===Women's suffrage denied or conditioned===

Revision as of 04:18, 6 March 2008

Feminist Suffrage Parade in New York City, 1912

The term women's suffrage refers to the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending suffrage — the right to vote — to women. The movement's origins are usually traced to the United States in the 1820s although New Zealand was the first country to actually allow women universal suffrage, thanks, in most part, to Kate Sheppard who lead the Womens Suffrage movement in New Zealand, later being adopted by many countries in later years. In the following century it spread throughout the European and European-colonized world, being adopted in places which had undergone later colonization than that in Europe and the eastern United States. Today women's suffrage is considered a right (under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women), although a few countries, mainly in the Middle East, continue to deny the right of many women to vote.

History

See also: Timeline of women's suffrage

Women's suffrage has been granted at various times in various countries throughout the world. In many countries women's suffrage was granted before universal suffrage, so women (and men) from certain races and social classes were still unable to vote.

In medieval France and several other European countries, voting for city and town assemblies and meetings was open to the heads of households, regardless of sex. Women's suffrage was granted by the Corsican Republic of 1755 whose Constitution stipulated a national representative assembly elected by all inhabitants over the age of 25, both women (if unmarried or widowed) and men. Suffrage was ended when France annexed the island in 1769. In 1756, Lydia Chapin Taft, also known as Lydia Taft, became the first legal woman voter in America.[1] She voted on at least three occasions in an open New England Town Meeting, at Uxbridge, Massachusetts, with the consent of the electorate. This was between 1756 and 1768, during America's colonial period.[2] New Jersey granted women the vote (with the same property qualifications as for men, although, since married women did not own property in their own right, only unmarried women and widows qualified) under the state constitution of 1776, where the word "inhabitants" was used without qualification of sex or race. New Jersey women, along with "aliens...persons of color, or negroes," lost the vote in 1807, when the franchise was restricted to white males, partly in order, ostensibly at least, to combat electoral fraud by simplifying the conditions for eligibility.

The Pitcairn Islands granted women's suffrage in 1838. Various countries, colonies and states granted restricted women's suffrage in the latter half of the nineteenth century, starting with South Australia in 1861. The 1871 Paris Commune granted voting rights to women, but they were taken away with the fall of the Commune and would only be granted again in July 1944 by Charles de Gaulle. In 1886 the small island kingdom of Tavolara became a republic and introduced women's suffrage.[3][4] However, in 1899 the monarchy was reinstated, and the kingdom was some years later on annexed by Italy. The Pacific colony of Franceville, declaring independence in 1889, became the first self-governing nation to practice universal suffrage without distinction of sex or color;[5] however, it soon came back under French and British colonial rule.

The first unrestricted women's suffrage in terms of voting rights (women were not initially permitted to stand for election) in a self-governing, still-independent country was granted in New Zealand. Following a movement led by Kate Sheppard, the women's suffrage bill was adopted mere weeks before the general election of 1893. The state of South Australia granted both universal suffrage and allowed women to stand for state parliament in 1895.[6] The Commonwealth of Australia provided this for women in Federal elections from 1902 (except Aboriginal women). The first major European country to introduce women's suffrage was Russia, whose grand duchy of Finland granted women the right both to vote (universal and equal suffrage) and to stand for election in 1906. The world's first female members of parliament were also in Finland, when on 1907, 19 women took up their places in the Parliament of Finland as a result of the 1907 parliamentary elections.

File:Poster23.jpg
Soviet poster celebrates women's right to vote.

In the years before the First World War, Norway (1913) and Denmark also gave women the vote, and it was extended throughout the remaining Australian states. Canada granted the right in 1917 (except in Quebec, where it was postponed until 1940), as did Soviet Russia. British women over 30 and all German and Polish women had the vote in 1918, Dutch women in 1919, and American women in states that had previously denied them suffrage were allowed the vote in 1920. Women in Turkey were granted voting rights in 1926. In 1928, suffrage was extended to all British women on the same terms as men i.e. over 21. One of the last jurisdictions to grant women equal voting rights was Liechtenstein in 1984. Since then only a handful of countries have not extended the franchise to women, usually on the basis of certain religious interpretations.

Bhutan allows one vote per property, a policy that many claim in practice prevents women from voting. However, inheritance in Bhutanese society is matrilinear, and since daughters inherit their parent's property and men are expected to make their own way in the world, Bhutanese women may potentially have greater political power, although this is only theoretical. In any case, this one vote per property practice is planned to be changed once the newly proposed constitution is accepted before 2008.

Suffrage movements

The suffrage movement was a very broad one which encompassed women and men with a very broad range of views. One major division, especially in Britain, was between suffragists, who sought to create change constitutionally, and suffragettes, who were more militant. There was also a diversity of views on a 'woman's place'. Some who campaigned for women's suffrage felt that women were naturally kinder, gentler, and more concerned about weaker members of society, especially children. It was often assumed that women voters would have a civilising effect on politics and would tend to support controls on alcohol, for example. They believed that although a woman's place was in the home, she should be able to influence laws which impacted upon that home. Other campaigners felt that men and women should be equal in every way and that there was no such thing as a woman's 'natural role'. There were also differences in opinion about other voters. Some campaigners felt that all adults were entitled to a vote, whether rich or poor, male or female, and regardless of race. Others saw women's suffrage as a way of canceling out the votes of lower class or non-white men.

Women's suffrage by country

File:Punchsuffrage.png
The argument over women's rights in Victoria, Australia, was lampooned in this Melbourne Punch cartoon of 1887

Australia

The first election for the Parliament of the newly-formed Commonwealth of Australia in 1901 was based on the electoral provisions of the six states, so that women who had the vote and the right to stand for Parliament at state level (in South Australia and Western Australia) had the same rights for the 1901 Federal election. In 1902, the Commonwealth Parliament passed its own electoral act that extended these rights to women in all states on the same basis as men. However, the Commonwealth legislation excluded all Aboriginal men and women from the Commonwealth franchise, which in theory some of them had enjoyed in 1901 (state Parliaments generally had property qualifications for the franchise, which in practice few Aboriginals would have met). This was not corrected until 1962, through an amendment to the Commonwealth Electoral Act (it was not an outcome of the 1967 referendum that gave the Commonwealth Parliament the power to legislate specifically on Aboriginal matters).

France

Suffrage was extended to women in France by the October 5 1944 Ordinance of the French Provisional government.[7] The first elections with female participation were the municipal elections of April 29 1945 and the parliamentary elections of October 21 1945. Muslim women in French Algeria had to wait till a July 3 1958 Decree.[8][9]

Indonesia

In the first half of the twentieth century, Indonesia was one of the slowest moving countries to gain women’s suffrage. They began their fight in 1905 by introducing municipal councils that included some members elected by a restricted district. Voting rights only went to males that could read and write, which excluded many non-European males. At the time, the literacy rate for males was 11% and for females 2%. The main group who pressured the Indonesian government for women’s suffrage was the Dutch Vereeninging voor Vrouwenkiesrecht (VVV-Women’s Suffrage Association) which was founded in Holland in 1894. They tried to attract Indonesian membership, but had very limited success because the leaders of the organization had little skill in relating to even the educated class of the Indonesians. When they eventually did some what connect with women, they failed to sympathize with them and thus ended up alienating many well-educated Indonesians. In 1918 the colony gained its first national representative body called the Volksraad, which still excluded women in voting. In 1935, the colonial administration used its power of nomination to appoint a European woman to the Volksraad. In 1938, the administration introduced the right of women to be elected to urban representative institution, which resulted in some Indonesian and European women entering municipal councils. Eventually, the law became that only European women and municipal councils could vote, which excluded all other women and local councils. September of 1941 was when this law was amended and the law extended to women of all races by the Volksraad. Finally, in November of 1941, the right to vote for municipal councils was granted to all women on a similar basis to men (with property and educational qualifications).[10]

File:NewZealandTenDollarNote1.png
Suffragist Kate Sheppard on the New Zealand ten dollar note

New Zealand

Main article: Women's suffrage in New Zealand

Women in New Zealand were inspired to fight for their voting rights by the equal-rights philosopher John Stuart Mill and the British feminists’ aggressiveness. In addition, the missionary efforts of the American-based Women’s Christian Temperance Union gave them the motivation to fight. There were, in fact, a few male politicians that supported women’s rights such as, John Hall, Robert Stout, Julius Vogel and William Fox. In 1878, 1879, and 1887 amendments extending the vote to women failed by a hair each time. In 1893, New Zealand became the first major self-governing country in the world to give women the vote (none of the small short lived states of Corsica, Tavolara, and Franceville retained suffrage - or an independent democracy - for more than 20 years).

Although the Liberal government which passed the bill generally advocated social and political reform, the electoral bill was only passed because of a combination of personality issues and political accident. The bill granted the vote to women of all races. New Zealand women were not given the right to stand for parliament, however, until 1918. Presently, the idea that women cannot vote is complete blasphemy to New Zealanders. In 2005, almost a third of the Members of Parliament elected were female. Women recently are also in prestigous positions such as prime minister,Governor-General and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and chief justice.

Cook Islands

Women in Rarotonga were given the right to vote in 1893, shortly after New Zealand.[11]

United Kingdom

Main article: Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom

The campaign for women's suffrage gained momentum throughout the early part of the nineteenth century as women became increasingly politically active, particularly during the campaigns to reform suffrage in the United Kingdom. John Stuart Mill, elected to Parliament in 1865 and an open advocate of female suffrage, campaigned for an amendment to the Reform Act to include female suffrage. Roundly defeated in an all male parliament under a Conservative government, the issue of women's suffrage came to the fore.

During the latter half of the 19th century, a number of campaign groups were formed in an attempt to lobby MPs and gain support. In 1897, seventeen of these groups came together to form the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), who held public meetings, wrote letters to politicians and published various texts.

In 1903, a number of members of the NUWSS broke away and, led by Emmeline Pankhurst, formed the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). As the national media lost interest in the suffrage campaign, the WSPU decided it would use other methods to create publicity. This began in 1905 at a meeting where Sir Edward Grey, a member of the newly elected Liberal government, was speaking. As he was talking, two members of the WSPU constantly shouted out, 'Will the Liberal Government give votes to women?' When they refused to cease calling out, police were called to evict them and the two suffragettes (as members of the WSPU became known after this incident) were involved in a struggle which ended with them being arrested and charged for assault. When they refused to pay their fine, they were sent to prison. The British public were shocked and took notice at this use of violence to win the vote for women.

After this media success, the WSPU's tactics became increasingly violent. This included an attempt in 1908 to storm the House of Commons and the arson of David Lloyd George's (who, ironically, supported the campaign for women's suffrage) country home.

The WSPU ceased their militant activities during the First World War and agreed to assist with the war effort. Similarly, the NUWSS announced that they would cease political activity but continued to lobby discreetly throughout the war. In 1918, with the war over, Parliament agreed to enfranchise women who were over the age of 30. It was not until 1928 with the Representation of the People Act 1928 that women were granted the right to vote on the same terms as men.

United States

Main article: History of women's suffrage in the United States

Lydia Chapin Taft was an early forerunner in Colonial America who was allowed to vote in three New England town meetings, beginning in 1756. American women were the first to fight for women’s suffrage.

In 1848, at the Seneca Falls Convention in New York, activists including Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony began a seventy year struggle to secure the right to vote for women. Women's suffrage activists pointed out that blacks had been granted the franchise and had not been included in the language of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments (which gave people the right to vote regardless of their race). This, they contended, had been unjust. Early victories were won in the territories of Wyoming (1869)[12] and Utah (1870), although Utah women were disenfranchised by the U.S. Congress in 1887. The push to grant Utah women's suffrage was at least partially fueled by the belief that, given the right to vote, Utah women would dispose of polygamy. It was only after Utah women exercised their suffrage rights in favor of polygamy that the U.S. Congress disenfranchised Utah women.[13] By the end of the nineteenth century, Idaho, Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming had enfranchised women after effort by the suffrage associations at the state level.

National women’s suffrage, however, did not exist until 1920. During the beginning of the twentieth century, as women's suffrage gained in popularity, suffragists were subject to arrests and many were jailed. Finally, President Woodrow Wilson urged Congress to pass what became, when it was ratified in 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment. Today the Center for American Women and Politics keeps alive the push for more women to continue to participate in government.

Women's suffrage denied or conditioned

  • Bhutan — One vote per house. Although this applies to both men and women, in practice it currently prevents many more women from voting than men. If the new proposed constitution is voted and ratified, then no restrictions will apply by 2008.[14]
  • Brunei — No suffrage for women. Neither men nor women have had the right to vote or to stand for election since 1962 because the country is governed by an absolute monarchy.
  • Lebanon — Partial suffrage. Proof of elementary education is required for women but not for men. Voting is compulsory for men but optional for women.[15]
  • Saudi Arabia — No suffrage for women. The first local elections ever held in the country occurred in 2005. Women were not given the right to vote or to stand for election.
  • United Arab Emirates — Limited, but will be fully expanded by 2010.[16]
  • Vatican City — No suffrage for women; while most men in the Vatican also lack the vote, all persons with suffrage in Papal conclaves (the Cardinals) are male.

Anti-suffragism

Main article: Anti-suffragism

Anti-suffragism was a political movement composed mainly of women, begun in the late 19th century in order to campaign against women's suffrage in the United States and Britain. It was closely associated with "domestic feminism", the belief that women had the right to complete freedom within the home.

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See also

References

  1. ^ Chapin, Judge Henry (2081). Address Delivered at the Unitarian Church in Uxbridge; 1864. Worcester, Mass.: Charles Hamilton Press (Harvard Library; from Google Books). p. 172. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  2. ^ ""Uxbridge Breaks Tradition and Makes History: [[Lydia Chapin Taft]] by Carol Masiello"". The Blackstone Daily. Retrieved 2007-09-29. {{cite web}}: URL–wikilink conflict (help)
  3. ^ "Smallest State in the World," New York Times, June 19, 1896, p 6
  4. ^ "Tiny Nation to Vote: Smallest Republic in the World to Hold a Presidential Election," Lowell Daily Sun, Sep 17, 1896
  5. ^ "Wee, Small Republics: A Few Examples of Popular Government," Hawaiian Gazette, Nov 1, 1895, p1
  6. ^ ""Constitution (Female Suffrage) Act 1895 (SA)"". National Archives of Australia. Retrieved 2007-12-10.
  7. ^ Assemblée nationale. "La citoyenneté politique des femmes - La décision du Général de Gaulle" (in French). Retrieved 2007-12-19.
  8. ^ Patrick Weil. "Le statut des musulmans en Algérie coloniale. Une nationalité française dénaturée" (in French). in La Justice en Algérie 1830-1962, La Documentation française, Collection Histoire de la Justice, Paris, 2005, pp.95-109. Retrieved 2007-12-19. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); line feed character in |publisher= at position 79 (help)
  9. ^ Daniel Lefeuvre (March 26 2003). "1945-1958 : un million et demi de citoyennes interdites de vote !" (in French). Clio, numéro 1/1995, Résistances et Libérations France 1940-1945. Retrieved 2007-12-19. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ Blackburn, Susan, 'Winning the Vote for Women in Indonesia' Australian Feminist Studies, Volume 14, Number 29, 1 April 1999 , pp. 207-218
  11. ^ Markoff, John, 'Margins, Centers, and Democracy: The Paradigmatic History of Women's Suffrage' Signs the Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 2003; 29 (1)
  12. ^ see fac-simile at An Act to Grant to the Women of Wyoming Territory the Right of Suffrage and to Hold Office, Library of Congress, 10 December 1869, retrieved 2007-12-09 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  13. ^ Van Wagenen, Lola: "Sister-Wives and Suffragists: Polygamy and the Politics of Woman Suffrage 1870–1896," BYU Studies, 2001.
  14. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/5360522.stm
  15. ^ https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/le.html#Govt
  16. ^ http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/0A80E72C-3B71-402A-AC7F-3ACCC6505F7C.htm
  • Baker, Jean H. Sisters: The Lives of America's Suffragists. Hill and Wang, New York, 2005. ISBN 0-8090-9528-9.
  • "Woman suffrage" in Collier's New Encyclopedia, X (New York: P.F. Collier & Son Company, 1921), pp. 403-405.
  • Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary (New York: Merriam Webster, 1983) ISBN 0-87779-511-8

Further reading

  • Ellen Carol DuBois, Harriot Stanton Blatch and the Winning of Woman Suffrage (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1997) ISBN 0-300-06562-0
  • Eleanor Flexner, Century of Struggle: The Woman's Rights Movement in the United States, enlarged edition with Foreword by Ellen Fitzpatrick (1959, 1975; Cambridge and London: The Belknap Press of the Harvard University Press, 1996) ISBN 0-674-10653-9
  • Marjorie Spruill Wheeler, editor, One Woman, One Vote: Rediscovering the Woman Suffrage Movement (Troutdale, OR: NewSage Press, 1995) ISBN 0-939165-26-0
  • Doris Stevens, edited by Carol O'Hare, Jailed for Freedom: American Women Win the Vote (1920; Troutdale, OR: NewSage Press, 1995). ISBN 0-939165-25-2
  • Midge Mackenzie, Shoulder to Shoulder: A Documentary (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1975). ISBN 0-394-73070-4
  • Trevor Lloyd, Suffragettes International: The World-wide Campaign for Women's Rights (New York: American Heritage Press, 1971).
  • Annie Kenney, Memories of a Militant' (London: Edwin Arnold, 1924)
  • Antonia Raeburn, Militant Suffragettes (London: New English Library, 1973)

External links

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