Timeline of women's suffrage
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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 classes or races were still unable to vote, while some granted it to both sexes at the same time.
The timeline below lists years when women's suffrage was enacted in various places. 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. However, it was then a British colony and other sub-national entities had earlier given certain women voting rights.(New Zealand became an independent nation some time between 1907 and 1947 although constitutional historians disagree as to exactly when.)[1]
Disclaimer: This timeline reflects a vast amount of information from the women's suffrage movement throughout the globe. In many cases, countries passed various laws which progressively gave women the right to vote. Many countries may appear on the list more than once due to the fact that restrictions on suffrage were only lifted slowly. (Former name of nation included at time of rights granted.) This list only states the right to vote; for other rights, see Timeline of Womens Rights (other than voting)
Contents |
[edit] 18th century
[edit] 19th century
- 1838
- 1861
- South Australia (Only property-owning women for local elections, universal franchise in 1894)
- 1862
- 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.[2]
- 1869
- United Kingdom (only in local elections, universal franchise in 1894)
- 1869-1920
- States and territories of the USA, progressively, starting with the Wyoming Territory in 1869 and Utah Territory in 1870. The latter was repealed by the U.S. Congress through the Edmunds-Tucker Act in 1887. Wyoming acquired statehood in 1890 (Utah in 1896) and thus 1892 was the first United States presidential election in which women cast legal votes. The USA as a whole acquired women's suffrage in 1920 (see below) through the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution; voting qualifications in the U.S., even in federal elections, are set by the states, and this amendment prohibited states from discriminating on the basis of sex.
- 1881
- Isle of Man (only property-owners until 1913, universal franchise in 1919.)
- 1884
- 1886
- Republic of Tavolara grants universal suffrage.[4][5] Monarchy restored 1899.
- 1889
- Franceville grants universal suffrage.[6] Loses self-rule within months.
- 1893
- New Zealand September 19 (including Maori women, although barred from standing for election.)
- Cook Islands
- 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.
- 1899
[edit] 20th century
[edit] 1900s
- 1902
- Commonwealth of Australia (The Australian Constitution gave the federal franchise to all persons allowed to vote for the lower house in each state unless the Commonwealth Parliament stipulated otherwise. Thus, South Australian and Western Australian women could vote in the first federal election in 1901. During the first Parliament, the Commonwealth passed legislation extending federal franchise to non-Aboriginal women in all states.)
- New South Wales
- 1903
- 1905
- 1906
- Finland First country to give both the right to vote and stand for elections. First country to give both rights to all women regardless of wealth, race or social class.
- 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]
[edit] 1910s
- 1913
- 1915
- 1916
- Canada (Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan only, others later on)
- 1918
- Azerbaijan
- Austria
- Canada on federal level (last province to enact women's suffrage was Quebec in 1940)
- Estonia
- Germany
- Latvia
- Poland
- Russian SFSR
- United Kingdom (see Representation of the People Act 1918: women above the age of 30, compared to 21 for men and 19 for those who had fought in World War One. Various property qualifications remained.)
- 1919
- Armenia
- Belarus[citation needed]
- Belgium (only at municipal level)
- Georgia
- Hungary (full suffrage granted in 1945)
- Luxembourg
- Netherlands (right to stand in election granted in 1917)
- Ukraine
[edit] 1920s
- 1920
- Albania
- Czechoslovakia (country created in 1918, first constitution in 1920 granted universal suffrage.)
- United States (All remaining states)
- 1921
- 1922
- Irish Free State - now known as the Republic of Ireland - (equal suffrage granted upon independence from UK)
- Burma
- Yucatán, Mexico (regional and congress elections only)
- 1924
- Mongolia (No electoral system in place prior to this year)
- Saint Lucia
- Tajik SSR
- 1925
- Italy (local elections only)
- 1927
- 1928
- United Kingdom (franchise equal to that for men)
- 1929
- Ecuador
- Puerto Rico (to vote)
[edit] 1930s
- 1930
- South Africa (only granted to white women on the same basis as white men; black women did not qualify for the vote even though some black men did)
- Turkey
- 1931
- 1932
- 1934
- 1935
- 1937
- 1938
- 1939
[edit] 1940s
- 1940
- Quebec becomes the final Canadian province to give female suffrage.
- 1941
- Panama (with restrictions)
- 1942
- 1944
- 1945
- France (October 21)
- Indonesia (Dutch East Indies)
- Japan (with restrictions)
- Senegal
- Togo (French Togoland)
- Yugoslavia
- 1946
- Cameroon
- Djibouti (French Somaliland)
- Guatemala
- Kenya
- North Korea[1]
- Italy (June 2)
- Liberia (Americo women only; indigenous men and women were not enfranchised until 1951)
- The British Mandate of Palestine
- Romania (with restrictions)
- Venezuela
- Vietnam
- 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
- Iraq
- Italy
- South Korea
- Niger
- Dutch Guiana (now Suriname)
- 1949
[edit] 1950s
- 1950
- 1951
- 1952
- United Nations enacts Convention on the Political Rights of Women
- Bolivia
- Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
- Greece
- Lebanon
- 1953
- Bhutan
- British Guiana (now Guyana)
- Hungary
- Mexico (extended to all women and for national elections)
- 1954
- British Honduras (now Belize)
- Colombia
- Gold Coast (now Ghana)
- 1955
- 1956
- 1957
- Malaya (now Malaysia)
- Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe)
- 1958
- Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso)
- Chad
- Guinea
- Laos
- Nigeria-South-
- 1959
[edit] 1960s
- 1960
- 1961
- 1962
- Algeria
- Australia: franchise extended to Aboriginal men and women.
- Brunei Revoked (including men)
- Monaco
- Uganda
- Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia)
- 1963
- 1964
- 1965
- Afghanistan (revoked under Taliban rule 1996-2001) [8]
- Botswana (Bechuanaland)
- Lesotho (Basutoland)
- 1967
- 1968
[edit] 1970s
- 1970
- 1971
- Switzerland (on the federal level; introduced on the Cantonal level from 1958-1990)
- 1972
- 1974
- 1975
- 1976
- Portugal (restrictions lifted)
- 1977
- 1978
[edit] 1980s
[edit] 1990s
- 1990
- Samoa (Western Samoa)
- Switzerland (the Canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden is forced by the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland to accept women's suffrage)
- 1994
- Kazakhstan
- South Africa: franchise extended to black men and women.
- 1997
[edit] 21st century
[edit] References
- ^ Colin Campbell Aikman, ‘History, Constitutional’ in McLintock, A.H. (ed),An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, 3 vols, Wellington, NZ:R.E. Owen, Government Printer, 1966, vol 2, pp.67-75.
- ^ Women in Parliament - Parliament of Victoria
- ^ Canada-WomensVote-WomenSuffrage
- ^ "Smallest State in the World," New York Times, June 19, 1896, p 6
- ^ "Tiny Nation to Vote: Smallest Republic in the World to Hold a Presidential Election," Lowell Daily Sun, Sep 17, 1896
- ^ "Wee, Small Republics: A Few Examples of Popular Government," Hawaiian Gazette, Nov 1, 1895, p 1
- ^ Bourdiol, Julien (1908), Condition internationale des Nouvelles-Hebrides, p 106
- ^ Woman Suffrage Timeline International - Winning the Vote Around the World
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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