Timeline of women's suffrage
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Women's suffrage has been achieved 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. A contestant for being the first independent 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, when taxpaying women listed in their guilds as professionals were allowed to vote[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 because restrictions on suffrage were only lifted slowly. This list only states the right to vote; for other rights, see Timeline of women's rights (other than voting).
18th century
- 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- Sweden Female taxpaying members of city guilds are allowed to vote in local elections (rescinded in 1758) and national elections (rescinded in the new constitution of 1771).[1]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
- Corsica (rescinded upon annexation by France in 1769)
- 1756–1778
- 1776
19th century
- 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 Bohemia, taxpaying women and women in "learned professions" where allowed to vote by proxy and made eligible to the legislative body in 1864.[2]
- 1869
- 1869–1920
- 1872
- The Grand Principality of Finland was part of the Russian Empire from 1809 to 1917 and enjoyed a high degree of autonomy. In 1872, taxpaying women were granted municipal suffrage in the cities[2]
- 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 Idaho
- 1899
20th century
1900s
- 1902
- 1903
- 1905
- 1906
- Finland 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.[1]
- 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.)[6]
1910s
- 1913
- 1915
- 1916
- 1917
- 1918
- 1919
1920s
- 1920
- 1921
- 1922
- 1924
- 1925
- 1927
- 1928
- 1929
- Puerto Rico (to vote)
- Ecuador (The right of women to vote was written into the Constitution)
1930s
- 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
1940s
- 1940
- Canada Quebec becomes the final Canadian province to give female suffrage (April 25).
- 1941
- 1942
- 1944
- 1945
- 1946
- 1947
- 1948
- 1949
1950s
- 1950
- 1951
- 1952
- 1953
- 1954
- 1955
- 1956
- 1957
- 1958
- 1959
1960s
- 1960
- 1961
- 1962
- 1963
- 1964
- 1965
- 1967
- 1968
- Bermuda (universal)
- Nauru
- Portugal claims to have established "equality of political rights for men and women", although a few electoral rights were reserved for men
- Swaziland
1970s
- 1970
- 1971
- Switzerland (on the federal level; introduced on the Cantonal level from 1958–1990)
- 1972
- 1974
- 1975
- 1976
- 1977
- 1978
1980s
1990s
- 1990
- 1994
- 1997
- Qatar (allowed for municipal elections in 2007)
21st century
- 2002
- Bahrain (Bahrain did not hold elections prior to 2002[11])
- 2003
- 2005
- 2006
- 2015
- Saudi Arabia (to be introduced along with right to run for municipal elections[12])
See also
References
- ^ a b * Åsa Karlsson-Sjögren: "Männen, kvinnorna och rösträtten : medborgarskap och representation 1723–1866" (Men, women and the vote: citizenship and representation 1723–1866) (in 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
- ^ Canada-WomensVote-WomenSuffrage
- ^ "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
- ^ (Italian) Extension to the women of the right to vote
- ^ Gregory Hammond, The Women's Suffrage Movement and Feminism in Argentina From Roca to Peron (U of New Mexico Press; 2011)
- ^ Woman Suffrage Timeline International - Winning the Vote Around the World
- ^ El Voto Feminino en Ecuador, published 6 April 1991, accessed 1 November 2010
- ^ Darwish, Adel (October 25, 2002). "Bahrain's women vote for first time". The Daily Telegraph (London). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/bahrain/1411264/Bahrains-women-vote-for-first-time.html. Retrieved May 25, 2010.
- ^ "Women in Saudi Arabia 'to vote and run in elections'". BBC News (London). September 25, 2011. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15052030. Retrieved September 25, 2011.
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