Women's suffrage
Suffrage Parade, New York City, 1912.
The international movement for Women's suffrage, led by suffragists and suffragettes, was a social, economic and political reform movement aimed at extending the suffrage (i.e. the right to vote) to women, advocating equal suffrage (abolition of graded votes) rather then universal suffrage (abolition of discrimination due to, for instance, race), which was considered too radical. A catch phrase was "one man, one vote!"
In 1869 the Wyoming Territory in the United States became the first modern polity where equal suffrage was extended to women. The earliest countries extending that right were New Zealand in 1893, and Australia in 1902. In 1906, Finland was the first country to introduce universal suffrage.
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2 Countries without women's suffrage 3 Suffragists and suffragettes 4 See also 5 External links |
Timeline
Women's suffrage has been granted (and been revoked) at various times in various countries throughout the world.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 were still unable to vote.
The table below lists years when women's suffrage was enacted in various places. In many cases the first voting took place in a subsequent year.
- 1776
- New Jersey (although rescinded in 1807)
- 1838
- 1862
- 1869
- United Kingdom (only in local elections, unmarried women only until 1894)
- 1869-1920
- 1881
- Isle of Man (only property owners until 1913, not universal until 1919)
- 1883
- Widows granted right to vote in Canada
- 1893
- New Zealand September 19, 1893 (although not to stand for election)
- Cook Islands
- 1902
- 1906
- 1913
- 1915
- 1918
- 1919
- Germany
- Luxembourg
- The Netherlands (right to stand in election granted in 1917)
- 1920
- Czechoslovakia (later divided in Czech Republic and Slovakia)
- United States (Federal level and all remaining states)
American women earned the right to vote with the passage of the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution
- 1921
- 1928
- United Kingdom and Ireland: franchise equal as for men
- 1929
- 1930
- South Africa (although gender-inspecific restrictions by race)
- 1931
- Spain (of practical effect until the Spanish Civil War)
- Portugal (with restrictions following level of education)
- 1932
- 1935
- India (same year as men)
- 1937
- 1939
- 1942
- 1944
- 1945
- 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
- 1949
- 1955
- 1960
- 1962
- 1963
- Afghanistan (revoked under Taliban rule 1996-2001)
- 1970
- 1971
- 1976
- Portugal (restrictions lifted)
- 1984
- 1994
- South Africa: franchise extended to black men and women
- 2001
- Bahrain (same as men)
- 2003
Countries without women's suffrage
Some countries do not extend suffrage to women, or extend it differently from to men (this list does not include countries where neither men nor women have suffrage):- Bhutan -- One vote per familiy in village-level elections
- Kuwait -- No female suffrage.
- Lebanon -- Proof of education required for women, not required for men. Voting compulsory for men, optional for women.
- Vatican City -- Voting restricted to all-male College of Cardinals.
- Oman -- limited to 175,000 people chosen by the government, mostly male
Suffragists and suffragettes
- Susan B. Anthony
- Harriet Stanton Blatch
- Amelia Bloomer
- Carrie Chapman Catt
- Abigail Scott Duniway
- Julia Ward Howe
- Lucretia Mott
- Emmeline Pankhurst
- Alice Paul
- Kate Sheppard
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton
- Lucy Stone