Women right to vote

Timeline of women's suffrage

Women's suffrage - the right of women 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 ]

Women and the vote

Before 1918 no women were allowed to vote in parliamentary elections. In the early 20th century there were two main groups active in the campaign for women's suffrage, a term used to describe the right to vote.

These two groups were the 'suffragists' who campaigned using peaceful methods such as lobbying, and the 'suffragettes' who were determined to win the right to vote for women by any means. Their militant campaigning sometimes included unlawful and violent acts which attracted much publicity.

Overview

From peaceful campaigning to militant tactics, the fight for women's voting rights lasted many years. Find out how their goals were achieved, with full equality with men being won in 1928

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Опубликовано: 31 мая 2012 г.

Women and the Right to Vote

In most countries today, people think it is obvious that all adults should have the right to

vote in democratic elections. But it was not so long ago that women did not have this

right. Only after a long struggle did women gain the right to vote.

By the early nineteenth century, modern democratic forms of government were

appearing in the United States, Great Britain, and some European countries. In these

countries, most adult men had the right to vote in democratic elections. Some men were

denied this right if they were poor or if they belonged to a racial minority group, but

gradually this right was extended to all men.

It took much longer for women to gain the right to vote. Only in special cases, such as

that of a widow who owned land, could a woman be allowed to vote. Many men believed

that it was not necessary for women to vote, because they assumed that the husband

should decide on behalf of his wife. Some men believed that women did not possess the

intelligence or the discipline to vote carefully. Some women also believed that women

should not be involved in politics, but many others wanted the right to vote.

By about the year 1850, some women began to organize in an effort to change the laws

regarding women and the vote. This movement was known as the "woman suffrage"

movement, because the word "suffrage" means voting. Leaders such as Susan B.

Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton brought attention to this issue, and persuaded

many people that women should vote.

The first part of the United States to recognize women's right to vote was Wyoming, in

the year 1869. During the following decades, many other states recognized women's right

to vote, particularly in the western part of the country, where women had a high social

status. However, the United States was not the first country to recognize women's right

to vote at the national level.

The first country to recognize women's right to vote was New Zealand, in 1893. Soon

after, Australia also allowed women to vote, and so did the Scandinavian countries of

northern Europe. But in countries such as the United States, Canada, and Great Britain,

women could not yet vote. Women in those countries struggled to gain the vote. For

Women's suffrage

Women's suffrage (also known as woman suffrage ) [ 1 ] is the right of women to vote and to stand for electoral office. Limited voting rights were gained by women in Sweden. Finland and some western U. S.  states in the late 19th century. [ 2 ] National and international organizations formed to coordinate efforts to gain voting rights, especially the International Woman Suffrage Alliance (1904), and also worked for equal civil rights for women. [ 3 ]

In 1893, New Zealand. then a self-governing British colony, granted adult women the right to vote and the self-governing British colony of South Australia did the same in 1895, the latter also permitting women to stand for office. Australia federated in 1901, and women acquired the right to vote and stand in federal elections from 1902, but discriminatory restrictions against Aboriginal women (and men) voting in national elections were not completely removed until 1962. [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ]

The first European country to introduce women's suffrage was the Grand Duchy of Finland. then part of the Russian Empire. which elected the world's first female members of parliament in the 1907 parliamentary elections. Norway followed, granting full women's suffrage in 1913. Most European, Asian and African countries did not pass women's suffrage until after World War I. Late adopters were France in 1944, Italy in 1946, Greece in 1952, [ 7 ] Switzerland in 1971, [ 8 ] and Liechtenstein in 1984. [ 9 ] The nations of North America and most nations in Central and South America passed women's suffrage before World War II (see table in Summary below).

Extended political campaigns by women and their supporters have generally been necessary to gain legislation or constitutional amendments for women's suffrage. In many countries, limited suffrage for women was granted before universal suffrage for men; for instance, literate women were granted suffrage before all men received it. The United Nations encouraged women's suffrage in the years following World War II, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979) identifies it as a basic right with 188 countries currently being parties to this Convention.