Timeline of women's suffrage

Women's suffrage in the world in 1908

Suffrage parade, New York City, May 6, 1912.

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.

Though it didn't achieve nationhood until 1907, New Zealand became the first self-governing colony in the world in which all women had the right to vote in, but not stand for, parliamentary elections in 1893, followed closely by the colony of South Australia in 1894 (which, unlike New Zealand, also allowed women to stand for Parliament). In Sweden, conditional women's suffrage was granted during the age of liberty between 1718 and 1772.

For other women's rights, see Timeline of women's rights (other than voting).

18th century

1700s

1718

• Sweden: Female taxpaying members of city guilds are allowed to vote in local city elections (rescinded in 1758) and national elections (rescinded in 1772): from 1734, female taxpaying property owners of legal majority are allowed to vote in local country side elections (never rescinded).

1750s

1755

• Corsica (rescinded upon annexation by France in 1769)

1756

• U.S. town of Uxbridge, Massachusetts: One woman, Lydia Taft, is allowed to vote in the town meeting

1770s

1776

• New Jersey (U.S. state) (rescinded in 1807)

19th century

Portrait of an unknown New Zealand suffragette, Charles Hemus Studio Auckland, circa 1880. The sitter wears a white camellia and has cut off her hair, both symbolic of support for advancing women's rights.

1830s

1838

• Pitcairn Islands

1850s

1856

• Norfolk Island

1860s

1861

• Australian colony of South Australia: limited to property-owning women for local elections; universal franchise achieved in 1894.

1862

• Sweden: limited to local elections with votes graded after taxation; universal franchise achieved in 1919, which went into effect at the 1921 elections.

1863

• The Grand Duchy of Finland (Russian Empire): limited to taxpaying women in the countryside for municipal elections; and in 1872, extended to the cities.

1864

Statue of Esther Hobart Morris in front of the Wyoming State Capitol

• Australian colony of Victoria: women 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.
• Kingdom of Bohemia: limited to taxpaying women and women in "learned professions" who were allowed to vote by proxy and made eligible for election to the legislative body in 1864.

1869

• United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland: limited to single women ratepayers for local elections under the Municipal Franchise Act. (Partial female suffrage in national elections in 1918; universal franchise in 1928.)
• United States-incorporated Territory of Wyoming: full suffrage for women.

1870s

1870

• United States-incorporated Utah Territory: repealed by the Edmunds-Tucker Act in 1887.

1880s

1881

• Isle of Man (British Crown dependency) (limited at first to women “freeholders” and then, a few years’ later, extended to include women “householders”).

1884

• Ontario (Canadian province) (limited to widows and spinsters to vote in municipal elections) (later extended to other provinces).

1889

• The municipality of Franceville in the New Hebrides (universal suffrage within its short existence. Loses self-rule within months)

1890s

1893

Tribute to the Suffragettes, Christchurch, New Zealand

• New Zealand (first self-governing colony in the world in which all women are given the right to vote in parliamentary elections. Women were barred from standing for election until 1919).
• Cook Islands (British protectorate) universal suffrage.
• Colorado (U.S. state) (first state in the union to enfranchise women by popular vote)

1894

• Australian colony of South Australia: universal suffrage, extending the franchise to all women (all property-owners, including property-owning women, could vote in local elections from 1861), the first in Australia to do so.
• United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland: Local Government Act confirms single women’s right to vote in local elections and extends this franchise to some married women.

1896

• Utah (U.S. state) (reestablishes women's suffrage upon gaining statehood) .
• Idaho (U.S. state)

1899

• Australian colony of Western Australia

20th century

1900s

1901

• South Australia (Australian state) (were allowed to vote in Australia's first federal election)
• Western Australia (Australian state) (were allowed to vote in Australia's first federal election)

1902

• Australia (The Australian Constitution gives the federal franchise to all persons allowed to vote for the lower house in each state unless the Commonwealth Parliament stipulates otherwise. South Australian and Western Australian women had been able vote in the first federal election in 1901. During the first Parliament, the Commonwealth passes legislation extending federal franchise to non-Aboriginal women in all states. Aboriginal women have the vote in South Australia in 1901. The Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902 withdraws any such Aboriginal voting rights for federal elections, providing that, "No aboriginal native of Australia ... shall be entitled to have his name placed on an Electoral Roll unless so entitled under section forty-one of the Constitution)
• New South Wales (Australian state) (White women only)

1903

• Tasmania (Australian state) (limited to White women only)
• Australia (The first independent country to hold national elections where women were given the vote nationwide, was Australia in that country's second federal election)

1905

• Latvia

1905

• Queensland (Australian state) (limited to non-indigenous women)

First Female Parliamentarians in the world were elected in Finland in 1907.

1906

• Grand Duchy of Finland (Russian Empire) (first in Europe to grant women suffrage)
• New Hebrides: Perhaps inspired by the Franceville experiment, the Anglo-French Condominium of the New Hebrides grants women the right to vote in municipal elections and to serve on elected municipal councils. (Limited to British, French, and other colonists, and excluding indigenous women.)

The argument over women's rights in Victoria was lampooned in this Melbourne Punch cartoon of 1887

1908

• Denmark (limited to local elections)
• Victoria (Australian state) ( limited to White women only)

1910s

1910

• Washington (U.S. state)

1911

• California (U.S. state)
• Argentina (a doctor, Julieta Lanteri, sued and won the right to vote)

1912

• Oregon (U.S. state)
• Kansas (U.S. state)
• Arizona (U.S. state)

1913

• Alaska (U.S. state)
• Norway

1914

• Montana (U.S. state)
• Nevada (U.S. state)

1915

This map appeared in the magazine Puck during the Empire State Campaign, a hard-fought referendum on a suffrage amendment to the New York State constitution; the referendum failed in 1915.

• Denmark (full voting rights)
• Iceland

1916

• Manitoba (Canadian province)
• Saskatchewan (Canadian province)
• Alberta (Canadian province)

1917

• New York (U.S. State)
• Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
• Armenia
• Belarusian People's Republic
• Estonia
• Latvia (as an independent country)
• Lithuania
• British Columbia (Canadian province)
• Ontario (Canadian province)
• Canada (limited to war widows, women serving overseas, and women with family serving overseas)
• Russian Republic
• Ukrainian People's Republic
• Uruguay (per Constitution)

1918

• Michigan (U.S. state)
• South Dakota (U.S. state)
• Oklahoma (U.S. state)
• Austria
• Canada (limited to women over 21, and "not alien-born", and meeting provincially-determined property qualifications)
• Nova Scotia (Canadian province)
• Germany
• Moldavian SSR (Soviet Republic)
• Second Polish Republic
• Russian SFSR (Soviet Republic)
• Kyrgyz SSR (Soviet Republic)
• United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (limited to 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). (See Representation of the People Act 1918)

1919

• Belgium (limited to voting at municipal level)
• Georgia
• Hungary (full suffrage granted in 1945)
• Luxembourg
• Netherlands (right to stand in election granted in 1917)
• New Zealand (women have the right to stand for election into parliament)
• New Brunswick (Canadian province) (limited to voting. Women are given the right to stand for office in 1934)
• Minnesota (U.S. state)
• Southern Rhodesia (British Crown Colony) (women now allowed to vote and stand for election into parliament)

1920s

1920

• Albania
• Czechoslovakia
• United States (all remaining states by amendment to federal Constitution)

1921

• Sweden
• Azerbaijan SSR (Soviet Republic)

1922

• Irish Free State (equal suffrage granted upon independence from UK. Partial suffrage granted as part of UK in 1869 and 1918)
• Prince Edward Island (Canadian province
• Yucatán (Mexican state) (limited to regional and congressional elections)

1924

• Ecuador (a doctor, Matilde Hidalgo de Prócel, sues and wins the right to vote)
• Spain (limited to single women and widows in local elections. First women mayors)
• Mongolia (no electoral system in place prior to this year)
• Saint Lucia
• Kazakh SSR (Soviet Republic)
• Tajik SSR (Soviet Republic)

1925

• Italy (limited to local elections)
• Dominion of Newfoundland (limited to women 25 and older; men can vote at age 21)

1927

• Turkmen SSR (Soviet Republic)
• Uruguay (women's suffrage is broadcast for the first time in 1927, in the plebiscite of Cerro Chato)

1928

• United Kingdom (franchise made equal to that for men by the Representation of the People Act 1928)

1929

• Romania (limited to local elections only, with restrictions)
• Puerto Rico (women given the right to vote)
• Ecuador (the right of women to vote is written into the Constitution)

1930s

1930

• South Africa (Women's Enfranchisement Act, 1930: limited to white women on the same basis as white men.
• Turkey (limited to municipal elections).

1931

• Ceylon
• Chile (limited to municipal level for female owners of real estate under Legislative Decree No. 320)
• Portugal (with restrictions following level of education)
• Spain (universal suffrage)

1932

• Brazil
• Maldives
• Thailand

1934

• Chile (limited to municipal level under Law No. 5,357)
• Cuba
• Portugal (suffrage is expanded)
• Tabasco (Mexican state) (limited to regional and congress elections only)
• Turkey (parliamentary elections).

1935

• British Raj
• Burma (women are granted the right to vote)

1937

• Dutch East Indies (for European women only)
• Philippines

1938

• Bolivia
• Bulgaria (limited to mothers only)
• Uzbek SSR (Soviet Republic)

1939

• El Salvador
• Romania (women are granted suffrage on equal terms with men with restrictions on both men and women; in practice the restrictions affected women more than men)

1940s

1940

• Quebec (Canadian province)

1941

• Dutch East Indies (limited to European women only)
• Panama (with restrictions)

1942

• Dominican Republic

1944

• Bermuda (limited to property-holding women)
• Bulgaria
• Jamaica

1945

• France
• Dutch East Indies
• Italy
• Japan
• Senegal
• French Togoland
• Yugoslavia

1946

• Cameroon
• French Somaliland
• Guatemala
• Kenya
• North Korea
• Liberia (Americo women only; indigenous men and women were not enfranchised until 1951)
• Mandatory Palestine
• Portugal (expands suffrage)
• Romania
• Venezuela
• Vietnam

1947

• Argentina
• Republic of China (includes Taiwan: with restrictions)
• Malta
• Mexico (limited to municipal level)
• Nepal
• Pakistan
• Singapore

1948

• United Nations adopted The Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 21
• Belgium
• Israel
• South Korea
• Niger
• Dutch Surinam

1949

• Chile (right expanded to all elections on January 8 by Law No. 9,292)
• Netherlands Antilles
• People's Republic of China
• Costa Rica
• Syria

1950s

1950

• Barbados
• Haiti
• India

1951

• Antigua and Barbuda
• Dominica
• Grenada
• Nepal
• Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla
• Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

1952

• United Nations enacts Convention on the Political Rights of Women
• Bolivia
• Côte d'Ivoire
• Greece
• Lebanon (An educational requirement)

1953

• Bhutan
• British Guiana
• Mexico (all women and for national elections)

1954

• British Honduras
• Gold Coast

1955

• Cambodia
• Ethiopia
• Honduras
• Nicaragua
• Peru

1956

• Dahomey
• Comoros
• Egypt
• Gabon
• Mali
• Mauritius
• Pakistan (national level; previously only literate women could vote).
• British Somaliland

1957

• Colombia (by Constitution)
• Malaya
• Southern Rhodesia
• Lebanon (nationwide)

1958

• Upper Volta
• Chad
• Guinea
• Laos
• Nigeria (South)

1959

• Brunei
• Vaud (Swiss canton)
• Neuchâtel (Swiss canton)
• Madagascar
• San Marino
• Tanganyika
• Tunisia

1960s

1960

• Cyprus
• Gambia
• Geneva (Swiss canton)
• Tonga

1961

• Burundi
• Mauritania
• Malawi
• Paraguay
• Rwanda
• Sierra Leone

1962

• Algeria
• Australia (universal suffrage Australian Aboriginals men and women)
• Brunei (revoked) (including men)
• Monaco
• Uganda
• Northern Rhodesia

1963

• Congo
• Equatorial Guinea
• Fiji
• Iran (after a referendum)
• Kenya
• Morocco

1964

• Bahamas
• Libya
• Papua New Guinea (Territory of Papua and Territory of New Guinea)
• Sudan

1965

• Afghanistan
• Botswana
• Lesotho

1966

• Basel-Stadt (Swiss canton)

1967

• Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Ecuador (women's vote made obligatory, like that of men's)
• Kiribati
• Tuvalu
• South Yemen

1968

• Basel-Landschaft (Swiss canton)
• Bermuda (universal)
• Nauru
• Portugal (few electoral rights were reserved for men)

1970s

1970

• Andorra
• North Yemen

1971

• Switzerland (federal leval)

1972

• Bangladesh (suffrage granted upon its establishment)

1973

• Bahrain (Bahrain did not hold elections until 2002)

1974

• Jordan
• Solomon Islands

1975

• Angola
• Cape Verde
• Mozambique
• São Tomé and Príncipe
• Vanuatu

1976

• Indonesia Province of East Timor
• Portugal (all restrictions were lifted by Carnation Revolution)

1977

• Guinea-Bissau

1978

• Marshall Islands
• Federated States of Micronesia
• Nigeria (North)
• Palau

1980s

1980

• Iraq

1984

• Liechtenstein

1985

• Kuwait (first time)

1986

• Central African Republic

1989

• Namibia

1990s

1990

• Western Samoa
• Appenzell Innerrhoden (Swiss Canton) was forced to accepet women's suffrage by the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland

1996

• Afghanistan (revoked by Taliban)

1999

• Qatar
• Kuwait (revoked)

21st century

2000s

2001

• Afghanistan (re-granted after the fall of Taliban)

2003

• Oman

2005

• Kuwait (re-granted)

2006

• United Arab Emirates (UAE) (limited suffrage for both men and women).

2010s

2015

• Saudi Arabia (introduced along with right to run for municipal elections)

Note: in some countries both men and women have limited suffrage. For example, in Brunei, which is a sultanate, there are no national elections, and voting exists only on local issues. In the United Arab Emirates the rulers of the seven emirates each select a proportion of voters for the Federal National Council (FNC) that together account for about 12% of Emirati citizens.

See also

• Timeline of first women's suffrage in majority-Muslim countries
• Timeline of women's suffrage in the United States
• Timeline of women's rights (other than voting)
• List of the first female holders of political office in Europe
• List of suffragists and suffragettes
• List of women's rights activists
• Women's suffrage organizations

References

• http://www.hist.uu.se/historikermote05/program/Politik/52_Karlsson_Sjogren.pdf

External links

• Google Spreadsheet with map—above timeline data has been tabulated and can be viewed on a world map for any given year.