Votes for Women

2 Jul 1776 – 31 Dec 201550 items

rightswomen
The Woman Suffrage Procession sets off near the Capitol, Washington, 3 March 1913. Photo: U.S. Information Agency records, U.S. National Archives. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
The Woman Suffrage Procession sets off near the Capitol, Washington, 3 March 1913. Photo: U.S. Information Agency records, U.S. National Archives. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Country by country, 1776 to 2015

In 1893 New Zealand became the first self-governing country where women voted in national elections. In 2015 Saudi Arabian women voted for the first time, in municipal elections. Between the two, women won the vote in almost every country on Earth, sometimes after decades of petitions and marches, sometimes in the same breath as independence or revolution.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal. — Declaration of Sentiments, Seneca Falls, 1848

How to read it

  • Laws are placed at the parliament, palace or city where they passed, so the map fills in from Wellington to Madrakah in Saudi Arabia.

  • Campaigns are bands: Kate Sheppard’s petitions, the WSPU’s militant years, the National Woman’s Party pickets and the wave of laws around the First World War.

  • Iran’s 1963 decree is dated in the Solar Hijri calendar Iran uses, 8 Esfand 1341.

Threads

  • law: the acts, decrees and rulings themselves

  • protest: petitions, marches, pickets and prison

  • elections: first votes cast and first women elected

  • exclusions: who a law left out, by race, property, age or literacy, and when they got in

Who was first?

It depends what you count. Corsica’s 1755 constitution may have let women heads of household vote; Pitcairn’s islanders did from 1838; unmarried women and widows who owned property on the Isle of Man from 1881. New Zealand (1893) was the first self-governing country with women voting nationally, South Australia (1894) the first place where they could also stand, and Finland (1906) the first in Europe. The notes say which sense each claim is true in; the IPU’s world chronology has the rest, country by country.

Items

  1. New Jersey’s propertied women vote

    ≈ 31 years, 4 months · New Jersey State House, Trenton

  2. ≈ 31 years

  3. Pitcairn’s islanders elect a magistrate, women included

    Adamstown, Pitcairn Island

  4. Seneca Falls Convention

    1 day · Wesleyan Chapel, Seneca Falls

  5. ≈ 21 years, 4 months

  6. Wyoming Territory gives women the vote

    Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory

  7. Susan B. Anthony votes and is arrested

    Rochester, New York

  8. National American Woman Suffrage Association

    ≈ 30 years

  9. Kate Sheppard’s petitions

    ≈ 2 years, 2 months

  10. The 1893 petition is unrolled in Parliament

    Parliament grounds, Wellington

  11. New Zealand’s Electoral Act becomes law

    Parliament grounds, Wellington

  12. South Australia: the vote and the right to stand

    Parliament House, North Terrace, Adelaide

  13. Australia’s Commonwealth Franchise Act

    Parliament House, Spring Street, Melbourne

  14. The WSPU’s militant campaign

    ≈ 10 years, 10 months · 62 Nelson Street, Manchester

  15. Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenney arrested

    Free Trade Hall, Manchester

  16. Finland: votes and seats for women

    House of the Estates, Helsinki

  17. Black Friday

    Parliament Square, London

  18. Woman Suffrage Procession, Washington

    Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington

  19. Emily Wilding Davison at the Derby

    Tattenham Corner, Epsom Downs

  20. Norway: votes for all women

    Storting, Kristiania (Oslo)

  21. The First World War wave

    ≈ 5 years

  22. The Silent Sentinels

    ≈ 2 years, 4 months · White House gates, Washington

  23. Russia’s Provisional Government enfranchises women

    Petrograd

  24. Night of Terror at Occoquan

    Occoquan Workhouse, Lorton, Virginia

  25. Britain: Representation of the People Act

    Palace of Westminster, London

  26. Canada: women vote federally

    Victoria Memorial Museum, Ottawa

  27. Germany: the Council of People’s Deputies proclaims equal suffrage

    Reich Chancellery, Wilhelmstraße, Berlin

  28. Constance Markievicz elected to Westminster

    St Patrick’s division, Dublin

  29. Tennessee ratifies the 19th Amendment

    Tennessee State Capitol, Nashville

  30. Britain: the Equal Franchise Act

    Palace of Westminster, London

  31. Ecuador: first in South America

    Quito

  32. South Africa: the vote for white women

    Houses of Parliament, Cape Town

  33. Ceylon: one adult, one vote

    Legislative Council building, Galle Face, Colombo

  34. Spain: Clara Campoamor wins the vote

    Congreso de los Diputados, Madrid

  35. Brazil’s Electoral Code

    Palácio do Catete, Rio de Janeiro

  36. Turkey: women in the Grand National Assembly

    Grand National Assembly, Ulus, Ankara

  37. Philippine women vote themselves the vote

    Legislative Building, Manila

  38. France: the ordinance of Algiers

    Algiers

  39. Japan: women vote and 39 are elected

    National Diet Building, Tokyo

  40. Argentina: Law 13,010

    Plaza de Mayo, Buenos Aires

  41. India: universal suffrage from the first day

    Central Hall, Parliament House, New Delhi

  42. Doria Shafik storms Egypt’s Parliament

    Parliament, Cairo

  43. Mexico: women vote federally

    Centro Histórico, Mexico City

  44. Egypt’s new constitution

    Parliament, Cairo

  45. Aboriginal Australians win the federal vote

    Old Parliament House, Canberra

  46. Iran: the Shah decrees votes for women

    Tehran

  47. The Voting Rights Act

    United States Capitol, Washington

  48. Switzerland’s men vote yes

    Federal Palace, Bern

  49. ≈ 19 years, 9 months

  50. Appenzell Innerrhoden is made to let women vote

    Federal Supreme Court, Mon-Repos, Lausanne

  51. South Africa’s first election for all

    Ohlange High School, Inanda

  52. Kuwait’s National Assembly votes for women

    National Assembly, Kuwait City

  53. Saudi women vote in municipal elections

    Madrakah, Mecca Province