View source for Women's suffrage

{{Short description|Legal right of women to vote}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2020}}

{{very long|date=September 2025}}

{{Women in society sidebar|expanded=Society}}
{{Feminism sidebar|expanded=History}}

'''Women's suffrage''' is the [[women's rights|right of women]] to [[Suffrage|vote in elections]]. Historically, women rarely had the right to vote, even in ostensibly democratic systems of government.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Teele |first=Dawn Langan |date=2025 |title=Women's Suffrage: Causes and Consequences |journal=Annual Review of Political Science |language=en |volume=28 |pages=477–497 |doi=10.1146/annurev-polisci-033123-125642 |issn=1094-2939|doi-access=free }}</ref> This shifted in the late 19th century when women's suffrage was accomplished in Australasia, then Europe, and then the Americas.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Ramirez |first1=Francisco O. |last2=Soysal |first2=Yasemin |last3=Shanahan |first3=Suzanne |date=1997 |title=The Changing Logic of Political Citizenship: Cross-National Acquisition of Women's Suffrage Rights, 1890 to 1990 |url=http://www.vanneman.umd.edu/socy699F/RamirezSS97.pdf |journal=American Sociological Review |volume=62 |issue=5 |pages=735 |doi=10.2307/2657357 |jstor=2657357 |issn=0003-1224 }}</ref><ref name=":2" /> By the middle of the 20th century, women's suffrage had been established as a [[Social norm|norm]] of democratic governance.<ref name=":2" /> Extended political campaigns by women and their male supporters played an important role in changing public attitude, altering norms, and achieving legislation or constitutional amendments for women's suffrage.<ref name=":2" /> 

The first wave of women's suffrage took place 1893–1930, covering English-speaking countries, Scandinavian states, and some other parts of Europe.<ref name=":2" /> The experience of the First World War has been characterized as an important factor in shifting public support for women's suffrage.<ref>{{cite book |author=Hume, Leslie |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K1TlCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT281 |title=The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies 1897–1914 |publisher=Routledge |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-317-21326-0 |page=281}}</ref> The second wave, 1930-1970, covered nearly all Latin-American countries, much of Sub-Saharan Africa and some European laggards (France, Spain, Belgium).<ref name=":2" />

[[Pitcairn Islands|Pitcairn Island]] allowed women to vote for its councils in 1838.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=World suffrage timeline |url=https://nzhistory.govt.nz/politics/womens-suffrage/world-suffrage-timeline |access-date=2025-03-08 |website=nzhistory.govt.nz}}</ref> Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffrage was in effect during the [[Age of Liberty]] (1718–1772), as well as in [[American Revolution|Revolutionary]] and early-independence [[Women's suffrage in New Jersey|New Jersey]] (1776–1807) in the US.<ref name="Karlsson Sjögren">Karlsson Sjögren, Åsa, ''Männen, kvinnorna och rösträtten: medborgarskap och representation 1723–1866'' [Men, women, and suffrage: citizenship and representation 1723–1866], Carlsson, Stockholm, 2006 (in Swedish).</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=How Did the Vote Expand? New Jersey's Revolutionary Decade |url=https://www.amrevmuseum.org/virtualexhibits/when-women-lost-the-vote-a-revolutionary-story/pages/how-did-the-vote-expand-new-jersey-s-revolutionary-decade |access-date=2024-08-16 |website=www.amrevmuseum.org}}</ref> The [[Kingdom of Hawai'i]], which originally had universal suffrage in 1840, rescinded this in 1852 and was subsequently annexed by the United States in 1898. In the years after 1869, a number of provinces held by the [[British Empire|British]] and [[Russian Empire|Russian empires]] conferred women's suffrage, and some of these became sovereign nations at a later point, like New Zealand, Australia, and [[Grand Duchy of Finland|Finland]]. Several states and territories of the United States, such as Wyoming (1869) and Utah (1870), also granted women the right to vote. Women who owned property gained the right to vote in the [[Isle of Man]] in 1881, and in 1893, women in the then self-governing<ref>{{cite web|url=https://nzhistory.govt.nz/politics/womens-suffrage#:~:text=As%20a%20result%20of%20this,to%20vote%20in%20parliamentary%20elections|title = New Zealand women and the vote – Women and the vote &#124; NZHistory, New Zealand history online}}</ref> British [[colony of New Zealand]] were granted the right to vote. In Australia, the colony of [[South Australia]] granted women the right to vote and stand for parliament in 1895<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Constitution (Female Suffrage) Act 1895 (SA) |url=https://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/item-sdid-44.html |access-date=26 August 2024 |website=Documenting a Democracy, Museum of Australian Democracy |postscript=. Note: The South Australian Parliament passed the legislation in December 1894 but the Act did not gain royal assent and become law until February 1895.}}</ref><ref name="FennaRobbins2013">{{cite book |last1=Fenna |first1=Alan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tDDiBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA312 |title=Government Politics in Australia |last2=Robbins |first2=Jane |last3=Summers |first3=John |year=2013 |publisher=Pearson Higher Education AU |isbn=978-1-4860-0138-5 |pages=312–}}</ref> while the [[Parliament of Australia|Australian Federal Parliament]] conferred the right to vote and stand for election in 1902 (although it allowed for the exclusion of "aboriginal natives").<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20101203020826/http://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/item.asp?dID=8 Documenting Democracy: Constitution (Female Suffrage) Act 1895 (SA)]; National Archives of Australia.</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Australia and New Zealand|last=Christine |first=Lindop |date=2008 |publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-423390-3 |location=Oxford |page=27|oclc=361237847}}</ref> Prior to independence, in the Russian [[Grand Duchy of Finland]], women gained equal suffrage, with both the right to vote and to stand as candidates in 1906.<ref name="eduskunta.fi">[https://web.archive.org/web/20170611161116/https://www.eduskunta.fi/EN/tietoaeduskunnasta/historia/Pages/default.aspx Brief history of the Finnish Parliament]. eduskunta.fi.</ref><ref name="web.archive.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.aanioikeus.fi/en/articles/strike.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720175612/http://www.aanioikeus.fi/en/articles/strike.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 20, 2011|title=Centenary of women's full political rights in Finland|date=July 20, 2011}}</ref><ref name="finland.fi_pioneer">{{cite web|last=Korpela |first=Salla |url=https://finland.fi/life-society/finlands-parliament-pioneer-of-gender-equality/ |title=Finland's parliament: pioneer of gender equality |publisher=Finland.fi |date=2018-12-31 |access-date=2021-10-07}}</ref> National and international organizations formed to coordinate efforts towards women voting, especially the [[International Alliance of Women|International Woman Suffrage Alliance]] (founded in 1904 in [[Berlin]], Germany).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sneider |first1=Allison |year=2010 |title=The New Suffrage History: Voting Rights in International Perspective |journal=History Compass |volume=8 |issue=7 |pages=692–703 |doi=10.1111/j.1478-0542.2010.00689.x |issn=1478-0542}}</ref>

Most major Western powers extended voting rights to women by the interwar period, including Canada (1917), Germany (1918), the United Kingdom ([[Representation of the People Act 1918|1918]] for women over 30 who met certain property requirements, [[Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928|1928]] for all women), [[Austria]], the [[Netherlands]] (1919) and the United States (1920).<ref>{{Cite web |last=Temkin |first=Moshik |date=2024-01-22 |title=Essential Elements for Turning a Cause into a Movement : Lessons from the Suffrage Struggle for Today's Activists |url=https://commonslibrary.org/essential-elements-for-turning-a-cause-into-a-movement-lessons-from-the-suffrage-struggle/ |access-date=2024-02-24 |website=The Commons Social Change Library |language=en-AU}}</ref> Notable exceptions in Europe were France, where women could not vote until 1944, [[Greece]] (equal voting rights for women did not exist there until 1952, although, since 1930, literate women were able to vote in local elections), and [[Switzerland]] (where, since 1971, women could vote at the federal level, and between 1959 and 1990, women got the right to vote at the local canton level). 

In many countries, limited suffrage for women was granted before [[universal suffrage]] for men; for instance, literate women or property owners 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 189 countries currently being parties to this convention. 

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==History==
[[File:Women_suffrage_world_decade.svg|thumb|400x400px|Women's suffrage globally by decade of approval.{{Legend|#FFE6D5|Before 1911}}{{Legend|#FFCCAA|1911–1920}}{{Legend|#FFB380|1921–1930}}{{Legend|#FF9955|1931–1940}}{{Legend|#FF7F2A|1941–1950}}{{Legend|#FF6600|1951–1960}}{{Legend|#D45500|1961–1970}}{{Legend|#AA4400|1971–1980}}{{Legend|#803300|After 1980}}{{Legend|#241C1C|No elections}}]]
{{For timeline|Timeline of women's suffrage}}
[[File:AnnaIIStolQued.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Anna II, Abbess of Quedlinburg]]. In the pre-modern era in some parts of Europe, [[abbess]]es were permitted to participate and vote in various European national assemblies by virtue of their rank within the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches.]]

===Before the 19th century===
In ancient [[Athenian democracy|Athens]], often cited as the birthplace of democracy, only adult male citizens who owned land were permitted to vote.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}} Through subsequent centuries, Europe was ruled by monarchs, though various forms of parliament arose at different times. The high rank ascribed to [[abbess]]es within the [[Catholic Church]] permitted some women the right to sit and vote at national assemblies – as with various high-ranking abbesses in Medieval Germany, who were ranked among the independent princes of the empire. Their Protestant successors enjoyed the same privilege almost into modern times.<ref name="Abbess">{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://oce.catholic.com/index.php?title=Abbess |title=Abbess |encyclopedia=Original Catholic Encyclopedia |date=July 2, 2010|access-date=December 26, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120114130058/http://oce.catholic.com/index.php?title=Abbess |archive-date=January 14, 2012 }}</ref>

[[Marie Guyart]], a French nun who worked with the [[First Nations in Canada|First Nations]] people of Canada during the 17th century, wrote in 1654 regarding the suffrage practices of [[Iroquois]] women: "These female chieftains are women of standing amongst the savages, and they have a deciding vote in the councils. They make decisions there like their male counterparts, and it is they who even delegated as first ambassadors to discuss peace."<ref>''Women Mystics Confront the Modern World'' (Marie-Florine Bruneau: State University of New York: 1998: p. 106).</ref> The Iroquois, like many First Nations in North America,{{citation needed|date=January 2021|reason=The only other First Nation example I could find was the Haida people}} had a [[matrilineal]] [[kinship system]]. Property and descent were passed through the female line. Women elders voted on hereditary male chiefs and could depose them.

[[File:Catherine Helen Spence.jpg|thumb|[[South Australia]]n suffragist [[Catherine Helen Spence]] stood for office in 1897. In a first for the modern world, South Australia granted women the right to stand for Parliament in 1895.<ref name=SA1895>{{cite web |url=https://www.parliament.sa.gov.au/education/teachers/Documents/Women's%20Petition%20Photograph.pdf |title=Women's Suffrage Petition 1894 |publisher=parliament.sa.gov.au |access-date=January 8, 2016 |archive-date=March 29, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110329160732/http://www.parliament.sa.gov.au/education/teachers/Documents/Women%27s%20Petition%20Photograph.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>|330x330px]]
[[File:Marie Stritt.jpg|thumb|[[Marie Stritt]] (1855–1928), German suffragist, co-founder of the [[International Alliance of Women]]|330x330px]]

The first independent country to introduce women's suffrage was arguably Sweden. In Sweden, conditional women's suffrage was in effect during the [[Age of Liberty]] (1718–1772).<ref name="Karlsson Sjögren"/>

In 1756, [[Lydia Taft]] became the first legal woman voter in colonial America. This occurred under [[British North America|British rule]] in the [[Province of Massachusetts Bay|Massachusetts Colony]].<ref name="address">{{cite book |last=Chapin |first=Judge Henry |title=Address Delivered at the Unitarian Church in Uxbridge; 1864 |page=[https://archive.org/details/addressdelivere00socigoog/page/n19 172] |year=1881|publisher=Worcester, Press of C. Hamilton |location=Worcester, Mass.|url=https://archive.org/details/addressdelivere00socigoog}}</ref> In a [[New England]] [[town meeting]] in [[Uxbridge, Massachusetts|Uxbridge]], Massachusetts, she voted on at least three occasions.<ref name="blacks">{{cite web|title=Uxbridge Breaks Tradition and Makes History: Lydia Taft by Carol Masiello|publisher=The Blackstone Daily|url=http://blackstonedaily.com/Journeys/cm-lt.htm|access-date=January 21, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110812130808/http://blackstonedaily.com/Journeys/cm-lt.htm|archive-date=August 12, 2011}}</ref> Unmarried white women who owned property could vote in [[New Jersey]] from 1776 to 1807.<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/local/history/new-jersey-women-vote-1776-suffrage/ "More than a century before the 19th Amendment, women were voting in New Jersey"]. ''Washington Post''.</ref>

In the 1792 elections in [[Sierra Leone]], then a new British colony, all heads of household could vote and one-third were ethnic African women.<ref>[[Simon Schama|Schama, Simon]], ''[[Rough Crossings]]'' (2006), p. 431.</ref>

== Before the 20th century ==

In ancient Athens, often cited as the birthplace of democracy, only adult male citizens who owned land were permitted to vote.{{citation needed|date=November 2025}} Through subsequent centuries, Europe was ruled by monarchs, though various forms of parliament arose at different times. The high rank ascribed to abbesses within the Catholic Church permitted some women the right to sit and vote at national assemblies – as with various high-ranking abbesses in Medieval Germany, who were ranked among the independent princes of the empire. Their Protestant successors enjoyed the same privilege almost into modern times.<ref name="Karl von Amira">Amira, Karl von (1913). ''Grundriss des germanischen Rechts''. Grundriss der germanischen Philologie 5 (3rd ed.). Strassburg: Karl J. Trübner. p. 180.</ref>

[[Marie Guyart]], a French nun who worked with the [[First Nations in Canada|First Nations]] people of Canada during the 17th century, wrote in 1654 regarding the suffrage practices of [[Iroquois]] women: "These female chieftains are women of standing amongst the savages, and they have a deciding vote in the councils. They make decisions there like their male counterparts, and it is they who even delegated as first ambassadors to discuss peace."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Greer |first1=Allan |title=The Jesuit Relations: Natives and Missionaries in Seventeenth-Century North America |publisher=Bedford/St.Martin's |year=2000 |isbn=0-312-16707-5 |page=18 |url=https://archive.org/details/jesuitrelationsn0000unse |url-access=registration}}</ref> The Iroquois, like many First Nations in North America,{{citation needed|date=November 2025}} had a [[matrilineal kinship system]]. Property and descent were passed through the female line. Women elders voted on hereditary male chiefs and could depose them.

The first independent country to introduce women's suffrage was arguably Sweden. In Sweden, conditional women's suffrage was in effect during the [[Age of Liberty (Sweden)|Age of Liberty]] (1718–1772).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Chapman |first1=Tim |title=The Congress of Vienna: Origins, Processes, and Results |publisher=Routledge |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-415-17993-5 |page=28}}</ref>

In 1756, [[Lydia Taft]] became the first legal woman voter in colonial America. This occurred under British rule in the [[Massachusetts Colony]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Karabell |first1=Zachary |title=Chester Alan Arthur |publisher=Macmillan |year=2004 |isbn=0-8050-6951-8 |page=45 |url=https://archive.org/details/chesteralanarthu00kara/page/45 }}</ref> In a [[New England town meeting]] in [[Uxbridge, Massachusetts]], she voted on at least three occasions.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Chapin |first1=Judge Henry |last2=Walton |first2=J. J. |title=Address Delivered by Hon. Henry H. Childs |publisher=W.D. Earles |year=1859 |page=172}}</ref> Unmarried white women who owned property could vote in [[New Jersey]] from 1776 to 1807.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Klinghoffer |first1=Judith Apter |last2=Lois |first2=Elkis |title="'The Petticoat Electors': Women's Suffrage in New Jersey, 1776–1807" |publisher=Journal of the Early Republic 12, no. 2 |year=1992 |pages=159–193}}</ref>

In the 1792 elections in [[Sierra Leone]], then a new British colony, all heads of household could vote and one-third were ethnic African women.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Schama |first1=Simon |title=Rough Crossings |publisher=Harper Collins |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-06-053916-0 |page=431}}</ref>

Before the 20th century, some countries granted women the right to vote partially or temporarily:
* in [[Rome]], in 1591, during the short pontificate of Pope [[Innocent IX]] (November–December 1591), men and women over 14 years old had the right to vote;
* in [[Sweden]], between 1718 and 1771, major single or widowed women (married women are excluded), owners, subject to tax and members of guilds are authorized to participate in local and national elections. These rights are annulled in 1758 for local elections and in 1772 for national elections. The right to vote in municipal elections is again granted to major single women, taxable and owners between 1862 and 1919;
* the [[Republic of Corsica]] in 1755, and until its fall in 1769, implicitly grants the right to vote to single or widowed women (the electoral majority being set at 25 years);
* in [[France]], under the [[Ancien Régime]], women legally declared heads of family (widows, single women, or in cases of the husband's absence) had the right to vote in municipal assemblies until 1789. From 1302 until 1789, noble women who owned fiefs and mother abbesses were summoned to the [[Estates General (France)|Estates General]] to elect their representatives. In the elections to the Estates General of 1789, members of religious communities were admitted to vote, as well as, for the [[Third Estate]], heads of agricultural or business operations, and in the cities, members of trade bodies and communities. Women were then explicitly excluded from the electorate starting from the elections to the [[Legislative Assembly (France)|Legislative Assembly]] of 1791 and until 1945.

Territorial entities, subnational, non-state or not recognized, also preceded many countries:
* the State of [[New Jersey]] ([[United States]]) from 1776 to 1807 under the condition, as for men, of being themselves owners;
* [[Lower Canada]] (British colonial province corresponding partially to current [[Quebec]] and [[Labrador]]), from 1791 and under the condition, as for men, of being themselves owners, restricted in 1834 and finally withdrawn after the [[Rebellions of 1837–1838]], in 1849;
* the [[Pitcairn Islands]] ([[United Kingdom]] dependency) in 1838;
* the Mormon State of [[State of Deseret|Deseret]] (1847) (became [[Utah]] in 1850);
* the province of [[Vélez Province|Vélez]] ([[Colombia]]) from 1853 to its integration into the federal State of Santander in 1857;
* the territory of [[Wyoming]] (United States) in 1869 with right to eligibility. A few months later in 1870, a woman is elected justice of the peace in [[Laramie, Wyoming|Laramie]], the same year in the same city another is elected court bailiff (Court Bailiff);
* the territory of [[Utah]] (United States) in 1870. A federal Congress act will suppress it in 1887;
* the [[Isle of Man]] (United Kingdom dependency) in 1881;
* the territory of [[Washington Territory|Washington]] in 1883, suppressed by the federal [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] in 1887;
* Wyoming as a state in 1890;
* [[Colorado]] (United States) in 1893;
* the [[Cook Islands]] (British protectorate) in 1893;
* [[South Australia]] (autonomous British colony) from 1894. In 1895, South Australia becomes one of the first territories in the world to allow women to be candidates in legislative elections;
* Utah (admission to the Union) and [[Idaho]] (United States) in 1896.

Other early instances of women's suffrage include the [[Corsican Republic]] (1755), the Pitcairn Islands (1838), the Isle of Man (1881), and [[Franceville, New Hebrides|Franceville]] (1889–1890), but some of these operated only briefly as independent states and others were not clearly independent.

South Australian suffragist [[Catherine Helen Spence]] stood for office in 1897. In a first for the modern world, South Australia granted women the right to stand for Parliament in 1895.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Oldfield |first1=Audrey |title=Woman Suffrage in Australia: A Gift or a Struggle? |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1992 |isbn=0-521-40880-6 |page=46}}</ref>

===19th century===
The female descendants of the [[Mutiny on the Bounty|''Bounty'' mutineers]] who lived on [[Pitcairn Islands]] could vote from 1838. This right was transferred after they resettled in 1856 to [[Norfolk Island]] (now an Australian external territory).<ref name="elections.org.nz">{{cite web|author=EC |url=http://www.elections.org.nz/votes-women/first-world |title=First in the World |website=Elections.org.nz |publisher=[[New Zealand Electoral Commission]] |date=February 1, 2013|access-date=June 18, 2016}}</ref>

The emergence of modern democracy generally began with male citizens obtaining the right to vote in advance of female citizens, except in the [[Kingdom of Hawai'i]], where universal suffrage was introduced in 1840 without mention of sex; however, a constitutional amendment in 1852 rescinded female voting and put property qualifications on male voting.<ref name="Kauanui 2018 187–189">{{cite book |last=Kauanui |first=J. Kehaulani |date=2018 |title=Paradoxes of Hawaiian Sovereignty: Land, Sex, and the Colonial Politics of State Nationalism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_yRvDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT187 |location=Oxford, North Carolina |publisher=Duke University Press Books  |pages=187–189 |isbn=978-0822370499 }}</ref>

The seed for the first Woman's Rights Convention in the United States in [[Seneca Falls Convention|Seneca Falls]], New York, was planted in 1840, when [[Elizabeth Cady Stanton]] met [[Lucretia Mott]] at the [[World Anti-Slavery Convention]] in London. The conference refused to seat Mott and other women delegates from the U.S. because of their sex. In 1851, Stanton met temperance worker [[Susan B. Anthony]], and shortly the two would be joined in the long struggle to secure the vote for women in the U.S. In 1868 Anthony encouraged working women from the printing and sewing trades in New York, who were excluded from men's trade unions, to form Working Women's Associations. As a delegate to the National Labor Congress in 1868, Anthony persuaded the committee on female labor to call for votes for women and equal pay for equal work. The men at the conference deleted the reference to the vote.<ref>{{cite web|author=web-wizardry.com |url=http://susanbanthonyhouse.org/her-story/biography.php |title=Biography of Susan B. Anthony at |publisher=Susanbanthonyhouse.org |date=March 1, 1906|access-date=September 2, 2011}}</ref> In the US, women in the [[Wyoming Territory]] were permitted to both vote and stand for office in 1869.<ref name="Wyoming">see facsimile at {{Cite web|url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/displayPhoto.pl?path=/pnp/ppmsca/03000/&topImages=03000r.jpg |title=An Act to Grant to the Women of Wyoming Territory the Right of Suffrage and to Hold Office|date=December 10, 1869|access-date=December 9, 2007|publisher=[[Library of Congress]]}}</ref> Subsequent American suffrage groups often disagreed on tactics, with the [[National American Woman Suffrage Association]] arguing for a state-by-state campaign and the [[National Woman's Party]] focusing on an amendment to the U.S. Constitution.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://depts.washington.edu/moves/NWP_project.shtml|title= National Woman's Party: a year-by-year history 1913–1922}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The School of Voters |date=September 15, 1917 |publisher=Vogue |location=New York |page=52 |url=http://www.oldmagazinearticles.com/women-immigrants_and_New-York-State_Suffrage_Amendment_article-pdf}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Adams |first1=Kimberly |title=The campaign finance of women's suffrage |url=https://www.marketplace.org/2019/06/04/the-campaign-finance-of-womens-suffrage/ |website=The Campaign Finance of Women's Suffrage, Marketplace |date=June 4, 2019 |publisher=Marketplace |access-date=10 May 2024}}</ref>

The [[1840 Constitution of the Hawaiian Kingdom|1840 constitution]] of the Kingdom of Hawaii established a House of Representatives, but did not specify who was eligible to participate in the election of it. Some academics have argued that this omission enabled women to vote in the first elections, in which votes were cast by means of signatures on [[petition]]s; but this interpretation remains controversial.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Sai |first1=David Keanu |title=Memorandum—Re: Suffrage of Female Subjects |url=https://www.hawaiiankingdom.org/info-suffrage.shtml |website=HawaiianKingdom.org |publisher=Acting Council of Regency |access-date=14 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171021210546/https://www.hawaiiankingdom.org/info-suffrage.shtml |archive-date=21 October 2017 |location=Honolulu, Hawaii |date=12 March 1998}}</ref> The [[1852 Constitution of the Hawaiian Kingdom|second constitution of 1852]] specified that suffrage was restricted to males over twenty years-old.<ref name="Kauanui 2018 187–189"/>

In 1849, the [[Grand Duchy of Tuscany]], in Italy, was the first European state to have a law that provided for the vote of women, for administrative elections, taking up a tradition that was already informally sometimes present in Italy.

The 1853 Constitution of the province of [[Vélez Province|Vélez]] in the [[Republic of New Granada]], modern day [[Colombia]], allowed for married women, or women older than the age of 21, the right to vote within the province. However, this law was subsequently annulled by the [[Supreme Court of Justice of Colombia|Supreme Court of the Republic]], arguing that the citizens of the province could not have more rights than those already guaranteed to the citizens of the other provinces of the country, thus eliminating female suffrage from this province in 1856.<ref>{{cite web|date=2019|title=Santander: el primer intento del voto femenino en Colombia|url=https://www.radionacional.co/cultura/santander-el-primer-intento-del-voto-femenino-en-colombia|website=Radio Nacional de Colombia|language=Spanish}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Mira|first=Carlos Andrés|title=Primer paso en la lucha por el sufragio femenino en Colombia: historia de un intento de construcción de escenarios de inclusión política|url=https://www.urosario.edu.co/Revista-Nova-Et-Vetera/Vol-2-Ed-18/Omnia/Primer-paso-en-la-lucha-por-el-sufragio-femenino-e/|website=Revista Nova et Vetera de la Universidad del Rosario|language=Spanish|access-date=August 24, 2021|archive-date=August 24, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210824203845/https://www.urosario.edu.co/Revista-Nova-Et-Vetera/Vol-2-Ed-18/Omnia/Primer-paso-en-la-lucha-por-el-sufragio-femenino-e/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=El voto femenino|url=https://www.rtvc.gov.co/elecciones-colombia-2019/el-voto-femenino|website=RTVC Colombia|date=October 23, 2019|language=Spanish}}</ref>

In 1881 the [[Isle of Man]], an internally self-governing dependent territory of the British Crown, enfranchised women property owners. With this it provided the first action for women's suffrage within the [[British Isles]].<ref name="elections.org.nz"/>

The [[Pacific Ocean|Pacific]] commune of [[Franceville, New Hebrides|Franceville]] (now [[Port Vila, Vanuatu]]), maintained independence from 1889 to 1890, becoming the first [[Self-governance|self-governing]] nation to adopt universal suffrage without distinction of sex or color, although only white males were permitted to hold office.<ref>"Wee, Small Republics: A Few Examples of Popular Government", ''[[Hawaiian Gazette]]'', November 1, 1895, p. 1.</ref>

For countries that have their origins in self-governing colonies but later became independent nations in the 20th century, the [[Colony of New Zealand]] was the first to acknowledge women's right to vote in 1893, largely due to a movement led by [[Kate Sheppard]]. The British protectorate of [[Cook Islands]] rendered the same right in 1893 as well.<ref>{{cite web|author=EC |url=http://www.elections.org.nz/study/education-centre/history/votes-for-women.html#1 |title=Elections.org.nz |publisher=Elections.org.nz |date=April 1, 2005|access-date=January 8, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120819080640/http://www.elections.org.nz/study/education-centre/history/votes-for-women.html |archive-date=August 19, 2012 }}</ref> Another British colony, [[South Australia]], followed in 1895, [[Constitutional Amendment (Adult Suffrage) Act 1894|enacting laws]] which not only extended voting to women, but also made women eligible to stand for election to its parliament.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="FennaRobbins2013" />{{Refn|South Australia celebrated the centenary of the female franchise in 1994; that is, 100 years from the date the legislation was passed by parliament rather that from the date it gained royal assent.<ref>{{Cite web |title=South Australian women gain the vote: Overview |url=https://www.parliament.sa.gov.au/en/About-Parliament/Women-in-Politics |access-date=5 September 2024 |website=Parliament South Australia}}.</ref>}}

===20th century===
[[File:French pro women's suffrage poster 1934.jpg|thumb|French pro-suffrage poster, 1934]]
Following the [[Federation of Australia|federation of the British colonies in Australia]] in 1901, the new federal government enacted the [[Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902]] which allowed female [[British subject]]s to vote and stand for election on the same terms as men. However, many [[indigenous Australians]] remained excluded from voting federally until 1962.<ref name="Indigenous Australians">{{cite web|url=https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/indigenous-australians-right-to-vote |title=Indigenous Australians' right to vote |publisher=National Museum of Australia |access-date=November 14, 2023}}</ref>

The first place in Europe to introduce women's suffrage was the [[Grand Duchy of Finland]] in 1906, and it also became the first place in continental Europe to implement racially-equal suffrage for women.<ref name="eduskunta.fi" /><ref name="web.archive.org" /> As a result of the [[1907 Finnish parliamentary election|1907 parliamentary elections]], Finland's voters elected 19 women as the first female members of a representative parliament. This was one of many self-governing actions in the Russian autonomous province that led to conflict with the Russian governor of Finland, ultimately leading to the [[Independence of Finland|creation of the Finnish nation]] in 1917.

In the years before [[World War I]], women in Norway also won the right to vote. During WWI, Denmark, Russia, Germany, and Poland also recognized women's right to vote.

Canada gave right to vote to some women in 1917; women getting vote on same basis as men in 1920, that is, men and women of certain races or status being excluded from voting until 1960, when universal adult suffrage was achieved.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/franchise|title = Right to Vote in Canada &#124; the Canadian Encyclopedia}}</ref>

[[File:1930s Gladys Misick Morrell & Sergt Henderson & table at Cavello Hill, Bermuda.jpg|thumb|right|A [[Bermuda Police Service|Bermuda Police]] [[Police Sergeant|Sergeant]] confiscates women's suffrage activist [[Gladys Morrell]]'s table in the 1930s.]]
The [[Representation of the People Act 1918]] saw British women over 30 gain the vote. Dutch women won the passive vote (allowed to run for parliament) after a revision of the Dutch Constitution in 1917 and the active vote (electing representatives) in 1919, and American women on August 26, 1920, with the passage of the [[Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|19th Amendment]] (the [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]] secured voting rights for racial minorities). Irish women won the same voting rights as men in the [[Irish Free State]] constitution, 1922. In 1928, British women won suffrage on the same terms as men, that is, for ages 21 and older. The suffrage of Turkish women was introduced in 1930 for local elections and in 1934 for national elections.

By the time French women were granted the suffrage in July 1944 by [[Charles de Gaulle]]'s government in exile, by a vote of 51 for, 16 against,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://information.tv5monde.com/terriennes/21-avril-1944-les-francaises-ont-enfin-le-droit-de-voter-3230|title=21 avril 1944 : les Françaises ont (enfin) le droit de voter|date=December 24, 2014|website=tv5monde.com}}</ref> France had been for about a decade the only Western country that did not at least allow women's suffrage at municipal elections.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www2.assemblee-nationale.fr/decouvrir-l-assemblee/histoire/le-suffrage-universel/la-conquete-de-la-citoyennete-politique-des-femmes|title=La conquête de la citoyenneté politique des femmes|author=Assemblée Nationale}}</ref>

Voting rights for women were introduced into [[international law]] by the United Nations' Human Rights Commission, whose elected chair was [[Eleanor Roosevelt]]. In 1948 the United Nations adopted the [[Universal Declaration of Human Rights]]; Article&nbsp;21 stated: "(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives. (3) 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."

The [[United Nations General Assembly]] adopted the [[Convention on the Political Rights of Women]], which went into force in 1954, enshrining the equal rights of women to vote, hold office, and access public services as set out by national laws.

===21st century===
One of the most recent jurisdictions to acknowledge women's full right to vote was [[Bhutan]] in 2008 (its first national elections).<ref>{{cite journal|author=Mian Ridge |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2008/0325/p04s01-wosc.html |title=Bhutan makes it official: it's a democracy.|journal=Christian Science Monitor |date=March 25, 2008 |access-date=September 2, 2011}}</ref> Most recently, King [[Abdullah of Saudi Arabia]], after both national and international condemnation and activism by feminist groups, granted Saudi women the vote and right to run for office for the first time in the [[2015 Saudi Arabian municipal elections|2015 local elections]].<ref name="photographtasneemalsultan,nationalgeographic">{{cite web|url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/12/151212-saudi-arabia-election-women-vote/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151217135730/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/12/151212-saudi-arabia-election-women-vote/|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 17, 2015|title=In a Historic Election, Saudi Women Cast First-Ever Ballots|author=Photograph Tasneem Alsultan, National Geographic}}</ref><ref name="Stewart 2015">{{cite web | last=Stewart | first=Ellen | title=Women win seats in the Saudi election for the first time in history | website=i100 | date=13 December 2015 | url=http://i100.independent.co.uk/article/women-win-seats-in-the-saudi-arabia-election-for-the-first-time-in-history--bylIVXK3ql | access-date=14 December 2015 | archive-date=16 December 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151216004819/http://i100.independent.co.uk/article/women-win-seats-in-the-saudi-arabia-election-for-the-first-time-in-history--bylIVXK3ql | url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Suffrage movements==
[[File:Emmeline Pankhurst adresses crowd.jpg|thumb|After selling her home, British activist [[Emmeline Pankhurst]] travelled constantly, giving speeches throughout Britain and the United States. One of her most famous speeches, ''[[s:Freedom or death|Freedom or death]]'', was delivered in Connecticut in 1913.|330x330px]]

The suffrage movement was a broad one, made up of women and men with a wide range of views. In terms of diversity, the greatest achievement of the 20th-century woman suffrage movement was its extremely broad class base.<ref>Dubois, Dumneil 2012, p. 474.</ref> One major division, especially in Britain, was between suffragists, who sought to create change constitutionally, and [[suffragette]]s, led by English political activist [[Emmeline Pankhurst]], who in 1903 formed the more militant [[Women's Social and Political Union]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newstatesman.com/society/2008/07/emmeline-pankhurst-women-cause |title=Newstatesman.com |publisher=Newstatesman.com |date=July 1, 2008|access-date=January 8, 2011}}</ref> Pankhurst would not be satisfied with anything but action on the question of women's enfranchisement, with "deeds, not words" the organization's motto.<ref>Maroula Joannou, [[June Purvis]] (1998) [https://books.google.com/books?id=8dHBAAAAIAAJ&dq=women%27s+social+and+political+union+emmeline+pankhurst&pg=PA157 The women's suffrage movement: new feminist perspectives]  {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160528200836/https://books.google.com/books?id=8dHBAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA157&dq=women%27s%20social%20and%20political%20union%20emmeline%20pankhurst&hl=en&ei=H9CHTsvJCoPEtAbCyMTgAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAQ |date=May 28, 2016 }}, p. 157. Manchester University Press, 1998.</ref><ref>Van Wingerden, Sophia A. (1999) ''The women's suffrage movement in Britain, 1866–1928''. Palgrave. Ch 1. {{ISBN|9780312218539}}.</ref>

[[Elizabeth Cady Stanton]] and [[Lucretia Mott]] were the first two women in America to organize the women's rights convention in July 1848. [[Susan B. Anthony]] later joined the movement and helped form the [[National Woman Suffrage Association]] (NWSA) in May 1869. Their goal was to change the 15th Amendment because it did not mention nor include women which is why the NWSA protested against it. Around the same time, there was also another group of women who supported the 15th amendment and they called themselves [[American Woman Suffrage Association]] (AWSA). The American Woman Suffrage Association was founded by [[Lucy Stone]], [[Julia Ward Howe]], and [[Thomas Wentworth Higginson]], who were more focused on gaining access at a local level.<ref name="National Archives-2016">{{Cite web |date=2016-08-15 |title=Woman Suffrage and the 19th Amendment |url=https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/woman-suffrage |access-date=2022-03-28 |website=National Archives}}</ref> The two groups united became one and called themselves the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA).<ref name="National Archives-2016"/>

Throughout the world, the [[Women's Christian Temperance Union]] (WCTU), which was established in the United States in 1873, campaigned for women's suffrage, in addition to ameliorating the condition of prostitutes.<ref name="MarionOliver2014">{{cite book |last1=Marion |first1=Nancy E. |last2=Oliver |first2=Willard M. |title=Drugs in American Society: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics, Culture, and the Law |date=2014 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-61069-596-1 |page=963}}</ref><ref name="BlockerFaheyTyrrell2003">{{cite book |last1=Blocker |first1=Jack S. |last2=Fahey |first2=David M. |last3=Tyrrell |first3=Ian R. |title=Alcohol and Temperance in Modern History: An International Encyclopedia |date=2003 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-57607-833-4}}</ref> Under the leadership of [[Frances Willard]], "the WCTU became the largest women's organization of its day and is now the oldest continuing women's organization in the United States."<ref name="Burlingame2004">{{cite book |last1=Burlingame |first1=Dwight |title=Philanthropy in America: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia |date=2004 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-57607-860-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/philanthropyinam00sant/page/511 511]|url=https://archive.org/details/philanthropyinam00sant/page/511 }}</ref>

There was also a diversity of views on a "woman's place". Suffragist themes often included the notions that women were naturally kinder and more concerned about children and the elderly. As Kraditor shows, it was often assumed that women voters would have a civilizing effect on politics, opposing domestic violence, liquor, and emphasizing cleanliness and community. An opposing theme, Kraditor argues, held that women had the same moral standards. They should be equal in every way and that there was no such thing as a woman's "natural role".<ref>Kraditor, Aileen S., ''The Ideas of the Woman Suffrage Movement: 1890–1920'' (1965), ch. 3.</ref><ref>Bolt, Christine, ''The Women's Movements in the United States and Britain from the 1790s to the 1920s'' (2014), pp. 133, 235.</ref>

For Black women in the United States, achieving suffrage was a way to counter the disfranchisement of the men of their race.<ref name="Dubois, Dumneil 2012, p. 475">Dubois, Dumneil 2012, p. 475.</ref> Despite this discouragement, black suffragists continued to insist on their equal political rights. Starting in the 1890s, African American women began to assert their political rights aggressively from within their own clubs and suffrage societies.<ref>{{Cite book|title=African American women in the struggle for the vote, 1850–1920|last=Terborg-Penn|first=Rosalyn|date=1998|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0-253-33378-0|location=Bloomington|oclc=37693895|url=https://archive.org/details/africanamericanw00terb}}</ref> "If white American women, with all their natural and acquired advantages, need the ballot," argued [[Adella Hunt Logan]] of Tuskegee, Alabama, "how much more do black Americans, male and female, need the strong defense of a vote to help secure their right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?"<ref name="Dubois, Dumneil 2012, p. 475"/>

==Explanations for suffrage extensions==
Scholars have proposed different theories for variations in the timing of women's suffrage across countries. These explanations include the activism of social movements, cultural diffusion and normative change, the electoral calculations of political parties, and the occurrence of major wars.<ref name="Przeworski-2009">{{Cite journal |last=Przeworski |first=Adam |date=2009 |title=Conquered or Granted? A History of Suffrage Extensions |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/british-journal-of-political-science/article/abs/conquered-or-granted-a-history-of-suffrage-extensions/A4E9E4C21CA70A0603744957F941A78A |journal=British Journal of Political Science|volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=291–321 |doi=10.1017/S0007123408000434 |issn=1469-2112|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Ramirez |first1=Francisco O. |last2=Soysal |first2=Yasemin |last3=Shanahan |first3=Suzanne |date=1997 |title=The Changing Logic of Political Citizenship: Cross-National Acquisition of Women's Suffrage Rights, 1890 to 1990 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2657357 |journal=American Sociological Review |volume=62 |issue=5 |pages=735–745 |doi=10.2307/2657357 |jstor=2657357 |issn=0003-1224|url-access=subscription }}</ref> According to Adam Przeworski, women's suffrage tends to be extended in the aftermath of major wars.<ref name="Przeworski-2009" />

==Impact==
Scholars have linked women's suffrage to subsequent economic growth,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Dahlum |first1=Sirianne |last2=Knutsen |first2=Carl Henrik |last3=Mechkova |first3=Valeriya |date=2022 |title=Women's political empowerment and economic growth |journal=World Development|volume=156 |article-number=105822 |doi=10.1016/j.worlddev.2022.105822 |s2cid=248333989 |issn=0305-750X|doi-access=free |hdl=10852/101035 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> the rise of the welfare state,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Bolzendahl |first1=C. |last2=Brooks |first2=C. |date=2007 |title=Women's Political Representation and Welfare State Spending in 12 Capitalist Democracies |url=https://academic.oup.com/sf/article-lookup/doi/10.1353/sof.2007.0061 |journal=Social Forces|volume=85 |issue=4 |pages=1509–1534 |doi=10.1353/sof.2007.0061 |s2cid=154600252 |issn=0037-7732|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Abrams |first1=Burton A. |last2=Settle |first2=Russell F. |date=1999 |title=Women's Suffrage and the Growth of the Welfare State |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30026099 |journal=Public Choice |volume=100 |issue=3/4 |pages=289–300 |doi=10.1023/A:1018312829025 |jstor=30026099 |s2cid=153681090 |issn=0048-5829|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Carruthers |first1=Celeste K. |last2=Wanamaker |first2=Marianne H. |date=2015 |title=Municipal Housekeeping: The Impact of Women's Suffrage on Public Education |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/597479 |journal=Journal of Human Resources |volume=50 |issue=4 |pages=837–872 |doi=10.3368/jhr.50.4.837 |s2cid=55592703 |issn=1548-8004|url-access=subscription }}</ref> and less interstate conflict.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Barnhart |first1=Joslyn N. |last2=Trager |first2=Robert F. |last3=Saunders |first3=Elizabeth N. |last4=Dafoe |first4=Allan |date=2020 |title=The Suffragist Peace |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-organization/article/abs/suffragist-peace/3FC70A0BE87859F624E42984BEB0322B |journal=International Organization|volume=74 |issue=4 |pages=633–670 |doi=10.1017/S0020818320000508 |s2cid=221130902 |issn=0020-8183|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

==Timeline==
{{See also|Timeline of women's suffrage}}
{{Collapse top|Grant of female suffrage at national level}}

{{legend|#CCC| National elections suspended or otherwise not taking place.}}

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Country
! Year&nbsp;women&nbsp;first&nbsp;granted&nbsp;suffrage at&nbsp;national&nbsp;level
! Notes
|-
| {{flagicon|Kingdom of Afghanistan}} [[Kingdom of Afghanistan|Afghanistan]]
|1919<ref>{{Cite web |last=amcs-webmaster |date=2017-11-08 |title=The Fight For Women's Voting Rights |url=https://centralasiainstitute.org/womens-voting-rights/ |access-date=2024-10-19 |website=Central Asia Institute |language=en}}</ref>
|Elections were abolished in 1929
|-
| {{flagicon image|Flag of Albania (1944–1946).svg}} [[Democratic Government of Albania|Albania]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://tesheshi.com/grate-ne-politiken-shqiptare-nga-ahmet-zogu-te-edi-rama-ja-emrat-me-te-spikatur/|title=Gratë në politikën shqiptare: Nga Ahmet Zogu te Edi Rama – ja emrat më të spikatur {{!}} Te Sheshi|date=June 9, 2015|access-date=March 8, 2020}}</ref>
| 1945
| Albanian women voted for the first time in the [[1945 Albanian parliamentary election|1945 election]]. 
|-
| {{flag|Algeria}}
| 1962
| In 1962, on its independence from France, Algeria granted equal voting rights to all men and women.
|-
| {{flag|Andorra}}
| 1970
|
|-
| {{flagicon|Angola}} [[People's Republic of Angola|Angola]]
| 1975
|
|-
| {{flag|Argentina}}
| 1947<ref>Hammond, Gregory, ''The Women's Suffrage Movement and Feminism in Argentina From Roca to Peron'' (University of New Mexico Press; 2011).</ref>
| On September 23, 1947, the Female Enrollment Act (number 13,010) was enacted in the government of [[Juan Perón]]
|-
| {{flag|Armenia}}
| 1917 (by application of the Russian legislation)<br />1919 March (by adoption of its own legislation)<ref>[[Simon Vratsian|Vratsian, Simon]] ''Hayastani Hanrapetutyun'' (The Republic of Armenia, ''Arm.''), Yerevan, 1993, p. 292.</ref>
|On June 21 and 23, 1919, first direct parliamentary elections were held in Armenia under universal suffrage – every person over the age of 20 had the right to vote regardless of gender, ethnicity or religious beliefs. The 80-seat legislature contained three women deputies: [[Katarine Zalyan-Manukyan]], [[Perchuhi Partizpanyan-Barseghyan]] and [[Varvara Sahakyan]].<ref>{{cite web|author=Badalyan, Lena|date=5 December 2018|title=Women's Suffrage: The Armenian Formula|url=https://chai-khana.org/en/womens-suffrage-the-armenian-formula|access-date=30 November 2018|publisher=Chai Khana|archive-date=December 1, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181201005054/https://chai-khana.org/en/womens-suffrage-the-armenian-formula|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Harutyunyan">{{cite web|last1=Harutyunyan|first1=Anahit|date=8 March 2018|script-title=hy:Առաջին խորհրդարանի (1919–1920) երեք կին պատգամավորները|url=https://www.aniarc.am/2018/03/08/women-1919-1920-mp/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180504044633/https://www.aniarc.am/2018/03/08/women-1919-1920-mp/|archive-date=4 May 2018|access-date=11 January 2019|website=ANI Armenian Research Center|publisher=Armenian Research Center for Anteriology|location=Yerevan|language=hy|quote=Three female deputies of the first parliament (1919–1920)}}</ref>
|-
| {{flag|Australia}}
| 1902 (Voting granted at Federal level except for "natives of Australia, Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands (other than New Zealand)")
1962 (full)
|Female vote won at the colony/state level: [[Colony of South Australia]] 1895, [[Swan River Colony|Colony of Western Australia]] 1899 (with racial restrictions), New South Wales 1902, Tasmania 1903, Queensland 1905 (with racial restrictions) and Victoria 1908. Indigenous Australians were not given the right to vote in all states until 1966.<ref>{{cite web|title=Electoral milestones for Indigenous Australians|date=April 8, 2019|url=https://www.aec.gov.au/indigenous/milestones.htm|publisher=[[Australian Electoral Commission]]|access-date=June 11, 2019}}</ref><ref name=ag>{{cite news |last1=Taylor |first1=Alyce |title=On this day: SA gives women the vote |url=http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/blogs/on-this-day/2012/12/on-this-day-sa-gives-women-the-vote/ |access-date=June 16, 2018 |work=Australian Geographic |date=December 18, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180616030349/http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/blogs/on-this-day/2012/12/on-this-day-sa-gives-women-the-vote/ |archive-date=June 16, 2018 |url-status=dead }}</ref> 
|-
| {{flag|Austria}}
| 1918
|The Electoral Code was changed in December 1918.<ref name="demokratiezentrum">{{cite web|url=http://www.demokratiezentrum.org/de/themen/demokratieentwicklung/frauenwahlrecht/frauenwahlrecht.html|title=Frauenwahlrecht – Demokratiezentrum Wien|website=demokratiezentrum.org|access-date=June 14, 2019|archive-date=June 26, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190626221226/http://www.demokratiezentrum.org/de/themen/demokratieentwicklung/frauenwahlrecht/frauenwahlrecht.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> First election was in February 1919.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.onb.ac.at/ariadne/projekte/frauen_waehlet/index.html|title=85 Jahre allgemeines Frauenwahlrecht in Österreich|date=March 6, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110306075818/http://www.onb.ac.at/ariadne/projekte/frauen_waehlet/index.html|access-date=June 14, 2019|archive-date=March 6, 2011}}</ref>
|-
| {{flagicon|Azerbaijan}} [[Azerbaijan Democratic Republic|Azerbaijan]]
| 1918
|Azerbaijan was the first Muslim-majority country to enfranchise women.<ref name="Tadeusz Swietochowski 2004. p. 144">Swietochowski, Tadeusz. ''Russian Azerbaijan 1905–1920: The Shaping of a National Identity in a Muslim Community''. Cambridge University Press, 2004. {{ISBN|0-521-52245-5|978-0-521-52245-8}}, p. 144.</ref>
|-
| {{flag|Bahamas}}
| 1960
|
|-
| {{flag|Bahrain}}
| 2002
|No elections were held in Bahrain between 1973 and 2002.
|-
| {{flag|Bangladesh}}
| 1971 (upon [[Bangladeshi Declaration of Independence|its independence]])
| 
|-
| {{flag|Barbados|1885}}
| 1950
|
|-
| {{flagicon image|Missing Blue Ensign.svg}} [[British Leeward Islands]] <small>(Today: [[Antigua and Barbuda]], [[British Virgin Islands]], [[Montserrat]], [[Saint Kitts and Nevis]], [[Anguilla]])</small>
| 1951
|
|-
| {{flagicon image|Flag of the British Windward Islands (1903–1953).svg}} [[British Windward Islands]] <small>(Today: [[Grenada]], [[Saint Lucia|St Lucia]], [[Saint Vincent and the Grenadines|St Vincent and the Grenadines]], [[Dominica]])</small>
| 1951
|
|-
| {{flagicon|Belarus|1991}} [[Belarusian People's Republic]]
| 1919
|
|-
| {{flag|Belgium}}
| 1919/1948
| Was granted in the constitution in 1919, for communal voting. Suffrage for the provincial councils and the national parliament only came in 1948.
|-
| {{flag|British Honduras}} <small>(Today: [[Belize]])</small>
| 1954
|
|-
| {{flagicon|Benin}} [[Republic of Dahomey|Dahomey]] <small> (Today: [[Benin]])</small>
| 1956
|
|-
| {{flag|Bermuda}}
| 1944
|
|-
| {{flag|Bhutan}}
| 1953
|
|-
| {{flag|Bolivia}}
| 1938/1952
|Limited women's suffrage in 1938 (only for literate women and those with a certain level of income). On equal terms with men since 1952.<ref name="womensuffrage.org">{{cite web|url=http://womensuffrage.org/?page_id=109|title=Central & South America|work=Women Suffrage and Beyond|access-date=April 12, 2015|archive-date=April 27, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427202930/http://womensuffrage.org/?page_id=109|url-status=dead}}</ref>
|-
| {{flag|Botswana}}
| 1965
|
|-
| {{flag|Brazil}}
| 1932
|
|- style="background: #CCC"
| {{flag|Brunei}}
| 1959
| National [[Politics of Brunei|elections in Brunei]] currently suspended. Both men and women have voting rights only for local elections.
|-
| {{flag|Kingdom of Bulgaria}}
| 1937/1944
|Married women (and by default widowed women) gained the right to vote on January 18, 1937, in local elections, but could not run for office. Single women were excluded from voting. Full voting rights were bestowed by the communist regime in September 1944 and reaffirmed by an electoral law reform on June 15, 1945.<ref name="RuizRubio-Marín2012">{{cite book|last1=Ruiz|first1=Blanca Rodriguez|last2=Rubio-Marín|first2=Ruth|title=The Struggle for Female Suffrage in Europe: Voting to Become Citizens|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3KIMwdbG0EcC&pg=PA330|year=2012|publisher=Brill|location=Leiden, The Netherlands|isbn=978-90-04-22425-4|pages=329–30}}</ref>
|-
| {{flag|Upper Volta}} <small>(Today: [[Burkina Faso]])</small>
| 1958
|
|-
| {{flagicon image|British Burma 1937 flag.svg}} [[British rule in Burma|Burma]]
| 1922
|
|-
| {{flag|Burundi}}
| 1961
|
|-
| {{flagicon|Cambodia}} [[Kingdom of Cambodia (1953–1970)|Kingdom of Cambodia]]
| 1955
|
|-
| {{flagicon image|British Cameroon Flag.svg}} [[British Cameroons]] <small>(Today: [[Cameroon]])</small>
| 1946
|
|-
| {{flag|Canada|2020}}
| 1917–1919 for most of Canada; Prince Edward Island in 1922; Newfoundland in 1925; Quebec in 1940; 1960 for Aboriginal People without requiring them to give up their status as before
| To help win a [[Conscription Crisis of 1917|mandate for conscription]] during World War I, the federal [[Conservative Party of Canada (1867–1942)|Conservative]] government of [[Robert Borden]] granted the vote in 1917 to war widows, women serving overseas, and the female relatives of men serving overseas. However, the same legislation, the [[Wartime Elections Act]], disenfranchised those who became naturalized Canadian citizens after 1902. Women over 21 who were "not alien-born" and who met certain property qualifications were allowed to vote in federal elections in 1918. Women first won the vote provincially in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta in 1916; British Columbia and Ontario in 1917; Nova Scotia in 1918; New Brunswick in 1919 (women could not run for New Brunswick provincial office until 1934); Prince Edward Island in 1922; Newfoundland in 1925 (which did not join Confederation until 1949); and Quebec in 1940.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/womens-suffrage |title=Women's Suffrage| encyclopedia=Canadian Encyclopedia| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016084447/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/en/article/womens-suffrage/|archive-date=October 16, 2015|access-date=March 8, 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref>
Aboriginal men and women were not given the right to vote until 1960; previously, they could only vote if they gave up their treaty status. It was not until 1948, when Canada signed the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that it was forced to examine the issue of discrimination against Aboriginal people.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.canadiana.ca/citm/themes/aboriginals/aboriginals12_e.html|title=Canada in the Making – Aboriginals: Treaties & Relations|work=canadiana.ca|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150309131216/http://www.canadiana.ca/citm/themes/aboriginals/aboriginals12_e.html|archive-date=March 9, 2015}}</ref>
|-
| {{flag|Cape Verde}}
| 1975 (upon [[Cape Verde#Independence (1975)|its independence]])
|
|-
| {{flag|Cayman Islands}}
| 1957
|
|-
| {{flag|Central African Republic}}
| 1986
|
|-
| {{flag|Chad}}
| 1958
|
|-
| {{flag|Chile}}
| 1949
| From 1934 to 1949, women could vote in local elections at 25, while men could vote in all elections at 21. In both cases, literacy was required.
|-
| {{flag|China}} ([[PRC]])
| 1949
| In 1949, the People's Republic of China (PRC) incorporated equal rights for men and women into [[Constitution of the People's Republic of China]] (PRC), referring to the earlier [[Constitution of the Republic of China]] (ROC) in 1947. [[Elections in China]] (PRC) are based on a hierarchical electoral system in which some representatives are [[Direct election|directly elected]] and some are [[Indirect election|indirectly elected]].
|-
| {{flag|Colombia}}
| 1954
|
|-
| {{flag|Comoros}}
| 1956
|
|-
| {{flag|Zaire}} <small>(Today: [[Democratic Republic of the Congo]])</small>
| 1967
|
|-
| {{flag|Congo, Republic of the}}
| 1963
|
|-
| {{flag|Cook Islands}}
| 1893
|
|-
| {{flag|Costa Rica}}
| 1949
|
|-
| {{flag|Cuba}}
| 1934
|
|-
| {{flag|Cyprus}}
| 1960
|
|-
| {{flag|Czechoslovakia}} <small>(Today: [[Czech Republic]], [[Slovakia]])</small>
| 1920
| The Czechoslovak Constitution adopted on 29 February 1920 guaranteed the universal vote for every citizen including women to every electable body.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://english.radio.cz/frantiska-plaminkova-feminist-suffragette-who-ensured-czechoslovakias-8106811 |title=Františka Plamínková: the feminist suffragette who ensured Czechoslovakia's Constitution of 1920 lived up to the principle of equality|publisher=[[Czech Radio]] |date=2020-02-29 |access-date=2021-10-07}}</ref>
|-
| {{flag|Kingdom of Denmark}} <small>(Including the [[Faroe Islands]] and, at that time, [[Iceland]])</small>
| 1908 at local elections, 1915 at national parliamentary elections
|
|-
| {{flag|Djibouti}}
| 1946
|
|-
| {{flag|Dominican Republic}}
| 1942
|
|-
| {{flag|East Timor}}
| 1976
|
|-
| {{flag|Ecuador}}
| 1929/1967
|Despite that Ecuador granted women suffrage in 1929, which was earlier than most independent countries in Latin America (except for Uruguay, which granted women suffrage in 1917), differences between men's and women's suffrage in Ecuador were only removed in 1967 (before 1967 women's vote was optional, while that of men was compulsory; since 1967 it is compulsory for both sexes).<ref name="womensuffrage.org"/><ref>{{cite thesis|author=Villavicencio, VPV|title=Women in Ecuador: Exercise of political power since the return to democracy|url=http://dspace.uazuay.edu.ec/bitstream/datos/4210/2/10771_ing.pdf}}</ref>
|-
| {{flag|Egypt}}
| 1956
|
|-
| {{flag|El Salvador}}
| 1939/1950
|Women obtained in 1939 suffrage with restrictions requiring literacy and a higher age. All restrictions were lifted in 1950 allowing women to vote, but women obtained the right to stand for elections only in 1961.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/Pnabu661.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160807182402/http://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/Pnabu661.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=August 7, 2016|title=Situacion de la mujer rural en El Salvador|language=es|date=November 1994}}</ref>
|-
| {{flag|Equatorial Guinea}}
| 1963
|Effectively a [[one-party state]] under the [[Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea]] since 1987; [[elections in Equatorial Guinea]] are not considered to be free or fair.
|- style="background: #CCC"
|{{Flag|Eritrea}}
| data-sort-value="9999"|No voting
|There have not been [[elections in Eritrea]] since its independence in 1993.
|-
| {{flag|Estonia}}
| 1917
|Universal suffrage was declared by the [[Russian Provisional Government]] (in control of the then governorate of Estonia) on 15 March 1917 and applied in the elections of the [[Russian Constituent Assembly|Constituent Assembly]]. After becoming independent in 1918, Estonia continued its universal suffrage. 
|-
| {{flag|Eswatini}} <small>(Formerly: [[Swaziland]])</small>
| 1968
|While there are [[elections in Eswatini]], the country is an [[absolute monarchy]] and the [[2023 Swazi general election|most recent general election]] had a very low turnout, causing some to call democracy in the country into question.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://allafrica.com/stories/201810220621.html|title=Swaziland: Results of Swaziland Election Not Published One Month After Poll Questioning Kingdom's Claim to Democracy}}</ref>
|-
| {{flagcountry|Ethiopian Empire}} <small>(Then including [[Eritrea]])</small>
| 1955
|
|-
| {{flag|Fiji}}
| 1963
|
|-
| {{flagicon|Finland}} [[Grand Duchy of Finland]]
| 1906
|Women retained the right to vote when [[Finland]] gained its independence from Russia in 1917.
|-
| {{flag|France}}
| 1944
|The law was enacted in 1944, but the first elections were in 1945.
|-
| {{flag|Gabon}}
| 1956
|
|-
| {{flag|Gambia, The}}
| 1960
|
|-
| {{flagicon|Georgia|1990}} [[Democratic Republic of Georgia]]
| 1918
|
|-
| {{flagcountry|Weimar Republic}}
| 1918
|
|-
| {{flag|Ghana}}
| 1954
|
|-
| {{flag|Greece|old}}
| 1930 <small>(Local Elections, Literate Only)</small>, 1952 <small>(Unconditional)</small>
|
|-
| {{flag|Greenland}}
| 1948<ref name="naalakkersuisut.gl">{{Cite web|url=https://naalakkersuisut.gl//da/Naalakkersuisut/Nyheder/2015/03/060315_kampdag|title=Kvindernes internationale kampdag (Government of Greenland, 2015)|access-date=October 28, 2020|archive-date=December 8, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211208164426/https://naalakkersuisut.gl/da/Naalakkersuisut/Nyheder/2015/03/060315_kampdag|url-status=dead}}</ref>
|
|-
| {{flag|Guatemala}}
| 1945/1965
|Women could vote from 1945, but only if literate. Restrictions on women's suffrage were lifted in 1965.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.idea.int/publications/wip/upload/montenegro-CS-Guatemala.pdf|title=Publications – International IDEA|website=www.idea.int|access-date=June 12, 2016|archive-date=August 6, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806073911/https://www.idea.int/publications/wip/upload/montenegro-CS-Guatemala.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>
|-
| {{flag|Guinea}}
| 1958
|
|-
| {{flag|Guinea-Bissau}}
| 1977
|
|-
| {{flag|Guyana}}
| 1953
|
|-
| {{flag|Haiti|1859}}
| 1950
|
|-
| {{flag|Kingdom of Hawaii}}
| 1840–1852
| Universal suffrage was established in 1840, which meant that women could vote. Opposition resulted in a specific denial of women's suffrage in the 1852 constitution.
|-
| {{flag|Honduras}}
| 1955
|
|-
| {{flag|Hong Kong|1910}}
| 1949
|
|-
| {{flagcountry|Hungarian People's Republic (1918–19)}}
| 1919 (partial)<br />1945 (full)
| After 1919 men could vote from the age of 24 while women only gained the right to vote from the age of 30. There were also educational and economical criteria set for both genders, but all criteria were higher for women.<br />After 1945 both men and women gained universal suffrage from the age of 20.
|-
| {{flagicon|British Raj}} [[British Raj|India]] ''(Then under British colonial rule)'' 
| 1921 ([[Bombay Presidency|Bombay]] and [[Madras Presidency|Madras]]) 
1929 (All provinces, including princely states)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Testbook.com – India's No.1 Govt Exam Preparation Site {{!}} Online Course {{!}} Mock Test |url=https://testbook.com/ |access-date=2023-11-23 |website=Testbook |language=en}}</ref>
|
|-
| {{flag|Indonesia}}
| 1937 (for Europeans only)<br />1945 (for all citizens, granted upon independence)
|
|-
| {{flag|Iran|1925}}
| 1963
|In 1945, during the one-year rule of the Azerbaijani Democratic Party, Iranian Azerbaijani women were allowed to vote and be elected.

|-
| {{flag|Iraq|1924}}
| 1980 <ref name="auto3">Al-Tamimi,&nbsp;H.&nbsp;(2019).&nbsp;Women and Democracy in Iraq: Gender, Politics and Nation-Building.&nbsp;Indien:&nbsp;Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 65</ref><ref name="auto4">The Crisis of Citizenship in the Arab World.&nbsp;(2017).&nbsp;Nederländerna:&nbsp;Brill. p. 435</ref>
|
|-
| {{flag|Ireland}}<!-- Used without date to produce link to Republic of Ireland article. 1918 links to article on the island as a whole; so does 1922 even though IMO it *should* link to the Irish Free State article (predecessor of Ireland the *nation*, i.e., the Republic). As this line relates to the present-day Republic (Northern Ireland is covered under the UK below), it is better linked to the article on the Republic – even though it didn't exist till 1937 (constitution) or 1948 (declared a republic) – than to the island. -->
| 1918 (partial)<br />1922 (full)
| From 1918, with the rest of the United Kingdom, women could vote at 30 with property qualifications or in university constituencies, while men could vote at 21 with no qualification. From separation in 1922, the [[Irish Free State]] gave equal voting rights to men and women.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.thejournal.ie/100-years-centenary-women-vote-3828133-Feb2018/|title=On this day 100 years ago, Irish women got the vote|last=Barry|first=Aoife|work=TheJournal.ie|access-date=October 8, 2018}}</ref>
|-
| {{flagicon|IMN}} [[Isle of Man]]
| 1881
|
|-
| {{flag|Israel}}
| 1948
|Women's suffrage was granted with the [[Israeli Declaration of Independence|declaration of independence]]. But prior to that in the Jewish settlement in Palestine, suffrage was granted in 1920.
|-
| {{flag|Italy}}
| 1925 (partial), 1945 (full)
|Local elections in 1925. Full suffrage in 1945.
|-
| {{flag|Ivory Coast}}
| 1952
|
|-
| {{flag|Jamaica|1906}}
| 1944
|
|-
| {{flag|Japan}}
| 1945
|
|-
| {{flag|Jersey|old}}
| 1919<ref>''Loi sur les Droits Electoraux'', 1919</ref>
| Restrictions on franchise applied to men and women until after Liberation in 1945.
|-
| {{flag|Jordan}}
| 1974
| Suffrage for educated women in 1955,<ref name="auto5">Pratt,&nbsp;N.&nbsp;(2020).&nbsp;''Embodying Geopolitics: Generations of Women's Activism in Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon''.&nbsp;US:&nbsp;University of California Press. pp. 43–44</ref> extended to all women in 1974.
|-
| {{flag|Kazakh SSR}}
| 1924
|
|-
| {{flag|Kenya}}
| 1963
|
|-
| {{flag|Kiribati}}
| 1967
|
|-
| {{flag|Korea, North}}
| 1946<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/suffrage.htm |title=Women's Suffrage |publisher=Ipu.org |date=May 2, 1997|access-date=May 6, 2013}}</ref>
|
|-
| {{flag|Korea, South}}
| 1948 (for both men & women)
|Suffrage for both men and women were given at same date, same year right after the first constitutional law had been announced. Up to 1910, it was Korean Empire with despotic monarchy, so no one had the suffrage, and from 1910 to 1945, Korea was a colony of Japan, so again no one had suffrage for the Japanese Empire. From 1945 to 1948, South part of Korea was ruled by United States Army Military Government in Korea, so still no one had any suffrage for the government. From the first constitutional law of Korea, Korea adopted egalitarianism, giving the suffrage for both men and women at the same time.
|-
| {{flag|Kuwait}}
| 2005<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/17/world/middleeast/kuwait-grants-political-rights-to-its-women.html|date=May 17, 2005|title=Kuwait Grants Political Rights to Its Women|work=The New York Times}}</ref>
|All voters must have been citizens of Kuwait for at least 20 years.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/kuwait/|title=Kuwait|date=September 27, 2021|publisher=The World Factbook}}</ref>
|-
| {{flag|Kyrgyz SSR}}
| 1918
|
|-
| {{flagicon|Laos|1952}} [[Kingdom of Laos]]
| 1958
|
|-
| {{flag|Latvia}}
| 1917
|
|-
| {{flag|Lebanon}}
| 1952<ref>{{cite news |first=Dana |last=Khraiche |url=http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2012/Feb-24/164431-womens-spring-is-lebanon-ready-for-a-feminist-political-party.ashx#ixzz1rkch52gR |title=Women's spring: Is Lebanon ready for a feminist political party? |newspaper=[[The Daily Star (Lebanon)|The Daily Star]] |date=February 4, 2012 |access-date=August 2, 2015 |archive-date=May 19, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190519080608/http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2012/Feb-24/164431-womens-spring-is-lebanon-ready-for-a-feminist-political-party.ashx#ixzz1rkch52gR |url-status=dead }}</ref>
| In 1952, after a 30-year long battle for suffrage, the bill allowing Lebanese women to vote passed.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://lebanesestudies.news.chass.ncsu.edu/2014/12/03/lebanese-women-and-the-right-to-vote/|title=Lebanese Women and the Right to Vote|last=Muglia|first=Caroline|date=December 3, 2014|website=Moise A. Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies at NCSU}}</ref> In 1957, a requirement for women (but not men) to have elementary education before voting was dropped, as was voting being compulsory for men.<ref>{{cite book|title=Elections in Asia and the Pacific: A Data Handbook : Volume I: Middle East, Central Asia, and South Asia|year=2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-153041-8|page=174|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BVFBXa69tWMC&q=educationa&pg=PA174}}</ref>
|-
| {{flag|Lesotho}}
| 1965
|
|-
| {{flag|Liberia}}
| 1946
|
|-
| {{flagicon|Libya|1963}} [[Kingdom of Libya]]
| 1963 (1951 local)
|<ref name="auto2">Bernini, Simone. ''Le elezioni politiche del 1952 in Libia'', "Oriente Moderno" Nuova serie, Anno 17 (78), Nr. 2 (1998), pp. 337–351, Fn. 10, p. 339.</ref>
|-
| {{flag|Liechtenstein}}
| 1984
|
|-
| {{flag|Lithuania}}
| 1918
|
|-
| {{flag|Luxembourg}}
| 1919
|Women gained the vote on May 15, 1919, through amendment of Article 52 of Luxembourg's constitution.
|-
| {{flag|Madagascar}}
| 1959
|
|-
| {{flag|Malawi|1964}}
| 1961
|
|-
| {{flagicon|Malaya}} [[Federation of Malaya]] <small>(Today: [[Malaysia]])</small>
| 1955
|First general election for the Federal Legislative Council, two years before independence in 1957
|-
| {{flagicon image|Old State Flag of Maldives.svg}} [[Maldives]]
| 1932
|
|-
| {{flag|Mali}}
| 1956
|
|-
| {{flagicon|Malta|1943}} [[Crown Colony of Malta|Malta]]
| 1947
|
|-
| {{flag|Marshall Islands}}
| 1979
|
|-
| {{flag|Mauritania|1959}}
| 1961
|
|-
| {{flag|Mauritius|1923}}
| 1956
|
|-
| {{flag|Mexico}}
| 1953
|
|-
| {{flag|Micronesia, Federated States of}}
| 1979
|
|-
| {{flag|Moldova}}
| 1929/1940
| As part of the [[Kingdom of Romania]], women who met certain qualifications were allowed to vote in local elections, starting in 1929. After the [[1938 Constitution of Romania|Constitution of 1938]], voting rights were extended to women for general elections by the Electoral Law 1939.<ref name="impowr.org">{{cite web |url=http://www.impowr.org/content/summary-rights-vote-romania |title=Summary: Rights to Vote in Romania |publisher=impowr.org |access-date=September 1, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141009181905/http://www.impowr.org/content/summary-rights-vote-romania |archive-date=October 9, 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 1940, after the formation of the [[Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic|Moldavian SSR]], equal voting rights were granted to men and women.
|-
| {{flag|Monaco}}
| 1962
|
|-
| {{flagicon|Mongolia|1924}} [[Mongolian People's Republic]]
| 1924
|
|-
| {{flag|Morocco}}
| 1963
|
|-
| {{flagicon|Mozambique|1975}} [[People's Republic of Mozambique]]
| 1975
|
|-
| {{flag|Namibia}}
| 1989 (upon its independence)
| At independence from South Africa.
|-
| {{flag|Nauru}}
| 1968
|
|-
| {{flag|Nepal}}
| 1951 (upon gaining Democracy)
|
|-
| {{flag|Netherlands}}
| 1917
|Women have been allowed to vote since 1919. Since 1917 women have been allowed to be voted into office.
|-
| {{flag|Netherlands Antilles}} <small>(Today: [[Aruba]], [[Curaçao]], [[Sint Maarten]], [[Caribbean Netherlands]])</small>
| 1949
|
|-
| {{flag|New Zealand}}
| 1893
| New Zealand was the first country to give women voting rights.
|-
| {{flag|Nicaragua}}
| 1955
|
|-
| {{flag|Niger}}
| 1948
|
|-
| {{flag|Nigeria}}
| 1958
|
|-
| {{flag|Norway}}
| 1913
|
|-
| {{flag|Oman}}
| 2002<ref name="auto9">Pernille Arenfeldt, Nawar Al-Hassan Golley, red (2012). Mapping Arab Women's Movements: A Century of Transformations from Within. Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|978-977-416-498-9}}</ref>
|While, technically, [[Politics of Oman|elections take place in Oman]], this is only to elect a consultative assembly with no power, as Oman is an [[absolute monarchy]]. Municipal suffrage introduced in Muscat in 1994, municipal suffrage in all Oman in 1996, and national suffrage in 2002.<ref name="auto9"/>
|-
| {{flag|Pakistan}} 
| 1947 (upon its independence)
| In 1947, on its creation at the [[partition of India]], Pakistan granted full voting rights to men and women.
|-
| {{flag|Palau}}
| 1979
|
|- style="background: #CCC"
| {{flag|Palestine}}
| 1972
| Women (and men) first voted in local elections in the [[West Bank]] in 1972. Women (and men) first elected a Palestinian parliament in [[1996 Palestinian general election|1996]]. However, the last general election was in [[2006 Palestinian legislative election|2006]]; there was supposed to be another in 2014 but elections have been delayed indefinitely.
|-
| {{flag|Panama}}
| 1941/1946
|Limited women's suffrage from 1941 (conditioned by level of education) equal women's suffrage from 1946.<ref name="womensuffrage.org"/>
|-
| {{flag|Papua New Guinea}}
| 1964
|
|-
| {{flag|Paraguay}}
| 1961
|
|-
| {{flag|Peru}}
| 1955
|
|-
| {{flag|Philippines}}
| 1937
|Filipino women voted in [[1937 Philippine women's suffrage plebiscite|a 1937 plebiscite]] for their right to vote; women first voted in [[1937 Philippine local elections|local elections later that year]].
|-
| {{flag|Pitcairn Islands}}
| 1838
|
|-
| {{flag|Poland}}
| 1918
|
|- Upon re-gaining independence after partitions (needed a link to Wiki article – Partitions of Poland)
| {{flag|Portugal}}
| 1911/1931/1976
|With restrictions in 1911, later made illegal again until 1931 when it was reinstated with restrictions,<ref name=idea.int>{{cite web|last1=Seppälä|first1=Nina|title=Women and the Vote in Western Europe|url=http://www.idea.int/publications/voter_turnout_weurope/upload/chapter%204.pdf|website=idea.int|access-date=July 8, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061101183909/http://www.idea.int/publications/voter_turnout_weurope/upload/chapter%204.pdf|archive-date=November 1, 2006|pages=33–35|url-status=live}}</ref> restrictions other than age requirements lifted in 1976.<ref name=idea.int/><ref name="bbc.co.uk">{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/timeline/votes_to_women.shtml|title=BBC – Radio 4 Woman's Hour – Timeline: When women got the vote|author=BBC|work=BBC}}</ref>
|-
| {{flag|Puerto Rico}}
| 1929/1935
|Limited suffrage was passed for women, restricted to those who were literate. In 1935 the legislature approved suffrage for all women. 
|-
| {{flag|Qatar}}
| 1997
| While required by the constitution, [[Next Qatari general election|general elections]] had been repeatedly delayed.<ref name="qatar-dohanews">{{cite web|url=https://dohanews.co/legislative-elections-in-qatar-postponed-until-at-least-2019/|title=Legislative elections in Qatar postponed until at least 2019|date=June 1, 2016|access-date=October 2, 2017}}</ref> Municipal elections have been held often.
|-
| {{flag|Romania}}
| 1929/1939/1946
| Starting in 1929, women who met certain qualifications were allowed to vote in local elections. After the [[1938 Constitution of Romania|Constitution from 1938]], the voting rights were extended to women for general elections by the Electoral Law 1939. Women could vote on equal terms with men, but both men and women had restrictions, and in practice the restrictions affected women more than men. In 1946, full equal voting rights were granted to men and women.<ref name="impowr.org"/>
|-
| {{flagicon|Russia}} [[Russian Republic]]
| 1917
| On July 20, 1917, under the [[Russian Provisional Government|Provisional Government]].
|-
| {{flag|Rwanda}}
| 1961
|
|- style="background: #CCC"
| {{flag|Saudi Arabia}}
| 2015
| In [[2015 Saudi Arabian municipal elections|December 2015]], women were first allowed to vote and run for office. However, there are no national [[elections in Saudi Arabia]]. The country is an [[absolute monarchy]].
|-
| {{flag|Samoa}}
| 1990
| While [[elections in Samoa]] restrict candidacy to [[Faʻamatai|matai]], there is [[universal suffrage]].<ref>{{cite web|title=IPU PARLINE database: SAMOA (Fono ), Electoral system|url=http://archive.ipu.org/parline-e/reports/2351_B.htm|access-date=2021-06-29|website=archive.ipu.org}}</ref>
|-
| {{flag|San Marino}}
| 1959
|
|-
| {{flag|São Tomé and Príncipe}}
| 1975
|
|-
| {{flag|Senegal}}
| 1945
|
|-
| {{flag|Seychelles|1976}}
| 1948
|
|-
| {{flag|Sierra Leone}}
| 1961
| In the 1790s, while Sierra Leone was still a colony, women voted in the elections.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2008/12/11/life-on-70-cents-a-day |url-access=subscription |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201029031534/https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2008/12/11/life-on-70-cents-a-day |archive-date=2020-10-29 |access-date=2025-08-30 |newspaper=The Economist |title=Life on 70 cents a day | date=December 1, 2008}}{{cbignore}}</ref>
|-
| {{flag|Singapore|colonial-1946}}
| 1947
|
|-
| {{flag|Solomon Islands}}
| 1974
|
|-
| {{flag|Somalia}}
| 1956
|
|-
| {{flag|South Africa}}
| 1930 (European and Asian women)<br />1994 (all women)
| Women of other races were enfranchised in 1994, at the same time as men of all races.
|-
| {{flag|Spain|1931}}
| 1924<ref name="Congress">{{cite web|url=http://www.congreso.es/portal/page/portal/Congreso/Congreso/Hist_Normas/PapHist/PrimoRiv/legis_1927_1929/docs12091927|title=Documentos Elecciones 12 de septiembre de 1927|last=Congress|website=Congreso de los Diputados|access-date=February 24, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.eldiario.es/norte/cantabria/amberes/mujer-voto-Espana_6_596400372.html |url-access=subscription |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20170915054002/https://www.eldiario.es/norte/cantabria/amberes/mujer-voto-Espana_6_596400372.html |archive-date=2017-09-15 |title=La mujer y el voto en España |trans-title=Women and the vote in Spain |last=Martínez |first=Keruin P. |date=December 30, 2016 |website=[[elDiario.es]] |language=es |access-date=August 31, 2025}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |date=2004 |title=Los orígenes del sufragismo en España |trans-title=The origins of suffragism in Spain |url=https://www.ucm.es/data/cont/docs/995-2015-01-09-sufragismo.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304085340/https://www.ucm.es/data/cont/docs/995-2015-01-09-sufragismo.pdf |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |journal=Espacio, Tiempo y Forma |language=es |location=Madrid |publisher=[[UNED]] |publication-date=2004 |volume=16 |pages=455–482 |access-date=September 6, 2025}}{{cbignore}}{{void|Fabrickator|comment|The following live url is less convenient to use compared to the archive url: https://www.ucm.es/picuvimu/file/los-origenes-del-sufragismo-en-espana}}</ref> /October 1, 1931<ref name="Congress" /><ref name="20minutos.es-2006">{{cite web|url=https://www.20minutos.es/noticia/157744/0/aniversario/sufragio/femenino/|title=75 años del sufragio femenino en España|date=October 1, 2006|website=20minutos.es|language=es|access-date=February 25, 2019}}</ref><ref name="El Español-2018">{{cite web|url=https://www.elespanol.com/cultura/historia/20181119/voto-femenino-espana-triunfo-clara-campoamor-acabo/354464821_0.html|title=85 años del voto femenino en España: el triunfo de Clara Campoamor que acabó con ella|date=November 19, 2018|website=[[El Español]]|language=es-ES|access-date=February 25, 2019}}</ref> 1977<ref name="20minutos.es-2006"/>
|Women briefly held the right to vote from 1924 to 1926, but an absence of elections meant they never had the opportunity to go to the polls until 1933, after earning the right to vote in the 1931 Constitution passed after the elections.<ref name="Congress" /><ref name="20minutos.es-2006"/><ref name="El Español-2018" /> The government fell after only two elections in which women could vote, and no one would vote again until after the death of [[Francisco Franco]].<ref name="20minutos.es-2006"/>
|-
| {{flag|Sri Lanka}} <small>(Formerly: [[Ceylon]])</small>
| 1931
|
|-
| {{flag|Sudan}}
| 1964
|
|-
| [[File:Flag of the Netherlands.svg|22px]] [[Surinam (Dutch colony)|Suriname]]
| 1948
|
|-
| {{flag|Sweden}}
| 1919
|
|-
| {{flag|Switzerland}}
| 1971 at federal level, between 1959 and 1990 at local canton level
| Women obtained the right to vote in national elections in 1971.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/7/newsid_2738000/2738475.stm|title=BBC On This Day – 7 – 1971: Swiss women get the vote|work=BBC}}</ref> Women obtained the right to vote at local [[Cantons of Switzerland|canton]] level between 1959 ([[Canton of Vaud|Vaud]] and [[Canton of Neuchâtel|Neuchâtel]] in that year) and 1972, except for 1989 in [[Appenzell Ausserrhoden]] and 1990 in [[Appenzell Innerrhoden]].<ref name="Women dominate new Swiss cabinet">{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-11387996|title=Women dominate new Swiss cabinet|newspaper=BBC News|date=September 2, 2010}}</ref> See also [[Women's suffrage in Switzerland]].
|-
| {{flag|Syria|1932}}
| 1949
|
|-
| [[File:Flag of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany (1840).svg|23px|border]] [[Grand Duchy of Tuscany]]
| 1848
|
|-
| {{flag|Taiwan}}
| 1947
| In 1945, the island of Taiwan was returned from Japan to China. In 1947, women won the suffrage under the [[Constitution of the Republic of China]]. In 1949, the Government of the Republic of China (ROC) lost mainland China and moved to Taiwan.
|-
| {{flag|Tajik SSR}}
| 1924
|
|-
| {{flag|Tanzania}}
| 1959
|
|-
| {{flag|Thailand}}
| 1932
|
|-
| {{flag|Togo}}
| 1945
|
|-
| {{flag|Tonga}}
| 1960
|
|-
| {{flagicon|Trinidad and Tobago|colonial}} [[Trinidad and Tobago]]<!--Don't change to [[Colony of Trinidad and Tobago]]; no place by that name ever existed-->
| 1925
|Suffrage was granted for the first time in 1925 to either sex, to men over the age of 21 and women over the age of 30, as in the United Kingdom (the "Mother Country", since Trinidad and Tobago was still a colony at the time)<ref>{{cite book| author = Meighoo, Kirk | title = Politics in a 'Half-Made Society': Trinidad and Tobago, 1925–2001| publisher = James Curry, Oxford| isbn = 978-0-85255-873-7| year = 2003| page = 11}}</ref> In 1945, full suffrage was granted to women.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://nzhistory.govt.nz/politics/womens-suffrage/world-suffrage-timeline|title=World suffrage timeline – Women and the vote |work=nzhistory.net.nz}}</ref>
|-
| {{flag|Tunisia}}
| 1957
|
|-
| {{flag|Turkey}}
| 1930 (for local elections), 1934 (for national elections)
|
|-
| {{flag|Turkmen SSR}}
| 1924
|
|-
| {{flag|Tuvalu}}
| 1967
|
|-
| {{flag|Uganda}}
| 1962
|
|-
| {{Flag|Ukraine}}
| 1917 [[Ukrainian People's Republic]],<ref>{{cite web|title=Constituent Assembly of Ukraine|url=http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CC%5CO%5CConstituentAssemblyofUkraine.htm|access-date=2021-09-02|website=www.encyclopediaofukraine.com}}</ref> 1918 ([[West Ukrainian People's Republic]]), 1919 ([[Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|Ukrainian SSR]])
|The Ukrainian People's Republic held аn [[1918 Ukrainian Constituent Assembly election|election]] on {{OldStyleDate|January 9|1918|December 27|1917}}.
|-
| {{flag|United Arab Emirates}}
| 2006
| Elections in the United Arab Emirates occur on a national level. However, their democratic usefulness is disputed.<ref>[[2011 United Arab Emirates parliamentary election]]</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.realclearworld.com/news/reuters/international/2011/Sep/24/uae_s_second_election_has_low_turnout.html |title=UAE's second election has low turnout |work=Real Clear World |date=September 2, 2011|access-date=September 27, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120407131133/http://www.realclearworld.com/news/reuters/international/2011/Sep/24/uae_s_second_election_has_low_turnout.html |archive-date=April 7, 2012 }}</ref>
|-
| {{flag|United Kingdom}}
| 1918 (partial)<br />1928 (full)
| From 1918 to 1928, women could vote at 30 with property qualifications or as graduates of UK universities, while men could vote at 21 with no qualification. From 1928 women had equal suffrage with men.
|-
| {{flag|United States|1912}}
| 1920 (nearly all)<br />1965 (legal protections)
| Before the ratification of the [[Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Nineteenth Amendment]] in 1920, individual states had passed legislation that allowed women to vote in different types of elections; some only allowed women to vote in school or municipal elections, some required women to own property if they wanted to vote, and some territories extended full suffrage to women, only to take it away once they became states.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://depts.washington.edu/moves/WomanSuffrage_map.shtml |title= Timeline and Map of Woman Suffrage Legislation State by State 1838–1919|publisher=depts.washington.edu}}</ref> Many states allowed women to hold a few office positions before gaining the right to vote.<ref name="Katz-2021">{{Cite web|last=Katz|first=Elizabeth D.|date=2021-07-30|title=Sex, Suffrage, and State Constitutional Law: Women's Legal Right to Hold Public Office|url=https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=3896499|location=Rochester, NY|ssrn=3896499}}</ref> Although legally entitled to vote, black people (including black women) were effectively [[Segregation in the United States|denied voting rights]] in numerous Southern states until 1965.
|-
| {{flag|United States Virgin Islands}}
| 1936
| Beginning in 1936 women could vote; however, this vote, as with men, was limited to those who could prove they had an income of $300 per year or more.
|-
| {{flag|Uruguay}}
| 1917/1927/1932
| Uruguay was the first country in all of the Americas&nbsp;– and one of the first in the world&nbsp;– to grant women fully equal civil rights and universal suffrage (in its Constitution of 1917), though this suffrage was first exercised in 1927, in the [[1927 Cerro Chato referendum]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lr21.com.uy/comunidad/263868-el-voto-femenino-cumple-ochenta-anos-en-uruguay |title=El voto femenino cumple ochenta años en Uruguay – Noticias Uruguay LARED21 |publisher=Lr21.com.uy |date=July 3, 2007 |access-date=October 25, 2015|language=es}}</ref> and was put into national law through a decree in 1932.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.impo.com.uy/bases/leyes/8927-1932 | title=Ley N° 8927 }}</ref> The first national election in which women voted was the [[1938 Uruguayan general election]].<ref name="Miller1991">{{cite book|author=Francesca Miller|title=Latin American Women and the Search for Social Justice|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sXiTQpR3crwC&pg=PA98|year=1991|publisher=UPNE|isbn=978-0-87451-558-9|page=98}}</ref>
|-  
| {{flag|Uzbek SSR}}
| 1938
|
|-
| {{flag|Vanuatu}}
| 1975
|
|- style="background: #CCC"
| {{flag|Vatican City}}
| data-sort-value="9999"|No voting
| The [[Pope]], elected by the all-male [[College of Cardinals]] through a secret ballot, is the leader of the Catholic Church, and exercises ex officio supreme legislative, executive, and judicial power over the State of the Vatican City.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://wipolex.wipo.int/en/text.jsp?file_id=220612|title=WIPO Lex|website=wipolex.wipo.int}}</ref>
|-
| {{flag|Venezuela}}
| 1946 (partial)
|Though there are [[Venezuelan presidential crisis|disputes as to the legitimacy]] of [[elections in Venezuela]], they are ongoing at a national level.
|-
| {{flag|Vietnam}}
| 1946
|[[1946 North Vietnamese legislative election]]
|-
| {{flag|North Yemen}} <small>(Today: [[Yemen]])</small>
| 1970
|
|-
| {{flag|South Yemen}} <small>(Today: [[Yemen]])</small>
| 1967
|
|-
| {{flag|Zambia}}
| 1962 (then [[Northern Rhodesia]])
|Women's suffrage granted in [[Northern Rhodesia]] in 1962.<ref>{{cite web|title=Country Profil: Zambia|work=Action for Southern Africa|url=http://www.actsa.org/Pictures/UpImages/pdfs/ACTSA_Country_Profile_Zambia_Aug10.pdf|access-date=November 8, 2015|archive-date=December 22, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222115626/http://www.actsa.org/Pictures/UpImages/pdfs/ACTSA_Country_Profile_Zambia_Aug10.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>
|-
| {{flag|Southern Rhodesia}} <small>(Today: [[Zimbabwe]])</small>
| 1919 (whites only)
| 1978 (full)
|-
| {{flag|Yugoslavia}} <small>(Today: [[Serbia]], [[Montenegro]], [[Croatia]], [[Slovenia]], [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]], [[Kosovo]], [[North Macedonia]])</small>
| 1945 <br /> 
|
|}
{{Collapse bottom}}

== By continent ==
=== Africa ===

==== Algeria ====

Women's suffrage was in place in Algeria from 1962.

Women's suffrage was introduced in Algeria by the French colonial authorities after a long struggle, and confirmed after Algeria became an independent nation in 1962.
Women's suffrage was introduced in France in 1944. This right automatically included French women residing in French Algeria; but it did not include Muslim Algerian women, since indigenous Algerians was not governed by French law, but indigenous Islamic law.<ref>Maamri,&nbsp;M.&nbsp;R.&nbsp;(2015).&nbsp;The State of Algeria: The Politics of a Post-Colonial Legacy.&nbsp;Storbritannien:&nbsp;Bloomsbury Publishing. p.</ref>

The advocates of women's suffrage raised the question of an extension of suffrage to Muslim women in Algeria to the French National Assembly 
in 1947;<ref name="p113">Maamri,&nbsp;M.&nbsp;R.&nbsp;(2015).&nbsp;The State of Algeria: The Politics of a Post-Colonial Legacy.&nbsp;Storbritannien:&nbsp;Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 113</ref> in September 1947 the Organic Statute was passed which granted citizenship to Muslim women in Algeria, but Article 4 of the statue gave the Algerian Assembly free choice to decide when to exercise and introduce that reform.<ref name="p113"/> 
In 1949 the Justrabo Proposal put forvard in the Algerian Assembly suggested to extend suffrage to educated Muslim women, which was a very small minority, but the suggestion did not pass.<ref>Maamri,&nbsp;M.&nbsp;R.&nbsp;(2015).&nbsp;The State of Algeria: The Politics of a Post-Colonial Legacy.&nbsp;Storbritannien:&nbsp;Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 114</ref>

When the UN created the [[United Nations Commission on the Status of Women|Commission on the Status of Women]] (CSW) the French UN-delegate 
[[Marie-Hélène Lefaucheux]] worked to have France ratify it in order to force them to introduce suffrage in Algeria.<ref>Maamri,&nbsp;M.&nbsp;R.&nbsp;(2015).&nbsp;The State of Algeria: The Politics of a Post-Colonial Legacy.&nbsp;Storbritannien:&nbsp;Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 114–115</ref> 
She succeeded on 20 December 1952 when General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Political Rights of Women.<ref>Maamri,&nbsp;M.&nbsp;R.&nbsp;(2015).&nbsp;The State of Algeria: The Politics of a Post-Colonial Legacy.&nbsp;Storbritannien:&nbsp;Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 115</ref>
After this, there was great pressure on France to introduce this reform in the Algerian colony. The French colonial authorities finally passed women's suffrage in 1958.<ref>Harrison,&nbsp;N.&nbsp;(2019).&nbsp;Our Civilizing Mission: The Lessons of Colonial Education.&nbsp;Storbritannien:&nbsp;Liverpool University Press. p. 210</ref>

Algeria became an independent nation in 1962, and the Algerian Constitution of 1962 confirmed the existing equal political rights to vote and be elected to all citizens.<ref>Maamri,&nbsp;M.&nbsp;R.&nbsp;(2015).&nbsp;The State of Algeria: The Politics of a Post-Colonial Legacy.&nbsp;Storbritannien:&nbsp;Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 71</ref>

==== Egypt ====
The struggle for women's suffrage in Egypt first sparked from the nationalist [[Egyptian Revolution of 1919|1919 Revolution]] in which women of all classes took to the streets in protest against the British occupation. The struggle was led by several [[:Category:Egyptian women's rights activists|Egyptian women's rights pioneers]] in the first half of the 20th century through protest, journalism, and lobbying, and through women's organizations, primarily the [[Egyptian Feminist Union]] (EFU). President [[Gamal Abdel-Nasser]] consolidated women's suffrage in 1956 after they were denied the vote in elections for the Egyptian government under the British, who suppressed popular movement and interfered with democratic processes in parliament under the Egyptian monarchy.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sis.gov.eg/Story/26370?lang=en-us |title=Women's right to voting |publisher=Egypt State Information Service |date=3 March 2000 |access-date=23 July 2021 }}</ref>

==== Liberia ====

In 1920, the women's movement organized in the [[National Liberian Women's Social and Political Movement]], who campaigned without success for women's suffrage, followed by the  [[Liberia Women's League]] and the [[Liberian Women's Social and Political Movement]],<ref>{{cite book|first=Kathleen |last=Sheldon |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HwqQCwAAQBAJ&dq=liberia+women+League&pg=PA160|title= Historical Dictionary of Women in Sub-Saharan Africa|chapter=Liberia Women's League|page=160|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|date=2016|isbn=9781442262935}}</ref> and in 1946, limited suffrage was finally introduced for women of the privileged Libero-American elite, and expanded to universal women's suffrage in 1951.<ref name="pam">{{cite book|access-date=2022-12-07|date=2020|first=Peace A.|isbn=978-0-19-092296-2|language=en|last=Medie|publisher=Oxford University Press|title=Global Norms and Local Action: The Campaigns to End Violence Against Women in Africa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a9bODwAAQBAJ&dq=liberia+women+suffrage&pg=PA57}}<!-- auto-translated by Module:CS1 translator --></ref>

==== Libya ====

In [[Kingdom of Libya]] (1951–1969) the 1951 Constitution did secure women basic rights, since they were not excluded from the rights granted to all citizens under the constitution. A women's movement was organized by a minority of educated urban elite women who wished to secure women equal rights, starting with the first women's association in Benghazi 1955, followed by one in Tripoli in 1957.<ref>Habib,&nbsp;H.&nbsp;(1981).&nbsp;Libya Past and Present.&nbsp;Libyen:&nbsp;Edam Publishing House. 20</ref>

The municipal suffrage was granted in 1951.<ref name="auto2"/> The Constitution of 1963 extended the suffrage to women.<ref>Nyrop,&nbsp;R.&nbsp;F.&nbsp;(1973).&nbsp;Area Handbook for Libya.&nbsp;US:&nbsp;U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 37</ref>

====Morocco====

Women's suffrage was introduced in Morocco in 1963.<ref name="auto4"/>

The right to vote was technically granted for both the local and national levels on 1 September 1959.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://data.ipu.org/parliament/MA/MA-UC01/elections/historical-data-on-women/|title=Morocco &#124; House of Councillors &#124; Historical data on women|website=IPU Parline: global data on national parliaments}}</ref> This right was however not enforced until  18 June 1963.

The first woman was elected to Parliament in 1993, thirty years after women first participated in the election as voters.

==== Sierra Leone ====
One of the first occasions when women were able to vote was in the elections of the [[Nova Scotian settlers]] at [[Freetown]]. In the 1792 elections, all heads of household could vote and one-third were ethnic African women.<ref>[[Simon Schama]], ''[[Rough Crossings]],'' (2006), p. 431.</ref>
Women won the right to vote in Sierra Leone in 1930.<ref name=Denzer>{{cite book|last=Denzer|first=LaRay|title=Sierra Leone: 1787–1987; Two Centuries of Intellectual Life|year= 1988|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn=978-0-7190-2791-8|page=442|editor=Murray Last |editor2=Paul Richards |editor3=Christopher Fyfe}}</ref>

==== South Africa ====
The campaign for women's suffrage was conducted largely by the [[Women's Enfranchisement Association of the Union]], which was founded in 1911.<ref>Ian Christopher Fletcher, Philippa Levine, Laura E. Nym Mayhall :''[https://books.google.com/books?id=7U5hln57PtkC&dq=Women%E2%80%99s+Enfranchisement+Association+of+the+Union+%28WEAU%29&pg=PA73 Women's Suffrage in the British Empire: Citizenship, Nation and Race]''</ref>

The franchise was extended to [[white South African|white]] women 21 years or older by the [[Women's Enfranchisement Act, 1930]]. The first general election at which women could vote was the [[1933 South African general election|1933&nbsp;election]]. At that election [[Leila Reitz]] (wife of [[Deneys Reitz]]) was elected as the first female&nbsp;MP, representing [[Parktown]] for the [[South African Party]]. The limited voting rights available to non-white men in the [[Cape Province]] and [[Natal Province|Natal]] ([[Transvaal Province|Transvaal]] and the [[Orange Free State]] practically denied all non-whites the right to vote, and had also done so to white foreign nationals when independent in the 1800s) were not extended to women, and were themselves progressively eliminated between 1936 and 1968.

The right to vote for the Transkei Legislative Assembly, established in 1963 for the [[Transkei]] [[bantustan]], was granted to all adult citizens of the Transkei, including women. Similar provision was made for the Legislative Assemblies created for other bantustans. All adult [[coloured]] citizens were eligible to vote for the [[Coloured Persons Representative Council]], which was established in 1968 with limited legislative powers; the council was however abolished in 1980. Similarly, all adult [[Indian South Africans|Indian]] citizens were eligible to vote for the [[South African Indian Council]] in 1981. In 1984 the [[Tricameral Parliament]] was established, and the right to vote for the [[House of Representatives of South Africa|House of Representatives]] and [[House of Delegates of South Africa|House of Delegates]] was granted to all adult Coloured and Indian citizens, respectively.

In 1994 the bantustans and the Tricameral Parliament were abolished and the right to vote for the [[National Assembly of South Africa|National Assembly]] was granted to all adult citizens.

==== Southern Rhodesia ====
Southern Rhodesian white women won the vote in 1919 and [[Ethel Tawse Jollie]]&nbsp;(1875–1950) was elected to the Southern Rhodesia legislature 1920–1928, the first woman to sit in any national Commonwealth Parliament outside Westminster. The influx of women settlers from Britain proved a decisive factor in the 1922&nbsp;referendum that rejected annexation by a South Africa increasingly under the sway of traditionalist [[Afrikaner nationalism|Afrikaner Nationalists]] in favor of Rhodesian Home Rule or "responsible government". Black Rhodesian males qualified for the vote in 1923 (based only upon property, assets, income, and literacy). It is unclear when the first black woman qualified for the vote.

====Tunisia====

Women's suffrage was introduced in Tunisia in 1957.

The context of the introduction of women's suffrage in Tunisia was a part of a big reform program in women's rights. Tunisia became an independent nation in 1956 and saw a number of progressive reforms in favor of women's rights under the Secular President  [[Habib Bourguiba]], whose Code of Personal Statue (CSP) replaced the Islamic [[sharia law]] with a secular family law: raised the age of marriage, abolished arranged marriages and polygamy and introduced equal divorce law, as well as breaking Islamic sex segregation and encouraged women to appear unveiled.<ref>Tchaïcha,&nbsp;J.&nbsp;D.,&nbsp;Arfaoui,&nbsp;K.&nbsp;(2017).&nbsp;The Tunisian Women's Rights Movement: From Nascent Activism to Influential Power-broking.&nbsp;Storbritannien:&nbsp;Taylor & Francis. p. 78</ref> This progressive policy was completed by the introduction of women's suffrage the same year. 
Women were granted the right to vote in 1957, and became eligible for political office in 1959.<ref>Freedom House, Women's Rights in the Middle East and North Africa 2010 – Tunisia, 3 March 2010, https://www.refworld.org/reference/countryrep/freehou/2010/en/72312 [accessed 17 February 2025]</ref>

=== Asia ===
==== Afghanistan ====
[[File:Women voting afghanistan 2004 usaid.jpg|thumb|Women voting in [[Kabul]] at the [[2004 Afghan presidential election|first presidential election (October 2004)]] in Afghan history ]]
 
Women were granted suffrage in 1919 but elections were abolished in 1929.<ref>{{Cite web |author1=Amcs-Webmaster |date=7 November 2017 |title=The Fight For Women's Voting Rights |url=https://centralasiainstitute.org/womens-voting-rights/ |access-date=20 October 2024 |website=Central Asia Institute}}</ref> Women were again granted suffrage in 1964,<ref name="ABC-CLIO-2020">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N3_rDwAAQBAJ&q=Women%27s+suffrage+in+Afghanistan+1964&pg=PA77 |title=Women's Suffrage: The Complete Guide to the Nineteenth Amendment |publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=9781440871993|editor= Wayne, Tiffany K.|date=2020}}</ref><ref name="Sankey, Margaret D.-2018">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4HxqDwAAQBAJ&pg=PR24 |title=Women and War in the 21st Century: A Country-by-Country Guide |author= Sankey, Margaret D. |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1440857669 |date=2018}}</ref><ref name="Springer-2018">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aPZ0DwAAQBAJ&q=Women%27s+suffrage+in+Afghanistan+1964&pg=PA187 |title=The Palgrave Handbook of Women's Political Rights |publisher=Springer |editor1-last=Franceschet |editor1-first=Susan |editor-link1=Susan Franceschet |editor2-last=Krook |editor2-first=Mona Lena |isbn=978-1137590749 |date=2018}}</ref> and have been able to vote in [[Afghanistan]] since 1965 (except during Taliban rule, 1996–2001, when no elections were held).<ref name=Timeline />  {{As of|2009}}, women have been casting fewer ballots in part due to being unaware of their voting rights.<ref>"Fewer Women Cast Votes In Afghanistan." ''Herizons'' 23.2 (2009): 7. ''Academic Search Complete''. Web. October 4, 2016.</ref> In the 2014 election, Afghanistan's elected president pledged to bring women equal rights.<ref>Jason, Straziuso. "Afghanistan's President-Elect Promises Prominent Role, Equal Rights For Country's Women." ''Canadian Press, The'' (n.d.): ''Newspaper Source Plus''. Web. October 4, 2016.</ref>

In early 2021, there were 69 women elected as Members of Parliament in Afghanistan; however, after the [[Fall of Kabul (2021)|Fall of Kabul]] in late 2021, 60 of them fled the country.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asis-59598535|title=BBC website, ''Finding Afghanistan's exiled women MPs'', article by Tom Donkin dated December 10, 2021}}{{dead link|date=September 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> Legally, women are allowed to vote.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ahmed-Ghosh |first=Huma |date=2003 |title=A History of Women in Afghanistan: Lessons Learnt for the Future or Yesterdays and Tomorrow: Women in Afghanistan |url=https://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/vol4/iss3/1/ |journal=Journal of International Women's Studies |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=1–14 |issn=1539-8706}}</ref> However, there have been no government elections in the country since 2021, and all political parties have been banned since 2023.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.voanews.com/a/taliban-ban-afghan-political-parties-citing-sharia-violations/7228136.html|title=Taliban Ban Afghan Political Parties, Citing Sharia Violations|date=August 16, 2023|website=Voice of America}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://freedomhouse.org/country/afghanistan/freedom-world/2023|title=Afghanistan: Freedom in the World 2023 Country Report|website=Freedom House}}</ref>

====Bahrain ====

The [[Bahrain]] formally introduced women's suffrage in 2002, when Article 1, Paragraph E, of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Bahrain, explicitly included women in the citizens eligible to vote.<ref>Women's Rights in the Middle East and North Africa: Citizenship and Justice.&nbsp;(2005).&nbsp;US:&nbsp;Freedom House. p. 61</ref>

==== Bangladesh ====
[[Bangladesh]] was (mostly) the province of Bengal in [[British Raj|British India]] until 1947 when it became part of [[Pakistan]]. It became an independent nation in 1971. Women have had equal suffrage since 1947, and they have reserved seats in parliament. Bangladesh is notable in that since 1991, two women, namely [[Sheikh Hasina]] and [[Khaleda Zia|Begum Khaleda Zia]], have served terms as the country's Prime Minister continuously. Women have traditionally played a minimal role in politics beyond the anomaly of the two leaders; few used to run against men; few have been ministers. Recently, however, women have become more active in politics, with several prominent ministerial posts given to women and women participating in national, district and municipal elections against men and winning on several occasions. [[Chowdhury|Choudhury]] and [[Hasanuzzaman]] argue that the strong patriarchal traditions of Bangladesh explain why women are so reluctant to stand up in politics.<ref>{{cite journal|author= Choudhury, Dilara and Hasanuzzaman, Al Masud|title=Political Decision-Making in Bangladesh and the Role of Women|journal=Asian Profile|date=February 1997|volume= 25|issue=1|pages= 53–69}}</ref>

==== China ====
The fight for women's suffrage in [[China]] was organized when [[Tang Qunying]] founded the women's suffrage organization [[Nüzi chanzheng tongmenghui]], to ensure that women's suffrage would be included in the first Constitution drafted after the abolition of the [[Monarchy of China|Chinese monarchy]] in 1911–1912.<ref>Bailey, Paul J. (2012) [https://books.google.com/books?id=svYcBQAAQBAJ&q=suffrage+&pg=PA96 ''Women and Gender in Twentieth-Century China'']{{Dead link|date=February 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}. Macmillan International Higher Education. p. 96. {{ISBN|9781137029683}}</ref> A short but intense period of campaigning was ended with failure in 1914.

In the following period, local governments in China introduced women's suffrage in their own territories, such as [[Hunan]] and [[Guangdong]] in 1921 and [[Sichuan]] in 1923.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FXscBgAAQBAJ&q=women+suffrage+in+china+1947&pg=PA32|editor=Mikula, Maja |publisher=Routledge|year= 2006|isbn=1136782710|title=Women, Activism and Social Change: Stretching Boundaries}}</ref>

Women's suffrage was included by the [[Kuomintang]] Government in the Constitution of 1936,<ref name="China">{{cite book|title=Women and Gender in Chinese Studies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q4uzfrO3Cu0C&q=women+suffrage+in+china+1947&pg=PA5|editor=Spakowski, Nicola |publisher=LIT Verlag Münster|year= 2006|isbn=3825893049}}</ref> but because of the war, the reform could not be enacted until after the war and was finally introduced in 1947.<ref name="China" />

==== India ====
{{main|Women's suffrage in India}}
Women in India were allowed to vote right from the first general elections after the independence of India in 1947 unlike during the British rule who resisted allowing women to vote.<ref name="BBCWomen">{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-43081429|title=Did the Empire resist women's suffrage in India?|last=Biswas|first=Soutik|date=February 2, 2018|access-date=August 15, 2019}}</ref> The [[Women's Indian Association]] (WIA) was founded in 1917. It sought votes for women and the right to hold legislative office on the same basis as men. These positions were endorsed by the main political groupings, the [[Indian National Congress]].<ref name = Basu>{{cite journal|doi=10.1177/037698360803500106|title=Women's Struggle for the Vote: 1917–1937|year=2008|last1=Basu|first1=Aparna|journal=Indian Historical Review|volume=35|pages=128–143|s2cid=148755031}}</ref> British and [[Feminism in India|Indian feminists]] combined in 1918 to publish a magazine ''Stri Dharma'' that featured international news from a feminist perspective.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1080/09612020300200377|title=Writingstri dharma: International feminism, nationalist politics, and women's press advocacy in late colonial India|year=2003|last1=Elizabeth Tusan|first1=Michelle|journal=Women's History Review|volume=12|issue=4|pages=623–649|s2cid=219611926|doi-access=free}}</ref> In 1919 in the [[Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms]], the British set up provincial legislatures which had the power to grant women's suffrage. Madras in 1921 granted votes to wealthy and educated women, under the same terms that applied to men. The other provinces followed, but not the princely states (which did not have votes for men either, being monarchies).<ref name = Basu/> In [[Bengal]] province, the provincial assembly rejected it in 1921 but Southard shows an intense campaign produced victory in 1921. Success in Bengal depended on middle class Indian women, who emerged from a fast-growing urban elite. The women leaders in Bengal linked their crusade to a moderate nationalist agenda, by showing how they could participate more fully in nation-building by having voting power. They carefully avoided attacking traditional gender roles by arguing that traditions could coexist with political modernization.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1017/S0026749X00011549|title=Colonial Politics and Women's Rights: Woman Suffrage Campaigns in Bengal, British India in the 1920s|year=1993|last1=Southard|first1=Barbara|journal=Modern Asian Studies|volume=27|issue=2|pages=397–439|s2cid=145276788|doi-access=free}}</ref>

Whereas wealthy and educated women in Madras were granted voting right in 1921, in Punjab the [[Sikh]]s granted women equal voting rights in 1925, irrespective of their educational qualifications or being wealthy or poor. This happened when the Gurdwara Act of 1925 was approved. The original draft of the Gurdwara Act sent by the British to the [[Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee|Sharomani Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee]] (SGPC) did not include Sikh women, but the Sikhs inserted the clause without the women having to ask for it. Equality of women with men is enshrined in the [[Guru Granth Sahib]], the [[sacred scripture]] of the Sikh faith.

In the [[Government of India Act 1935]] the [[British Raj]] set up a system of separate electorates and separate seats for women. Most women's leaders opposed segregated electorates and demanded adult franchise. In 1931 the Congress promised universal adult franchise when it came to power. It enacted equal voting rights for both men and women in 1947.<ref name = Basu/>

==== Indonesia ====
[[Indonesia]] granted women voting rights for municipal councils in 1905. Only men who could read and write could vote, which excluded many non-European males. At the time, the [[Literacy|literacy rate]] for males was 11% and for females 2%. The main group that pressed for women's suffrage in Indonesia was the Dutch [[Vereeniging voor Vrouwenkiesrecht|Vereeninging voor Vrouwenkiesrecht]] (VVV-Women's Suffrage Association), founded in the [[Netherlands]] in 1894. VVV tried to attract Indonesian members, but had very limited success because the leaders of the organization had little skill in relating to even the educated class of Indonesians. When they eventually did connect somewhat with women, they failed to sympathize with them and ended up alienating many well-educated Indonesians. In 1918, the first national representative body, the [[Volksraad (Dutch East Indies)|Volksraad]], was formed which still excluded women from voting. Indigenous women did not organize until the [[Perikatan Perempuan Indonesia]] (PPI, Indonesian Women Association) in 1928. In 1935, the colonial administration used its power of nomination to appoint a European woman to the Volksraad. In 1938, women gained the right to be elected to urban representative institutions, which led to some Indonesian and European women entering municipal councils. Eventually, only European women and municipal councils could vote,{{Clarify|date=April 2010}}<!-- how can a municipal council be a voter? --> excluding all other women and [[Local government|local councils]]. In September 1941, the Volksraad extended the vote to women of all races. Finally, in November 1941, the right to vote for municipal councils was granted to all women on a similar basis to men (subject to property and educational qualifications).<ref name=Blackburn>{{cite journal|doi=10.1080/08164649993443|title=Winning the Vote for Women in Indonesia|year=1999|last1=Blackburn|first1=Susan|journal=Australian Feminist Studies|volume=14|issue=29|pages=207–218}}</ref>

==== Iran ====
{{see also|1963 Iranian referendum}}
[[File:1963 Iranian legislative election.jpg|thumb|left|1963 Iranian legislative election]]
Women's suffrage had been expressly excluded in the Iranian Constitution of 1906 and a women's rights movement had been organized, which supported women's suffrage.

In 1942, the [[Women's party of Iran]] (Ḥezb-e zanān-e Īrān) was founded to work to introduce the reform, and in 1944, the women's group of the [[Tudeh Party of Iran]], the [[Democratic Society of Women]] (Jāmeʿa-ye demokrāt-e zanān) put forward a suggestion of women's suffrage in the Parliament, which was however blocked by the Islamic conservatives.<ref name="iranicaonline.org">Hamideh Sedghi, [http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/feminist-movements-iii “Feminist Movements iii. In the Pahlavi Period,”] Encyclopædia Iranica, IX/5, pp. 492–498.</ref> In 1956, a new campaign for women's suffrage was launched by the [[New Path Society]] (Jamʿīyat-e rāh-e now), the Association of Women Lawyers (Anjoman-e zanān-e ḥoqūqdān) and the League of Women Supporters of Human Rights (Jamʿīyat-e zanān-e ṭarafdār-e ḥoqūq-e bašar).<ref name="iranicaonline.org"/>

After this, the reform was actively supported by the Shah and included as a part of his modernization program, the [[White Revolution]]. A [[1963 Iranian referendum|referendum in January 1963]] overwhelmingly approved by voters gave women the right to vote, a right previously denied to them under the [[Persian Constitution of 1906|Iranian Constitution of 1906]] pursuant to Chapter 2, Article 3.<ref name=Timeline />

==== Iraq ====

Full women's suffrage was introduced in Iraq in 1980.

The campaign for women's suffrage started in the 1920s. The women's movement in Iraq organized in 1923 with the ''Nahda al-Nisa'' ([[Women's Awakening Club]]), led by [[Asma al-Zahawi]] and with elite women such as Naima a-Said, and Fakhriyya al-Askari among their members.<ref name="auto">Zuhur,&nbsp;S.&nbsp;(2006).&nbsp;Iraq, Women's Empowerment, and Public Policy.&nbsp;US:&nbsp;Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College. pp. 12–13</ref>  
[[Faisal I of Iraq|King Faysal]] himself had supported women's suffrage during his prior short tenure as king in Syria.  
Feminists such as [[Mary Wazir]] and [[Paulina Hasun]] raised the issue in the 1920s.<ref name="auto"/> 
Paulina Hassan published the first Iraqi women's magazine, ''Layla'', in 1923–1925, followed by a number of women's magazines in the 1930s and 1940s that voiced feminist demands.<ref>Al-Tamimi,&nbsp;H.&nbsp;(2019).&nbsp;Women and Democracy in Iraq: Gender, Politics and Nation-Building.&nbsp;Indien:&nbsp;Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 20</ref> 
When the Constituent Assembly of Iraq was inaugurated in 1924, Paulina Hassun appealed to the Assembly that women should not be excluded from political participation in the new nation, and one of the members, Amjad al-Umari, unsuccessfully proposed that the word "male" be erased from the Electoral Law to include women in it.<ref name="auto6">Efrati,&nbsp;N.&nbsp;(2012).&nbsp;Women in Iraq: Past Meets Present.&nbsp;Tyskland:&nbsp;Columbia University Press.</ref>

The Women's suffrage reform was primarily supported by the opposition parties, notably the [[Iraqi Communist Party|Iraq Communist Party]].<ref name="auto7">Al-Tamimi,&nbsp;H.&nbsp;(2019).&nbsp;Women and Democracy in Iraq: Gender, Politics and Nation-Building.&nbsp;Indien:&nbsp;Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 21</ref>
During the 1930s, the Communist ICP and the leftist al-Ahali supported women's suffrage.<ref name="auto6"/>  
Even those supporting the reform, however, often did so with the reservation that woman should reach a higher level of education before they were ready for it.<ref name="auto7"/>

The Iraqi monarchy prioritized foreign policy rather than internal issues and showed little enthusiasm to address the issue of women's suffrage.<ref>Al-Tamimi,&nbsp;H.&nbsp;(2019).&nbsp;Women and Democracy in Iraq: Gender, Politics and Nation-Building.&nbsp;Indien:&nbsp;Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 22</ref>
The monarchy was careful to avoid alienating conservative and religious circles, who considered women's suffrage as incompatible with the  "nature" of women, the proper social order and gender hierarchies, and women's suffrage was not given refused serious consideration.<ref name="auto6"/>  
Both the Sunni and Shia clergy rejected women's suffrage as being in opposition to the natural roles of gender, as the "joke of the day", an attack on the law of nature and the proper way of life, since women were the weaker sex and "lesser persons" similar to children.<ref name="auto6"/>
When women's suffrage in Syria was introduced in 1949, MP Farhan al-Irs of al-Amara commented: "Women are shameful. How could they possibly sit with men?"<ref name="auto6"/>

In 1951 a motion to include women in the Electoral Law was rejected in the Chamber of Deputies.<ref name="auto6"/>
During the discussion to change the electoral law to include women's suffrage in March–April 1951, the MP Abd al-Abbas of Diwaniyya opposed suffrage as this would contradict Islamic sex segregation, as elected women MP would then sit among male MPs in the Chamber of Deputies: "Is this not forbidden? Are we not all of Islam?"<ref name="auto6"/> 
 
An electoral decree in December 1952 provided direct elections but did not include women.<ref name="auto6"/>
A Sunni scholar published an article in the paper al-Sijill in October 1952 named "The Crime of Equality Between Men and Women": as an imam and khatib of the mosques of Baghdad and scholar of the al-Azhar University, he stated that women's suffrage was a plot against Islam and contrary to Quranic verses which delineated gender hierarchies that made women in politics incompatible.<ref name="auto6"/>

A number of women's organization was founded in the 1940s and 1950s that campaigned for women's rights including suffrage, notably the [[Iraqi Union for Women's Rights]] (1952).<ref name="auto7"/> 
[[Naziha al-Dulaimi]] of the [[League for Defence of Women's Rights]] ([[Iraqi Women's League]]), which gathered 42,000 members, campaigned for gender equality (including suffrage), organized educational programs, provided social services, established 78 literacy centers, and drafted the 1959 Personal Status Law, which was accepted and introduced by the Government.<ref>Al-Tamimi,&nbsp;H.&nbsp;(2019).&nbsp;Women and Democracy in Iraq: Gender, Politics and Nation-Building.&nbsp;Indien:&nbsp;Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 22–25</ref> 
In the 1950s the Iraqi Women's Union petitioned senior state figures including the prime minister and wrote articles in the press.<ref name="auto6"/>

A Week of Women's Rights was launched in October 1953 by Iraqi Women's Union suffrage, who arranged a sumposium and voiced their demand in radio programs and articles in the press to campaigned for women's suffrage.<ref name="auto6"/>
As a response, the Islamic clergy launched a Week of Virtue and called for a general strike against women's suffrage and called for women to "stay at home" since women's suffrage was against Islam.<ref name="auto6"/> 
During the Week of Virtue, the Sunni Nihal al-Zahawi, daughter of Amjad al-Zahawi, head of the Muslim Sisters Society (Jamiyyat al-Aukht al-Muslima), spoke on the radio against women's suffrage: she described the suffragists as women who revolted against the very Islam that gave them rights, and that women's suffrage was lamentable since it broke sex segregation and resulted in gender mixing, which was an unrestricted liberty that broke the rules of against Islam.<ref name="auto6"/>

A breakthrough came in 1958. During the Arab Union of [[Arab Federation|Iraq-Jordan]], the Iraqi Constitution was set, in March 1958, to be amended to include women's suffrage later that year, but the matter became moot when the monarchy was abolished in July that year.<ref name="auto6"/>
An unnamed MP to the newspaper al-Hawadith that he could never run against a female candidate, since if he lost he would have lost to a woman, which would have been dishonorable, and if he won, he would only have won over a woman; he claimed many male MPs felt the same, and that voters would also feel dishonored by being represented and ruled by a woman.<ref name="auto6"/> 
The MP Tawfq al-Mukhtar commented to a reporter: "Friends, women's rights bother me a lot, and anybody who condemns or criticizes them gives me great pleasure"; he added that he would withdraw if he was put against a female candidate, and he was one of four MPs to vote against the proposed amendment of March 1958.<ref name="auto6"/>

In 1958 the Iraqi Monarchy was replaced by the Baathis regime. The early Baathist regime saw women's emancipation in many aspects, with urban liberal modernist women enjoying professional and educational equality and appearing unveiled.<ref name="auto1">Al-Tamimi,&nbsp;H.&nbsp;(2019).&nbsp;Women and Democracy in Iraq: Gender, Politics and Nation-Building.&nbsp;Indien:&nbsp;Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 23</ref>
The [[Baath Party (Iraq)|Baathist Party]] supported women's rights by principle, though it initially focused in expanding women's educational and professional rights rather than their political rights.<ref name="auto"/>
Article 19 of the Iraqi Provisional Constitution of 1970 granted all Iraqi citizens equal before the law regardless of sex, blood, language, social origin or religion, and the state women's umbrella organization [[General Foundation of Iraqi Women]] (GFIW) of 1972 guaranteed women's full equal rights in the professional and educational sphere, prevented all discrimination and recognized women's political participation in principle.<ref>Al-Tamimi,&nbsp;H.&nbsp;(2019).&nbsp;Women and Democracy in Iraq: Gender, Politics and Nation-Building.&nbsp;Indien:&nbsp;Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 25</ref>
However, while women's rights progressed in other aspects, the political rights was delayed. The regime was unstable and saw four regime changes in the 1960s.<ref name="auto1"/>

In 1980 full suffrage was granted and women were given the right to vote and be elected to political office.<ref name="auto3"/><ref name="auto4"/>
The suffrage reform was granted when the new Iraq National Assembly was formed before the 1980s Elections, and 16 of 250 seats where filled by women.<ref>Al-Tamimi,&nbsp;H.&nbsp;(2019).&nbsp;Women and Democracy in Iraq: Gender, Politics and Nation-Building.&nbsp;Indien:&nbsp;Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 26</ref>

==== Israel ====
Women have had full suffrage since the [[Israel's independence|establishment]] of the [[Israel|State of Israel]] in 1948.

In 1920, the [[Union of Hebrew Women for Equal Rights in Erez Israel]] launched a campaign that women's suffrage and equal rights for women should be included in the Jewish Authority of the British [[Mandate for Palestine|Palestina Mandate]]; in 1926, the Jewish Authority granted women's suffrage to the Jewish Authority, and declared that women would be given equal right to vote in the future Jewish State, a promise that was fullfilled upon the foundation of Israel in 1947, followed by equal rights being included in the Constitution of 1951.<ref>Safran, Hannah and Margalit Shilo. "Union of Hebrew Women for Equal Rights in Erez Israel." Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women. 23 June 2021. Jewish Women's Archive. (Viewed on October 16, 2023) <https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/union-of-hebrew-women-for-equal-rights-in-erez-israel>.</ref>

The first (and only) woman to be elected [[Prime Minister of Israel]] was [[Golda Meir]] in 1969.

==== Japan ====
[[File:Woman's Rights Meeting Tokyo.jpg|thumb|Women's Rights meeting in Tokyo, to push for women's suffrage]]
{{Main|Women's suffrage in Japan}}

Although women were allowed to vote in some prefectures in 1880, women's suffrage was enacted at a national level in 1945 with the end of the world war.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ichikawa-fusae.or.jp/110/main.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080305105909/http://www.ichikawa-fusae.or.jp/110/main.htm |archive-date=March 5, 2008 |title=The Fusae Ichikawa Memorial Association |publisher=Ichikawa-fusae.or.jp |access-date=January 8, 2011}} Retrieved from Internet Archive January 14, 2014.</ref>

The campaign for women's suffrage started in 1923, when the women's umbrella organization [[Tokyo Rengo Fujinkai]] was founded and created several sub groups to address different women's issues, one of whom, [[Fusen Kakutoku Domei]] (FKD), was to work for the introduction of women's suffrage and political rights.<ref>{{cite book|access-date=2023-05-03|date=1998|first=Edward R.|isbn=978-0-8153-2731-8|language=en|last=Beauchamp|publisher=Taylor & Francis|title=Women and Women's Issues in Post World War II Japan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mKNcjos0aH0C&dq=Tokyo+Rengo+Fujinkai&pg=PA41}}<!-- auto-translated by Module:CS1 translator --></ref> The campaign was gradually reduced due to difficulties in the 1930s fascist era; the FKD was banned after the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese war, and women's suffrage could not be introduced until it was incorporated in the new constitution after the war.<ref>Suffrage and Beyond: International Feminist Perspectives.&nbsp;(1994).&nbsp;US:&nbsp;NYU Press.</ref>

====Jordan====

The [[Arab Women's Federation]] under [[Emily Bisharat]] worked for the introduction of women's suffrage in Jordan in the 1950s.<ref name="auto5"/>

Suffrage were given to educated women in 1955, but the Federation continued to campaign for universal suffrage for women, collecting the thumb prints as signatures from illiterate women in support for women's suffrage.<ref name="auto5"/> 
Universal women's suffrage was finally granted in 1974. However, since no elections was held in Jordan until 1989, women's suffrage was not enforced until that year.

==== Korea ====
South Korean people, including South Korean women, were universally granted the vote in 1948.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://jia.sipa.columbia.edu/online-articles/empowerment-women-south-korea|title=The Empowerment of Women in South Korea|date=March 1, 2014|work=JIA SIPA|access-date=February 16, 2018|archive-date=July 31, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200731065444/https://jia.sipa.columbia.edu/online-articles/empowerment-women-south-korea|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==== Kuwait ====
{{Main|Women's suffrage in Kuwait}}
When voting was first introduced in Kuwait in 1985, Kuwaiti women had the [[right to vote]].<ref name="stat">{{Cite book|year=2001|title=African Women and Children: Crisis and Response|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|url=https://archive.org/details/africanwomenchil00rwom|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/africanwomenchil00rwom/page/8 8]|author=Apollo Rwomire|isbn=978-0-275-96218-0}}</ref> The right was later removed. In May 2005, the Kuwaiti parliament re-granted female suffrage.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4552749.stm |title=Kuwaiti women win right to vote |work=BBC News |date=May 1, 2005|access-date=January 8, 2011}}</ref>

==== Lebanon ====
{{Main|Women in Lebanon#Women's suffrage}}

The women's movement organized in Lebanon with the creation of the [[Syrian-Lebanese Women's Union]] in 1924; it split into the Women's Union under [[Ibtihaj Qaddoura]] and the [[Lebanese Women Solidarity Association]] under [[Laure Thabet]] in 1946. The women's movement united again when the two biggest women's organizations, the [[Lebanese Women's Union]] and the [[Christian Women's Solidarity Association]] created the [[Lebanese Council of Women]] in 1952 to campaign for women's suffrage, a task that finally succeeded, after an intense campaign.<ref name=Arenfeldt>{{cite book|access-date=2022-12-07|year=2012|editor=Pernille Arenfeldt, Nawar Al-Hassan Golley|isbn=978-1-61797-353-6|language=en|publisher=American University in Cairo Press|title=Mapping Arab Women's Movements: A Century of Transformations from Within|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GmpjEAAAQBAJ&dq=General+Union+of+Yemeni+Women+%28GUYS%29&pg=PT280}}<!-- auto-translated by Module:CS1 translator --></ref>

==== Oman ====
After the [[1970 Omani coup d'état]], women's position in society was being reassessed in connection to the national modernization program, and many reforms in women's rights was introduced alongside the establishment of the state feminist [[Omani Women's Association]].

The modernization in women's rights in Oman was followed by municipal suffrage in Muscat in 1994 (with the first two women elected to the local Shura the same year), municipal suffrage in all Oman in 1996, and national suffrage in 2002.<ref name="auto9"/>

==== Pakistan ====
The provinces that now constitute [[Pakistan]] were a part of northwest [[British India]] until 1947, when the [[partition of India]] occurred. Women received full suffrage in 1947. [[Women in Pakistan|Muslim women]] leaders from all classes actively supported the Pakistan movement in the mid-1940s. Their movement was led by wives and other relatives of leading politicians. Women were sometimes organized into large-scale public demonstrations.
In November 1988, [[Benazir Bhutto]] became the first Muslim woman to be elected as prime minister of a Muslim country.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Ali, Azra Asghar |title=Indian Muslim Women's Suffrage Campaign: Personal Dilemma and Communal Identity 1919–47|journal=Journal of the Pakistan Historical Society|date=April 1999|volume= 47|issue=2|pages= 33–46}}</ref>

==== Philippines ====
[[File:President Quezon signing the Women’s Suffrage Bill.jpg|thumb|Philippine President [[Manuel L. Quezon]] signing the Women's Suffrage Bill following the 1937 plebiscite]]

The Philippines was one of the first countries in Asia to grant women the right to vote.<ref name="Iwanaga-2008">{{cite book |last1=Iwanaga |first1=Kazuki |title=Women's Political Participation and Representation in Asia: Obstacles and Challenges |date=2008 |publisher=NIAS Press |isbn=978-87-7694-016-4 |page=218 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RsDXtwZyaHAC }}</ref> 
The women's movement organized in the early 20th-century in organizations such as the [[Asociacion Feminista Filipina]] (1904) the [[Society for the Advancement of Women]] (SAW) and the [[Asociaction Feminist Ilonga]], who campaigned for women's suffrage and other rights for gender equality.<ref>Kathleen Nadeau, Sangita Rayamajhi ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=FW6qAAAAQBAJ&dq=women+organisation+philippines+1898&pg=PA115 Women's Roles in Asia]''</ref> 
Suffrage for [[Filipino people|Filipinas]] was achieved following an all-female, [[1937 Philippine women's suffrage plebiscite|special plebiscite]] held on April 30, 1937. 447,725&nbsp;– some ninety percent&nbsp;– voted in favour of women's suffrage against 44,307 who voted no. In compliance with the [[Philippine Commonwealth Constitution|1935 Constitution]], the [[National Assembly of the Philippines|National Assembly]] passed a law which extended the right of suffrage to women, which remains to this day.<ref name="Rappaport-2001">{{cite book |last1=Rappaport |first1=Helen |title=Encyclopedia of Women Social Reformers |date=2001 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-57607-101-4 |page=224 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rpuSzowmIkgC }}</ref><ref name="Iwanaga-2008" />

====Qatar ====

[[Qatar]] formally introduced women's suffrage in 1997.<ref>Taylor,&nbsp;M.,&nbsp;Symonds,&nbsp;D.&nbsp;(2017).&nbsp;Studying Musical Theatre: Theory and Practice.&nbsp;Storbritannien:&nbsp;Palgrave Macmillan. p. 137</ref>

==== Saudi Arabia ====
In late September 2011, [[King of Saudi Arabia|King]] [[Abdullah of Saudi Arabia|Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud]] declared that women would be able to vote and run for office [[2015 Saudi Arabian municipal elections|starting in 2015]]. That applies to the municipal councils, which are the kingdom's only semi-elected bodies. Half of the seats on municipal councils are elective, and the councils have few powers.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Al Haydar |first1=Tariq |title=In Saudi Arabia, a Quiet Step Forward for Women |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/10/in-saudi-arabia-a-quiet-step-forward-for-women/247351/ |url-access=subscription |access-date=31 January 2024 |website=[[The Atlantic]] |date=26 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121028144843/https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/10/in-saudi-arabia-a-quiet-step-forward-for-women/247351/ |archive-date=28 October 2012}}{{cbignore}}</ref> The council elections have been held since 2005 (the first time they were held before that was the 1960s).<ref name="Reu01">{{cite news |last1=Alsharif |first1=Asma |title=Update 2-Saudi king gives women right to vote |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/saudi-king-women-idUSL5E7KP0IB20110925 |url-access=subscription |access-date=31 January 2024 |work=[[Reuters]] |date=25 September 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160313142625/https://www.reuters.com/article/saudi-king-women-idUSL5E7KP0IB20110925/ |archive-date=13 March 2016}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/saudi-king-women-given-right-to-vote-for-first-time-in-2015-nationwide-local-elections/2011/09/25/gIQAt4wwvK_story.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181215030318/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/saudi-king-women-given-right-to-vote-for-first-time-in-2015-nationwide-local-elections/2011/09/25/gIQAt4wwvK_story.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 15, 2018 |title=Saudi monarch grants kingdom's women right to vote, but driving ban remains in force |newspaper=The Washington Post }}</ref> Saudi women did first vote and first run for office in December 2015, for those councils.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2015/12/12/saudi-women-vote-for-the-first-time-in-landmark-election|title=Saudi women vote for the first time, testing boundaries |work=U.S. News & World Report}}</ref> [[Salma bint Hizab al-Oteibi]] became the first elected female politician in Saudi Arabia in December 2015, when she won a seat on the council in Madrakah in Mecca province.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35086357|title=Saudi Arabia: First women councillors elected|newspaper=BBC News|date=December 1, 2015}}</ref> In all, the December 2015 election in Saudi Arabia resulted in twenty women being elected to municipal councils.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.foxnews.com/world/saudi-voters-elect-20-women-candidates-for-the-first-time/|title=Saudi voters elect 20 women candidates for the first time|work=Fox News |date=December 13, 2015 }}</ref>

The king declared in 2011 that women would be eligible to be appointed to the [[Consultative Assembly of Saudi Arabia|Shura Council]], an unelected body that issues advisory opinions on national policy.<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15052030 "Women in Saudi Arabia to vote and run in elections"], BBC, September 25, 2011</ref> {{'"}}This is great news," said Saudi writer and women's rights activist [[Wajeha al-Huwaider]]. "Women's voices will finally be heard. Now it is time to remove other barriers like not allowing [[Women to drive movement|women to drive]] cars and not being able to function, to live a normal life without male guardians.{{"'}} [[Robert Lacey]], author of two books about the kingdom, said, "This is the first positive, progressive speech out of the government since the [[Arab Spring]].... First the warnings, then the payments, now the beginnings of solid reform." The king made the announcement in a five-minute speech to the Shura Council.<ref name="Reu01"/> In January 2013, [[Abdullah of Saudi Arabia|King Abdullah]] issued two royal decrees, granting women thirty seats on the council, and stating that women must always hold at least a fifth of the seats on the council.<ref name="foxnews1">{{cite news|url=https://www.foxnews.com/world/saudi-king-grants-women-seats-on-advisory-council-for-1st-time/|title=Saudi king grants women seats on advisory council for 1st time|work=Fox News|date=May 14, 2012|access-date=January 12, 2013}}</ref> According to the decrees, the female council members must be "committed to Islamic Shariah disciplines without any violations" and be "restrained by the religious veil".<ref name="foxnews1"/> The decrees also said that the female council members would be entering the council building from special gates, sit in seats reserved for women and pray in special worshipping places.<ref name="foxnews1"/> Earlier, officials said that a screen would separate genders and an internal communications network would allow men and women to communicate.<ref name="foxnews1"/> Women first joined the council in 2013, holding a total of thirty seats.<ref name="saudigazette1">{{cite news|url=http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20130225154468 |title=Women on 3 Shoura panels |newspaper=Saudi Gazette |date=February 25, 2013 |access-date=April 3, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150218023529/http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20130225154468 |archive-date=February 18, 2015 }}</ref><ref name=mul23feb>{{cite news|last=Al Mulhim|first=Abdulateef|title=Saudi Stability and Royal Succession|url=http://www.grc.net/?Search=&frm_title=&frm_action=detail_book&frm_module=contents&frm_researchprogramid=77&p_id=&sec=Research+Programs&book_id=80338&frm_pageno=&sec_type=d&isgrc=&frm_type_id=&override=Research+Program+Detail+%3E+Saudi+Stability+and+Royal+Succession&op_lang=en|access-date=April 12, 2013|newspaper=Arab News|date=February 23, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160104203009/http://www.grc.net/?Search=&frm_title=&frm_action=detail_book&frm_module=contents&frm_researchprogramid=77&p_id=&sec=Research+Programs&book_id=80338&frm_pageno=&sec_type=d&isgrc=&frm_type_id=&override=Research+Program+Detail+%3E+Saudi+Stability+and+Royal+Succession&op_lang=en|archive-date=January 4, 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> There are two Saudi royal women among these thirty female members of the assembly, [[Sara bint Faisal Al Saud]] and [[Moudi bint Khalid Al Saud]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Breakthrough in Saudi Arabia: women allowed in parliament|url=http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2013/01/11/259881.html|access-date=August 11, 2013|newspaper=Al Arabiya|date=January 11, 2013}}</ref> Furthermore, in 2013 three women were named as deputy chairpersons of three committees: Thurayya Obeid was named deputy chairwoman of the human rights and petitions committee, Zainab Abu Talib, deputy chairwoman of the information and cultural committee, and Lubna Al Ansari, deputy chairwoman of the health affairs and environment committee.<ref name="saudigazette1"/>

====Syria====

Women's suffrage was introduced in Syria in 1953.

While the women's suffrage reform was supported by the women's magazine ''[[Nur al-Fayha|Nur al-Faya]]'' of [[Nazik al-Abid]] and ''[[Al-'Arus|al-Arus]]'' of Mary Ajami, there was no organized suffrage movement in Syria, and the majority was convinced that women preserved their virtue by staying away from politics.<ref name="auto8">Meininghaus, E. (2016). Creating Consent in Ba‘thist Syria: Women and Welfare in a Totalitarian State. Storbritannien: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 57</ref>

In 1920, the feminist [[Mary Ajami]] presented a petition to the Syrian Congress of 1920 during the [[Faisal of Syria|Faisal]]-Government, but the subject was postphoned and forgotten after the fall of the Faisal regime.<ref name="auto8"/> 
When the petition of women's suffrage was discussed in the Syrian Congress in 1920, [[Sheikh|Shaykh]] Abd al-Qadir al-Kaylani stated that to given women the right to vote would be the same thing as abolish sex segregation and allow women to appear unveiled.<ref>Thompson, E. (2000). Colonial Citizens: Republican Rights, Paternal Privilege, and Gender in French Syria and Lebanon. USA: Columbia University Press. p. 128</ref>

In the 1930s and 1940s, the [[Arab Women's Union of Damascus]] presented a women's suffrage petition to President [[Hashim al-Atassi]] and to President [[Shukri al-Quwatli]], as well as directly to the Parliament.<ref>Meininghaus, E. (2016). Creating Consent in Ba‘thist Syria: Women and Welfare in a Totalitarian State. Storbritannien: Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 65</ref>
When the influential feminist [[Adila Bayhum]] gave her support to [[Husni al-Za'im]], he promised her to introduce women's suffrage when he came to power in 1949, and the reform was finally introduced in 1953.<ref>Moubayed,&nbsp;S.&nbsp;M.&nbsp;(2006).&nbsp;Steel & Silk: Men and Women who Shaped Syria 1900–2000.&nbsp;US:&nbsp;Cune. pp. 430–432</ref>

==== Sri Lanka ====
{{main|Women's suffrage in Sri Lanka}}
In 1931, [[Sri Lanka]] (at that time Ceylon) became one of the first Asian countries to allow voting rights to women over the age of 21 without any restrictions. Since then, women have enjoyed a significant presence in the Sri Lankan political arena.

The women's movement organized on Sri Lanka under the [[Ceylon Women's Union]] in 1904, and from 1925, the [[Mallika Kulangana Samitiya]] and then the [[Women's Franchise Union]] (WFU) campaigned successfully for the introduction of women's suffrage, which was achieved in 1931.<ref>Neloufer De Mel ''[https://books.google.se/books?id=h0f_D1qiXQgC&pg=PA25&dq=women%27s+franchise+union+sri+lanka+ceylon+1927&hl=sv&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwifgKi7ta_8AhW6QvEDHesNBjAQ6AF6BAgFEAI#v=onepage&q=women's%20franchise%20union%20sri%20lanka%20ceylon%201927&f=false Women & the Nation's Narrative: Gender and Nationalism in Twentieth Century]''</ref>

The zenith of this favourable condition to women has been the 1960 July General Elections, in which Ceylon elected the world's first female prime minister, [[Sirimavo Bandaranaike]]. She became the world's first democratically elected female head of government. Her daughter, [[Chandrika Kumaratunga]] also became the Prime Minister later in 1994, and the same year she was elected as the [[Executive president]] of Sri Lanka, making her the fourth woman in the world to be elected president, and the first female executive president.

==== Thailand ====
The Ministry of Interior's Local Administrative Act of May 1897 (Phraraachabanyat 1897 [BE 2440]) granted municipal suffrage in the election of village leader to all villagers "whose house or houseboat was located in that village," and explicitly included women voters who met the qualifications.<ref name="Bowie2010WomensSI">{{cite journal|title=Women's Suffrage in Thailand: A Southeast Asian Historiographical Challenge|author=Katherine A. Bowie|journal=Comparative Studies in Society and History|year=2010|volume=52|issue=4|pages=708–741|doi=10.1017/S0010417510000435|s2cid=144561001|doi-access=free}}</ref> 
This was a part of the far-reaching administrative reforms enacted by King [[Chulalongkorn]] (r. 1868–1919), in his efforts to protect Thai sovereignty.<ref name="Bowie2010WomensSI"/>

In the new constitution introduced after the [[Siamese revolution of 1932]], which transformed Siam from an absolute monarchy to a parliamentary constitutional monarchy, women were granted the right to vote and run for office.<ref name="Loos">Loos, Tamara Lynn (2006) ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=C5ZcrsWCCtEC&dq=women%27s+suffrage+thailand+1932&pg=PA174 Subject Siam: Family, Law, and Colonial Modernity in Thailand]''. Cornell University Press. p. 174. {{ISBN|9780801443930}}</ref> This reform was enacted without any prior activism in favor of women's suffrage and was followed by a number of reforms in women's rights, and it has been suggested that the reform was part of an effort by [[Pridi Bhanomyong]] to put Thailand on 
equal political terms with modern Western powers and establish diplomatic recognition by those as a modern nation.<ref name="Loos"/> The new right was used for the first time in 1933, and the first female MPs were elected in 1949.

====United Arab Emirates ====

The [[United Arab Emirates]] formally introduced women's suffrage in 2006.<ref>Jenkins,&nbsp;J.&nbsp;D.&nbsp;(2020).&nbsp;Exploring Women's Suffrage Through 50 Historic Treasures.&nbsp;USA:&nbsp;Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.</ref>

==== Yemen ====

Historically Yemen was divided in two nations prior to its unification in 1990, both of whom already had women's suffrage prior to the unification. The history of women's suffrage is therefore split.

Women's suffrage was granted in [[South Yemen]] in 1967.<ref>Manea,&nbsp;E.&nbsp;(2012).&nbsp;The Arab State and Women's Rights: The Trap of Authoritarian Governance.&nbsp;Storbritannien:&nbsp;Taylor & Francis. p. 3</ref> 
The reform was a part of a number of reforms introduced in women's rights under Socialist rule. When the [[People's Democratic Republic of Yemen]] was founded as an independent nation under the Socialist NLF Party in 1967, the [[General Union of Yemeni Women]] was founded as a part of the regime's policy. The purpose of the GUYW was to enforce the official women's policy of the People's Democratic Republic regime, which was a radical and ambitions [[state feminism]].<ref>Mapping Arab Women's Movements: A Century of Transformations from Within.&nbsp;(2012).&nbsp;Egypten:&nbsp;American University in Cairo Press. pp. 17, 215–218</ref>

Women's suffrage was granted in North Yemen in 1970. The Northern [[Yemen Arab Republic]] was a deeply conservative state with sharia law and no strong women's movement, were no reforms in women's rights were not prioritised during the Yemen civil war of 1962–1970. 
However, the Second Permanent Constitution of 1970 stated that "all citizens are equal before the law"; and while this phrase did not explicitly include women, women voters used this phrase to vote in the next election, which was held in 1983.<ref>Manea,&nbsp;E.&nbsp;(2012).&nbsp;The Arab State and Women's Rights: The Trap of Authoritarian Governance.&nbsp;Storbritannien:&nbsp;Taylor & Francis. p. 4</ref>

=== Europe ===
[[File:Savka Dabcevic Kucar.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Savka Dabčević-Kučar]], [[Croatian Spring]] participant; Europe's first female prime minister]]

In Europe, the first two countries to enact women's suffrage were Finland in 1906 and Denmark in 1913, and the last two were [[Switzerland]] and [[Liechtenstein]]. In Switzerland, women gained the [[Women's suffrage in Switzerland|right to vote]] in federal [[Elections in Switzerland|elections]] in 1971;<ref name="switzerland-chronology2">{{cite web|url=http://history-switzerland.geschichte-schweiz.ch/chronology-womens-right-vote-switzerland.html|title=The Long Way to Women's Right to Vote in Switzerland: a Chronology|website=history-switzerland.geschichte-schweiz.ch|publisher=History of Switzerland|access-date=January 8, 2011}}</ref> but in the canton of [[Appenzell Innerrhoden]] women obtained the right to vote on local issues only in 1991, when the canton was forced to do so by the [[Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland]].<ref name="wom1373">{{cite press release |url=https://www.un.org/press/en/2003/WOM1373.doc.htm |title=Experts in Women's Anti-Discrimination Committee Raise Questions Concerning Reports of Switzerland on Compliance with Convention |id=WOM/1373 |date=January 14, 2003 |website=United Nations |access-date=June 6, 2021}}</ref> In Liechtenstein, women were given the right to vote by the [[1984 Liechtenstein women's suffrage referendum|women's suffrage referendum of 1984]]. Three prior referendums held in [[1968 Liechtenstein women's suffrage referendum|1968]], [[1971 Liechtenstein women's suffrage referendum|1971]] and [[1973 Liechtenstein women's suffrage referendum|1973]] had failed to secure women's right to vote.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://ohrh.law.ox.ac.uk/womens-suffrage-in-switzerland/|title=Women's Suffrage in Switzerland|date=February 1, 2018|work=OHRH|access-date=May 23, 2018}}</ref>

==== Albania ====
Albania introduced a limited and conditional form of women's suffrage in 1920, and subsequently provided full voting rights in 1945.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.swedenabroad.com/ImageVaultFiles/id_38954/cf_347/Women_in_Politics.PDF |title=Albanian Women Participation in Politics and Decision-Making|publisher=Gender Alliance for Development|place=Tirana|date= November 2015|access-date=2016-09-30 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161002061701/http://www.swedenabroad.com/ImageVaultFiles/id_38954/cf_347/Women_in_Politics.PDF |archive-date=2016-10-02 }}</ref>

==== Andorra ====

The Principality of Andorra introduced women's suffrage in 1970 (third last in Europe), though Andorra did not have a democratic constitution until 1993.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qH9eEAAAQBAJ&dq=women%27s+suffrage+andorra+1970&pg=PA7 | title=Andorra | isbn=9781502663023 | last1=Harts | first1=Shannon | date=December 15, 2021 | publisher=Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC }}</ref>

In 1969, 3708 signatures demanding women's suffrage and eligibility was presented to the Andorra Council Parliament. In April 1970, women's suffrage was introduced after a vote with 10 votes for and eight against, while however eligibility was voted down.<ref name="ara.ad">{{Cite web|url=https://www.ara.ad/politica/merce-bonell-consell-general-espantada_1_1393186.html|title=Mercè Bonell: "Vaig entrar al Consell General espantada"|first=Francesc|last=Alguacil|date=March 7, 2017|website=Ara Andorra}}</ref> Women's eligibility was introduced on 5 September 1973.<ref name="ara.ad"/> The first woman became MP in 1984.

==== Austria ====
{{main|Women's suffrage in Austria}}
After the breakdown of the [[Habsburg monarchy]] in 1918, [[Austria]] granted the general, equal, direct and secret right to vote to all citizens, regardless of sex, through the change of the electoral code in December 1918.<ref name="demokratiezentrum"/> The first elections in which women participated were the [[1919 Austrian Constituent Assembly election|February 1919 Constituent Assembly elections]].<ref>{{cite web| title = 85 Jahre allgemeines Frauenwahlrecht in Österreich| url = http://www.onb.ac.at/ariadne/projekte/frauen_waehlet/index.html| publisher = Österreichische Nationalbibliothek| access-date = September 1, 2011| url-status=dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110306075818/http://www.onb.ac.at/ariadne/projekte/frauen_waehlet/index.html| archive-date = March 6, 2011}}</ref>

==== Azerbaijan ====
{{Main|Women in Azerbaijan#Voting Rights}}

Universal voting rights were recognized in Azerbaijan in 1918 by the [[Azerbaijan Democratic Republic]].<ref name="Tadeusz Swietochowski 2004. p. 144"/> Thus, making Azerbaijan the first Muslim-majority country to enfranchise women.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://euneighbourseast.eu/young-european-ambassadors/blog/blog-azerbaijani-women-who-wrote-history/#:~:text=During%20the%20Azerbaijan%20People's%20Republic,women%20the%20right%20to%20vote |title=Azerbaijani women who wrote history |date=May 15, 2023 |publisher=EU Neighbours East |access-date=2024-05-10}}</ref> This early commitment to women's rights was part of a broader movement towards secularization and modernization in the country.

==== Belgium ====
[[File:C1910 Jane Brigode Belgian suffragist.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Jane Brigode]], Belgian suffragist, {{Circa|1910}}]]
A revision of the constitution in October 1921 (it changed art. 47 of the [[Constitution of Belgium|Constitution of Belgium of 1831]]) introduced the general right to vote according to the "one man, one vote" principle. Art. 47 allowed widows of World War&nbsp;I to vote at the national level as well.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.verfassungen.eu/b/belgien31-index.htm|title=Verfassung des Königreichs Belgien (1831)|website=www.verfassungen.eu}}</ref> <!--- a sentence in the new Art. 47 says that it is possible to create an electoral law giving the same voting rights as to men - and fixed that such el. laws needed a 2/3 majority to pass. see [[Special law#Belgium]]---> The introduction of women's suffrage was already put onto the agenda at the time, by means of including an article in the constitution that allowed approval of women's suffrage by [[Special law#Belgium|special law]] (meaning it needed a 2/3 majority to pass).<ref>this 2/3 majority had been fixed in 1921 when Art. 47 was changed as mentioned above</ref> Belgian socialists opposed the women's suffrage, fearing their conservative leanings and their "domination" by the clergy.<ref name="Colomer-2001">{{Cite book |last=Colomer |first=Josep M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Uif6pJn6WHUC |title=Political Institutions: Democracy and Social Choice |date=2001 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-152925-2 |pages=36 |language=en}}</ref> This happened on March 27, 1948. In Belgium, voting is compulsory.

==== Bulgaria ====
Bulgaria left Ottoman rule in 1878. Although the first adopted constitution, the [[Tarnovo Constitution]] (1879), gave women equal election rights, in fact women were disenfranchised, not allowed to vote and to be elected. The [[Bulgarian Women's Union]] was an umbrella organization of the 27 local women's organisations that had been established in Bulgaria since 1878. It was founded as a reply to the limitations of women's education and access to university studies in the 1890s, with the goal to further women's intellectual development and participation, arranged national congresses and used ''Zhenski glas'' as its organ. However, they had limited success, and women were allowed to vote and to be elected only after when [[People's Republic of Bulgaria|Communist rule]] was established.

==== Croatia ====
{{Main|Women in Croatia#Legal status}}
{{Expand section|date=June 2016}}

==== Czech Republic ====
In the former [[Bohemia]], taxpaying women and women in "learned profession[s]" were allowed to vote by proxy and made eligible to the legislative body in 1864.<ref name="jstor.org">{{cite journal|last1=Ray|first1=P. Orman|title=Woman Suffrage in Foreign Countries|journal=American Political Science Review|date=2013|volume=12|issue=3|pages=469–74|doi=10.2307/1946097|jstor=1946097|s2cid=146961744 }}</ref> The first Czech female MP was elected to the Diet of Bohemia in 1912. The Declaration of Independence of the Czechoslovak Nation from October 18, 1918, declared that "our democracy shall rest on universal suffrage. Women shall be placed on equal footing with men, politically, socially, and culturally," and women were appointed to the Revolutionary National Assembly (parliament) on November 13, 1918. On June 15, 1919, women voted in local elections for the first time. Women were guaranteed equal voting rights by the [[Czechoslovak Constitution of 1920|constitution of the Czechoslovak Republic]] in February 1920 and were able to vote for the parliament for the first time in [[1920 Czechoslovak parliamentary election|April 1920]].<ref>{{Citation |publisher = Édition de la Société l'effort de la tchécoslovaquie|location = Prague|title = The constitution of the Czechoslovak Republic|author = Czechoslovakia|date = 1920|oclc = 3474827|at = Section II. §§ 9–15|ol = 23290715M}}</ref>

==== Cyprus ====

Cyprus had no organized women's movement until the mid-20th century and no activism in favor of women's suffrage, which was introduced in the new constitution of 1961 after the liberation from Britain, simply because women's suffrage had at that point came to be regarded as a given thing in international democratic standard.<ref>Vassiliadou, Myria (1997) Herstory: The Missing Woman of Cyprus, The Cyprus. Review, Vol. 9, Spring No. 1, pp. 95–120.</ref>

==== Denmark ====
{{See also|Women in Denmark#Women's suffrage}}
[[File:Marie Luplau - Fra Kvindevalgretskampens første dage (1897),.jpg|thumb|Line luplau seen in the foreground on her daughter [[Marie Luplau]]'s large group portrait painting ''From the Early Days of the Fight for Women's Suffrage'' (1897)]]
In Denmark, the [[Danish Women's Society]] (DK) debated, and informally supported, women's suffrage from 1884, but it did not support it publicly until in 1887, when it supported the suggestion of the parliamentarian [[Fredrik Bajer]] to grant women municipal suffrage.<ref name="Dansk Kvindebiografisk Leksikon">Dansk Kvindebiografisk Leksikon</ref> In 1886, in response to the perceived overcautious attitude of DK in the question of women suffrage, [[Matilde Bajer]] founded the ''[[Kvindelig Fremskridtsforening]]'' (or KF, 1886–1904) to deal exclusively with the right to suffrage, both in municipal and national elections, and it 1887, the Danish women publicly demanded the right for women's suffrage for the first time through the KF. However, as the KF was very much involved with worker's rights and pacifist activity, the question of women's suffrage was in fact not given full attention, which led to the establishment of the strictly women's suffrage movement ''[[Kvindevalgretsforeningen]]'' (1889–1897).<ref name="Dansk Kvindebiografisk Leksikon"/> In 1890, the KF and the Kvindevalgretsforeningen united with five women's trade worker's unions to found the ''[[De samlede Kvindeforeninger]]'', and through this form, an active women's suffrage campaign was arranged through agitation and demonstration. However, after having been met by compact resistance, the Danish suffrage movement almost discontinued with the dissolution of the De samlede Kvindeforeninger in 1893.<ref name="Dansk Kvindebiografisk Leksikon"/>

In 1898, an [[umbrella organization]], the ''[[Danske Kvindeforeningers Valgretsforbund]]'' or DKV was founded and became a part of the [[International Woman Suffrage Alliance]] (IWSA).<ref name="Dansk Kvindebiografisk Leksikon"/> In 1907, the [[Landsforbundet for Kvinders Valgret]] (LKV) was founded by [[Elna Munch]], [[Johanne Rambusch]] and [[Marie Hjelmer]] in reply to what they considered to be the much too careful attitude of the [[Danish Women's Society]]. The LKV originated from a local suffrage association in Copenhagen, and like its rival DKV, it successfully organized other such local associations nationally.<ref name="Dansk Kvindebiografisk Leksikon"/>

Women won the right to vote in municipal elections on April&nbsp;20, 1908. However it was not until June&nbsp;5, 1915 that they were allowed to vote in [[Rigsdagen|Rigsdag]] elections.<ref>[http://www.db-decision.de/CoRe/Denmark.htm Report from Denmark] in European Database Women in Decision-making.</ref>

==== Estonia ====
Estonia gained its independence in 1918 with the [[Estonian War of Independence]]. However, the first official elections were held in 1917. These were the elections of temporary council (i.e. Maapäev), which ruled Estonia from 1917 to 1919. Since then, women have had the right to vote.

The parliament elections were held in 1920. After the elections, two women got into the parliament – history teacher [[Emma Asson]] and journalist [[Alma Ostra-Oinas]]. Estonian parliament is called [[Riigikogu]] and during the First Republic of Estonia it used to have 100 seats.

==== Finland ====
[[File:Women in Finnish Parliament (1907).jpg|thumb|13 of the total of 19 female MPs, who were the first female MPs in the world, elected in [[1907 Finnish parliamentary election|Finland's parliamentary elections in 1907]]]]

The area that in 1809 became [[Finland]] had been a group of integral provinces of the [[Kingdom of Sweden]] for over 600 years. Thus, women in Finland were allowed to vote during the Swedish [[Age of Liberty]] (1718–1772), during which conditional suffrage was granted to tax-paying female members of [[guild]]s.<ref name="Karlsson-Sjögren 1866">* Åsa Karlsson-Sjögren: ''Männen, kvinnorna och rösträtten : medborgarskap och representation 1723–1866'' ("Men, women and the vote: citizenship and representation 1723–1866") (in Swedish)</ref> However, this right was controversial. In [[Vaasa]], there was opposition against women participating in the town hall discussing political issues, as this was not seen as their right place, and women's suffrage appears to have been opposed in practice in some parts of the realm: when [[Anna Elisabeth Baer]] and two other women petitioned to vote in Turku in 1771, they were not allowed to do so by town officials.<ref name="books.google.se">Heinonen, Jarna and Vainio-Korhonen, Kirsi (2018) ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=tnlTDwAAQBAJ&dq=civil+code+1734+sweden+women&pg=PT153 Women in Business Families: From Past to Present]''. Routledge. {{ISBN|9781351796583}}.</ref>

The predecessor state of modern [[Finland]], the [[Grand Duchy 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 countryside, and in 1872, the same reform was implemented in the cities.<ref name="jstor.org"/> 
The issue of women's suffrage was first raised by the women's movement when it organized in the [[Finnish Women's Association]] (1884), and the first organization exclusively devoted to the issue of suffrage was [[Naisasialiitto Unioni]] (1892).<ref>Aura Korppi-Tommola (toim.): Tavoitteena tasa-arvo. Suomen Naisyhdistys 125 vuotta. SKS, 2009. {{ISBN|978-952-222-110-0}}</ref>

In 1906, Finland became the first province in the world to implement racially-equal women's suffrage, unlike Australia in 1902. Finland also elected the world's first female members of parliament [[1907 Finnish parliamentary election|the following year]].<ref name="eduskunta.fi" /><ref name="web.archive.org" /> In 1907, the first general election in Finland that had been open to women took place. Nineteen women were elected which was less than 10% of the total members of parliament. The successful women included [[Lucina Hagman]], [[Miina Sillanpää]], [[Anni Huotari]], [[Hilja Pärssinen]], [[Hedvig Gebhard]], [[Ida Aalle]], [[Mimmi Kanervo]], [[Eveliina Ala-Kulju]], [[Hilda Käkikoski]], [[Liisi Kivioja]], [[Sandra Lehtinen]], [[Dagmar Neovius]], [[Maria Raunio]], [[Alexandra Gripenberg]], [[Iida Vemmelpuu]], [[Maria Laine]], [[Jenny Nuotio]] and [[Hilma Räsänen]]. Many had expected more. A few women realised that the women of Finland needed to seize this opportunity and organisation and education would be required. Newly elected MPs Lucina Hagman and [[Maikki Friberg]] together with [[Olga Oinola]], [[Aldyth Hultin]], Mathilda von Troil, [[Ellinor Ingman-Ivalo]], Sofia Streng and [[Olga Österberg]] founded the [[Finnish Women's Association]]'s first branch in Helsinki.<ref name=list>{{Cite web|url=https://naisliittohelsinki.fi/index.php?k=225852|title=Suomalainen Naisliitto – Historia|website=www.naisliittohelsinki.fi|language=fi|access-date=2020-01-18}}</ref> [[Miina Sillanpää]] became Finland's first female government minister in 1926.<ref name="finland.fi_female">{{cite web|url=https://finland.fi/life-society/real-bridge-builder-became-finlands-first-female-government-minister/ |title=Real bridge-builder became Finland's first female government minister |publisher=Finland.fi |date=2018-12-31 |access-date=2021-10-07}}</ref>

==== France ====
The April&nbsp;21, 1944 ordinance of the [[French Committee of National Liberation]], confirmed in October 1944 by the [[Provisional Government of the French Republic|French provisional government]], extended the suffrage to French women.<ref>{{cite web|author=Maury, Jean-Pierre  |url=http://mjp.univ-perp.fr/france/co1944-2.htm |title=Ordonnance du 21 avril 1944 relative à l'organisation des pouvoirs publics en France après la Libération |publisher=Mjp.univ-perp.fr |access-date=January 8, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/histoire/femmes/citoyennete_politique_de-Gaulle.asp |title=La citoyenneté politique des femmes&nbsp;– La décision du Général de Gaulle |author=Assemblée nationale |access-date=December 19, 2007 |language=fr}}</ref> The first elections with female participation were the municipal elections of April&nbsp;29, 1945 and the [[1945 French legislative election|parliamentary elections]] of 21 October 1945. "Indigenous [[Muslim]]" women in [[French Algeria]] also known as Colonial Algeria, had to wait until a July 3, 1958, decree.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.patrick-weil.com/Fichiers%20du%20site/2005%20-%20Le%20statut%20des%20musulmans%20en%20Alg%C3%A9rie%20coloniale%20(Doc.%20fran%C3%A7aise).pdf |title=Le statut des musulmans en Algérie coloniale. Une nationalité française dénaturée |author=Patrick Weil |publisher=in La Justice en Algérie 1830–1962, La Documentation française, Collection Histoire de la Justice, Paris, 2005, pp. 95–109 |access-date=December 19, 2007 |language=fr |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071023230221/http://www.patrick-weil.com/Fichiers%20du%20site/2005%20-%20Le%20statut%20des%20musulmans%20en%20Alg%C3%A9rie%20coloniale%20(Doc.%20fran%C3%A7aise).pdf |archive-date=October 23, 2007 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |url=http://clio.revues.org/document524.html |title=1945–1958 : un million et demi de citoyennes interdites de vote ! |journal=Clio |author=Lefeuvre, Daniel |date=March 26, 2003 |issue=1 |access-date=December 19, 2007 |language=fr|doi=10.4000/clio.524 |doi-access=free |url-access=subscription }}</ref> 

Although several countries had started extending suffrage to women from the end of the 19th century, France was one of the last countries to do so in Europe. In fact, the [[Napoleonic Code]] declares the legal and political incapacity of women, which blocked attempts to give women political rights.<ref name="Europe 1">{{cite web |last1=des Cars |first1=Jean |title=Le Saviez-Vous ? La France est l'un des derniers pays d'Europe à avoir autorisé le droit de vote des femmes |url=https://www.europe1.fr/emissions/Au-coeur-de-l-histoire/le-saviez-vous-la-france-est-lun-des-derniers-pays-deurope-a-avoir-autorise-le-droit-de-vote-des-femmes-3953530 |website=Europe 1 |date=March 7, 2020 |access-date=March 7, 2020}}</ref> First feminist claims started emerging during the French Revolution in 1789. [[Condorcet]] expressed his support for women's right to vote in an article published in [[Journal de la Société de 1789]], but his project failed.<ref name="Gouvernement">{{cite web |title=Les Françaises obtiennent le droit de vote |url=https://www.gouvernement.fr/partage/10120-21-avril-1944-les-francaises-obtiennent-le-droit-de-vote |website=Gouvernement}}</ref> On 17 January 1913, [[Marie Denizard]] was the first woman to stand as a candidate in a French [[Presidential elections in France|presidential election]] but the state refused to acknowledge her.<ref>{{Cite news |title=TimesMachine: Tuesday January 14, 1913  |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1913/01/14/issue.html |access-date=2024-11-04 |work=The New York Times |language=en |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> After [[World War I]], French women continued demanding political rights, and despite the [[Chamber of Deputies]] being in favor, the [[Senate]] continuously refused to analyze the law proposal.<ref name="Gouvernement"/> Socialists, and more generally, the political left repeatedly opposed the right to vote for women because they feared their more conservative preferences and their "domination" by priests.<ref name="Europe 1"/><ref name="Colomer-2001" /> It was only after [[World War II]] that women were granted political rights.

==== Georgia ====
Upon its declaration of independence on May 26, 1918, in the aftermath of the [[Russian Revolution]], the [[Democratic Republic of Georgia]] extended suffrage to its female citizens. The women of Georgia first exercised their right to vote in the [[1919 Georgian parliamentary election|1919 legislative election]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Georgian archive showcases women in politics in 1919–1921|url=http://agenda.ge/news/31613/eng|access-date=March 8, 2018|work=Agenda.ge|date=March 16, 2015}}</ref>

==== Germany ====
Women were granted the right to vote and be elected from November 12, 1918. The [[Weimar Constitution]] established a "new" Germany after the [[end of World War I]] and extended the right to vote to all citizens above the age of 20, with some exceptions.<ref name=Timeline />

==== Greece ====
Greece had [[universal suffrage]] since its independence in 1832, but this suffrage excluded women. The first proposal to give Greek women the right to vote was made on May 19, 1922, by a member of parliament, supported by then Prime Minister [[Dimitrios Gounaris]], during a constitutional convention.<ref name="GGE">{{Citation |title=Ἑλλάς – Ἑλληνισμὸς |url=http://anemi.lib.uoc.gr/php/pdf_pager.php?filename=%2Fvar%2Fwww%2Fanemi-portal%2Fmetadata%2Fa%2Ff%2Fb%2Fattached-metadata-01-0002588%2F279838_10.pdf&rec=%2Fmetadata%2Fa%2Ff%2Fb%2Fmetadata-01-0002588.tkl&do=279838_10.pdf&width=662&height=963&pagestart=1&maxpage=1104&lang=en&pageno=1&pagenotop=1&pagenobottom=262 |work=Μεγάλη Ἐλληνικὴ Ἐγκυκλοπαιδεῖα |volume=10 |location=Athens |publisher=Pyrsos Co. Ltd. |date=1934 |trans-title=Greece – Hellenism |page=871}}</ref> The proposal garnered a narrow majority of those present when it was first proposed, but failed to get the broad 80% support needed to add it to the constitution.<ref name="GGE" /> In 1925 consultations began again, and a law was passed allowing women the right to vote in local elections, provided they were 30 years of age and had attended at least primary education.<ref name="GGE" /> The law remained unenforced, until [[feminism|feminist]] movements within the civil service lobbied the government to enforce it in December 1927 and March 1929.<ref name="GGE" /> Women were allowed to vote on a local level for the first time in the [[Piraeus]] local elections, on December 14, 1930, where 240 women exercised their right to do so.<ref name="GGE" /> Women's turnout remained low, at only around 15,000 in the national local elections of 1934, despite women being a narrow majority of the population of 6.8&nbsp;million.<ref name="GGE" /> Women could not stand for election, despite a proposal made by Interior minister [[Ioannis Rallis]], which was contested in the courts; the courts ruled that the law only gave women "a limited franchise" and struck down any lists where women were listed as candidates for local councils.<ref name="GGE" /> [[Misogyny]] was rampant in that era; [[Emmanuel Rhoides]] is quoted as having said that "two professions are fit for women: housewife and prostitute". Another misogynistic "argument" employed against women's right to vote was that "during menstruation women are loony and in a frantic psychological state, and since they may be menstruating at the time of the elections, they can't vote".<ref name="mixani gun ps">{{cite web |url=http://www.mixanitouxronou.gr/otan-i-ellinides-den-mporousan-na-psif/ |title=Όταν οι Ελληνίδες δεν μπορούσαν να ψηφίσουν με το επιχείρημα ότι είχαν περίοδο και η ψήφος τους ήταν "επικίνδυνη και αποκρουστέα"! |date=September 1, 2015|website=ΜΗΧΑΝΗ ΤΟΥ ΧΡΟΝΟΥ |language=el |trans-title=When Greek women couldn't vote with the argument that they had a period and the vote was "dangerous and therefore coterminous" for them |access-date=September 8, 2018}}</ref>

On a national level women over 18 voted for the first time in April 1944 for the [[National Council (Greece)|National Council]], a legislative body set up by the [[National Liberation Front (Greece)|National Liberation Front]] [[Greek Resistance|resistance movement]]. Ultimately, women won the legal right to vote and run for office on May 28, 1952. [[Eleni Skoura]], again from [[Thessaloniki]], became the first woman elected to the [[Hellenic Parliament]] in 1953, with the conservative [[Greek Rally]], when she won a by-election against another female opponent.<ref name="Bacchetta">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ag7qRiZqYZoC&q=eleni+skoura&pg=PA124 |title=Right-wing Women: From Conservatives to Extremists Around the World |last1=Bacchetta |first1=Paola |last2=Power |first2=Margaret |date=2002 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=9780415927789 |page=124 }}</ref> Women were finally able to participate in the [[1956 Greek legislative election|1956 election]], with two more women becoming members of parliament; [[Lina Tsaldari]], wife of former Prime Minister [[Panagis Tsaldaris]], won the most votes of any candidate in the country and became the first female minister in Greece under the conservative [[National Radical Union]] government of [[Konstantinos Karamanlis]].<ref name="Bacchetta" />

No woman has been elected [[Prime Minister of Greece]], but [[Vassiliki Thanou-Christophilou]] served as the country's first female prime minister, heading a [[caretaker government]], between August 27 and September 21, 2015. The first woman to lead a major political party was [[Aleka Papariga]], who served as General Secretary of the [[Communist Party of Greece]] from 1991 to 2013.

==== Hungary ====
In Hungary, although it was already planned in 1818,{{citation needed|date=March 2024|reason=Is this a misprint for 1918?}} the first occasion when women could vote was the elections held in January 1920.

==== Iceland ====
Iceland was under [[Denmark|Danish]] rule until 1944. Icelandic women acquired full voting rights along with Danish women in 1915.

==== Ireland ====
[[File:Irish Suffragette girl (cropped).jpg|thumb|200px]]
[[Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom|From 1918]], with the rest of the United Kingdom, women in Ireland could vote at age 30 with property qualifications or in university constituencies, while men could vote at age 21 with no qualification. From separation in 1922, the [[Irish Free State]] gave [[Equal voting|equal voting rights]] to men and women. ["All citizens of the Irish Free State (Saorstát Eireann) without distinction of sex, who have reached the age of twenty-one years and who comply with the provisions of the prevailing electoral laws, shall have the right to vote for members of Dáil Eireann, and to take part in the Referendum and Initiative."]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1922/act/1/enacted/en/print|title=electronic Irish Statute Book (eISB)|last=Book (eISB)|first=electronic Irish Statute|website=www.irishstatutebook.ie|access-date=July 10, 2019}}</ref> Promises of equal rights from the Proclamation were embraced in the Constitution in 1922, the year Irish women achieved full voting rights. However, over the next ten years, laws were introduced that eliminated women's rights from serving on juries, working after marriage, and working in industry. The 1937 Constitution and Taoiseach [[Éamon de Valera]]’s conservative leadership further stripped women of their previously granted rights.<ref name="The Sisterhood of the Easter Rising">Walshe, Sadhbh (March 16, 2016) [https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/17/opinion/the-sisterhood-of-the-easter-rising.html The Sisterhood of the Easter Rising]. ''New York Times''.</ref> As well, though the 1937 Constitution guarantees women the right to vote and to nationality and citizenship on an equal basis with men, it also contains a provision, Article 41.2, which states:

{{blockquote|1° [...] the State recognises that by her life within the home, woman gives to the State a support without which the common good cannot be achieved.

2° The State shall, therefore, endeavour to ensure that mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity to engage in labour to the neglect of their duties in the home.}}

==== Isle of Man ====
In 1881, The Isle of Man (in the British Isles but not part of the United Kingdom) passed a law giving the vote to single and widowed women who passed a property qualification. This was to vote in elections for the House of Keys, in the Island's parliament, Tynwald. This was extended to universal suffrage for men and women in 1919.<ref>{{cite web | title = Votes for women! | url = http://www.tynwald.org.im/education/women/Pages/VotesForWomen.aspx | website = tynwald.org.im | publisher = [[Tynwald]], Isle of Man | access-date = February 6, 2018 | archive-date = April 26, 2021 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210426153758/https://www.tynwald.org.im/education/women/Pages/VotesForWomen.aspx | url-status = dead }}</ref>

==== Italy ====
In Italy, women's suffrage was not introduced following [[World War&nbsp;I]], but upheld by [[Socialism|Socialist]] and [[Fascism|Fascist]] activists and partly introduced on a local or municipal level by [[Benito Mussolini]]'s government in 1925.<ref>{{cite book|author=Passmore, Kevin |title=Women, Gender and Fascism|page= 16|publisher=Manchester University Press|year= 2003|isbn=0719066174}}</ref> In April 1945, the provisional government led by the [[Italian Resistance]] decreed the universal enfranchisement of women in Italy, allowing for the immediate appointment of women to public office, of which the first was Elena Fischli Dreher.<ref>{{cite web |first=Elena |last=Fischli Dreher (1913–2005) |title=donna di azione e di fede |publisher=Voce Evangelica |url=http://www.voceevangelica.ch/miscellanea/miscellanea.cfm?item=12470 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150919043018/http://www.voceevangelica.ch/miscellanea/miscellanea.cfm?item=12470 |archive-date=September 19, 2015 }}</ref> In the [[1946 Italian general election|1946 election]], all Italians simultaneously voted for the Constituent Assembly and for [[1946 Italian institutional referendum|a referendum]] about keeping Italy a [[Kingdom of Italy|monarchy]] or creating a [[History of the Italian Republic|republic]] instead. Elections were not held in the [[Julian March]] and [[History of South Tyrol#After World War II|South Tyrol]] because they were under [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] occupation.

The new version of [[Constitution of Italy#Political Rights and Duties (Articles 48-54)|article 51 Constitution]] recognizes equal opportunities in electoral lists.<ref>Also before the Amendment to Constitution, there was a favor of constitutionality for the so-called "pink" clause in the electoral rules, a reserve quota by sex (...) on the electoral roll.{{cite journal|last1=Buonomo|first1=Giampiero|title=Il debutto delle pari opportunità in Costituzione: la modifica dell'articolo 51|journal=Diritto&Giustizia Edizione Online|date=2003|url=https://www.questia.com/projects#!/project/89339257|access-date=March 28, 2016|archive-date=March 24, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160324160801/https://www.questia.com/projects#!/project/89339257|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==== Liechtenstein ====
: ''See also [[Women's suffrage in Liechtenstein]]''
In [[Liechtenstein]], women's suffrage was granted via [[1984 Liechtenstein women's suffrage referendum|referendum in 1984]].<ref>{{cite news|author=AP |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/07/02/world/around-the-world-liechtenstein-women-win-right-to-vote.html |title=Around the World – Liechtenstein Women Win Right to Vote |location=Liechtenstein |work=The New York Times |date=July 2, 1984 |access-date=January 8, 2011}}</ref>

==== Luxembourg ====
In Luxembourg, [[Marguerite Thomas-Clement]] spoke in favour of women suffrage in public debate through articles in the press in 1917–19; however, there was never any organized women suffrage movement in Luxembourg, as women suffrage was included without debate in the new democratic constitution of 1919.

==== Malta ====

Malta was a British colony, but when women's suffrage was finally introduced in Great Britain in 1918, this had not been included in the 1921 Constitution on Malta, when Malta was given its own parliament, although the [[Labour Party (Malta)|Labour Party]] did support the reform.<ref name="Europe 2012">The Struggle for Female Suffrage in Europe: Voting to Become Citizens. (2012). Nederländerna: Brill.</ref>  
In 1931, [[Mabel Strickland]], assistant secretary of Constitution Party, delivered a petition signed by 428 to the Royal Commission on Maltese Affairs requesting women's suffrage without success.<ref name="Europe 2012"/>

However, there had been no organized movement for women's suffrage on Malta. In 1944 the [[Women of Malta Association]] was founded by [[Josephine Burns de Bono]] and [[Helen Buhagiar]]. The purpose was to work for the inclusion of women's suffrage in the new Malta constitution, which was to be introduced in 1947 and which was at that time prepared in parliament.<ref name="Europe 2012"/>  The Women of Malta Association was officially registered as a labor union, in order to give its representatives the right to speak in parliament.<ref name="Europe 2012"/>  
The Catholic church as well as the [[Nationalist Party (Malta)|Nationalist Party]] opposed women's suffrage with the argument that suffrage would be an unnecessary burden for women who had family and household to occupy them.<ref name="Europe 2012"/>  The Labour Party as well as the labour movement in general supported the reform.<ref name="Europe 2012"/>  An argument was that women paid taxes and should therefore also vote to decide what to do with them. Women's suffrage was approved with the votes 145 to 137.<ref name="Europe 2012"/>  
However, this did not include women's right to be elected to political office, and the Women of Malta Association therefore continued the campaign to include also this right. The debate continued with the same supporters and opponents, and the same arguments for and against, until this right was approved as well.

Women's suffrage and right to be elected to political office were included in the MacMichael Constitution, which was finally introduced on September 5, 1947. A politician at the time commented that the reform had been possible only because of women's participation in the war effort during the [[World War II]].<ref name="Europe 2012"/>

==== Monaco ====

Monaco introduced women's suffrage in 1962, as the fourth last in Europe. In Monaco, Women's suffrage was not introduced after a long campaign – although supported by the [[Union of Monegasque Women]], itself only founded in 1958<ref name="MH">{{cite web|access-date=2023-05-03|date=2013-01-23|language=fr-FR|title=Droit de vote des femmes : " Pas un combat féministe " – Monaco Hebdo|url=https://monaco-hebdo.com/actualites/societe/droit-de-vote-des-femmes-pas-un-combat-feministe/}}<!-- auto-translated by Module:CS1 translator --></ref> – but was introduced as a part of the new Constitution, alongside Parliamentarism, an independent court system and a number of other legal and political reforms.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hlqtDwAAQBAJ&dq=Women's+Suffrage+monaco&pg=PA22|title=Monaco Offshore Tax Guide – Strategic, Practical Information, Regulations|year=2017|publisher=Lulu.com|isbn=978-1-4330-3420-6 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

==== Netherlands ====
[[File:Wilhelmina Drucker 1917.jpg|thumb|[[Wilhelmina Drucker]], a Dutch pioneer for women's rights, is portrayed by [[Truus Claes]] in 1917 on the occasion of her seventieth birthday.]]

Women were granted the right to vote in the [[Netherlands]] on August 9, 1919.<ref name=Timeline /> In 1917, a constitutional reform already allowed women to be electable. However, even though women's right to vote was approved in 1919, this only took effect from January 1, 1920.

The women's suffrage movement in the Netherlands was led by three women: [[Aletta Jacobs]], [[Wilhelmina Drucker]] and [[Annette Versluys-Poelman]]. In 1889, Wilhelmina Drucker founded a women's movement called [[Vrije Vrouwen Vereeniging]] (Free Women's Union) and it was from this movement that the campaign for women's suffrage in the Netherlands emerged. This movement got a lot of support from other countries, especially from the women's suffrage movement in England. In 1906 the movement wrote an open letter to the Queen pleading for women's suffrage. When this letter was rejected, in spite of popular support, the movement organised several demonstrations and protests in favor of women's suffrage. This movement was of great significance for women's suffrage in the Netherlands.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Aidt|first1=Toke S.|last2=Dallal|first2=Bianca|date=March 1, 2008|title=Female voting power: the contribution of women's suffrage to the growth of social spending in Western Europe (1869–1960)|journal=Public Choice|volume=134|issue=3–4|pages=391–417|doi=10.1007/s11127-007-9234-1|s2cid=153354759}}</ref>

==== Norway ====
[[File:57041 Første kvinne legger stemmeseddelen i urnen ved valget i 1910.jpg|thumb|The first Norwegian woman voter casts her ballot in the 1910 municipal election.]]

Liberal politician [[Gina Krog]] was the leading campaigner for women's suffrage in Norway from the 1880s. She founded the [[Norwegian Association for Women's Rights]] and the [[National Association for Women's Suffrage (Norway)|National Association for Women's Suffrage]] to promote this cause. Members of these organisations were politically well-connected and well organised and in a few years gradually succeeded in obtaining equal rights for women. Middle-class women won the right to vote in municipal elections in 1901 and parliamentary elections in 1907. Universal suffrage for women in municipal elections was introduced in 1910, and in 1913 a motion on universal suffrage for women was adopted unanimously by the [[Parliament of Norway|Norwegian parliament]] (Stortinget).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www3.hf.uio.no/1905/publikasjon/Gamme-hoved.pdf |title= "Mandsstemmer har vi saa evigt nok af fra før": perspektiver på stemmerettsdebatt for kvinner i Norge 1898–1913|last1=Gamme |first1=Anne |year=2001 |publisher=University of Oslo |access-date=March 15, 2013}}</ref> Norway thus became the first independent country to introduce women's suffrage.<ref>{{cite web|title=Women's suffrage centenary |url=http://stemmerettsjubileet.no/in-english|publisher= [[Ministry of Children, Equality and Social Inclusion]]|access-date=June 3, 2013}}</ref>

==== Poland ====
Regaining independence in 1918 following the 123-year period of partition and foreign rule,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Davies|first=Norman|title=Heart of Europe: The Past in Poland's Present|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2001|isbn=9780192801265}}</ref> [[Second Polish Republic|Poland]] immediately granted women the right to vote and be elected as of November 28, 1918.<ref name=Timeline>{{cite web|title=The Women Suffrage Timeline|url=http://womensuffrage.org/?page_id=69|website=Women Suffrage and Beyond|access-date=August 7, 2015|archive-date=December 16, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181216151820/http://womensuffrage.org/?page_id=69|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The first women elected to the [[Sejm of the Republic of Poland|Sejm]] in 1919 were: [[Gabriela Balicka]], [[Jadwiga Dziubińska]], [[Irena Kosmowska]], [[Maria Moczydłowska]], [[Zofia Moraczewska]], [[Anna Piasecka]], [[Zofia Sokolnicka]], and [[Franciszka Wilczkowiakowa]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://bs.sejm.gov.pl/F/6YEKEYLQ269HCBVE1RBBJUQ3FEP6MSL3F6AN2VGAA9AQA5BDPL-47712?func=find-b-0&clear_level=2|archive-url=https://archive.today/20121221130214/http://bs.sejm.gov.pl/F/6YEKEYLQ269HCBVE1RBBJUQ3FEP6MSL3F6AN2VGAA9AQA5BDPL-47712?func=find-b-0&clear_level=2|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 21, 2012|title=Biblioteka Sejmowa /Parlamentarzyści polscy ("The Sejm Library / Polish deputies"): bs.gov.pl|access-date=August 27, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://rownetraktowanie.gov.pl/aktualnosci/otwarcie-wystawy-kobiety-w-parlamencie|publisher=The Government Plenipotentiary for Equal Treatment, Otwarcie wystawy "Kobiety w Parlamencie"|title=Opening of the exhibition "Women in Parliament"|language=pl|date=April 24, 2009|access-date=August 27, 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141020055356/http://www.rownetraktowanie.gov.pl/aktualnosci/otwarcie-wystawy-kobiety-w-parlamencie|archive-date=October 20, 2014}}</ref>

==== Portugal ====
[[Carolina Beatriz Ângelo]] was the first Portuguese woman to vote, in the [[1911 Portuguese Constituent National Assembly election|Constituent National Assembly election of 1911]],<ref name="modern">{{cite book |title=Modern Portugal
|author=Costa Pinto, António |page=171|publisher=Society for the Promotion of Science and Scholarship |date=1998
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hpPtAAAAMAAJ&q=Carolina+Beatriz+%C3%82ngelo|isbn=978-0-930664-17-6 }}</ref> taking advantage of a [[loophole]] in the country's electoral law.

In 1931, during the [[Estado Novo (Portugal)|Estado Novo]] regime, women were allowed to vote for the first time, but only if they had a high school or [[Academic degree|university degree]], while men had only to be able to read and write. In 1946 a new electoral law enlarged the possibility of female vote, but still with some differences regarding men. A law from 1968 claimed to establish "equality of [[Rights|political rights]] for men and women", but a few electoral rights were reserved for men. After the [[Carnation Revolution]], women were granted full and equal electoral rights in 1976.<ref name=idea.int/><ref name="bbc.co.uk"/>

==== Romania ====
The timeline of granting women's suffrage in Romania was gradual and complex, due to the turbulent historical period when it happened. The concept of universal suffrage for all ''men'' was introduced in 1918,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www2.stevenson.ac.uk/comenius/articles/univsuff/ro_db/suff_1b.htm|title=Comenius 1 History Project – A History of the right to vote in Romania|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161009152036/http://www2.stevenson.ac.uk/comenius/articles/univsuff/ro_db/suff_1b.htm|archive-date=October 9, 2016}}</ref> and reinforced by the [[1923 Constitution of Romania]]. Although this constitution opened the way for the possibility of women's suffrage too (Article 6),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.constitutia.ro/const1923.htm|title=Constitutia Romaniei, monitorul oficial, constitutiunea din 1866, constitutia din 1866, Principatele Unite Romane, Carol I|author1=T.A.|author2= Dezibel Media|author3= Romania|date=January 2, 2000}}</ref> this did not materialize: the Electoral Law of 1926 did not grant women the right to vote, maintaining all male suffrage.<ref name="Summary">{{cite web|url=http://www.impowr.org/content/summary-rights-vote-romania#footnote2_urb4lp3|title=Summary: Rights to Vote in Romania|access-date=July 18, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141009181905/http://www.impowr.org/content/summary-rights-vote-romania#footnote2_urb4lp3|archive-date=October 9, 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref> Starting in 1929, women who met certain qualifications were allowed to vote in local elections.<ref name="Summary"/> After the [[1938 Constitution of Romania|Constitution from 1938]] (elaborated under [[Carol II of Romania]] who sought to implement an authoritarian regime) the voting rights were extended to women for national elections by the Electoral Law 1939,<ref name="fp.kross.ro">{{cite web |url=http://fp.kross.ro/pdf/le_1939.pdf |title=LEGEA ELECTORALA|publisher=kross.ro|access-date=February 9, 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160216133450/http://fp.kross.ro/pdf/le_1939.pdf |archive-date=February 16, 2016 }}</ref> but both women and men had restrictions, and in practice these restrictions affected women more than men (the new restrictions on men also meant that men lost their previous universal suffrage). Although women could vote, they could be elected only to the [[Senate of Romania|Senate]] and not to the [[Chamber of Deputies (Romania)|Chamber of Deputies]] (Article 4 (c)).<ref name="fp.kross.ro"/> (the Senate was later abolished in 1940). Due to the historical context of the time, which included the dictatorship of [[Ion Antonescu]], there were no elections in Romania between 1940 and 1946. In 1946, Law no. 560 gave full equal rights to men and women to vote and to be elected in the Chamber of Deputies; and women voted in the [[1946 Romanian general election]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://fp.kross.ro/pdf/le_1946.pdf |title=LEGEA Nr. 560|access-date=February 9, 2016|publisher=kross.ro |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160216133614/http://fp.kross.ro/pdf/le_1946.pdf |archive-date=February 16, 2016 }}</ref> The [[Constitution of Romania|Constitution of 1948]] gave women and men equal civil and political rights (Article 18).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.constitutia.ro/const1948.htm|title=Constitutia Romaniei, monitorul oficial, constitutia din 1948, constitutia Republicii Populare Romane 1948, Republica Populara Romana|author1=T.A.|author2= Dezibel Media|author3= Romania|date=January 4, 2000}}</ref> Until the collapse of communism in 1989, all the candidates were chosen by the [[Romanian Communist Party]], and civil rights were merely symbolic under this authoritarian regime.<ref>{{cite web|title=A History of the Right to Vote in Romania|url=http://www2.stevenson.ac.uk/comenius/articles/univsuff/ro_db/suff_1b.htm|website=Comenius|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161009152036/http://www2.stevenson.ac.uk/comenius/articles/univsuff/ro_db/suff_1b.htm|archive-date=October 9, 2016}}</ref>

[[File:Woman's suffrage denonstration.jpg|thumb|A 1917 demonstration in Petrograd. The plaque says (in Russian): "Without the participation of women, election is not universal!"]]

==== Russia ====
Despite initial apprehension against enfranchising women for the right to vote for the upcoming [[1917 Russian Constituent Assembly election|Constituent Assembly election]], the [[League for Women's Equality]] and other suffragists rallied throughout the year of 1917 for the right to vote. After much pressure (including a 40,000-strong march on the [[Tauride Palace]]), on July 20, 1917, the [[Russian Provisional Government|Provisional Government]] enfranchised women with the right to vote.<ref name=Wade>{{cite book|last1=Wade|first1=Rex|title=The Russian Revolution, 1917|year=2005|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-60242-6|page=117|edition=2nd}}</ref>

==== San Marino ====
[[San Marino]] introduced [[Women in San Marino|women's suffrage]] in 1959,<ref name=idea.int/> following the 1957 constitutional crisis known as [[Fatti di Rovereta]]. It was however only in 1973 that women obtained the right to stand for election.<ref name=idea.int/>

==== Spain ====
[[File:01 eibar.jpg|thumb|Women exercising the right to vote during the [[Second Spanish Republic]], November 5, 1933]]

During the [[Miguel Primo de Rivera]] regime (1923–1930) only women who were considered heads of household were allowed to [[vote]] in local elections, but there were none at that time. Women's suffrage was officially adopted in 1931 despite the opposition of [[Margarita Nelken]] and [[Victoria Kent]], two female MPs (both members of the Republican Radical-Socialist Party), who argued that women in Spain at that moment lacked social and political education enough to vote responsibly because they would be unduly influenced by Catholic priests.<ref name="Colomer-2001" /> Most Spanish Republicans at the time held the same view.<ref name="Colomer-2001" /> The other female MP at the time, [[Clara Campoamor]] of the liberal Radical Party, was a strong advocate of women's suffrage and she was the one leading the Parliament's affirmative vote. During the [[Francoist Spain|Franco]] regime in the "organic democracy" type of elections called "referendums" (Franco's regime was dictatorial) women over 21 were allowed to vote without distinction.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/servlet/SirveObras/01361697557806725311802/p0000001.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070514084006/http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/servlet/SirveObras/01361697557806725311802/p0000001.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 14, 2007 |title=Ley de Referéndum de 1945 |publisher=www.cervantesvirtual.com |date=September 2, 2015|access-date=September 29, 2015 }}</ref> From 1976, during the [[Spanish transition to democracy]] women fully exercised the right to vote and be elected to office.

==== Sweden ====
[[File:Maria Gustava Gyllenstierna SP156.jpg|thumb|left|The Swedish writer [[Maria Gustava Gyllenstierna]] (1672–1737); as a taxpaying property owner, and a woman of legal majority due to her widowed status, she belonged to the women granted suffrage in accordance with the constitution of the [[Age of Liberty]] (1718–1772).]]

During the [[Age of Liberty]] (1718–1772), Sweden had conditional women's suffrage.<ref name="Karlsson Sjögren" /> Until the reform of 1865, the local elections consisted of mayoral elections in the cities, and elections of parish vicars in the countryside parishes. The ''Sockenstämma'' was the local parish council who handled local affairs, in which the parish vicar presided and the local peasantry assembled and voted, an informally regulated process in which women are reported to have participated already in the 17th century.<ref name="Du Rietz">Du Rietz, Anita, Kvinnors entreprenörskap: under 400 år, 1. uppl., Dialogos, Stockholm, 2013</ref> The national elections consisted of the election of the representations to the [[Riksdag of the Estates]].

Suffrage was gender neutral and therefore applied to women as well as men if they filled the qualifications of a voting citizen.<ref name="Karlsson Sjögren" /> These qualifications were changed during the course of the 18th-century, as well as the local interpretation of the credentials, affecting the number of qualified voters: the qualifications also differed between cities and countryside, as well as local or national elections.<ref name="Karlsson Sjögren" />

Initially, the right to [[vote]] in local city elections (mayoral elections) was granted to every ''burgher'', which was defined as a taxpaying citizen with a [[guild]] membership.<ref name="Karlsson Sjögren" /> Women as well as men were members of guilds, which resulted in women's suffrage for a limited number of women.<ref name="Karlsson Sjögren" />
In 1734, suffrage in both national and local elections, in cities as well as countryside, was granted to every property owning taxpaying citizen of [[legal majority]].<ref name="Karlsson Sjögren" /> This extended suffrage to all taxpaying property owning women whether guild members or not, but excluded married women and the majority of unmarried women, as married women were defined as legal minors, and unmarried women were minors unless they applied for legal majority by royal dispensation, while widowed and divorced women were of legal majority.<ref name="Karlsson Sjögren" /> The 1734 reform increased the participation of women in elections from 55 to 71 percent.<ref name="Karlsson Sjögren" />

[[File:C1910 Signe Bergman Swedish suffragist.jpg|thumb|upright|Swedish suffragist [[Signe Bergman]], {{Circa|1910|lk=no}}]]

Between 1726 and 1742, women voted in 17 of 31 examined mayoral elections.<ref name="Karlsson Sjögren" /> Reportedly, some women voters in mayoral elections preferred to appoint a male to vote for them by [[proxy voting|proxy]] in the city hall because they found it embarrassing to do so in person, which was cited as a reason to abolish women's suffrage by its opponents.<ref name="Karlsson Sjögren" /> The custom to appoint to vote by proxy was however used also by males, and it was in fact common for men, who were absent or ill during elections, to appoint their wives to vote for them.<ref name="Karlsson Sjögren" /> In [[Vaasa]] in Finland (then a Swedish province), there was opposition against women participating in the town hall discussing political issues as this was not seen as their right place, and women's suffrage appears to have been opposed in practice in some parts of the realm: when [[Anna Elisabeth Baer]] and two other women petitioned to vote in [[Turku]] in 1771, they were not allowed to do so by town officials.<ref name="books.google.se"/>

In 1758, women were excluded from mayoral elections by a new regulation by which they could no longer be defined as burghers, but women's suffrage was kept in the national elections as well as the countryside parish elections.<ref name="Karlsson Sjögren" /> Women participated in all of the eleven national elections held up until 1757.<ref name="Karlsson Sjögren" /> In 1772, women's suffrage in national elections was abolished by demand from the burgher estate. Women's suffrage was first abolished for taxpaying unmarried women of legal majority, and then for widows.<ref name="Karlsson Sjögren" />
However, the local interpretation of the prohibition of women's suffrage varied, and some cities continued to allow women to vote: in [[Kalmar]], [[Växjö]], [[Västervik]], [[Simrishamn]], [[Ystad]], [[Åmål]], [[Karlstad]], [[Bergslagen]], [[Dalarna]] and [[Norrland]], women were allowed to continue to vote despite the 1772 ban, while in [[Lund]], [[Uppsala]], [[Skara]], Turku, [[Gothenburg]] and [[Marstrand]], women were strictly barred from the vote after 1772.<ref name="Karlsson Sjögren" />

[[File:Demonstrationståg för kvinnorösträtten, Göteborg - Nordiska Museet - NMA.0032617.jpg|thumb|left|Women's suffrage demonstration in Gothenburg, June 1918]]

While women's suffrage was banned in the mayoral elections in 1758 and in the national elections in 1772, no such bar was ever introduced in the local elections in the countryside, where women therefore continued to vote in the local parish elections of vicars.<ref name="Karlsson Sjögren" /> In a series of reforms in 1813–1817, unmarried women of legal majority, "Unmarried maiden, who has been declared of legal majority", were given the right to vote in the ''sockestämma'' (local parish council, the predecessor of the communal and city councils), and the ''kyrkoråd'' (local church councils).<ref>Ann Margret Holmgren: Kvinnorösträttens historia i de nordiska länderna (1920).</ref>

In 1823, a suggestion was raised by the mayor of Strängnäs to reintroduce women's suffrage for taxpaying women of legal majority (unmarried, divorced and widowed women) in the mayoral elections, and this right was reintroduced in 1858.<ref name="Du Rietz"/>

In 1862, tax-paying women of legal majority (unmarried, divorced and widowed women) were again allowed to vote in municipal elections, making Sweden the first country in the world to grant women the right to vote.<ref name="jstor.org"/> This was after the introduction of a new political system, where a new local authority was introduced: the communal municipal council. The right to vote in municipal elections applied only to people of legal majority, which excluded married women, as they were juridically under the guardianship of their husbands. In 1884 the suggestion to grant women the right to vote in national elections was initially voted down in Parliament.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Christer Palmquist  |author2=Hans Kristian Widberg |name-list-style=amp | title = Millenium. Samhällskunska| publisher = Bonniers| isbn = 978-91-622-5995-2| year = 2004| page = 317| language = sv}}</ref> During the 1880s, the [[Married Woman's Property Rights Association]] had a campaign to encourage the female voters, qualified to vote in accordance with the 1862 law, to use their vote and increase the participation of women voters in the elections, but there was yet no public demand for women's suffrage among women. In 1888, the [[temperance movement|temperance]] activist [[Emilie Rathou]] became the first woman in Sweden to demand the right for women's suffrage in a public speech.<ref>Emilie Rathou, urn:sbl:7563, Svenskt biografiskt lexikon (art av [[Hjördis Levin]]), hämtad May 30, 2015.</ref> In 1899, a delegation from the [[Fredrika Bremer Association]] presented a suggestion of women's suffrage to prime minister [[Erik Gustaf Boström]]. The delegation was headed by [[Agda Montelius]], accompanied by [[Gertrud Adelborg]], who had written the demand. This was the first time the Swedish women's movement themselves had officially presented a demand for suffrage.

In 1902 the [[National Association for Women's Suffrage (Sweden)|Swedish Society for Woman Suffrage]] was founded, supported by the [[Stockholms Allmänna Kvinnoklubb|Social Democratic women's Clubs]].<ref>Barbro Hedwall (2011). Susanna Eriksson Lundqvist. red.. Vår rättmätiga plats. Om kvinnornas kamp för rösträtt.. (Our Rightful Place. About women's struggle for suffrage) Förlag Bonnier. {{ISBN|978-91-7424-119-8}} (Swedish)</ref> In 1906 the suggestion of women's suffrage was voted down in parliament again.<ref name="runeberg.org">{{cite web|url=https://runeberg.org/nfbo/0225.html |title=Runeberg.org |publisher=Runeberg.org |access-date=January 8, 2011}}</ref> In 1909, the right to vote in municipal elections were extended to also include married women.<ref name="Nordisk familjebok">Nordisk familjebok / Uggleupplagan. 15. Kromat – Ledvätska.</ref> The same year, women were granted eligibility for election to municipal councils,<ref name="Nordisk familjebok"/> and in the following 1910–11 municipal elections, forty women were elected to different municipal councils,<ref name="runeberg.org"/> [[Gertrud Månsson]] being the first. In 1914 [[Emilia Broomé]] became the first woman in the legislative assembly.<ref>[http://www.ub.gu.se/kvinn/portaler/fred/biografier/broome.xml Article] about [[Emilia Broomé]] on the webpage of [[Gothenburg University Library]].</ref>

The right to vote in national elections was not returned to women until 1919, and was practiced again in the election of 1921, for the first time in 150 years.<ref name="Karlsson-Sjögren 1866"/>

After the 1921 election, the first women were elected to Swedish Parliament after women's suffrage were [[Kerstin Hesselgren]] in the Upper chamber and [[Nelly Thüring]] (Social Democrat), [[Agda Östlund]] (Social Democrat), [[Elisabeth Tamm]] (liberal) and [[Bertha Wellin]] (Conservative) in the Lower chamber. [[Karin Kock-Lindberg]] became the first female government minister, and in 1958, [[Ulla Lindström]] became the first acting prime minister.<ref>(Swedish) Mikael Sjögren, Statsrådet och genusordningen – Ulla Lindström 1954–1966 (Minister and Gender – Ulla Lindström 1954–1966).</ref>

==== Switzerland ====
{{Main|Women's suffrage in Switzerland}}
A [[1959 Swiss referendums|referendum]] on women's suffrage was held on February 1, 1959. The majority of Switzerland's men (67%) voted against it, but in some French-speaking [[Cantons of Switzerland|cantons]] women obtained the vote.<ref name="switzerland-chronology">{{cite web|url=http://history-switzerland.geschichte-schweiz.ch/chronology-womens-right-vote-switzerland.html |title=The Long Way to Women's Right to Vote in Switzerland: a Chronology |publisher=History-switzerland.geschichte-schweiz.ch |access-date=January 8, 2011}}</ref> The first Swiss woman to hold political office, [[Trudy Späth-Schweizer]], was elected to the municipal government of [[Riehen]] in 1958.<ref name="Tages-Anzeiger 2010">{{cite news|last=Manz|first=Ev|title=Die Wegbereiterin aller Bundesrätinnen|url=http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/schweiz/standard/Die-Wegbereiterin-aller-Bundesraetinnen-/story/23894564|access-date=July 23, 2010|newspaper=[[Tages-Anzeiger]]|date=July 23, 2010|language=de}}</ref>

Switzerland was the last Western republic to grant women's suffrage; they gained the right to vote in federal elections in 1971 after [[1971 Swiss referendums|a second referendum]] that year.<ref name="switzerland-chronology"/> In 1991 following a decision by the [[Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland]], [[Appenzell Innerrhoden]] became the last Swiss canton to grant women the vote on local issues.<ref name="wom1373" />

The first female member of the seven-member [[Swiss Federal Council]], [[Elisabeth Kopp]], served from 1984 to 1989. [[Ruth Dreifuss]], the second female member, served from 1993 to 1999, and was the first female [[President of the Swiss Confederation]] for the year 1999. From September 22, 2010, until December 31, 2011, the highest political executive of the Swiss Confederation had a majority of female councillors (4 of 7); for the three years 2010, 2011, and 2012 Switzerland was presided by [[List of Presidents of the Swiss Confederation|female presidency]] for three years in a row. In 2015, 2017,<ref name=FSO>{{cite web |url=https://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/de/home/statistiken/politik/wahlen/frauen.html |title=Frauen und Wahlen |publisher=Federal Statistical Office FSO |location=Neuchâtel, Switzerland |type=official site |date=2018 |language=de, fr |access-date=April 29, 2018}}</ref> 2020 and 2024, the country was presided by a woman.

==== Turkey ====
[[File:First female MPs of the Turkish Parliament (1935).jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Eighteen female MPs joined the Turkish Parliament in 1935.]]
In [[Turkey]], [[Atatürk]], the founding president of the republic, led a secularist cultural and legal transformation supporting women's rights including voting and being elected. Women won the right to vote in municipal elections on March&nbsp;20, 1930. Women's suffrage was achieved for parliamentary elections on December&nbsp;5, 1934, through a constitutional amendment. Turkish women, who participated in parliamentary elections for the first time on February&nbsp;8, 1935, obtained 18&nbsp;seats.

In the early republic, when Atatürk ran a one-party state, his party picked all candidates. A small percentage of seats were set aside for women, so naturally those female candidates won. When multi-party elections began in the 1940s, the share of women in the legislature fell, and the 4% share of parliamentary seats gained in 1935 was not reached again until 1999. In the parliament of 2011, women hold about 9% of the seats. Nevertheless, Turkish women gained the right to vote a decade or more before women in such Western European countries as France, Italy, and Belgium  – a mark of Atatürk's far-reaching social changes.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://blog.oup.com/2012/02/turkey-women-vote/|title=Turkey holds first election that allows women to vote|work=OUPblog|date=February 6, 2012}}</ref>

[[Tansu Çiller]] served as the 22nd prime minister of Turkey and the first female prime minister of Turkey from 1993 to 1996. She was elected to the parliament in 1991 general elections and she became prime minister on June 25, 1993, when her cabinet was approved by the parliament.

==== United Kingdom ====
{{Main|Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom}}
[[File:Suffragette cartoon by L.M. Glackens.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|A British cartoon speculating on why imprisoned [[suffragette]]s refused to eat in prison]]
[[File:Countess Constance Markiewicz-1.1.2 (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|[[Constance Markievicz]] was the first woman elected to the British [[House of Commons]] in 1918, but as an [[Irish nationalist]] she did not take her seat, instead joining the [[First Dáil]]. In 1919 she was appointed [[Minister for Labour (Ireland)|Minister for Labour]], the first female minister in a democratic [[Cabinet (government)|government cabinet]].]]
The campaign for women's suffrage in the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland]] gained momentum throughout the early part of the 19th&nbsp;century, as women became increasingly politically active, particularly during [[Chartism|the campaigns to reform suffrage in the United Kingdom]]. [[John Stuart Mill]], elected to [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament]] in 1865 and an open advocate of female suffrage (about to publish ''[[The Subjection of Women]]''), campaigned for an amendment to the [[Reform Act 1832]] to include female suffrage.<ref>Nelson, Carolyn Christensen (2004). ''Literature of the women's suffrage campaign in England'', p. 3. Broadview Press. Retrieved February 29, 2012.</ref> Roundly defeated in an all-male parliament under a Conservative government, the issue of women's suffrage came to the fore.

Until the 1832 Reform Act specified "male persons", a few women had been able to vote in parliamentary elections through property ownership, although this was rare.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Heater|first1=Derek|title=Citizenship in Britain: A History|date=2006|publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-0-7486-2672-4|page=107|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=js-qBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA107}}</ref> In local government elections, women lost the right to vote under the [[Municipal Corporations Act 1835]]. Unmarried women [[ratepayer]]s received the right to vote in the [[Municipal Franchise Act 1869]]. This right was confirmed in the [[Local Government Act 1894]] and extended to include some married women.<ref name=HoCL2013>{{citation|title=The History of the Parliamentary Franchise|chapter-url=http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/RP13-14|publisher=House of Commons Library|access-date=March 16, 2016|date=March 1, 2013|pages=37–39|chapter=Female Suffrage before 1918|last1=Johnston|first1=Neil}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Heater|first1=Derek|title=Citizenship in Britain: A History|date=2006|publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-0-7486-2672-4|page=136|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=js-qBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA136}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Women's rights|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/citizenship/brave_new_world/women.htm|publisher=The National Archives|access-date=February 11, 2015}}</ref><ref name=Synonym>{{cite web|title=Which Act Gave Women the Right to Vote in Britain?|url=http://classroom.synonym.com/act-gave-women-right-vote-britain-5469.html|website=Synonym|access-date=February 11, 2015}}</ref> By 1900, more than 1&nbsp;million women were registered to vote in local government elections in England.<ref name="HoCL2013"/>

In 1881, the [[Isle of Man]] (in the British Isles but not part of the United Kingdom) passed a law giving the vote to single and widowed women who passed a property qualification. This was to vote in elections for the House of Keys, in the Island's parliament, Tynwald. This was extended to universal suffrage for men and women in 1919.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.tynwald.org.im/education/women/Pages/VotesForWomen.aspx | title=Tynwald – Parliament of the Isle of Man | access-date=February 6, 2018 | archive-date=April 26, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210426153758/https://www.tynwald.org.im/education/women/Pages/VotesForWomen.aspx | url-status=dead }}</ref>

During the later half of the 19th century, a number of campaign groups for women's suffrage in national elections were formed in an attempt to lobby members of parliament and gain support. In 1897, seventeen of these groups came together to form the [[National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies]] (NUWSS), who held public meetings, wrote letters to politicians and published various texts.<ref name="Cook">Cook, Chris (2005). "The Routledge companion to Britain in the nineteenth century, 1815–1914", p. 124. Taylor & Francis, 2005.</ref> In 1907 the NUWSS organized its first large procession.<ref name="Cook"/> This march became known as the [[Mud March (Suffragists)|Mud March]] as over 3,000 women trudged through the streets of London from [[Hyde Park, London|Hyde Park]] to [[Exeter Hall]] to advocate women's suffrage.<ref>Harold L Smith (2007). "The British women's suffrage campaign, 1866–1928" p. 23. Pearson/Longman, 2007.</ref>

In 1903 a number of members of the NUWSS broke away and, led by [[Emmeline Pankhurst]], formed the [[Women's Social and Political Union]] (WSPU).<ref>Scott, Bonnie Kime (2007). "Gender in modernism: new geographies, complex intersections", p. 693. University of Illinois Press, 2007.</ref> As the national media lost interest in the suffrage campaign, the WSPU decided it would use other methods to create publicity. This began in 1905 at a meeting in Manchester's [[Free Trade Hall]] where [[Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon]], a member of the newly elected Liberal government, was speaking.<ref name="Purvis">Puris, June; Sandra Stanley Holton (2000). "Votes for women", p. 112. Routledge, 2000.</ref> As he was talking, [[Christabel Pankhurst]] and [[Annie Kenney]] of the WSPU constantly shouted out: "Will the Liberal Government give votes to women?"<ref name="Purvis"/> When they refused to cease calling out, police were called to evict them and the two suffragettes (as members of the WSPU became known after this incident) were involved in a struggle that ended with them being arrested and charged for assault.<ref>{{cite news|title=Suppression of the W.S.P.U. |work=Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser |date=May 1, 1913 |access-date= February 24, 2015 |url =http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000206/19130501/043/0006 | publisher = [[British Newspaper Archive]]|url-access=subscription }}</ref> When they refused to pay their fine, they were sent to prison for one week, and three days.<ref name="Purvis"/> The British public were shocked and took notice at this use of violence to win the vote for women.

After this media success, the WSPU's tactics became increasingly violent. This included an attempt in 1908 to storm the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]], the arson of [[David Lloyd George]]'s country home (despite his support for women's suffrage). In 1909 Lady [[Constance Lytton]] was imprisoned, but immediately released when her identity was discovered, so in 1910 she disguised herself as a working class seamstress called [[Constance Lytton|Jane Warton]] and endured inhumane treatment which included [[force-feeding]]. In 1913, suffragette [[Emily Davison]] protested by interfering with a horse owned by King [[George V]] during the running of [[Epsom Derby|The Derby]]; she was struck by the horse and died four days later. The WSPU ceased their militant activities during [[World War I]] and agreed to assist with the [[war effort]].<ref>Leventhal, F. M. (2002). "Twentieth-century Britain: an encyclopedia", p. 432.</ref>

The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, which had always employed "constitutional" methods, continued to lobby during the war years, and compromises were worked out between the NUWSS and the coalition government.<ref name="Cawood">Cawood, Ian; David McKinnon-Bell (2001). "The First World War", p. 71. Routledge 2001.</ref> The [[Speaker's Conference on electoral reform (1917)]] represented all the parties in both houses, and came to the conclusion that women's suffrage was essential. Regarding fears that women would suddenly move from zero to a majority of the electorate due to the heavy loss of men during the war, the Conference recommended that the age restriction be 21 for men, and 30 for women.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/womenvote/parliamentary-collectionsdelete/representation-of-the-people-act-1918/ |title=Representation of the People Act 1918 |access-date=May 24, 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304113052/http://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/womenvote/parliamentary-collectionsdelete/representation-of-the-people-act-1918/ |archive-date=March 4, 2016 }}</ref><ref>Arthur Marwick, ''A history of the modern British Isles, 1914–1999: circumstances, events and outcomes'' (Wiley-Blackwell, 2000) pp. 43–50.</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Millicent Garrett Fawcett|title=The Women's Victory – and After: Personal Reminiscences, 1911–1918|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E__ZtG2bX7gC&pg=PA140|year=2011|publisher=Cambridge UP|pages=140–43|isbn=978-1-108-02660-4}}</ref>

On February 6, 1918, the [[Representation of the People Act 1918]] was passed, enfranchising women over the age of 30 who met minimum property qualifications. About 8.4&nbsp;million women gained the vote in Great Britain and Ireland.<ref name="Fawcett">Fawcett, Millicent Garrett. "The Women's Victory&nbsp;– and After". p. 170. Cambridge University Press</ref> In November 1918, the [[Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act 1918]] was passed, allowing women to be elected into Parliament. The [[Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928]] extended the franchise in Great Britain and Northern Ireland to all women over the age of 21, granting women the vote on the same terms as men.<ref>Stearns, Peter N. (2008), ''The Oxford encyclopedia of the modern world'', Volume 7. Oxford University Press, p. 160.</ref>

In 1999, ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine, in naming Emmeline Pankhurst as one of the [[Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century|100 Most Important People of the 20th Century]], states: "...she shaped an idea of women for our time; she shook society into a new pattern from which there could be no going back".<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Emmeline Pankhurst&nbsp;– Time 100 People of the Century |url=http://www.yachtingnet.com/time/time100/heroes/profile/pankhurst01.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170727020126/http://www.yachtingnet.com/time/time100/heroes/profile/pankhurst01.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 27, 2017 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |quote=She shaped an idea of women for our time; she shook society into a new pattern from which there could be no going back. }}</ref>

=== Oceania ===
[[File:Women suffrage cartoon.png|thumb|upright|Australian women's rights were lampooned in this 1887 ''Melbourne Punch'' cartoon: A hypothetical female member foists her baby's care on the House Speaker. [[South Australian]] women were to achieve the vote in 1895.<ref name=SA1895/>]]

==== Australia ====
{{main|Women's suffrage in Australia}}[[File:Edith Cowan.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Edith Cowan]] (1861–1932) was elected to the [[Western Australian Legislative Assembly]] in 1921 and was the first woman elected to any Australian Parliament (though women in Australia had already had the vote for two decades).]]

Propertied women in the colony of South Australia were granted the vote in local elections (but not parliamentary elections) in 1861. [[Henrietta Dugdale]], [[Annie Lowe]], and [[Elizabeth Rennick]] formed the [[Victorian Women's Suffrage Society]], the first suffrage society in Australia in 1884.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Smart |first=Judith |date=July 2008 |title=Women's Suffrage Organisations – Entry  |url=https://www.emelbourne.net.au/biogs/EM01637b.htm |access-date=2025-04-22 |website=eMelbourne - The Encyclopedia of Melbourne Online: School of Historical Studies, Department of History |language=en-gb}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Carey |first=Jane |date=4 May 2009 |title=The Victorian Women's Suffrage Society |url=https://www.womenaustralia.info/entries/the-victorian-womens-suffrage-society/ |access-date=2025-04-22 |website=Australian Women's Register |language=en-AU}}</ref> [[Womanhood Suffrage League of New South Wales|The Womanhood Suffrage League of New South Wales]] was founded in Sydney in 1891. Women became eligible to vote for the [[Parliament of South Australia]] in 1895, as were Aboriginal men and women.<ref name=SA1895/> In 1897, [[Catherine Helen Spence]] became the first female political candidate for political office, unsuccessfully standing for election as a delegate to Federal Convention on Australian Federation. [[Western Australia]] granted voting rights to women in 1899.<ref name="aec.gov.au">{{cite web|url=http://www.aec.gov.au/Elections/Australian_Electoral_History/milestone.htm |title=AEC.gov.au |publisher=AEC.gov.au |date=August 9, 2007 |access-date=January 8, 2011}}</ref>

The first election for the Parliament of the newly formed Commonwealth of Australia in 1901 was based on the electoral provisions of the six pre-existing colonies, so that women who had the vote and the right to stand for Parliament at state level had the same rights for the 1901 Australian Federal election. In 1902, the Commonwealth Parliament passed the Commonwealth Franchise Act, which enabled all non-indigenous women to vote and stand for election to the Federal Parliament. The following year [[Nellie Martel]], [[Mary Moore-Bentley]], [[Vida Goldstein]], and [[Selina Siggins]] stood for election.<ref name="aec.gov.au"/> The Act specifically excluded 'natives' from Commonwealth franchise unless already enrolled in a state, the situation in South Australia. In 1949, the right to vote in federal elections was extended to all indigenous people who had served in the armed forces, or were enrolled to vote in state elections (Queensland, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory still excluded indigenous women from voting rights). Remaining restrictions were abolished in 1962 by the Commonwealth Electoral Act.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aec.gov.au/Voting/indigenous_vote/indigenous.htm |title=AEC.gov.au |publisher=AEC.gov.au |access-date=January 8, 2011}}</ref>

[[Edith Cowan]] was elected to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly in 1921, the first woman elected to any Australian Parliament. Dame [[Enid Lyons]], in the [[House of Representatives (Australia)|Australian House of Representatives]] and Senator [[Dorothy Tangney]] became the first women in the Federal Parliament in 1943. Lyons went on to be the first woman to hold a [[Cabinet of Australia|Cabinet]] post in the 1949 ministry of [[Robert Menzies]]. [[Rosemary Follett]] was elected [[Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory]] in 1989, becoming the first woman elected to lead a state or territory. By 2010, the people of Australia's oldest city, [[Sydney]] had female leaders occupying every major political office above them, with [[Clover Moore]] as Lord Mayor, [[Kristina Keneally]] as Premier of New South Wales, [[Marie Bashir]] as Governor of New South Wales, [[Julia Gillard]] as prime minister, [[Quentin Bryce]] as [[Governor-General of Australia]] and [[Elizabeth II]] as [[Monarchy of Australia|Queen of Australia]].

==== Cook Islands ====
{{Main|Women in the Cook Islands}}
[[Women in the Cook Islands|Women]] in [[Rarotonga]] won the right to vote in 1893, shortly after New Zealand.<ref name= Markoff >Markoff, John, 'Margins, Centers, and Democracy: The Paradigmatic History of Women's Suffrage' ''Signs the Journal of Women in Culture and Society'', 2003; 29 (1).</ref>

==== New Zealand ====
{{Main|Women's suffrage in New Zealand}}
New Zealand's Electoral Act of September&nbsp;19, 1893 made the self-governing British colony the first country in the world to grant women the right to vote in parliamentary elections.<ref name="elections.org.nz" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Pickles |first=Katie |date=19 September 2018 |title=Why New Zealand was the first country where women won the right to vote |url=https://theconversation.com/why-new-zealand-was-the-first-country-where-women-won-the-right-to-vote-103219 |access-date=11 October 2024 |website=The Conversation}}</ref>

Although the [[Liberal Government of New Zealand|Liberal government]] which passed the bill generally advocated social and political reform, the electoral bill was only passed because of a combination of personality issues and political accident. The bill granted the vote to women of all races. New Zealand women were denied the right to stand for parliament, however, until 1920. In 2005 almost a third of the [[Parliament of New Zealand|Members of Parliament]] elected were female. Women recently have also occupied powerful and symbolic offices such as those of [[Prime Minister of New Zealand|Prime Minister]] ([[Jenny Shipley]], [[Helen Clark]] and [[Jacinda Ardern]]), [[Governor-General of New Zealand|Governor-General]] ([[Catherine Tizard]], [[Patsy Reddy]], [[Cindy Kiro]] and [[Silvia Cartwright]]), [[Chief Justice of New Zealand|Chief Justice]] ([[Sian Elias]] and [[Helen Winkelmann]]), [[Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives|Speaker of the House of Representatives]] ([[Margaret Wilson]]), and from March 3, 2005, to August 23, 2006, all four of these posts were held by women, along with [[Elizabeth II|Queen Elizabeth]] as [[Monarchy of New Zealand|Head of State]].

==== Pitcairn and Norfolk Islands ====
The female descendants of the [[Mutiny on the Bounty|''Bounty'' mutineers]] who lived on Pitcairn Island could vote for their local councils from 1838, and this right transferred with their resettlement to [[Norfolk Island]] (now an [[States and territories of Australia|Australian external territory]]) in 1856.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Palmieri |first1=Sonia |last2=Howard |first2=Elise |last3=Baker |first3=Kerryn |date=2023-10-02 |title=Reframing Suffrage Narratives: Pacific Women, Political Voice, and Collective Empowerment |journal=The Journal of Pacific History |volume=58 |issue=4 |pages=392–411 |doi=10.1080/00223344.2023.2247348 |issn=0022-3344|doi-access=free }}</ref>

=== The Americas ===
Women in Central and South America, and in Mexico, lagged behind those in Canada and the United States in gaining the vote. The first South American country to enfranchise women in national elections was Ecuador in 1929<ref>{{Cite book |last=Madrid |first=Raúl L. |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/birth-of-democracy-in-south-america/A8EA21756D12D27A6171337F2BF3F415 |title=The Birth of Democracy in South America |date=2025 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-009-63381-9 |pages=55 |doi=10.1017/9781009633802}}</ref> and the last was Paraguay in 1961.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1215/00182168-3824053|title=Women's Suffrage, the Anti-Chinese Campaigns, and Gendered Ideals in Sonora, Mexico, 1917–1925|year=2017|last1=Augustine-Adams|first1=Kif|journal=Hispanic American Historical Review|volume=97|issue=2|pages=223–258}}</ref> By date of full suffrage:
{{Div col|colwidth=30em}}
* 1918: Canada
* 1920: United States <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/19th-amendment|title=19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Women's Right to Vote (1920)|date=September 21, 2021|website=National Archives}}</ref>
* 1929: Ecuador
* 1932: Uruguay
* 1934: Brazil, Cuba
* 1939: El Salvador
* 1941: Panama
* 1946: Guatemala, Venezuela
* 1947: Argentina
* 1948: Suriname
* 1949: Chile, Costa Rica
* 1950: Haiti
* 1952: Bolivia
* 1953: Mexico
* 1954: Belize, Colombia
* 1955: Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru,
* 1961: Paraguay<ref name="womensuffrage.org1">{{cite web|url=http://womensuffrage.org/?page_id=69|title=Timeline « Women Suffrage and Beyond|website=womensuffrage.org|access-date=August 7, 2015|archive-date=December 16, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181216151820/http://womensuffrage.org/?page_id=69|url-status=dead}}</ref>
{{colend|3}} 
There were political, religious, and cultural debates about women's suffrage in the various countries.<ref>Barry, Carolina, ed. ''Sufragio feminino: Prácticas y debates políticos, religiosos, y culturales en la Argentina y América Latina''. Caseros, Argentina: Editorial de la Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero 2011.</ref> Important advocates for women's suffrage include [[Hermila Galindo]] (Mexico), [[Eva Perón]] (Argentina), [[Alicia Moreau de Justo]] (Argentina), [[Julieta Lanteri]] (Argentina), [[Celina Guimarães Viana]] (Brazil), [[Ivone Guimarães]] (Brazil), [[Henrietta Müller]] (Chile), [[Marta Vergara]] (Chile), [[Lucila Rubio de Laverde]] (Colombia), [[María Currea Manrique]] (Colombia), [[Josefa Toledo de Aguerri]] (Nicaragua), [[Elida Campodónico]] (Panama), [[Clara González]] (Panama), [[Gumercinda Páez]] (Panama), [[Paulina Luisi Janicki]] (Uruguay), [[Carmen Clemente Travieso]], (Venezuela).

==== Argentina ====
The modern suffragist movement in Argentina arose partly in conjunction with the activities of the [[Socialist Party (Argentina)|Socialist Party]] and anarchists of the early twentieth century. Women involved in larger movements for social justice began to agitate equal rights and opportunities on par with men; following the example of their European peers, Elvira Dellepiane Rawson, [[Cecilia Grierson]] and [[Alicia Moreau de Justo]] began to form a number of groups in defense of the civil rights of women between 1900 and 1910. The first major victories for extending the civil rights of women occurred in the [[San Juan Province, Argentina|Province of San Juan]]. Women had been allowed to vote in that province since 1862, but only in municipal elections. A similar right was extended in the [[Santa Fe Province|province of Santa Fe]] where a constitution that ensured women's suffrage was enacted at the municipal level, although female participation in votes initially remained low. In 1927, San Juan sanctioned its Constitution and broadly recognized the equal rights of men and women. However, the [[1930 Argentine coup d'état|1930 coup]] overthrew these advances.

[[File:Buenos Aires - Balvanera - Manifestación por el voto femenino en 1948.jpg|thumb|left|Women's demonstration in Buenos Aires in front of the National Congress by law for universal suffrage, 1947]]

A great pioneer of women's suffrage was [[Julieta Lanteri]], the daughter of Italian immigrants, who in 1910 requested a national court to grant her the right to citizenship (at the time not generally given to single female immigrants) as well as suffrage. The Claros judge upheld her request and declared: "As a judge, I have a duty to declare that her right to citizenship is enshrined in the Constitution, and therefore that women enjoy the same political rights as the laws grant to male citizens, with the only restrictions expressly determined such laws, because no inhabitant is deprived of what they do not prohibit."

In July 1911, [[Julieta Lanteri|Dr. Lanteri]] were enumerated, and on November 26 of that year exercised her right to vote, the first Ibero-American woman to vote. Also covered in a judgment in 1919 was presented as a candidate for national deputy for the Independent Centre Party, obtaining 1,730 votes out of 154,302.

In 1919, Rogelio Araya UCR Argentina had gone down in history for being the first to submit a bill recognizing the right to vote for women, an essential component of universal suffrage. On July 17, 1919, he served as deputy national on behalf of the people of [[Santa Fe Province|Santa Fe]].

On February 27, 1946, three days after the [[1946 Argentine general election|elections]] that consecrated president [[Juan Perón]] and his wife First Lady [[Eva Perón]] 26 years of age gave his first political speech in an organized women to thank them for their support of Perón's candidacy. On that occasion, Eva demanded equal rights for men and women and particularly, women's suffrage:

{{blockquote|The woman Argentina has exceeded the period of civil tutorials. Women must assert their action, women should vote. The woman, moral spring home, you should take the place in the complex social machinery of the people. He asks a necessity new organize more extended and remodeled groups. It requires, in short, the transformation of the concept of woman who sacrificially has increased the number of its duties without seeking the minimum of their rights.}}

The bill was presented the new constitutional government assumed immediately after the May 1, 1946. The opposition of conservative bias was evident, not only the opposition parties but even within parties who supported [[Peronism]]. Eva Perón constantly pressured the parliament for approval, even causing protests from the latter for this intrusion.

Although it was a brief text in three articles, that practically could not give rise to discussions, the Senate recently gave preliminary approval to the project August 21, 1946, and had to wait over a year for the House of Representative to publish the September 9, 1947, Law 13,010, establishing equal political rights between men and women and universal suffrage in [[Argentina]]. Finally, Law 13,010 was approved unanimously.

[[File:Eva Perón votando.jpg|thumb|[[Eva Perón]] voting at the hospital in 1951. It was the first time women had been permitted to vote in national elections in Argentina. To this end Eva Perón received the Civic Book No. 00.000.001. It was the first and only time she would vote; she died July 26, 1952, after developing cervical cancer.]]

In an official statement on national television, Eva Perón announced the extension of suffrage to Argentina's women:

{{blockquote|Women of this country, this very instant I receive from the Government the law that enshrines our civic rights. And I receive it in front of you, with the confidence that I do so on behalf and in the name of all Argentinian women. I do so joyously, as I feel my hands tremble upon contact with victory proclaiming laurels. Here it is, my sisters, summarized into few articles of compact letters lies a long history of battles, stumbles, and hope.
Because of this, in it there lie exasperating indignation, shadows of menacing sunsets, but also cheerful awakenings of triumphal auroras. And the latter which translates the victory of women over the incomprehensions, the denials, and the interests created by the castes now repudiated by our national awakening.
And a leader who destiny forged to victoriously face the problems of our era, General [Perón]. With him, and our vote we shall contribute to the perfection of Argentina's democracy, my dear comrades.}}

On September 23, 1947, they enacted the Female Enrollment Act (No. 13,010) during the first presidency of Juan Domingo Perón, which was implemented in the [[1951 Argentine general election|elections of November 11, 1951]], in which 3,816,654 women voted (63.9% voted for the [[Justicialist Party]] and 30.8% for the [[Radical Civic Union]]). Later in 1952, the first 23 senators and deputies took their seats, representing the Justicialist Party.

==== The Bahamas ====

In 1951, a women's committee, the [[Women's Suffrage Movement]] (WSM), was formed under the leadership of [[Mary Ingraham]] who collected over 500 signatures in favor of women's suffrage and turned in a petition to the [[Parliament of the Bahamas]].<ref name="The women's suffrage in The Bahamas">{{cite web|first=Janet|last=Bostwick|url=http://www.thebahamasweekly.com/publish/the-bahamas-boasts/The_women_suffrage_in_The_Bahamas21748.shtml|title=The women's suffrage in The Bahamas|work=The Bahamas Weekly|date=May 16, 2012}}</ref>
 
In 1958, the [[National Women's Council]] was founded by [[Doris Sands Johnson]] with [[Erma Grant Smith]] as president; the organization was given the support of the [[Progressive Liberal Party]] (PLP), and when the [[United Bahamian Party]] (UBP) finally gave its support after long resistance, women's suffrage could finally be passed in parliament in 1960.<ref name="The women's suffrage in The Bahamas" />

==== Belize ====

In Belize, [[The Nationalist Movement (Belize)]] formed a women's group, the [[Women's League (Belize)|Women's League]] under [[Elfreda Trapp]], who campaigned for women's suffrage among the demands the worker's and independence movement's put upon the British authorities, and presented a petition of women's suffrage to governor [[Alan Burns (colonial administrator)|Alan Burns]] in 1935.<ref>Macpherson,&nbsp;A.&nbsp;S.&nbsp;(2007).&nbsp;From Colony to Nation: Women Activists and the Gendering of Politics in Belize, 1912–1982.&nbsp;Ukraina:&nbsp;University of Nebraska Press.</ref>
Women's suffrage was finally introduced in the reform bill of 1954, when full male suffrage was also introduced.

==== Bermuda (or the Somers Isles) ====

As [[Bermuda]] (or the Somers Isles) is part of the British Realm, the British Government is the responsible government and the British Parliament has complete authority to legislate for the territory, but certain competencies of local governance have been delegated to a local government since a local legislature, including an elected [[House of Assembly of Bermuda|lower house]], was introduced in 1620. Voting for this local assembly, however, was long restricted to property-holding men (the property qualification had not originally applied, having been introduced to limit the number of coloured men, as well as poorer white men, who could vote). In 1918, [[Gladys Morrell]] held a public speech in favor of women's suffrage, and in 1923 the women's movement organized in the [[Bermuda Woman's Suffrage Society]] chaired by [[Rose Gosling]] to campaigned for women's suffrage.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.thebermudian.com/heritage/heritage-heritage/women-and-the-vote/ | title=Women and the Vote | date=October 2020 }}</ref> Women's suffrage was finally introduced in 1944. The same property qualification that applied to men also applied to women until universal adult suffrage was introduced in the 1960s. This suffrage specifically concerned voting for the local Parliament of the [[British Overseas Territory]]. Although having the same right to vote in British elections as other British nationals (in Bermuda's case, these rights were guaranteed in Royal Charters of 1607 and 1615: "''all and euery persons being our subjects which shall goe and inhabite within the said Somer Ilandes and every of their children and posterity which shall happen to bee borne within the limits thereof shall haue and enjoy all libertyes franchesies and immunities of free denizens and natural subjectes within any of our dominions to all intents and purposes, as if they had beene abiding and borne within this our Kingdome of England or in any other of our Dominions''"),<ref>{{cite book |author=John Henry Lefroy |date=1981 |edition=First |orig-date=1877 |title=Memorials of the Discovery and Early Settlement of The Bermudas or Somers Islands, Volume 1 (The Bermuda Memorials Edition, 1881) |location=Bermuda |publisher=The Bermuda Historical Society and The Bermuda National Trust |at=Letters Patent of King James I, 1615. |quote=}}</ref><ref>{{cite executive order |number=1 |title=Royal Charter of King James I to the Virginia Company of London |date=10 April 1601 |language=English |post=King of England}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=<!--Not stated--> |date=<!--Not stated--> |title=No. 1: First Charter of Virginia |url=https://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=K7GRIUBKMVRBL76 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210911153733/https://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=K7GRIUBKMVRBL76 |archive-date=11 September 2021 |access-date=11 September 2021 |website=originalsources.com |publisher=Western Standard Publishing Company}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=<!--Not stated--> |date=<!--Not stated--> |title=No. 2: Second Charter of Virginia |url=https://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=KEPRJAXF2IKNNY6 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210911153731/https://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=KEPRJAXF2IKNNY6 |archive-date=11 September 2021 |access-date=11 September 2021 |website=originalsources.com |publisher=Western Standard Publishing Company}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=<!--Not stated--> |date=<!--Not stated--> |title=No. 3: Third Charter of Virginia |url=https://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=K5WQWAFPH3Y9A4N |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210911153729/https://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=K5WQWAFPH3Y9A4N |archive-date=11 September 2021 |access-date=11 September 2021 |website=originalsources.com |publisher=Western Standard Publishing Company}}</ref><ref>[https://www.gutenberg.org/files/36181/36181-h/36181-h.htm The Three Charters of the Virginia Company of London: the First Charter April 10, 1606, with an introduction by Samuel M. Bemiss, President, Virginia Historical Society. Virginia 350th Anniversary Celebration Corporation, Williamsburg, Virginia 1957] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210414034703/https://www.gutenberg.org/files/36181/36181-h/36181-h.htm |date=14 April 2021 }}, Gutenberg.org</ref> Bermudian women (and female and male British nationals from British Overseas Territories more generally) remain effectively barred from voting for the national British Parliament as no seats have been provided for the territories.<ref>{{cite web |author=<!-- not stated --> |date=2024-12-21 |title=Andrew Rosindell MP on the case for representation for the Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories |url=https://bridgeheadcommunications.com/insights/2024/12/21/andrew-rosindell-mp-on-the-case-for-representation-for-the-crown-dependencies-and-overseas-territories |website=Bridgehead |location=Guernsey |publisher=Bridgehead Communications 202 |access-date=2025-08-30}}</ref>

==== Bolivia ====

In Bolivia, the first women's organization in the country, the [[Atene Femenino]], was active for the introduction of women's suffrage from the 1920s.<ref name="Tétreault, Mary Ann">Tétreault, Mary Ann (1994) ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=X95R043HBJwC&dq=chanyang-hoe+1898&pg=PA163 Women and Revolution in Africa, Asia, and the New World]''. Univ of South Carolina Press. p. 163. {{ISBN|9781570030161}}</ref>

Municipal women's suffrage and granted in 1947, and full suffrage in 1952.

==== Brazil ====
[[File:Primeiras eleitoras do Brasil.jpg|thumb|First women electors of [[Brazil]], [[Rio Grande do Norte]], 1928]]

In Brazil, the issue was lifted foremost by the organization [[Federação Brasileira pelo Progresso Feminino]] from 1922. The struggle for women's suffrage was part of a larger movement to gain rights for women.<ref>Hahner, June E., ''Emancipating the Female Sex: The Struggle for Women's Rights in Brazil, 1850–1940''. Durham: Duke University Press, 1990.</ref> Most of the suffragists consisted of a minority of women from the educated elite, which made the activism appear less threatening to the political male elite.

The law of [[Rio Grande do Norte]] State allowed women to vote in 1926.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.justicaeleitoral.jus.br/arquivos/tre-sp-o-voto-feminino-pdf|title=Women's suffrage in Brazil (official page in Portuguese)|access-date=March 6, 2016|archive-date=April 27, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427202356/http://www.justicaeleitoral.jus.br/arquivos/tre-sp-o-voto-feminino-pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Women were granted the right to vote and be elected in Electoral Code of 1932, followed by Brazilian Constitution of 1934.

==== Canada ====
{{main|Women's suffrage in Canada}}
Women's political status without the vote was promoted by the [[National Council of Women of Canada]] from 1894 to 1918. It promoted a vision of "transcendent citizenship" for women. The ballot was not needed, for citizenship was to be exercised through personal influence and moral suasion, through the election of men with strong moral character, and through raising public-spirited sons. The National Council position was integrated into its nation-building program that sought to uphold Canada as a white settler nation. While the women's suffrage movement was important for extending the political rights of white women, it was also authorized through race-based arguments that linked white women's enfranchisement to the need to protect the nation from "racial degeneration."<ref>Knahan, Anne-Marie, "Transcendent Citizenship: Suffrage, the National Council of Women of Canada, and the Politics of Organized Womanhood", ''Journal of Canadian Studies'' (2008), 42#3 pp. 5–27.</ref>

Women had local votes in some provinces, as in Ontario from 1850, where women owning property ([[Freehold (English law)|freeholders]] and householders) could vote for school trustees.<ref>Frederick Brent Scollie, "The Woman Candidate for the Ontario Legislative Assembly 1919–1929," ''Ontario History'', CIV (Autumn 2012), 5–6, discusses the legal framework for election to Ontario school boards and municipal councils.</ref> By 1900 other provinces had adopted similar provisions, and in 1916 Manitoba took the lead in extending women's suffrage.<ref name="Jackel">{{cite encyclopedia|author=Susan Jackel|url=http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/womens-suffrage|title=Women's Suffrage|encyclopedia=The Canadian Encyclopedia|access-date=December 2, 2014|archive-date=October 16, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016084447/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/en/article/womens-suffrage/|url-status=dead}}</ref> Simultaneously suffragists gave strong support to the Prohibition movement, especially in Ontario and the Western provinces.<ref>John H. Thompson, "'The Beginning of Our Regeneration': The Great War and Western Canadian Reform Movements," ''Canadian Historical Association Historical Papers'' (1972), pp. 227–45.</ref><ref>Voisey, Paul, "'The "Votes For Women' Movement", ''Alberta History'' (1975), 23#3, pp. 10–23.</ref>

The [[Wartime Elections Act]] of 1917 gave the vote to British women who were war widows or had sons, husbands, fathers, or brothers serving overseas. [[Unionist Party (Canada)|Unionist]] Prime Minister Sir [[Robert Borden]] pledged himself during the 1917 campaign to equal suffrage for women. After his landslide victory, he introduced a bill in 1918 for extending the franchise to women. On May 24, 1918, women considered citizens (not Aboriginal women, or most women of colour) became eligible to vote who were "age 21 or older, not alien-born and meet property requirements in provinces where they exist".<ref name="Jackel" />

Most women of Quebec gained full suffrage in 1940.<ref name="Jackel" /> Aboriginal women across Canada were not given federal voting rights until 1960.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.cbc.ca/strombo/news/women-the-right-to-vote-in-canada-an-important-clarification.html|title=Women & The Right To Vote In Canada: An Important Clarification|website=CBC News|access-date=October 18, 2019}}</ref>

The first woman elected to Parliament was [[Agnes Macphail]] in Ontario in 1921.<ref>Cleverdon, Catherine (1974) ''The woman suffrage movement in Canada: The Start of Liberation, 1900–20''.</ref>

==== Chile ====
{{Main|Women's suffrage in Chile}}
Debate about women's suffrage in Chile began in the 1920s.<ref name="MemCHLfeme">{{Citation|title=Elecciones, sufragio y democracia en Chile (1810–2012): Voto femenino|url=http://www.memoriachilena.cl/temas/dest.asp?id=eleccionesvotofemenino|work=Memoria chilena|language=es|access-date=June 30, 2013}}</ref> Women's suffrage in [[communes of Chile|municipal]] elections was first established in 1931 by decree (decreto con fuerza de ley); [[voting age]] for women was set at 25 years.<ref name="lopezvaldivia">{{Citation|last1=López Cárdenas|first1=Patricio|title=Las administraciones municipales en la historia de Valdivia|page=32|year=2009|publisher=Editorial Dokumenta Comunicaciones|language=es}}</ref><ref name="Eltit">{{Citation|last1=Eltit|first1=Diamela|title=Crónica del sufragio femenino en Chile|page=55|year=1994|publisher=Servicio Nacional de la Mujer|language=es|author-link1=Diamela Eltit}}</ref> In addition, the [[Chamber of Deputies of Chile|Chamber of Deputies]] approved a law on March 9, 1933, establishing women's suffrage in municipal elections.<ref name="lopezvaldivia" />

Women obtained the legal right to vote in parliamentary and presidential elections in 1949.<ref name="MemCHLfeme" /> Women's share among voters increased steadily after 1949, reaching the same levels of participation as men in 1970.<ref name="MemCHLfeme" />

==== Colombia ====
{{Main|Women's suffrage in Colombia}}
Women organized in the Liberal ''[[Union Femenina de Colombia]]'' (UFC) in 1944 and the Socialist ''[[Alianza Femenina|Aliazna Femenina]]'' in 1945 to demand women's suffrage. The Liberal and Socialist party supported the reform; the conservatives initially did not, but changed its attitude when the Catholic church supported it after the Pope's statement that women were loyal conservatives and thus supporters against Communism.<ref>[[Susan Franceschet|Franceschet, Susan]]; Mona Lena Krook, Netina Tan: ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=aPZ0DwAAQBAJ&dq=Comit%C3%A9+Nacional+pro+Derechos+de+la+Mujer+suffrage&pg=PA14  The Palgrave Handbook of Women's Political Rights]''.</ref>
The vote was finally introduced in 1954.

==== Costa Rica ====

The campaign for women's suffrage in begun in the 1910s, and the campaigns were active during all electoral reforms in 1913, 1913, 1925, 1927 and 1946, notably by the [[Liga Feminista Costarricense|Feminist League]] (1923), which was a part of the [[International League of Iberian and Hispanic-American Women]], who had a continuing campaign between 1925 and 1945.<ref name="BGSmith">Smith, Bonnie G. (2008), ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=EFI7tr9XK6EC&dq=women%27s+suffrage+costa+rica&pg=PA315 The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History]'', Vol. 1, p. 315. Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|9780195148909}}.</ref>

Women obtained the legal right to vote in parliamentary and presidential elections in 1949.<ref name="BGSmith" />

==== Cuba ====

The campaign for women's suffrage begun in the 1920s, when Cuban elite feminists started to organize in associations such as [[Club Femenino de Cuba]] and [[Partido Democrata Sufragista]] and collaborate and campaign for women's issues; they arranged congresses in 1923, 1925 and 1939, and managed to achieve a reformed property rights law (1917) a no-fault divorce law (1918), and finally women's suffrage in 1934.<ref name="BGSmith" />

Women obtained the legal right to vote in parliamentary and presidential elections in 1934.<ref name="BGSmith" />

==== Dominican Republic ====

The women's movement in the Dominican Republic organized in 1931 in the [[Acción Feminista Dominicana]] (AFD), who allied with [[Rafael Trujillo]] in order to reach their goal of women's suffrage. Trujillo finally fulfilled his promise to the AFD for its support after eleven years, when he introduced women's suffrage on the Dominican Republic in 1942.<ref>Fernandez-Asenjo, Maria-Mercedes (2015-01-01). "De maestras normalistas a 'damas trujillistas': El feminismo Dominicano, 1915–1946" (Thesis) {{ProQuest|<!-- insert ProQuest data here -->}} </ref>

==== Ecuador ====
{{Main|Women's suffrage in Ecuador}}

Women obtained the legal right to vote in parliamentary and presidential elections in 1929.<ref>Valdés, Teresa; Gomariz, Enrique (1992). Mujeres latinoamericanas en cifras: Ecuador. Madrid, España: Editorial FLACSO. {{ISBN|956-205-047-5}}.</ref> This was the first time in South America.

==== El Salvador ====

Between June 1921 and January 1922, when El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Rica formed a (second) [[Federal Republic of Central America|Federation of Central America]], the Constitution of this state included women's suffrage on 9 September 1921, but the reform could never be implemented because the Federation (and thereby its constitution) did not last.<ref name="BGSmith" />

The campaign for women's suffrage begun in the 1920s, notably by the leading figure [[Prudencia Ayala]].<ref name="BGSmith" />

Women obtained the legal right to vote in parliamentary and presidential elections in 1939.<ref name="BGSmith" />  However, the qualifications were extreme and excluded 80 percent of women so the suffrage movement continued its campaign in the 1940s, notably by [[Matilde Elena López]] and [[Ana Rosa Ochoa]], until the restrictions was lifted in 1950.<ref name="BGSmith" />

==== Guatemala ====

Between June 1921 and January 1922, when El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Rica formed a (second) [[Federal Republic of Central America|Federation of Central America]], the Constitution of this state included women's suffrage on 9 September 1921, but the reform could never be implemented because the Federation (and thereby its constitution) did not last.<ref name="BGSmith" />

The campaign for women's suffrage in begun in the 1920s, notably by the organisations Gabriela Mistral Society (1925) and [[Graciela Quan]]'s Guatemalan Feminine Pro-Citizenship Union (1945).

Women obtained the legal right to vote in parliamentary and presidential elections in 1945 (without restrictions in 1965).<ref name="BGSmith" />

==== Guyana ====

In Guyana, the [[Women's Political and Economic Organization]] (WPEO) was founded by [[Janet Jagan]], [[Winifred Gaskin]] and [[Frances Van Stafford]] in 1946 to campaign for women's suffrage,<ref name="Politics 1999">Women in Politics: Voices from the Commonwealth.&nbsp;(1999).&nbsp;Storbritannien:&nbsp;Commonwealth Secretariat.</ref><ref name="Peake, 2002">Peake,&nbsp;L.,&nbsp;Trotz,&nbsp;D.&nbsp;A.&nbsp;(2002).&nbsp;Gender, Ethnicity and Place: Women and Identity in Guyana.&nbsp;Storbritannien:&nbsp;Taylor & Francis.</ref> and the campaign was given support by the [[People's Progressive Party (Guyana)|People's Progressive Party]] (PPP) and its women's group [[Women's Progressive Organization]] (WPO), until full women's suffrage was introduced in connection to the new reformed constitution in 1953.<ref name="Politics 1999"/><ref name="Peake, 2002"/>

==== Haiti ====

The campaign for women's suffrage in Haiti begun after the foundation of ''[[Ligue Feminine d’Action Sociale]]'' (LFAS) in 1934.

Women obtained the legal right to vote in parliamentary and presidential elections on 4 November 1950.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://islandluminous.fiu.edu/part09-slide22.html |title=Women and the Vote |last=Sanders |first=Grace |website=islandluminous.fiu.edu |access-date=23 July 2021 }}</ref>

==== Honduras ====

Between June 1921 and January 1922, when El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Rica formed a (second) [[Federal Republic of Central America|Federation of Central America]], the Constitution of this state included women's suffrage on 9 September 1921, but the reform could never be implemented because the Federation (and thereby its constitution) did not last.<ref name="BGSmith" />

The campaign for women's suffrage begun in the 1920s, notably by the leading figure [[Visitación Padilla]], who was the leader of the biggest women's organisation ([[Sociedad Cultural Femenina]]).<ref name="BGSmith" />

Women obtained the legal right to vote in parliamentary and presidential elections in 1955.<ref name="BGSmith" />

==== Jamaica ====

After women's suffrage had been introduced in Britain in 1918, white elite women organized in the [[Women's Social Service Club]] (also known as the [[Women's Social Service Association]] or WSSA) campaigned under the leadership of [[Nellie Latrielle]] and [[Judith DeCordova]] for the introduction of the reform on Jamaica from May 1918, and succeeded when limited suffrage for taxpaying women of property was introduced in May 1919.<ref>Bean,&nbsp;D.&nbsp;(2017).&nbsp;Jamaican Women and the World Wars: On the Front Lines of Change.&nbsp;Tyskland:&nbsp;Springer International Publishing.</ref>
The women's suffrage – as was male suffrage at the time – was, however, limited to a minority of women, and during the 1930s, women campaigned for universal women's suffrage via the [[Universal Negro Improvement Association]] (UNIA) the [[Jamaica Women's League]] (JWL) and the [[Women's Liberal Club]] (1936), until full suffrage was finally introduced in 1944.<ref>Clarke,&nbsp;C.,&nbsp;Nelson,&nbsp;C.&nbsp;(2020).&nbsp;Contextualizing Jamaica's Relationship with the IMF.&nbsp;Tyskland:&nbsp;Springer International Publishing.</ref>

==== Mexico ====
{{Main|Women's suffrage in Mexico}}
{{See also|Women in Mexico}}
Women gained the right to vote in 1947 for some local elections and for national elections in 1953, coming after a struggle dating to the 19th century.<ref>Morton, Ward M., ''Woman Suffrage in Mexico''. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1962.</ref>

==== Nicaragua ====

A women's movement was organized in Nicaragua in the 1920s. Their demand for women's suffrage was supported by the [[Nationalist Liberal Party]], who allied themselves with the women's movement in order to get their support during their regime.<ref name="Smith">Smith, Bonnie G.: [https://books.google.com/books?id=EFI7tr9XK6EC&dq=women%27s+suffrage+costa+rica&pg=PA315 ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History''], Vol. 1.</ref>

The Nationalist Liberal Party promised to introduce the reform of women's suffrage, and in 1939, the leader of the Nicaraguan women's movement [[Josefa Toledo]] (leader of the Nicaragua branch of the [[International League of Iberian and Latin American Women]]) demanded that the regime fulfil their promise to the women's movement.<ref name="Smith"/>

The promise was finally fulfilled in 1950, and the reform introduced in 1955. After this, the Nicaraguan women's associations were incorporated in the women's wing of the Nationalist Liberal Party, the [[Ala Femenina Liberal]], under the leadership of [[Olga Nunez de Saballos]] (who became the first woman MP), and gave the Party its official support in the following elections.<ref name="Smith"/>

==== Panama ====

The campaign for women's suffrage begun after the foundation of [[Federation of Women's Club of the Canal]] in 1903, which became a part of the [[General Federation of Clubs]] in New York City, which made the suffrage movement in Panama heavily influenced by the suffrage movement in the United States.<ref name="BGSmith" /> In 1922 The Feminist Group Renovation (FGR) was founded by [[Clara González]], which became the first Feminist Political women's party in Latin America when it was transformed to the Feminist National Party in 1923.<ref name="BGSmith" />

Women obtained the legal right to vote in communal elections in 1941, and in parliamentary and presidential elections 1946.<ref name="BGSmith" />

==== Paraguay ====
Paraguay was the last country in the Americas to grant women's suffrage. [[Liga Paraguaya de los Derechos de la Mujer]] campaigned for women's suffrage during the 1950s. Women's suffrage was gained in Paraguay in 1961, primarily because the [[Dictator|strongarm]] president, [[Alfredo Stroessner]], lacking the approval of his male constituents, sought to bolster his support through women voters.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Przeworski|first1=Adam|last2=Shin|first2=Kong Joo|last3=Xi|first3=Tianyang|title=A Simple Partisan Calculus of Women's Suffrage|url=http://www.fflch.usp.br/centrodametropole/upload/aaa/495-wsuffrage_092613.pdf|website=Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas|publisher=Universidade de São Paulo|access-date=9 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170909142541/http://www.fflch.usp.br/centrodametropole/upload/aaa/495-wsuffrage_092613.pdf|archive-date=9 September 2017|location=São Paulo, Brazil|page=22|date=September 26, 2013}}</ref>

====Peru====

[[Women's suffrage in Peru]] was first introduced on communal level in 1932, and on national level on 7 September 1955.<ref>Aguilar Gil, Roisida (2002). «El sufragio de la mujer: Debate en el Congreso Constituyente de 1931–1932». Elecciones (Lima: ONPE): 123–164. {{ISSN|1994-5272}}</ref> Peru was the second to last country in South America to introduce women's suffrage.

==== United States ====
[[File:Official Program Woman Suffrage Procession - March 3, 1913.jpg|thumb|Program for [[Woman Suffrage Procession]], Washington, D.C., March 3, 1913. The parade was organized by suffragists [[Alice Paul]] and [[Lucy Burns]]. ]]
{{Main|Women's suffrage in the United States}}Long before the [[Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Nineteenth Amendment]] was passed in 1920, some individual U.S. states granted women suffrage in certain kinds of elections. Some allowed women to vote in school elections, municipal elections, or for members of the Electoral College. Some territories, like Washington, Utah, and Wyoming, allowed women to vote before they became states.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://depts.washington.edu/moves/WomanSuffrage_map.shtml|title=Timeline and Map of Woman Suffrage Legislation State by State 1838–1919}}</ref> While many consider suffrage to include both voting rights and officeholding rights, many women were able to hold office prior to receiving voting rights.<ref name="Katz-2021" /> In fact, suffragists in the United States employed the strategy of petitioning for and utilizing officeholding rights first to make a stronger argument in favor of giving women the right to vote.<ref name="Katz-2021" />

The [[New Jersey]] constitution of 1776 enfranchised all adult inhabitants who owned a specified amount of property. Laws enacted in 1790 and 1797 referred to voters as "he or she", and women regularly voted. A law passed in 1807, however, excluded women from voting in that state by moving towards [[universal manhood suffrage]].<ref>{{cite book|year=2004|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IV6rt59asF8C&pg=PA138| page= 138|author=Wellman, Judith|title=The Road to Seneca Falls: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the First Woman's Rights Convention |publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=0252071735}}</ref>

[[Lydia Taft]] was an early forerunner in [[Colonial history of the United States|Colonial America]] who was allowed to vote in three [[New England]] town meetings, beginning in 1756, at [[Uxbridge, Massachusetts]].<ref>Chapin, Judge Henry (1881). Address Delivered at the Unitarian Church in Uxbridge, 1864. Worcester, Massachusetts: Charles Hamilton Press (Harvard Library; from Google Books). p. 172.</ref> The women's suffrage movement was closely tied to [[abolitionism]], with many suffrage activists gaining their first experience as anti-slavery or [[Starving Time|anti-cannibalism]] activists.<ref>{{cite book|title=Women's Rights Changing Attitudes 1900–2000|last=Stearman|first=Kaye|date=2000}}</ref>

{| style="margin:auto"
| [[File:Women Suffrage Issues of the 20th century.jpg|thumb|upright=3.4| During the 20th century, the U.S. Post Office, under the auspices of the U.S. Government, had issued commemorative postage stamps celebrating notable women who fought for women suffrage and other rights for women. From left to right:<br /> — <big>[[Susan B Anthony]]</big>, 1936 issue<br />— <big>[[Elizabeth Cady Stanton|Elizabeth Stanton]], [[Carrie Catt|Carrie C. Catt]], [[Lucretia Mott]]</big>, 1948 issue<br />— <big>[[Women's suffrage in the United States|Women Suffrage]]</big>, 1970 issue, celebrating the 50th anniversary of voting rights for women]]
|}
In June&nbsp;1848, [[Gerrit Smith]] made women's suffrage a [[Party platform|plank]] in the [[Liberty Party (United States, 1840)|Liberty Party]] [[Party platform|platform]]. In&nbsp;July, at the [[Seneca Falls Convention]] in [[upstate New York]], activists including [[Elizabeth Cady Stanton]] and [[Susan B. Anthony]] began a seventy-year struggle by women to secure the right to vote.<ref name="Katz-2021" /> Attendees signed a document known as the [[Declaration of Sentiments|Declaration of Rights and Sentiments]], of which Stanton was the primary author. Equal rights became the rallying cry of the early movement for women's rights, and equal rights meant claiming access to all the prevailing definitions of freedom. In&nbsp;1850 [[Lucy Stone]] organized a larger assembly with a wider focus, the [[National Women's Rights Convention]] in [[Worcester, Massachusetts]]. [[Susan B. Anthony]], a resident of [[Rochester, New York]], joined the cause in&nbsp;1852 after reading Stone's 1850&nbsp;speech. Stanton, Stone and Anthony were the three leading figures of this movement in the U.S. during the 19th century: the "triumvirate" of the drive to gain voting rights for women.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/awhhtml/awmss5/leaders.html|title=Women's Suffrage: The Early Leaders|work=[[American Memory]]: American Women|publisher=The Library of Congress|access-date=April 6, 2014}}</ref> Women's suffrage activists pointed out that black people had been granted the franchise and had not been included in the language of the [[United States Constitution]]'s Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments (which gave people equal protection under the law and the right to vote regardless of their race, respectively). This, they contended, had been unjust. Early victories were won in the territories of [[Wyoming Territory|Wyoming]] (1869)<ref name="wyoming">see facsimile at {{Cite web|date=December 10, 1869|title=An Act to Grant to the Women of Wyoming Territory the Right of Suffrage and to Hold Office|url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/displayPhoto.pl?path=/pnp/ppmsca/03000/&topImages=03000r.jpg |publisher=[[Library of Congress]]|access-date=December 9, 2007}}</ref> and [[Utah Territory|Utah]] (1870).

[[File:Suffragette banner. One of the banners, the women who picketed the White House . . . - NARA - 533769.tif|thumb|left|upright|"Kaiser Wilson" banner held by a woman who picketed the [[White House]]]]

[[John Allen Campbell]], the first Governor of the Wyoming Territory, approved the first law in United States history explicitly granting women the right to vote entitled "An Act to Grant to the Women of Wyoming Territory the Right of Suffrage, and to Hold Office.”<ref name="Katz-2021" /> The law was approved on December 10, 1869. This day was later commemorated as Wyoming Day.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/dec10.html|title=Today in History|publisher=The Library of Congress|access-date=July 20, 2012}}</ref><!-- Meaning what, specifically?  Women were allowed to vote in all elections in those places?  If so, it should say so. And who decided that?  The territorial legislature?  Congress?  A referendum?  Was it part of the Constitution of the Territory (if such a thing existed)?  Or just a statute that could be changed by the legislature? --> On February 12, 1870, the Secretary of the Territory and Acting Governor of the [[Territory of Utah]], S. A. Mann, approved a law allowing twenty-one-year-old women to vote in any election in Utah.<ref>"[[:File:An Act Conferring upon Women the Elective Franchise.jpg|An Act Conferring upon Women the Elective Franchise]]", approved February 12, 1870. Acts, Resolutions and Memorials of the Territory of Utah, Passed at the Nineteenth Annual Session of the Legislature, 1870, p. 8.</ref> Utah women were disenfranchised by provisions of the federal [[Edmunds–Tucker Act]] enacted by the [[United States Congress|U.S.&nbsp;Congress]] in 1887.<ref name="Katz-2021" />

[[File:Toledo Woman Suffrage Association, 1912 - DPLA - f060daf84c2df3902cab10b0ae3fd689.jpg|thumb|right|Toledo Woman Suffrage Association, [[Toledo, Ohio]], 1912]]

The push to grant Utah women's suffrage was at least partially fueled by the belief that, given the right to vote, Utah women would dispose of [[polygamy]].<ref name="Katz-2021" /> In actuality, it was the men of [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] that ultimately fought for women's enfranchisement to dispel myths that polygamy was akin to modern-day slavery.<ref name="Katz-2021" /> It was only after Utah women exercised their suffrage rights in favor of polygamy that the male-dominated U.S.&nbsp;Congress unilaterally disenfranchised Utah women.<ref>Van Wagenen, Lola (2001) ''Sister-Wives and Suffragists: Polygamy and the Politics of Woman Suffrage 1870–1896'', BYU Studies.</ref>

By the end of the 19th century, [[Idaho]], [[Utah]], and [[Wyoming]] had enfranchised women after effort by the suffrage associations at the state level; [[Colorado]] notably [[1893 Colorado women's suffrage referendum|enfranchised women by an 1893 referendum]].<ref name="Katz-2021" /> [[Women's suffrage in California|California voted to enfranchise women in 1911]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/celebrating-womens-suffrage/california-women-suffrage-centennial/|title=California Women Suffrage Centennial {{!}} California Secretary of State|website=www.sos.ca.gov|access-date=March 30, 2020}}</ref>

During the beginning of the 20th&nbsp;century, as women's suffrage faced several important federal votes, a portion of the suffrage movement known as the [[National Woman's Party]] led by suffragist [[Alice Paul]] became the first "cause" to picket outside the White House. Paul had been mentored by Emeline Pankhurst while in England, and both she and [[Lucy Burns]] led a series of protests against the [[Woodrow Wilson|Wilson Administration]] in Washington.<ref>Zahniser, Jill Diane and Fry, Amelia R. (2014). ''Alice Paul: Claiming Power''. p. 175. Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0199958424}}.</ref>

Wilson ignored the protests for six months, but on June 20, 1917, as a Russian delegation drove up to the White House, suffragists unfurled a banner which stated: "We women of America tell you that America is not a democracy. Twenty million women are denied the right to vote. President Wilson is the chief opponent of their national enfranchisement".<ref name="Clement">Ciment, James and Russell, Thaddeus (2007). ''The home front encyclopedia: United States, Britain, and Canada in World Wars I and II'', Vol. 1. p. 163. ABC-CLIO.</ref> Another banner on August&nbsp;14,&nbsp;1917, referred to "[[Kaiser]] Wilson" and compared the plight of the German people with that of American women. With this manner of protest, the women were subject to arrests and many were jailed. Another ongoing tactic of the National Woman's Party was watchfires, which involved burning copies of President Wilson's speeches, often outside the White House or in the nearby Lafayette Park. The Party continued to hold watchfires even as the war began, drawing criticism from the public and even other suffrage groups for being unpatriotic.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://depts.washington.edu/moves/NWP_storymap.shtml|title=National Woman's Party 1912–1922: Timeline Story Map|publisher=depts.washington.edu}}</ref> On October 17, Alice Paul was sentenced to seven months and on October 30 began a [[hunger strike]], but after a few days prison authorities began to force feed her.<ref name="Clement" /> After years of opposition, Wilson changed his position in 1918 to advocate women's suffrage as a war measure.<ref>Lemons, J. Stanley (1973). ''The woman citizen: social feminism in the 1920s'', p. 13. University of Virginia Press.</ref>

[[File:Women suffragists picketing in front of the White house.jpg|thumb|The [[Silent Sentinels]], women suffragists picketing in front of the White House {{Circa|February 1917|lk=no}}. Banner on the left reads, "Mr President, How long must women wait for Liberty?", and the banner to the right, "Mr President, What will you do for women's suffrage?"<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.loc.gov/item/97500299/|title=The first picket line – College day in the picket line|work=The Library of Congress|access-date=March 2, 2017}}</ref>]]

The key vote came on June&nbsp;4, 1919,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=63|title=Our Documents – 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Women's Right to Vote (1920)|work=ourdocuments.gov|date=April 9, 2021 }}</ref> when the Senate approved the amendment by 56 to 25 after four hours of debate, during which Democratic Senators opposed to the amendment [[filibuster]]ed to prevent a roll call until their absent Senators could be protected by pairs. The Ayes included 36 (82%) Republicans and 20 (54%) Democrats. The Nays were from 8 (18%) Republicans and 17 (46%) Democrats. The [[Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Nineteenth Amendment]], which prohibited state or federal sex-based restrictions on voting, was ratified by sufficient states in 1920.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1920womensvote.html|title=Suffrage Wins in Senate; Now Goes to States|date=June 5, 1919|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=November 17, 2011}}</ref> According to the article, "Nineteenth Amendment", by Leslie Goldstein from the Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States, "by the end it also included jail sentences, and hunger strikes in jail accompanied by brutal force feedings; mob violence; and legislative votes so close that partisans were carried in on stretchers" (Goldstein, 2008). Even after the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified, women were still facing problems. For instance, when women had registered to vote in Maryland, "residents sued to have the women's names removed from the registry on the grounds that the amendment itself was unconstitutional" (Goldstein, 2008).

Before 1965, women of color, such as African Americans and Native Americans, were [[disfranchisement|disenfranchised]], especially in the [[Southern United States|South]].<ref name="Voting Rights Act">{{Source-attribution|sentence=yes|{{cite web|title=Introduction to Federal Voting Rights Laws: The Effect of the Voting Rights Act|url=https://www.justice.gov/crt/about/vot/intro/intro_c.php|publisher=U.S. Department of Justice|access-date=August 4, 2016|date=June 19, 2009}}}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/africanamericanw00terb|title=African American women in the struggle for the vote, 1850–1920|last=Terborg-Penn|first=Rosalyn|date=1998|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0-253-33378-0|location=Bloomington|oclc=37693895}}</ref> The [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]] prohibited racial discrimination in voting, and secured voting rights for racial minorities throughout the U.S.<ref name="Voting Rights Act" />

==== Puerto Rico ====

On Puerto Rico, the organized struggle for women's suffrage on the American dependency of Puerto Rico begun when the United States introduced suffrage for males only via the  Jones Act in 1917, and the [[Liga Femínea Puertorriqueña]] (from 1920 known as [[Liga Social Sufragista]]) was founded by [[Ana Roque de Duprey]] to campaign for voting rights to be extended also to women.<ref>Jiménez-Muñoz, Gladys M. (1998). "7. Literacy, Class, and Sexuality in the Debate on Women's Suffrage in Puerto Rico during the 1920s". In Matos-Rodriguez, Felix V.; Delgado, Linda C. (eds.). Puerto Rican Women's History: New Perspectives. Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, pp. 143–170. {{ISBN|978-0-7656-3175-6}}.</ref>
When women's suffrage was introduced in the US in 1920, the suffragists on Puerto Rico stated that this reform should apply to Puerto Rico as well, and sued under the leadership of [[Milagros Benet de Mewton]] for this purpose. Women's suffrage was extended to Puerto Rico in 1929, but only for literate women; full women's suffrage was introduced by the US on Puerto Rico first in 1932.
[[File:Sufragio femenino Uruguay 1938.jpg|thumb|Commemorative poster of the [[1938 Uruguayan general election]].]]

==== Uruguay ====
{{Main|Women's suffrage in Uruguay}}
Women's suffrage was announced as a principle in the [[Constitution of Uruguay of 1917]], and declared as law in a decree of 1932. The first national election in which women voted was the [[1938 Uruguayan general election]].<ref name="Miller1991"/>

Nevertheless, the first time that women were able to vote was in the [[1927 Cerro Chato referendum]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.larepublica.com.uy/comunidad/263868-el-voto-femenino-cumple-ochenta-anos-en-uruguay|title=El voto femenino cumple ochenta años en Uruguay|accessdate=6 July 2011|year=2007|website=LaRed21|language=es}}</ref>

==== Venezuela ====
{{Main|Women's suffrage in Venezuela}}
After the [[Generation of 1928|1928 Student Protests]], women started participating more actively in politics. In 1935, women's rights supporters founded the [[Asociacón Cultural Feminina|Feminine Cultural Group]] (known as 'ACF' from its initials in Spanish), with the goal of tackling women's problems. The group supported women's political and social rights, and believed it was necessary to involve and inform women about these issues to ensure their personal development. It went on to give seminars, as well as founding night schools and the House of Laboring Women.

Groups looking to reform the 1936 Civil Code of Conduct in conjunction with the Venezuelan representation to the Union of American Women called the First Feminine Venezuelan Congress in 1940. In this congress, delegates discussed the situation of women in Venezuela and their demands. Key goals were women's suffrage and a reform to the Civil Code of Conduct. Around twelve thousand signatures were collected and handed to the Venezuelan Congress, which reformed the Civil Code of Conduct in 1942.

In 1944, groups supporting women's suffrage, the most important being Feminine Action, organized around the country. During 1945, women attained the right to vote at a municipal level. This was followed by a stronger call of action. Feminine Action began editing a newspaper called the Correo Cívico Femenino, to connect, inform and orientate Venezuelan women in their struggle. Finally, after the [[1945 Venezuelan coup d'état]] and the [[1946 Venezuelan Constituent Assembly election|call for a new Constitution]], to which women were elected, women's suffrage became a constitutional right in the country.

=== In non-religious organizations ===
The right of women to vote has sometimes been denied in non-religious organizations; for example, it was not until 1964 that women in the [[National Association of the Deaf (United States)|National Association of the Deaf]] in the United States were first allowed to vote.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://nad.org/nad-history#1970s |title=NAD History; National Association of the Deaf |publisher=Nad.org |date=January 1, 2006 |access-date=October 29, 2015}}</ref>

== In religion ==
=== Christianity ===
{{see also|Women in Christianity}}
The [[Pope]] is elected by [[Cardinal (Catholic Church)|cardinals]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.catholic-pages.com/pope/election.asp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19991012011733/http://www.catholic-pages.com/pope/election.asp |url-status=usurped |archive-date=October 12, 1999 |title=How is the Pope elected? |publisher=Catholic-Pages.com |date=April 6, 2005 |access-date=September 2, 2011}}</ref> Women are not appointed as cardinals, and therefore, women cannot vote for the Pope.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.catholic.com/library/Women_and_the_Priesthood.asp |title=Women and the Priesthood |publisher=Catholic.com |access-date=September 2, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110904055106/http://www.catholic.com/library/Women_and_the_Priesthood.asp |archive-date=September 4, 2011 }}</ref>

The female Catholic office of [[Abbess]] is elective, the choice being made by the secret votes of nuns belonging to the community.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01007e.htm|title=Catholic Encyclopedia: Abbess|website=www.newadvent.org}}</ref> The high rank ascribed to abbesses within the Catholic Church formerly permitted some abbesses the right to sit and vote at national assemblies – as with various high-ranking abbesses in Medieval Germany, who were ranked among the independent princes of the empire. Their Protestant successors enjoyed the same privilege almost into modern times.<ref name="Abbess"/>
 
On 6 February 2021, [[Pope Francis]] appointed [[Nathalie Becquart]] an undersecretary of the [[Synod of Bishops in the Catholic Church|Synod of Bishops]],<ref>{{cite press release | publisher = Holy See Press Office | access-date = 6 February 2021 | date = 6 February 2021 | url = https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2021/02/06/210206b.html | title = Resignations and Appointments, 06.02.2021 }}</ref> making her the first woman to have the right to vote in the Synod of Bishops.<ref>{{cite news | access-date = 7 February 2021 | url = https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2021/02/06/nathalie-becquart-premiere-femme-a-avoir-le-droit-de-vote-au-synode-des-eveques_6069030_3224.html | language = fr | work = Le Monde | title = Nathalie Becquart, première femme à avoir le droit de vote au synode des évêques | date= 6 February 2021 }}</ref>

On 26 April 2023, Pope Francis announced that women would be allowed to vote at the [[Sixteenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops]],<ref>{{cite news | access-date = 26 April 2023 | work = New York Times | date = 26 April 2023 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/26/world/europe/pope-women-vote-bishops-meeting.html | title = Pope Will Allow Women to Vote at Meeting of Bishops | first = Elisabetta | last = Povoledo }}</ref> marking the first time women were allowed to vote at any Synod of Bishops.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/pope-allows-women-vote-bishops-meeting-first-time-2023-04-26/|title=Pope allows women to vote at bishops meeting for first time|first=Philip|last=Pullella|work=Reuters |date=April 26, 2023|via=www.reuters.com}}</ref>

=== Islam ===
{{see also|Women in Islam}}
In some countries, some mosques have constitutions prohibiting women from voting in board elections.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/22/us/muslim-women-seeking-a-place-in-the-mosque.html|title=Muslim Women Seeking a Place in the Mosque|date=July 22, 2004|newspaper=The New York Times|last1=Goodstein|first1=Laurie}}</ref>

=== Judaism ===
{{see also|Women in Judaism}}
In Conservative Judaism, Reform Judaism, and most Orthodox Jewish movements, women have the right to vote. Since the 1970s, more and more Modern Orthodox synagogues and religious organizations have been granting women the right to vote and to be elected to their governing bodies. In a few Ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities, women are denied the vote or the ability to be elected to positions of authority.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vosizneias.com/63964/2010/09/12/manhattan-ny-rabbi-holds-on-to-keep-women-off-from-board-of-orthodox-synagogue/ |title=Manhattan, NY – Rabbi Keeps Off Women from Board of LES Orthodox Synagogue |date=September 12, 2010 |publisher=VosIzNeias.com |access-date=September 2, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nysun.com/new-york/judge-dismisses-lawsuit-against-synagogue/14/ |title=Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Against Synagogue |work=[[The New York Sun]] |date=June 2, 2004 |access-date=September 2, 2011 |archive-date=October 11, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111011054328/http://www.nysun.com/new-york/judge-dismisses-lawsuit-against-synagogue/14/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.crownheights.info/index.php?itemid=33955 |title=The Key to Marital Harmony: One Vote Per Couple? |publisher=CrownHeights.info |access-date=September 2, 2011}}</ref>

In the United States, Jewish women were hugely participatory in the suffrage movement. American Jewish support started in the mid-1800s but grew significantly at the turn of the twentieth century due to Jewish immigration from Europe. Jewish suffragists faced [[antisemitism]] and [[xenophobia]] from [[Anti-suffragism|anti-suffragists]] and suffragists alike. By the time of the [[Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Nineteenth Amendment]], a majority of American Jews supported suffrage.<ref name="Suffrage in the United States">{{Cite web |title=Suffrage in the United States |url=https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/suffrage-in-the-united-states |access-date=2023-04-25 |website=Jewish Women's Archive |date=June 23, 2021 |language=en}}</ref>

[[Ernestine Rose]] was a Polish American suffragist who worked closely with [[Elizabeth Cady Stanton]] and [[Susan B. Anthony]]. She is sometimes referred to as "the first Jewish feminist" though she had renounced Judaism at an early age and was an active atheist.<ref name="Suffrage in the United States"/>

== Timelines ==
* [[Timeline of women's suffrage]]
* [[Timeline of women's legal rights (other than voting)]]
* [[Timeline of first women's suffrage in majority-Muslim countries]]

== See also ==
{{Portal|Feminism|Politics}}
* [[Anti-suffragism]]
* [[Art in the women's suffrage movement in the United States]]
* [[Gender Inequalities in France]]
* [[List of monuments and memorials to women's suffrage]]
* [[List of anti-suffragists]]
* [[List of suffragists and suffragettes]]
* [[List of the first female holders of political offices in Europe]]
* [[List of the first female members of parliament by country]]
* [[List of women's rights activists]]
* [[Open Christmas Letter]]
* [[Suffrage Hikes]]
* [[Woman Suffrage Procession|Woman Suffrage Procession of 1913]]
* [[Women's suffrage in the United States]]
* [[Women's suffrage movement in Washington]]
* [[List of suffragists and suffragettes#Women's suffrage organizations|Women's suffrage organizations]]
* [[Women's work]]

== References ==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

== External links ==
{{commons category}}
{{wikisource|Portal:Women's suffrage}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080917143112/http://www.imow.org/wpp/stories/viewStory?storyId=1619 Photo Essay on Women's Suffrage by the International Museum of Women]
* [http://www.ipu.org/wmn-e/suffrage.htm Women's Suffrage], "A World Chronology of the Recognition of Women's Rights to Vote and to Stand for Election".
* [http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/QuebecHistory/encyclopedia/Canada-WomensVote-WomenSuffrage.htm Suffrage in Canada]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20031214131201/http://www.usembassy.ye/press/p30apr03b.htm Press release with respect to Qatar and Yemen]
* [https://www.flickr.com/photos/iminerva/sets/72157604177179029/ UNCG Special Collections and University Archives selections of American Suffragette manuscripts]
* [http://www.old-picture.com/womens-suffrage-index-001.htm Photographs of U.S. suffragettes, marches, and demonstrations]
* [http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/WI.AJames Ada James papers and correspondence (1915–1918)]&nbsp;– a digital collection presented by the [http://uwdc.library.wisc.edu/ University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center]. [[Ada James|Ada James (1876–1952)]] was a leading a social reformer, humanitarian, and pacifist from [[Richland Center, Wisconsin|Richland Center]], Wisconsin and daughter of [[State Senator]] David G. James. The Ada James papers document the grass roots organizing and politics required to promote and guarantee the passage of women's suffrage in Wisconsin and beyond.
* [http://www.lwl.org/westfaelische-geschichte/portal/Internet/ku.php?tab=web&ID=600 Women's suffrage in Germany]&nbsp;– January 19, 1919&nbsp;– first suffrage (active and passive) for women in Germany
* [http://coolbeanscool.blogspot.com/2003/09/suffragists-vs-suffragettes.html Suffragists vs. Suffragettes]&nbsp;– brief article outlining origins of term "suffragette", usage of term and links to other sources.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100924004311/http://womenincongress.house.gov/ Women in Congress]&nbsp;– Information about women who have served in the U.S. Congress including historical essays that cover suffrage.
* {{cite web |url=http://www.cv.vic.gov.au/stories/victorian-women-vote-1908-2008/ |title=Culture Victoria&nbsp;– historical images and videos for the Centenary of Women's Suffrage |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720000027/https://www.cv.vic.gov.au/stories/victorian-women-vote-1908-2008/ |archive-date=2011-07-20 |url-status=dead}}
* Woman suffragist, Mary Ellen Ewing vs the Houston School Board&nbsp;– [http://digital.lib.uh.edu/cdm4/about_collection.php?CISOROOT=/p15195coll30 Collection at the University of Houston Digital Library. ] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130518070132/http://digital.lib.uh.edu/cdm4/about_collection.php?CISOROOT=%2Fp15195coll30 |date=May 18, 2013 }}
* [http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/p15831coll5 Women's Suffrage and Equal Rights] in the Claremont Colleges Digital Library
* [https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/browse-subject Select "Suffrage" subject, at the Persuasive Cartography, The PJ Mode Collection], [[Cornell University Library]]
* [https://www.loc.gov/collection/women-of-protest/about-this-collection/ Women of Protest: Photographs from the Records of the National Woman's Party]
* [http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/suffrage/nwp/detchron.pdf Detailed Chronology of National Woman's] *Digitized items from the [https://www.loc.gov/collections/national-american-woman-suffrage-association/about-this-collection/ National American Women's Suffrage Collection] in the [https://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/ Rare Book and Special Collections Division] of the [[Library of Congress]]
* [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWg7tX9a8xu18LKuNla3FalDpesOdKfYx UP & DOING!], a video re-enactment of the 1894 passage of women's suffrage in South Australia produced by the [[Parliament of South Australia]]
*[https://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip_83-16c2g1b0 “Let the Women Vote!,”] PBS Utah, The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the [[University of Georgia]], [[American Archive of Public Broadcasting]]

{{Suffrage|state=expanded}}
{{Emmeline Pankhurst}}
{{Susan B. Anthony}}
{{Elizabeth Cady Stanton}}
{{Lucy Stone}}
{{Alice Paul}}
{{Lucy Burns}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Women's Suffrage}}
[[Category:Women's suffrage| ]]
[[Category:Suffrage]]