TQOTD: Women's Suffrage....

[pat]

What was the first country to extend the right to vote to women?



New Zealand gave women the right to vote in 1893. By contrast, women were granted the right to vote in nationwide elections in 1919 in Britain (although full equality of voting rights with men did not happen until 1928), 1920 in the U.S., 1945 in France and 1971 in Switzerland. Even the first Commonwealth nation after New Zealand (Australia, 1902) and the first European nation (Finland, 1906) were a nearly a decade -- or more -- following New Zealand's lead. Source: Information Please Almanac.

Comments

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

Australia's a little deceptive. It became a nation right around then, so it couldn't have granted women the right to vote sooner. Women gained suffrage in South Australia in 1894, before Australia confederated.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

You have a point. It is also the case in the U.S. that women had the right to vote in several states in state and local election years before the passage and ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. I haven't looked this up, but if memory serves Wyoming was the first to allow women to vote in any elections.