{"id":26804,"date":"2024-01-21T15:42:45","date_gmt":"2024-01-21T14:42:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.humanrightscareers.com\/?p=26804"},"modified":"2024-01-21T15:46:26","modified_gmt":"2024-01-21T14:46:26","slug":"when-did-women-get-the-right-to-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.humanrightscareers.com\/issues\/when-did-women-get-the-right-to-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"When Did Women Get The Right To Vote?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The right to vote is a basic human right. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights<\/a>, which guides human rights law around the world, says everyone has the right to take part in government either directly or through freely chosen representatives. It also states that the government\u2019s authority should come from the will of the people, which entails free and fair elections through \u201cuniversal and equal suffrage.\u201d That means people of all genders must be free to vote. For centuries, women either did not have the right to vote at all or the restrictions were so rigid, the right could hardly be considered universal and equal. In this article, we\u2019ll explore the history of women\u2019s suffrage, what countries achieved it first, and what challenges face women\u2019s rights to vote.<\/p>\n

New Zealand was the first country to give women the right to vote in 1893 followed by Nordic countries like Finland and Norway. The United States and the United Kingdom achieved suffrage in 1920 and 1928, respectively. Though voting rights are threatened in many places, women\u2019s suffrage is essentially present in every country.\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

What countries gave women the right to vote first? <\/strong><\/h2>\n

New Zealand was the first country to achieve women\u2019s suffrage. For years, campaigners like Kate Sheppard petitioned Parliament to give women the right to vote. In 1893, the governor finally signed a new Electoral Act, which made New Zealand the world\u2019s first self-governing country<\/a> to give women the right to vote in parliamentary elections. Just a year later, the South Australian Parliament passed legislation that gave women both the right to vote and to stand for elections, the latter of which New Zealand had not yet achieved. This made South Australia the first electorate in the world<\/a> to give women equal political rights. Most Nordic countries<\/a> gave women the right to vote in 1906 (Finland), 1907 (Norway), and 1915 (Denmark and Iceland).<\/p>\n

Women weren\u2019t always forbidden from voting before New Zealand and Australia\u2019s legislation. As an example, Sweden gave some women the right to vote in elections as early as 1718<\/a>. Female taxpaying members of city guilds had this right until 1772 when it was rescinded. It wasn\u2019t until 1921 that all women in Sweden got the right to vote. In the United States, the state of New Jersey allowed single women who owned property to vote in 1776<\/a>. The state was also unique in that it let African Americans vote if they met residency and property requirements. Both eligible women and people of color living in New Jersey were later stripped of the right to vote in 1807.<\/p>\n

Interested in learning more about women\u2019s rights. Here are <\/em>11 facts<\/em><\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n

When did the United States and the United Kingdom give women the right to vote? <\/strong><\/h2>\n

The best-known women\u2019s suffrage movements were based in two places: the United States and the United Kingdom. When the United States developed its constitution, it gave the states the power to set voting requirements. This resulted in states limiting the right to vote to white men. The women\u2019s suffrage movement in the United States<\/a> began in the mid-19th century. In 1848, the first women\u2019s rights convention took place in Seneca Falls, New York, where the group agreed to advocate for voting rights for women. Progress was slow, but by 1896, four states had given women the right to vote. Women\u2019s clubs worked on voting rights alongside issues like better education, liquor prohibition and unionization. The 19th Amendment finally gave women the right to vote in 1920.<\/p>\n

As in the United States, women in the UK started pushing for voting rights in the mid-19th century. According to Historic England, the London National Society for Women\u2019s Suffrage and the Manchester National Society for Women\u2019s Suffrage launched the first campaigns<\/a>. They released pamphlets, petitioned supporters and held public meetings. As the movement expanded and unified, the suffragettes faced increasingly hostile resistance. Some suffragettes responded with more extremist methods such as breaking windows and going on hunger strikes. Many were jailed, which led to tensions within the movement, but when World War I broke out, the movement for women\u2019s rights was interrupted. By the war\u2019s end, sentiments toward women\u2019s suffrage had changed, so that by 1928, the UK based the Equal Franchise Act. All women over 21 were given the right to vote.<\/p>\n

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Do women in your country of origin face significant barriers or discrimination when trying to vote?<\/strong><\/p>