The Global History and Timeline of Women's Suffrage

Women's suffrage – the right of women to vote – has been achieved at various times in countries throughout the world. In many nations, women's suffrage was granted before universal suffrage, in which cases women and men from certain socioeconomic classes or races were still unable to vote. Some countries granted suffrage to both sexes at the same time. This timeline lists years when women's suffrage was enacted. Some countries are listed more than once, as the right was extended to more women according to age, land ownership, and other criteria.

Pioneering Jurisdictions and Major Milestones

New Zealand was the first self-governing country in the world in which all women had the right to vote in parliamentary elections, from 1893. However, women could not stand for election to parliament until 1919. The colony of South Australia allowed women to both vote and stand for election in 1895. In 1906, the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland, which later became the Republic of Finland, was the first country in the world to give all women and all men both the right to vote and the right to run for office. Finland was also the first country in Europe to give women the right to vote. The world's first female members of parliament were elected in Finland the following year.

In North America and the Pacific, the Australian Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902 enabled female British subjects resident in Australia to vote at federal elections and also permitted them to stand for election to the Australian Parliament, making the newly-federated country of Australia the first in the modern world to do so. However, the act excluded "natives of Australia, Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands (other than New Zealand)".

Historical Timeline of Enactment

17th and 18th Centuries

• 1689 – Friesland: Female landowners are allowed to vote in elections to the States of Friesland in rural districts.
• 1718 – Sweden: Female taxpaying members of city guilds are allowed to vote in local city elections (rescinded in 1758) and national elections (rescinded in 1772).
• 1734 – Sweden: Female taxpaying property owners of legal majority are allowed to vote in local countryside elections.
• 1755 – Corsica: Female suffrage in the independent republic's Diet (rescinded upon annexation by France in 1769).
• 1776 – New Jersey (U.S. state): Unmarried and widowed women meeting property requirements were allowed to vote; this was later rescinded in 1807.

19th Century Developments

During the 1800s, the movement expanded across various territories and islands:

• 1838: Pitcairn Islands.
• 1840: Hawaiian Kingdom (later rescinded in 1852).
• 1848: Grand Duchy of Tuscany.
• 1853: Republic of New Granada – The Province of Vélez grants universal suffrage to men and women (annulled a few years later).
• 1856: Norfolk Island.
• 1861: South Australia – Property-owning women were given the right to vote.
• 1862: Sweden – Limited to local elections with votes graded after taxation; universal franchise was later achieved in 1919.
• 1881: Isle of Man – Certain women (based on property ownership) gained the right to vote.

Modern Progress and Final Jurisdictions

In Europe, the last jurisdiction to grant women the right to vote was the Swiss canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden in 1991. Women in Switzerland obtained the right to vote at federal level in 1971, and at local cantonal level between 1959 and 1972, except for Appenzell in 1989/1990. In the Middle East, women in Saudi Arabia were first allowed to vote in December 2015 in the municipal elections.