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Right to Vote Right to Stand for Election

Afghanistan | 1965* | 1965*
Afghanistan Notes | *Revoked during Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001. | *Revoked during Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001.
Albania | 1920 | 1920
Algeria | July 5th, 1962 | July 5th, 1962
Andora | April 14th, 1970 | September 5th, 1973
Angola | November 11th, 1975 | November 11th, 1975
Antigua & Barbuda | December 1st, 1951 | December 1st, 1951
Argentina | September 29th, 1947 | September 29th, 1947
Armenia | February 2nd, 1921 | February 2nd, 1921
Australia | June 12th, 1902 | June 12th, 1902
Australia (Aboriginal) | June 18th, 1962 | June 18th, 1962
Austria | December 19th, 1918 | December 19th, 1918Azerbaijan | May 19th, 1921 | May 19th, 1921
The Bahamas | February 18th, 1961 | February 18th, 1961
Bahrain | October 24th, 2002 | October 24th, 2002
Bangladesh | November 4th, 1972 | November 4th, 1972
Barbados | October 23rd, 1950 | October 23rd, 1950
Belarus | February 4th, 1919 | February 4th, 1919
Belgium | May 9th, 1919*/March 27th, 1948** | February 7th, 1921*/March 27th, 1948**
Belgium Notes | *”Right to vote in national elections to the widows and mothers of servicemen killed in World War I, to the widows and mothers of citizens shot or killed by the enemy, and to female political prisoners who had been held by the enemy” (p. 34). | **Right to vote extended to “all women… with the same conditions applied to men” (p. 34).
Belize | March 25th, 1954 | March 25th, 1954
Benin | 1956 | 1956
Bhutan | 1953 | 1953
Bolivia | 1938*/
July 21, 1952 | July 21, 1952
Bolivia Notes | *Right to vote extended to “literate women and those with a certain level of income” (p. 41). |
Bosnia and Herzegovina | January 31st, 1949 | January 31st, 1949
Botswana | March 1st, 1965 | March 1st, 1965
Brazil | July 16th, 1934 | July 16th, 1934
Brunei | Men/women not allowed to vote since 1962. | Men/women not allowed to stand for election since 1962.
Bulgaria | October 16th, 1944 | October 16th, 1944
Burkina Faso | September 28th, 1958 | September 28th, 1958
Burundi | August 17th, 1961 | August 17th, 1961
Cambodia | September 25th, 1955 | September 25th, 1955
Camerooon | October 1946 | October 1946
Benin | 1956 | 1956
Canada | September 1917*/
May 1918** | July 1920
Canada Notes | *”Women who had close male relatives serving in the military were granted the right to vote at the federal level” (p. 61). | **Most women won the federal vote, but most Aboriginal women excluded.
Canada (Aboriginal) | 1950* | 1950
Canada (Aboriginal) Notes | Right to vote extended “only if they waived their tax exemption under the Indian Act. In August 1960, the unqualified extension of federal voting rights…” (p. 69). | “Quebec in 1969, became the last province to extend franchise rights to all native Indians at the provincial level” (p. 69).
Cape Verde | July 5th, 1975 | July 5th, 1975
Central African Republic | 1986 | 1986
Chad | 1958 |
Chile | May 30th, 1931*/
May 15th, 1949** | May 30th, 1931*/
May 15th, 1949**
Chile Notes | *Right to vote/stand for election in “municipal elections” (p. 77). | **Right to vote/stand for election in “legislative and provincial elections” (p. 77).
China (People’s Republic) | October 1st, 1949
(also granted in 1911 after revolution) | October 1st, 1949
China (Republic of)/Taiwan | 1947 |
Colombia | August 25th, 1954 | August 25th, 1954
Comoros | 1956 | 1956
Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kinshasa) | May 3rd, 1967 | April 17th, 1970
Congo Republic (Brazzaville) | December 8th, 1963 | December 8th, 1963
Costa Rica | November 17th, 1949 | November 17th, 1949
Cote d’Ivoire | 1952 | 1952
Croatia | August 11th, 1945 | August 11th, 1945
Cuba | January 2nd, 1934 | January 2nd, 1934
Cyprus | August 16th, 1960 | August 16th, 1960
Czech Republic | 1920 | 1920
Denmark | 1908 (local authorities)/
June 5th, 1915 | 1908 (local authorities)/
June 5th, 1915
Djibouti | 1946 | 1986
Dominica | July 1951 | July 1951
Dominican Republic | 1942 | 1942
Ecuador* | March 3rd, 1929** | March 3rd, 1929
Ecuador Notes | *First country in South American to grant woman suffrage. | **”Between 1929 and 1967, voting was compulsory for men and optional for women; in 1967 it became compulsory for bothe sexes” (p. 115).
Egypt | June 23rd, 1956 | June 23rd, 1956
El Salvador | 1939 | 1961
Equatorial Guinea | December 15th, 1963 | December 15th, 1963
Eritrea | November 4th, 1955 | November 4th, 1955
Estonia | November 24th, 1918 | November 24th, 1918
Ethiopia | November 4th, 1955 | November 4th, 1955
Fiji | April 17th, 1963 | May 5th, 1963
Finland | July 20th, 1906 | July 20th, 1906
France | April 21st, 1944 | April 21st, 1944
Gabon | May 23rd, 1956 | May 23rd, 1956
Gambia | 1960 | 1960
Georgia | November 22nd, 1918 | November 22nd, 1918
Germany | November 12th, 1918 | November 12th, 1918
Ghana | 1954 | 1954
Greece | January 1st, 1952 | January 1st, 1952
Grenada | August 1951 | August 1951
Guatemala | 1946 | 1946
Guinea | October 2nd, 1958 | October 2nd, 1958
Guinea-Bissau | 1977 | 1977
Guyana | 1953 | 1945*
Guyana Notes |  | *”Eligible to sit on the British Guiana Legislation Council” (p. 163).
Haiti | November 25th, 1950 | November 25th, 1950
Honduras | January 25th, 1955 | January 25th, 1955
Hungary | 1918 | 1918
Iceland | June 19th, 1915 | June 19th, 1915
India | January 26th, 1950 | January 26th, 1950
Indonesia | August 17th, 1945 | August 17th, 1945
Iran | September 1963 | September 1963
Iraq | 1958*/
February 1980 | 1958/
February 1980
Iraq Notes | *Government “overthrown during the summer of 1958, before any elections with female participation” (p. 188). |
Ireland | June 2nd, 1918 (Women over 30 years of age)/
July 2nd 1928 | June 2nd, 1918 (Women over 30 years of age)/
July 2nd 1928
Israel | May 15th, 1948 | May 15th, 1948
Italy | February 1st, 1945 | February 1st, 1945 (
1925 Italy (limited to local elections)

Jamaica | November 20th, 1944 | November 20th, 1944
Japan | December 12th, 1945*/February 24th, 1947** | December 12th, 1945*/February 24th, 1947**
Japan Notes | *”For the House of Representatives” (p. 202). | **”For the House of Councillors” (p. 202).
Jordan | 1974* | 1974*
Jordan Notes | “Women actually exercised the right to vote and stand for election for the first time in 1989” (p. 206). |
Kazakhstan | January 31st, 1924 | January 31st, 1924
Kenya | December 12th, 1963* | December 12th, 1963*
Kenya Notes | “The right to vote and stand for office had been given to European women in Kenya in 1919; in 1956, those rights were extended to African men and women under certain conditions related to educational level and property ownership.” | “In 1963, all Kenyans, regardless of color and other previously restricting factors, were given the right to vote and stand for election” (p. 209).
Kiribati | November 15th, 1967 | November 15th, 1967
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea | July 30th, 1946 | July 30th, 1946
Republic of Korea | July 17th, 1948 | July 17th, 1948
Kuwait |  |
Kyrgyzstan | June 1918 | June 1918
Laos | 1958 | 1958
Latvia | November 18th, 1918 | December 18th, 1918
Lebanon | 1952 | 1952
Lesotho | April 30th, 1965 | April 30th, 1965
Liberia | May 7th, 1946 | May 7th, 1946
Libya | 1963 | 1963
Liechtenstein* | July 1st, 1984 | July 1st, 1984
Liechtenstein Notes | Last country in Europe to grant women suffrage. |
Lithuania | October 5th, 1921 | October 5th, 1921
Luxembourg | May 15th, 1919 | May 15ht, 1919
Macedonia | December 31st, 1946 | December 31st, 1946
Madagascar | April 29th, 1959 | April 29th, 1959
Malawi | 1961 | 1961
Malaysia | August 31st, 1957 | August 31st, 1957
Maldives | 1932 | 1932
Mali | 1956 | 1956
Malta | September 5th, 1947 | September 5th, 1947
Marshall Islands | May 1st, 1979 | May 1st, 1979
Mauritania | May 20th, 1961 | May 20th, 1961
Mauritius | 1956 | 1956
Mexico | February 15th, 1947* | October 17th, 1953
Mexico Notes | “Women were permitted to vote in some local and state elections at an earlier date”. | “Yucatan and San Luis Potosi were the first states to extend the franchise, in 1922 and 1923, respectively” (p. 255).
Federated States of Micronesia | November 3rd, 1979 | November 3rd, 1979
Moldova | April 4th, 1978 | April 4th, 1978
Monaco | December 17th, 1962 | December 17th, 1962
Mongolia | November 1st, 1924 | November 1st, 1924
Morocco | May 1963 | May 1963
Mozambique | June 25th, 1975 | June 25th, 1975
Myanmar | 1935 | March 19th, 1946
Namibia | November 7th, 1989 | November 7th, 1989
Nauru | January 3rd, 1968 | January 3rd, 1968
Nepal | 1951 | 1951
Netherlands | August 9th, 1919 | November 29, 1917
New Zealand | September 19th, 1893 | October 29th, 1919
Nicaragua | April 21st, 1955 | April 21st, 1955
Niger | 1948 | 1948
Nigeria | 1958* | 1958*
Nigeria Notes | *“Women in Nigeria’s southern region were enfranchised in stages, beginning in 1950, whereas women in the northern region (predominantly Muslim) were not. Southern women voted and contested offices in the 1959 federal elections, but no northern women were allowed to do so. Northern women finally received their full electoral franchise (to vote and contest office) in 1976” (p. 286). |
Norway | 1907* | 1907*/1913
Norway Notes | *“Special conditions related to private mans, property, and income. Those restrictions were removed in 1913” (p. 289). |
Oman | 1997 | 1997
Pakistan | 1947 | 1947
Palau | April 2nd, 1979 | April 2nd, 1979
Panama | July 5, 1941* | July 5, 1941/
March 1st, 1946
Panama Notes | *“A 1941 electoral law granted a limited franchise to women (to vote for and be elected to provincial bodies) if they held a university degree or had completed vocational raining, a teacher’s college, or secondary schooling. Full political rights were granted to women in 1946.” (p. 298) |
Papua New Guinea | February 15th, 1964 | February 27th, 1963
Paraguay | July 5th, 1961 | July 5th, 1961
Peru | September 7th, 1955 | September 7th, 1955
Philippines | April 30th, 1937 | April 30th, 1937
Poland | November 28th, 1918 | November 28th, 1918
Portugal | May 5th, 1931* | May 5th, 1931/
November 16th, 1934/
June 2nd, 1976
Portugal Notes | *“In 1931, women were given the right to vote and stand for election, with the restriction that they had to have completed secondary or higher education (men only had to know how to read and write). All citizens who were literate were granted the right to vote and stand for election in 1934. Some restrictions on women, however, remained for election to certain local administrative bodes under a l968 law. Full equality of the sexes with regard to the franchise and right of election to all bodies was achieved in 1976″ (p. 312). |
Qatar | 1999 | 1999
Romania | 1929*/
1946** | 1929*/
July 1946**
Romania Notes | *”Restricted electoral rights” (p. 316). | **”Under the same conditions as men” (p. 316).
Russia | June 1918 | June 1918
Rwanda | September 25th, 1961 | September 25th, 1961*
Rwanda Notes | *”For all offices except that of president of the republic; that restriction was removed in 1978″ (p. 323). |
Saint Kitts and Nevis | 1951 | 1951
Saint Lucia | 1924 | 1924
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | May 5th, 1951 | May 5th, 1951
Samoa | October 1990 | October 1990
San Marino | April 29th, 1959 | September 10th, 1973
Sao Tome and Principe | July 12th, 1975 | July 12th, 1975
Saudia Arabia | 2015 Municipal Elections (expected) | 2015 Municipal Elections (expected)
Senegal | February 19th, 1945 | February 19th, 1945
Seychelles | August 6th, 1948 | August 6th, 1948
Sierra Leone | April 27th, 1961 | April 27th, 1961
Singapore | July 18th, 1947 | July 18th, 1947
Slovakia | 1920 | 1920
Slovenia | August 10th, 1945 | August 10th, 1945
Solomon Islands | 1978 | 1978
Somalia | 1956 | 1956
South Africa | May 21, 1930 (“whites”)/
March 30th, 1984 (“coloreds and Indians”)/
January 14th, 1994 (“blacks”) [p. 351] | May 21, 1930 (“whites”)/
March 30th, 1984 (“coloreds and Indians”)/
January 14th, 1994 (“blacks”) [p. 351]
Spain | December 9th, 1931 | May 8th, 1931
Sri Lanka | March 20th, 1931 | March 20th, 1931
Sudan | November 1964 | November 1964
Suriname | December 9th, 1948 | December 9th, 1948
Swaziland | September 6th, 1968 | September 6th, 1968
Sweden | 1862/
1918 “local elections”/
May 1919 “granted”/
1921 “in effect” | 1862/
1918 “local elections”/
May 1919 “granted”/
1921 “in effect”
Switzerland | February 7th, 1971 | February 7th, 1971
Syria | September 10th, 1949* | 1953
Syria Notes | “women who had reached a sixth-grade educational level; it was then extended to all literate women, and in 1953 all educational restrictions on voting were lifted for women” (p. 371). |
Tajikistan | 1924 | 1924
Tanzania | 1959 | 1959
Thailand | December 10th, 1932 | December 10th, 1932
Togo | August 22nd, 1945 | August 22nd, 1945
Tonga | 1960 | 1960
Trinidad and Tobago | 1946 | 1946
Tunisia | 1957 (“municipal elections”)/
June 1st, 1959 | June 1st, 1959
Turkey | April 3rd, 1930 | December 5th, 1934
Turkmenistan | 1927 | 1927
Tuvalu | January 1st, 1947 | January 1st, 1967
Uganda | 1962 | 1962
Ukraine | March 10th, 1919 | March 10th, 1919
United Arab Emirates | 2006 | 2006
United Kingdom | February 2nd, 1918 (“over 30 years of age”)/
July 2nd, 1928 | February 2nd, 1918 (“over 30 years of age”)/
July 2nd, 1928
United States of America | 1920 | 1920
Uruguay | December 16th, 1932 | December 16th, 1932
Uzbekistan | 1938 | 1938
Vanutua | November 1975 | November 1975
Vatican City | No parliament/no political parties. | No parliament/no political parties.
Venezuela | March 28th, 1946 | March 28th, 1946
Vietnam | January 6th, 1946 | January 6th, 1946
Yemen | 1967 (People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen)/
1970 (Arab Republic of Yemen) | 1967 (People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen)/
1970 (Arab Republic of Yemen)
Yugoslavia | January 31st, 1946 | January 31st, 1946
Zambia | October 30th, 1962 | October 30th, 1962
Zimbabwe | Before 1957 (“Only men and European women”)/
After 1957 (“a qualified right to vote was gradually extended over the years to black women”) [p. 429] | March 1978

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The suffragettes : Emmeline Pankhurst (1858 - 1928)

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The suffragettes : Emmeline Pankhurst (1858 - 1928)

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THE SUFFRAGETTES - THE STORY OF EMMELINE PANKHURST

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THE SUFFRAGETTES - THE STORY OF EMMELINE PANKHURST

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Women’s struggle for their rights in pictures

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Women’s struggle for their rights in pictures

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The Suffragettes wanted the right for women to vote.

The move for women to have the vote had really started in 1897 when Millicent Fawcett founded theNational Union of Women’s Suffrage. “Suffrage” means the right to vote and that is what women wanted – hence its inclusion in Fawcett’s title.
Millicent Fawcett believed in peaceful protest. She felt that any violence or trouble would persuade men that women could not be trusted to have the right to vote. Her game plan was patience and logical arguments. Fawcett argued that women could hold responsible posts in society such as sitting on school boards – but could not be trusted to vote; she argued that if parliament made laws and if women had to obey those laws, then women should be part of the process of making those laws; she argued that as women had to pay taxes as men, they should have the same rights as men and one of her most powerful arguments was that wealthy mistresses of large manors and estates employed gardeners, workmen and labourers who could vote……..but the women could not regardless of their wealth…
However, Fawcett’s progress was very slow. She converted some of the members of the Labour Representation Committee (soon to be the Labour Party) but most men in Parliament believed that women simply would not understand how Parliament worked and therefore should not take part in the electoral process. This left many women angry and in 1903 the Women’s Social and Political Union was founded by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia. They wanted women to have the right to vote and they were not prepared to wait. The Union became better known as the Suffragettes. Members of the Suffragettes were prepared to use violence to get what they wanted.

Emmeline Pankhurst | Christabel Pankhurst

In fact, the Suffragettes started off relatively peacefully.  It was only in 1905 that the organisation created a stir when Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenney interrupted a political meeting in Manchester to ask two Liberal politicians (Winston Churchill and Sir Edward Grey) if they believed women should have the right to vote. Neither man replied. As a result, the two women got out a banner which had on it “Votes for Women” and shouted at the two politicians to answer their questions. Such actions were all but unheard of then when public speakers were usually heard in silence and listened to courteously even if you did not agree with them. Pankhurst and Kenney were thrown out of the meeting and arrested for causing an obstruction and a technical assault on a police officer.

Both women refused to pay a fine preferring to go to prison to highlight the injustice of the system as it was then. Emmeline Pankhurst later wrote in her autobiography that:

“this was the beginning of a campaign the like of which was never known in England, or for that matter in any other country…..we interrupted a great many meetings……and we were violently thrown out and insulted. Often we were painfully bruised and hurt.”

The Suffragettes refused to bow to violence. They burned down churches as the Church of England was against what they wanted; they vandalised Oxford Street, apparently breaking all the windows in this famous street; they chained themselves to Buckingham Palace as the Royal Family were seen to be against women having the right to vote; they hired out boats, sailed up the Thames and shouted abuse through loud hailers at Parliament as it sat; others refused to pay their tax. Politicians were attacked as they went to work. Their homes were fire bombed. Golf courses were vandalised. The first decade of Britain in the twentieth century was proving to be violent in the extreme.

Suffragettes were quite happy to go to prison. Here they refused to eat and went on a hunger strike. The government was very concerned that they might die in prison thus giving the movement martyrs. Prison governors were ordered to force feed Suffragettes but this caused a public outcry as forced feeding was traditionally used to feed lunatics as opposed to what were mostly educated women.

The government of Asquith responded with the Cat and Mouse Act. When a Suffragette was sent to prison, it was assumed that she would go on hunger strike as this caused the authorities maximum discomfort. The Cat and Mouse Act allowed the Suffragettes to go on a hunger strike and let them get weaker and weaker. Force feeding was not used. When the Suffragettes were very weak……….they were released from prison. If they died out of prison, this was of no embarrassment to the government. However, they did not die but those who were released were so weak that they could take no part in violent Suffragette struggles. When those who had been arrested and released had regained their strength, they were re-arrested for the most trivial of reason and the whole process started again. This, from the government’s point of view, was a very simple but effective weapon against the Suffragettes.

As a result, the Suffragettes became more extreme. The most famous act associated with the Suffragettes was at the June 1913 Derby when Emily Wilding Davison threw herself under the King’s horse, Anmer,  as it rounded Tattenham Corner. She was killed and the Suffragettes had their first martyr. However, her actions probably did more harm than good to the cause as she was a highly educated woman. Many men asked the simple question – if this is what an educated woman does, what might a lesser educated woman do? How can they possibly be given the right to vote?
It is possible that the Suffragettes would have become more violent. They had, after all, in February 1913 blown up part of David Lloyd George’s house – he was probably Britain’s most famous politician at this time and he was thought to be a supporter of the right for women to have the vote!

However, Britain and Europe was plunged into World War One in August 1914. In a display of patriotism, Emmeline Pankhurst instructed the Suffragettes to stop their campaign of violence and support in every way the government and its war effort. The work done by women in the First World War  was to be vital for Britain’s war effort. In 1918, the Representation of the People Act was passed by Parliament.
The 1918 Representation of the People Act was the start of female suffrage in Great Britain. The bill was passed by an overwhelming majority in the House of Commons, it gave women of property over the age of 30 the right to vote – not all women, therefore, could vote – but it was a major start.