A Brief History
On July 20, 1906, Finland ratified a law guaranteeing equal rights to women to vote in political elections, the first European country to do so.
Digging Deeper
During the 19th Century, women in many countries mounted campaigns to gain the right to vote, a movement called “Women’s Suffrage.” This movement gained its first success in New Zealand, which became the first self-governing colony to grant universal women’s suffrage in 1893, although women could not run for office.
Other colonies, territories, and states had some sort of women’s suffrage, although usually not universal, with restrictions based on race, land owning, and the like, and in some cases later rescinded.
Denmark joined the women’s voting club in 1915 and some Baltic countries followed soon after, along with countries that would comprise the Soviet Union. Many nations enfranchised women after World War I, with the US finally following in 1920 and the UK in 1928. Today, only Vatican City excludes women voters.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Harper, Ida Husted. Woman Suffrage Throughout the World (1907). Kindle, 2024.
Weatherford, Doris. Victory for the Vote: The Fight for Women’s Suffrage and the Century that Followed. Mango, 2020.
The featured image in this article, a map published in the Harper’s Magazine‘s issue of 25 April 1908 showing the situation of women’s suffrage in the world at that time, is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1929.
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