The first 15 countries to grant women the vote

In chronological order:

1893 New Zealand
1902 Australia
1906 Finland
1913 Norway
1915 Denmark
1917 Canada
1918 Austria, Germany, Poland, Russia
1919 Netherlands
1920 United States
1921 Sweden
1928 Britain, Ireland

All other countries in the world: Granted later or not yet granted.

Interesting: Six of the fifteen are British or former British colonies, and the other nine are northern European. Source.

Related: This clip on the Enlightenment of the 1700s, which transformed the Western world’s attitudes and led to the first women’s rights intellectuals and movements.

4 thoughts on “The first 15 countries to grant women the vote”

  1. Actually Britain gave the vote to woman over the age of 30 in 1918. Men had the vote at 21 and both sexes had to fulfil a property qualification. In 1928, the property qualification was removed and both men the age equalised.

    Conversely prior to 1832 there was no bar to women voting. The franchise was limited only by a property qualification with the result that single women could and did vote. However, due to the laws on property ownership and marriage, this applied to few women. A single woman would not have had a vote while she lived with her parents, nor when she married. Effectively the only circumstances would be when she became a widow or inherited her father’s estate.

  2. Harrison Wintergreen

    Worth mentioning how some US states and territories gave women the right to vote before the 19th Amendment. Wyoming was the first as a territory in 1869 and first as a state in 1890.

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