Women's suffrage: Encyclopedia - Women's suffrage

Women's suffrage

The movement for women's suffrage, led by suffragists (peaceful protestors) and suffragettes (violent protestors), was a social, economic and political reform movement aimed at extending the suffrage (the right to vote) to women, advocating equal suffrage (abolition of graded votes) rather than universal suffrage (abolition of all discrimination, for example due to race), which was considered too radical.

In 1869 the Wyoming Territory in the United States became the first modern polity where equal suffrage was extended to women. The small British colony of the Pitcairn Islands, (2004 population: 47) extended suffrage to women in 1838. In 1893, New Zealand was the first country to introduce universal suffrage, following a movement led by Kate Sheppard. Women first achieved the right to stand for public office in South Australia in 1894, along with suffrage in that state.

Women's suffrage - Timeline

Women's suffrage has been granted (and been revoked) at various times in various countries throughout the world. In many countries women's suffrage was granted before universal suffrage, so women (and men) from certain races were still unable to vote.

The first women's suffrage (with the same property qualifications as for men) was accidentally granted in New Jersey in 1776 (the word "people" was used instead of "men") and rescinded in 1807. The Pitcairn Islands granted women's suffrage in 1838. Various countries and states granted restricted women's suffrage in the latter half of the nineteenth century, starting with South Australia in 1861.

The first unrestricted women's suffrage in terms of voting rights (women were not initially permitted to stand for election) in a major country was granted in New Zealand. The women's suffrage bill was adopted mere weeks before the general election of 1893.

The first to grant universal suffrage and allow women to stand for parliament was South Australia, in 1894.

And we cannot forget the declaration of sentiments, a declaration that called for women to have equal rights in education, property, voting, and other matters. The declaration used the Declaration of Independence as a model and said, "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal. ...”

Women's suffrage - Countries without women's suffrage

Some countries do not extend suffrage to women, or extend it differently from that extended to men (this list does not include countries where neither men nor women have suffrage):

• Bhutan -- One vote per family in village-level elections
• Brunei
• Lebanon -- Proof of education required for women, not required for men. Voting compulsory for men, optional for women.
• Saudi Arabia
• Kuwait -- But voted in 2005 to introduce suffrage for women older than 21 (to take effect in the 2007 national elections) [1].

Women's suffrage - United States

Women's suffrage - Reference

• "Woman suffrage" in Collier's New Encyclopedia, X (New York: P.F. Collier & Son Company, 1921), pp. 403-405.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Women's suffrage", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki