Women's suffrage Facts for Kids

Women's suffrage activists working together

The first female Members of Parliament in the world, elected in Finland in 1907.

Anna II, Abbess of Quedlinburg. In the past, some abbesses could vote in national meetings because of their church rank.

Women's suffrage is the right for women to vote in elections. It also means they can be chosen to hold a public office, like being a politician. This important right was usually won after many years of political campaigns and hard work. In some places, women gained the right to vote even before everyone else could vote (this is called universal suffrage). Before the late 1800s, women generally could not vote in any political election.

The modern idea of women voting began in France in the late 1700s. After the French Revolution, thinkers like Antoine Condorcet and activists like Olympe de Gouges argued that women should be allowed to vote in national elections.

Early Steps Towards Voting Rights
Countries Leading the Way
Related pages
Images for kids
See also

Early Steps Towards Voting Rights

In the very first cases where women could vote, it was often only for certain women and in specific types of elections.

In Sweden, some unmarried women who owned property could vote between 1718 and 1771.
In New Jersey, unmarried women who owned property could vote from 1776 to 1807.
In Sierra Leone in 1792, all heads of household could vote, and about one-third of these were women.

Countries Leading the Way

Several places that were once British colonies gave women the right to vote earlier than many other countries.

On the Pitcairn Islands, female descendants of the Bounty mutineers could vote starting in 1838. They kept this right when they moved to Norfolk Island in 1856.
In South Australia, women could vote in local elections from 1861.
On the Isle of Man, women could vote in parliamentary elections from 1881.

New Zealand and Australia

In 1893, New Zealand became the first independent country to allow all adult women to vote in national elections. Soon after, in 1894, women in South Australia gained the same right. They were also the first to be able to run for seats in parliament.

European Progress

Many other countries soon followed, often after similar struggles.

Women in several Western countries gained limited voting rights in the late 1800s. These included Sweden, Finland, and the United Kingdom.
The Russian Empire was the first European country to introduce women's suffrage in 1906. It also elected the world's first female Members of Parliament in 1907. Finland was part of the Russian Empire at that time.
Before World War I, women in Norway (1913) and Denmark (1915) also won the right to vote. Women in other Australian states gained this right too.
In most other Western countries, women's suffrage came at the end of World War I.

Global Recognition

Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon) recognized women's right to vote in 1931. In 1960, Sri Lanka elected the world's first female head of government, Sirimavo Bandaranaike.
The United Nations officially recognized women's suffrage as a human right in 1979.

Suffragette

Images for kids

The 1913 Woman Suffrage Procession in Washington, D.C., organized by Alice Paul.
South Australian suffragist Catherine Helen Spence ran for office in 1897. South Australia was the first place in the modern world to let women run for Parliament in 1895.
French poster supporting women's suffrage, 1934.
Women voting in Kabul during the first presidential election in Afghan history (October 2004).
Philippine President Manuel L. Quezon signing the Women's Suffrage Bill after a vote in 1937.
Jane Brigode, a Belgian suffragist, around 1910.
Line Luplau in the painting From the Early Days of the Fight for Women's Suffrage (1897) by her daughter Marie Luplau.
Wilhelmina Drucker, a Dutch pioneer for women's rights, in 1917.
The first Norwegian woman voter casting her ballot in the 1910 local election.
A 1917 demonstration in Petrograd. The sign says: "Without the participation of women, election is not universal!"
Women voting during the Second Spanish Republic, November 5, 1933.
The Swedish writer Maria Gustava Gyllenstierna (1672–1737). As a property owner and widow, she was among the women allowed to vote in Sweden between 1718 and 1772.
Swedish suffragist Signe Bergman, around 1910.
Women's suffrage demonstration in Gothenburg, Sweden, June 1918.
Eighteen female Members of Parliament joined the Turkish Parliament in 1935.
A British cartoon about why imprisoned suffragettes refused to eat.
This 1887 Melbourne Punch cartoon made fun of Australian women's rights. South Australian women gained the vote in 1895.
Edith Cowan (1861–1932) was the first woman elected to any Australian Parliament in 1921.
Women's demonstration in Buenos Aires for universal suffrage, 1947.
First women voters of Brazil, Rio Grande do Norte, 1928.
Program for the Woman Suffrage Procession, Washington, D.C., March 3, 1913.
Toledo Woman Suffrage Association, Toledo, Ohio, 1912.
The Silent Sentinels, women suffragists protesting in front of the White House around February 1917.

Women's suffrage facts for kids

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