• Home
  • Contact
  • FAQ
  • Login
  • frFrançais
  • enEnglish
  • esEspañol
Wikigender
Search
  • Home
  • About
  • Themes
  • Statistics
  • Community Portal
    • Events
    • Members
    • Forum
  • Wikigender University
    • Articles
    • Partners
Wikigender > Wikis > Women’s Suffrage

Women’s Suffrage

Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Share on Facebook
Facebook
  • Page
  • Discuss
  • History
  • Etc.
    • Frontpage
    • New Articles
    • Recently Modified
    • Recently Discussed
    • Most Discussed
    • Alphabetical Order

Wikis > Women’s Suffrage

The term women’s suffrage refers to the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending suffrage, that is, the right to vote, to women.

The right to women’s suffrage was enshrined in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 1979 CEDAW.

Table of Contents

  • 1 Early history – 19th century movements
  • 2 Suffrage in the 20th century
  • 3 Countries without women’s suffrage
  • 4 References
  • 5 See also
  • 6 External links

Early history – 19th century movements

The struggle to achieve equal rights for women is often thought to have begun, in the English-speaking world, with the publication of Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). During the 19th century, as male suffrage was gradually extended in many countries, women became increasingly active in the quest for their own suffrage. Not until 1893, however, in New Zealand, did women achieve suffrage on the national level. Australia followed in 1902, but American, British, and Canadian women did not win the same rights until the end of World War I.

In Great Britain the cause began to attract attention when the philosopher John Stuart Mill presented a petition in Parliament calling for inclusion of women’s suffrage in the Reform Act of 1867. In the same year Lydia Becker (1827 –90) founded the first women’s suffrage committee, in Manchester. Other committees were quickly formed, and in 1897 they united as the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, with Millicent Garret Fawcett (1847 –1929) as president.

Suffrage in the 20th century

Scandinavian countries such as Finland (1906), Norway (1913), and Denmark and Iceland (1915) granted women the vote early in the 20th century. New Zealand (1893) and Australia (1902) granted women the vote earlier than United Kingdom (1918) The next wave occured at the end of World War I. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the Netherlands granted suffrage in 1917; Austria , Czechoslovakia, Poland , and Sweden in 1918; and Germany and Luxembourg in 1919. Spain extended the ballot to women in 1931, but France in 1944 and Belgium , Italy , Romania , and Yugoslavia in 1946. Switzerland gave women the vote in 1971, and women were given the right to vote in Liechtenstein in 1984.

Countries without women’s suffrage

  • Brunei — Women (and men) have been denied the right to vote or to stand for election since 1962.
  • Lebanon — Partial suffrage. Proof of elementary education is required for women but not for men. Voting is compulsory for men but optional for women.
  • Saudi Arabia — No suffrage for women. The first local elections ever held in the country occurred in 2005. Women were not given the right to vote or to stand for election, although suffrage may be granted by 2009.
  • the United Arab Emirates — Limited, but it will be fully expanded by 2010.

References

  • Women’s suffrage is more common in UK English, and woman suffrage is more common in US English, as shown by entries in UK and US dictionaries, which usually record only one of these forms, e.g. Collins, New Oxford, American Heritage, Random House, Merriam-Webster. Similarly, the US encyclopedias Encyclopedia Britannica (despite its name a US encyclopedia) and Collier Encyclopedia use only woman suffrage.
  • DuBois, Ellen Carol, Harriot Stanton Blatch and the Winning of Woman Suffrage (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1997) ISBN 0-300-06562-0
  • Flexner, Eleanor, Century of Struggle: The Woman’s Rights Movement in the United States, enlarged edition with Foreword by Ellen Fitzpatrick (1959, 1975; Cambridge and London: The Belknap Press of the Harvard University Press, 1996) ISBN 0-674-10653-9
  • Kenney, Annie, Memories of a Militant’ (London: Edwin Arnold, 1924)
  • Lloyd, Trevor, Suffragettes International: The Worldwide Campaign for Women’s Rights (New York: American Heritage Press, 1971).
  • Mackenzie, Midge, Shoulder to Shoulder: A Documentary (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1975). ISBN 0-394-73070-4
  • Raeburn, Antonia, Militant Suffragettes (London: New English Library, 1973)
  • Stevens, Doris, edited by Carol O’Hare, Jailed for Freedom: American Women Win the Vote (1920; Troutdale, OR: NewSage Press, 1995). ISBN 0-939165-25-2
  • Wheeler, Marjorie Spruill, editor, One Woman, One Vote: Rediscovering the Woman Suffrage Movement (Troutdale, OR: NewSage Press, 1995) ISBN 0-939165-26-0

See also

  • Women's Suffrage

External links

  • CIA
  • Suffrage History

 

Log in

  • Don't have an account? Signup Now »
  • Lost your password?

Tags cloud

Biography Campaign Data and statistics Definition Discrimination in the family Economic empowerment Education Environment Events Health and well-being Laws Migration Missing women Organisations Peace and security Political empowerment Publication Restricted civil liberties Restricted physical integrity Science and technology Social norms Sustainable Development Goals Wikigender University Wikigender university student article Youth

Archives (posts)

  • April 2020
  • October 2019
  • September 2018

Twitter feed

  • Mind the gap, close the gap! How can we address the #gender pay gap? With @OECD_Centre's Director @REArnadottir, no… https://t.co/CLn7y9xbgV
  • RT @estelle_loiseau: If you're interested in making lasting change for women as political leaders & you're attending @ReykjavikGlobal, do n…
  • Who's the leader? @OECD_Centre Director, @REArnadottir is moderating a Leaders' Talk tomorrow on shifting society's… https://t.co/SJze6ze6yt
  • RT @OECD_Centre: Are you at this week's @ReykjavikGlobal Forum? Stop by @OECD_Centre's session on how we can boost women's political empow…

Events calendar

2023
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
« Sep    
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930

DISCLAIMER

Most Wikigender content can be edited or supplemented by anybody with an Internet connection and a desire to do so. In consequence, the OECD assumes no responsibility whatsoever for the content of these pages.

Creativecommons

PARTNERS

Wigender benefits from a community of partners, experts and funders.

Find out more

SIGI

OCDE dev

Copyright 2015

MEDIA REVIEW
ONLINE DISCUSSIONS
EVENTS
PUBLICATIONS