Early Voting

Question: What was the first country to enshrine into law the right for women to vote in parliamentary elections?

Answer: New Zealand

When Governor Lord Glasgow signed a new Electoral Act into law on September 19, 1893, New Zealand would become the first self-governing country in the world to grant women—all women, including indigenous Maori—the right to vote in parliamentary elections.

This was a pretty big deal. Especially when you consider that for much of human history, dating back to the ancient Greeks and Romans, women could not participate in elections. It wasn’t until the 1800s when women first began to rise up and demand fair and equitable treatment in the political realm. We often hear how women were given voting rights in one country or another—but really, women were hardly ever "given" the right to vote by anyone, they had to "get" it.

Although a few small territories enfranchised women before 1893—notably, the female descendants of the Bounty mutineers who could vote for their ruling councils on Pitcairn Island, a remote British territory in the South Pacific settled in 1790 by British sailors and their Tahitian companions, beginning in 1838—New Zealand got there first. How did they do it?

A Sheppard leads her flock

Although New Zealand’s hard-fought battle for women’s suffrage included the Wāhine Māori and others—the person at the epicenter was Catherine "Kate" Sheppard. Born Catherine Wilson Malcolm in Liverpool, England, Kate was in her early twenties when her family migrated to New Zealand, where she met and married a shopkeeper named Walter Allen Sheppard. Kate first became exposed to New Zealand politics—along with sexism and prejudice—at a branch of the Women’s Christian Temperence Union (WCTU), which she co-founded in Christchurch in1885. Her work there convinced Sheppard that if women were to have any influence in New Zealand society, they needed to gain the vote.

Two years later, she was named leader of the WCTU’s suffrage campaign, which was inspired by similar suffrage movements in Great Britain and the United States. Sheppard would spend the next several years churning out pamphlets, delivering speeches, and gathering signatures for a series of petitions to put before Parliament to secure the right to vote for women. Year after year they failed, including one in 1892 with the signatures of more than 20,000 supporters. But in 1893, Sheppard was ready with another petition—this one containing more than 31,000 signatures (almost a quarter of the country’s female population).

Exhibiting a flair for the dramatic, the petition was presented on a 900-foot-long scroll, which was ceremoniously unrolled across the floor of the chamber of the House. And this time it worked. The petition led to the Electoral Act, which was signed into law by the Earl of Glasgow, Governor of New Zealand, on September 19, 1893. New Zealand women aged 21 and over who were British subjects—including indigenous Māori—were now allowed to vote. Less than two months later, more than 100,000 women enrolled to vote in New Zealand's 1893 election.

Following the victory, congratulations poured in from around the world from suffrage campaigners fighting their own battles for women’s voting rights. But other democracies would have to wait a while—until the end of the First World War—for that. Meanwhile, even New Zealand women hadn’t achieved true political equality. Yes, they could vote for members of Parliament, but they couldn’t become one yet. Again, it was Sheppard’s activism that paved the way for this milestone in 1919—she had tirelessly fought for equality in marriage and the right for women to run for Parliament seats during her time as president of the National Council of Women (which she co-founded in 1896). The first woman to become an MP, Elizabeth McCombs, was elected in 1933—a full 40 years after the Electoral Act was passed.

Sheppard was right on the money

In 1992, New Zealand honored Sheppard’s work by introducing a $10 note with her portrait. She was also honored on a commemorative postage stamp with a white camellia in 2008. Why the flower? Sheppard and her team had stuck a white camellia in the lapels of all members of Parliament who supported their cause.

"Do not think your single vote does not matter much. The rain that refreshes the parched ground is made up of single drops."
– Kate Sheppard

New Zealand paved the way for women’s suffrage—what about everyone else?

Australia was close on the heels of New Zealand by extending voting rights to women in 1902—but only to white women. Aboriginal women—and Aboriginal men—would have to wait another 60 years before they could vote. A smattering of other countries granted limited rights for women to vote by the early 20th century.

The real catalyst for women’s voting rights was World War I. Suffrage organizations in the United States and western Europe had been battling for women’s suffrage for decades without success. When the war began in 1914, many suffrage organizations in Europe and the U.S. shifted their focus to get behind the war effort. And perhaps more importantly, manpower shortages in warring countries resulted in women taking on many roles traditionally held by men. All of this helped sway public support for women’s suffrage after the war.

Britain passed a law in 1918 that allowed women to be elected to Parliament—although they wouldn’t be allowed to vote for another ten years. But with certain restrictions, by 1920 women were granted the right to vote in Denmark, Iceland, the USSR, the Netherlands, Canada, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Germany, and Luxembourg.

And of course, the United States entered into the fold that same year, with the successful passage of the 19th amendment on August 26, 1920. No country’s path to enfranchisement was the same, however, and they all have different stories to tell. In the United States, the story of women’s suffrage is often told as a struggle that began in Seneca Falls Convention New York in 1848 and ended with the triumphant adoption of the 19th amendment—resulting in the single largest increase in voters in American history. But a lot of women were left out, including most African American women (and men) in the South, who were blocked from voting due to poll taxes, literacy tests, and other racial barriers. Native Americans were also barred from voting for four more years, and some states withheld their voting rights for far longer than that. Asian immigrants were denied citizenship entirely.

So, the story of women’s suffrage is complex. Canada, for example, granted women the right to vote in 1920, but First Nations women and men would have to wait 40 more years until they could vote.

The next boon to women’s suffrage was following World War II. After the liberation of many countries in Europe and Asia, the enfranchisement of women soon followed. Following India’s independence from Britain, the 1947 constitutions of both India and Pakistan granted women the right to vote. Chinese women gained voting rights in 1949. As Africa was decolonized and country after country gained independence, voting rights for women also followed—and women across most of Africa could participate in elections by the 1960s. Although South Africa’s Apartheid government meant that voting rights would not be extended to all South Africans until 1994.

A few European holdouts like Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, and Moldova finally enfranchised women in the 1970s. It wouldn’t be until the 21st century until conservative Middle Eastern countries finally got with the program, with women in Bahrain winning the right to vote in 2002; in Qatar, 2003; and in Kuwait, 2005. When women in Saudi Arabia were able to vote in local elections for the first time in late 2015, that left only one place in the world where women were denied the right to vote…

Bonus Question:

New Zealand was the first country to enfranchise women, who was the last?

The one place in the world where women are still denied the right to vote because of their sex is … Vatican City. In fact, Vatican City is the only country in the world where the majority of its residents (about 800 of them)—both men and women—have no voting rights at all. Vatican City argues that the only election held here is when cardinals vote for a new pope (and the last time we checked, women cannot be cardinals), but still…

While women today have the right to vote pretty much everywhere in the world, many continue to face difficulties in actually exercising that right—whether it’s dealing with patriarchy and stereotypes or being met with harassment, threats, and physical violence. So, the work is not done.

Four More Fascinating Facts About Voting

• Please, don’t vote for me—Ancient Greece, the world’s first democracy, had something called a "negative" election. Each year male landowners (the only ones allowed to vote) would select the political leader they most wanted to have exiled for the next ten years. They would write their choice on shards of pottery, called ostraka in Greek—which is where we get the word "ostracize."


• Bully for him—Theodore Roosevelt made women’s suffrage a central issue in his 1912 bid seeking a third term as President. At his newly established "Bull Moose" party’s convention, social reformer Jane Adams became the first woman in U.S. history to second the nomination of a major presidential candidate. A Woodrow Wilson backer said it was "in exceedingly bad taste, because a woman has no place at a political convention."


• The silence was deafening—Beginning in 1917, the first of a group of women who became known as the Silent Sentinels stood in front of the White House gates holding banners that read: "Mr. President, what will you do for woman suffrage?" and "Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty?" It would go on non-stop for two and half years with close to 2,000 women participating in the peaceful protest. No one had ever done something like this in front of the White House before, and many viewed it as disrespectful to the office of the President (my how times have changed!). But the suffragists were undeterred, and the only pause in their protests took place when they were occasionally arrested or jailed.


• It wasn’t exactly Kiss me Kate—As if getting her face on the currency and a stamp wasn’t enough, Kate Sheppard’s story was brought to life in a 2015 punk-rock musical called That Bloody Woman, where she was portrayed as a "feminist firebrand raising hell in this red-hot new rock opera."

During O.A.T.'s Pure New Zealand adventure, explore historic Christchurch—home of Kate Sheppard and the National Council of Women of New Zealand.