Women's suffrage Overview Women were excluded from voting in ancient Greece and republican Rome, as well as in the few democracies that had emerged in Europe by the end of the 18th century. When the franchise was widened, as it was in the United Kingdom in 1832, women continued to be denied all voting rights. The question of women’s voting rights finally became an issue in the 19th century, and the struggle was particularly intense in Great Britain and the United States, but those countries were not the first to grant women the right to vote, at least not on a national basis. By the early years of the 20th century, women had won the right to vote in national elections in New Zealand (1893), Australia (1902), Finland (1906), and Norway (1913). In Sweden and the United States they had voting rights in some local elections. World War I and its aftermath speeded up the enfranchisement of women in the countries of Europe and elsewhere. In the period 1914-39, women in 28 additional countries acquired either equal voting rights with men or the right to vote in national Women's suffrage: New Zealand __ elections. Those countries included Soviet Russia Women voters in Tahakopa, New (1917); Canada, Germany, Austria, and Poland Zealand, after the country became the first to grant women's suffrage, 1893. (1918); Czechoslovakia (1919); the United States and Women vote at their fst election, + “aa . Tahahopa: Mehannell, Rhoda Leare —‘HUNBary (1920); Great Britain (1918 and 1928); (Mrs), 1898-1996: Photographs of Burma (Myanmar; 1922); Ecuador (1929); South forestry and farming at Ohaupo. Ref PA1-0-550-34-1. Alexander Turnbull Africa (1930); Brazil, Uruguay, and Thailand (1932); Library, Wellington, New Zealand. Turkey and Cuba (1934); and the Philippines (1937). http://natlib.govt.nz/records/22311886 In a number of those countries, women were initially granted the right to vote in municipal or other local elections or perhaps in provincial elections; only later were they granted the right to vote in national elections. Immediately after World War II, France, Italy, women's suffrage: Australia Romania, Yugoslavia, and China were added to the hitps ww bitannica.comiprntarticel646779 wrosioaiz021 Women's sutfage ~ Britannica Online Encyclopedia Women voting for the first time in a Queensland state election, Australia, 1907, India by the constitution in 1949; in Pakistan women State Library of Queensland group. Full suffrage for women was introduced in received full voting rights in national elections in 1956, In another decade the total number of countries that had given women the right to vote reached more than 100, partly because nearly all countries that gained independence after World War II guaranteed equal voting rights to men and women in their constitutions. By 1971 Switzerland allowed women to vote in federal and most cantonal elections, and in 1973 women were granted full voting rights in Syria. The United Nations Convention on the Political Rights of Women, adopted in 1952, provides that “women shall be entitled to vote in all elections on equal terms with men, without any discrimination.” Historically, the United Kingdom and the United States provide characteristic examples of the struggle for women’s suffrage in the 19th and 20th centuries, Great Britain In Great Britain woman suffrage was first advocated by Mary Wollstonecraft in her book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) and was demanded by the Chartist movement of, the 1840s. The demand for woman suffrage was increasingly taken up by prominent liberal intellectuals in England from the 1850s on, notably by John Stuart Mill and his wife, Harriet. The first woman suffrage committee was formed in Manchester in 1865, and in 1867 Mill presented to Parliament this society’s petition, which demanded the vote for women and contained about 1,550 signatures. The Reform Bill of 1867 contained no provision for woman suffrage, but meanwhile woman suffrage societies were forming in most of the major cities of Britain, and in the 1870s these organizations submitted to Parliament petitions demanding the franchise for women and containing a total of almost three million signatures The succeeding years saw the defeat of every major suffrage bill brought before Parliament. This was chiefly because neither of the leading politicians of the day, William Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli, cared to affront Queen Victoria’s implacable hitps ww bitannica.comiprntarticel646779osroar0z1 women's suffrage: England British suffragists marching on the Houses of Parliament, London, followed by jeering spectators, c. 1910. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (digital file no. 3245273) Mary Wolistonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects Title page of the 1792 American edition of Mary Wollstonecraf’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral ‘Subjects. The facing page contains an inscription by woman suffragist Susan B. Anthony. Library of Congress Rare Book and Special Collections Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA ‘Women's suffrage ~ Britannica Ontine Encyclopedia opposition to the women’s movement. In 1869, however, Parliament did grant women taxpayers the right to vote in municipal elections, and in the ensuing decades women became eligible to sit on county and city councils. The right to vote in parliamentary elections was still denied to women, however, despite the considerable support that existed in Parliament for legislation to that effect. In 1897 the various suffragist societies united into one National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, thus bringing a greater degree of coherence and organization to the movement. Out of frustration at the lack of governmental action, however, a segment of the woman suffrage movement became more militant under the leadership of Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel. After the return to power of the Liberal Party in 1906, the succeeding years saw the defeat of seven suffrage bills in Parliament. As a consequence, many suffragists became involved in increasingly violent actions as time went on. These women militants, or suffragettes, as they were known, were sent to prison and continued their protests there by engaging in hunger strikes. Dame Christabel Harriette Pankhurst and Emmeline Pankhurst Dame Christabel Harriette Pankhurst (lett) and her mother, Emmeline Pankhurst © photos.com/Getty Images hitps ww bitannica.comiprntarticel646779 Meanwhile, public support of the woman suffrage movement grew in volume, and public demonstrations, exhibitions, and processions were organized in support of women’s right to vote. When World War I began, the woman suffrage organizations shifted their energies to aiding the war effort, and their effectiveness did much to win the public wholeheartedly to the cause of woman suffrage. The need for the enfranchisement of women was finally recognized by most members of Parliament from allosioa2021 Women's sufrage ~ Bitanica Online Eneycapedia three major parties, and the resulting Representation of the People Act was passed by the House of Commons in June 1917 and by the House of Lords in February 1918, Under this act, all women age 30 or over received the complete franchise. An act to women's suffrage: Buckingham enable women to sit in the House of Commons was Palace demonstration, 1914 British suffragette under arrest after participating in an attack on women was lowered to 21 to place women voters on Buckingham Palace, London, in 1914. BBC Hutton Picture Library enacted shortly afterward. In 1928 the voting age for an equal footing with male voters. The United States From the founding of the United States, women were almost universally excluded from voting. Only when women began to chafe at this restriction, however, was their exclusion made explicit. The movement for woman suffrage started in the early 19th century during the agitation against slavery. Women such as Lucretia Mott showed a keen interest in the antislavery movement and proved to be admirable public speakers. When Elizabeth Cady Stanton joined the antislavery forces, she and Mott agreed that the rights of women, as well as those of slaves, needed redress. In July 1848 they issued a call for a convention to discus the issue of women’s rights; this convention met in Stanton’s hometown, Seneca Falls, New York, on July 19-20, 1848, and issued a declaration that called for woman suffrage and for the right of women to educational and employment opportunities. (See Seneca Falls Convention.) It was followed in 1850 by the first national convention of the women’s movement, held in Worcester, Massachusetts, by Lucy Stone and a group of prominent Eastern suffragists. Another convention, held in Syracuse, New York, in 1852, was the occasion of the first joint venture between Stanton and the dynamic suffragist leader Susan B. Anthony; together these two figures led the American suffragist movement for the next 50 years. Other woman suffrage conventions were held as the movement gained its first mass strength, but at first no way of extending the vote to women was known except by amendments to the constitutions of the various states. Several attempts were made in this regard after the American Civil War (1861-65), but even though the Territory of Wyoming granted women the right to vote in all elections in 1869, it soon became apparent that an hitps ww bitannica.comiprntarticel646779 arosioaiz021 Women's sutage ~ Britannica Online Encyclopedia women's suffrage: United States Members of the women's suffrage movement in Philadelphia, 1917 Haris and Ewing Collection/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (neg. no. LC-1261-8200) constitutions of the various states. In amendment of the federal Constitution would be a preferable plan. Accordingly, the National Woman Suffrage Association was formed in 1869 with the declared object of securing the ballot for women by an amendment to the Constitution. Anthony and Stanton were the leaders of this organization, which held a convention every year for 50 years after its founding. In 1869 another organization, the American Woman Suffrage Association, was founded by Lucy Stone with the aim of securing woman suffrage by obtaining amendments to that effect in the 1890 the two organizations united under the name National American Woman Suffrage Association and worked together for almost 30 years. Victoria Woodhull Victoria Woodhull arguing for women's suffrage before the Judiciary Committee of the U.S, House of Representatives in 1871, illustration from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper (vol. 31, no. 801). Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (digital file no. 3a05761u) OPPOSED TO woman Sure headquarters of an anti-suffrage group hitps ww bitannica.comiprntarticel646779 When Wyoming entered the Union in 1890, it became the first state whose constitution accorded women the right to vote. Subsequently, vigorous campaigns were conducted to persuade state legislatures to submit to their voters amendments to state constitutions conferring full suffrage to women in state affairs. Efforts were also made to give women the right to vote in presidential elections and, in some states, the right to vote in municipal and local elections. In the next 25 years various individual states yielded to the movement’s demands and enfranchised their women; each such state increased the members of Congress elected partly by women. These members were thus at least partly obliged by the nature of their constituency to vote for a woman suffrage amendment to the United States Constitution. By 1918 women had acquired equal suffrage with men in 15 states.‘06/09/2021 Headquarters of an anti-suffrage ‘group, New York City. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. National American Woman Suffrage Association ‘The program cover of the National ‘American Woman Suffrage Association's march on Washington, D.C., 1913, shows the ongoing fight for suffrage after Anthony's death. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (reproduction no. LC-DIG-ppmsca- 12512) women's suffrage: international gathering, 1888 International gathering of women's suffrage advocates in Washington, D.C., 1888; seated (from left) Alice Scotchard (England), Susan B. Anthony (United States), Isabella Bogelot (France), Elizabeth Cady Stanton (United States), Matilda Joslyn Gage (United States), and Baroness Alexandra Gripenberg (Finland). Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Women's sufrage ~ Britannica Oniine Encyclopedia World War I, and the major role played in it by women in various capacities, broke down most of the remaining opposition to woman suffrage in the United States. Amendments to the federal Constitution concerning woman suffrage had been introduced into Congress in 1878 and 1914, but the 1878 amendment had been overwhelmingly defeated, and the 1914 amendment had narrowly failed to gain even a simple majority of the votes in the House of Representatives and the Senate (a two-thirds majority vote in Congress was needed for the amendment to be sent to the state legislatures for ratification). By 1918, however, both major political parties were committed to woman suffrage, and the amendment was carried by the necessary two-thirds majorities in both the House and Senate in January 1918 and June 1919, respectively. Vigorous campaigns were then waged to secure ratification of the amendment by two-thirds of the state legislatures, and on August 18, 1920, Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment. On August 26 the Nineteenth Amendment was proclaimed by the secretary of state as being part of the Constitution of the United States. Women in the United States were enfranchised on an equal basis with men. The text reads as follows: ‘The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State ‘on account of sex. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. This article was most recently revised and updated by Adam Augustyn, Managing Editor, Reference Content hitps wwe bitannica.comipriartilel646779osioaiz021 eee aieese ee Basta ct Sey Women's sutfage ~ Britannica Online Encyclopedia Nineteenth Amendment The Nineteenth Amendment, which granted women the right to vote in the United States. National Archives and Records ‘Administration women voting in New York City Women casting their votes in New York City, c, 1920s. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (digital fle no. 00037) Citation Information Article Title: Women suffrage Website Name: Encyclopaedia Britannica Publisher: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Ine Date Published: 10 September 2020 URL: hutps:/vww:britannica.com/topic/woman-suffiage ‘Access Date: September 06, 2021 hitps ww bitannica.comiprntarticel646779 77