TIMELINE
Women’s Suffrage Granted
Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections.
Dates for the Achievement of Political Equality for the Women of Canada
Other Women and Men in Canada
Suffrage Granted by Country
New Zealeand was the first country to allow women to vote in 1893, with the last being Saudi Arabia which granted women the right to vote in 2011. The United States began allowing women to vote in 1920, after the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution.
* Australia - Australian women, with the exception of aboriginal women, won the vote in 1902. Aborigines, male and female, did not have the right to vote until 1962.
** Canada - Canadian women, with the exception of Canadian First Nation women, won the vote in 1917. Canadian First Nation, male and female, did not win the vote until 1960.
*** South Africa - South African women won equal voting rights in 1930; however, the voting was restricted to just white people until limited suffrage was offered to other non-black racial groups in the 1950s. Black citizens would not have full voting rights until the end of Apartheid in the 1990s.
**** Saudi Arabia - King Abdullah issued a decree in 2011 ordering that women be allowed to stand as candidates and vote in municipal elections, but their first opportunity did not come until Dec. 2015, almost a year after the king's death in January.