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Women’s Suffrage Mapped: The Year Women Got The Vote By Country

March 8, 2018 21 Comments

Women's Suffrage Mapped: The Year Women Got The Vote By Country

Map created by Cuba Holidays

The map above shows when women got the right to vote in each country around the world.

2018 marks the centenary of Women’s suffrage in the UK and even then only with several restrictions (had to be over the age of 30 and meet property qualifications).

Women in the UK would not get get to vote on equal terms as men until the passage of the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928.

Somewhat ironically, the Isle of Man gave women who owned property the right to vote in 1881 making it one of the first jurisdictions in the world to do so.

The US territory of Wyoming gave women the right to vote even earlier in 1869, although it’s population at time was less than 10,000. And several other US States granted women the right to vote prior to Nationwide Suffrage in 1920. (See: 1919 Women’s Suffrage Victory Map, Published The Year Before The Passage Of The 19th Amendment and A 1917 Map of Women’s Suffrage in North America)

New Zealand (at the time still a British colony) is often regarded as the first country to grant women the right to vote in 1893.

Other countries who’ve were early adopters of women’s suffrage include: Australia (1902), Finland (1906) Norway (1907), Denmark (1915), Iceland (1915), Canada (1917), Russia (1917), Armenia (1917) and Estonia (1917).

At the other extreme Saudi Arabia only gave women the right to vote in 2011! Other notable laggards include the UAE (2006), Bahrain (2002), Oman (1997), Qatar (1997) and Samoa (1990).

Women don’t have the right to vote in the Vatican, but then again neither can men. The Pope is elected by the by the College of Cardinals, which part of the Holy See (technically separate from the Vatican City State). However, since Cardinals can only men, that means that the Vatican City is the only country remaining with no voting or electoral rights for women.

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Filed Under: World Maps

Comments

  1. Tse says

    June 13, 2018 at 5:26 am

    Many countries have asterisks, but there doesn’t seem to be any explanation of what they indicate. Clarification please?

    Reply
    • KerryJ says

      September 3, 2018 at 12:53 am

      The asterisks mean that states in that country – like the US – gave women the right to vote locally earlier than the date indicated, but it wasn’t enshrined in national law.

      Reply
      • mr41 says

        June 8, 2019 at 5:19 pm

        So Switzerland should have an asterisk, too.

        Reply
    • Ori says

      August 9, 2020 at 8:30 am

      Hi, but the colors in the map does not reflect reality.
      I am from Israel.
      Israel declared it’s independent in 1948 and women had voting rights.
      So giving Israel a more dark color does not reflect how long since getting independence women got their voting rights.
      Before Israel independence, women already took part in concils and resolution and had voting rights.
      If you take USA for example that got it’s independence in 1776, it took about 150(!) years till women had right to vote!
      I think the map should reflect this as well

      Reply
  2. Veysel says

    May 27, 2019 at 3:46 pm

    please add this Azerbaijan Democratic Republic 1918

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_suffrage

    Reply
  3. illinois says

    July 30, 2019 at 5:30 am

    I am writing on behalf of Italian CISP NGO to kindly ask you for the permission to reproduce the image attached to this email.

    The image would be included in a World History textbook, that is the core of the no-profit Get Up and Goals project, financed by the EU in the Development Education and Awareness Raising (DEAR) program, and targeting 12-18 years old students.

    The World History textbook (3 volumes) will be published online by 12 EU countries and freely downloadable by teachers and students.
    Can we publish the map?
    thank you

    Reply
    • Brilliant Maps says

      August 5, 2019 at 2:03 pm

      Unfortunately, we can’t give permission to use the map or not as we are not the authors.

      Reply
  4. Glenys Rowe says

    August 10, 2020 at 3:11 am

    It is not a matter that New Zealand is often being “regarded” as the first Country to grant Women the vote- IT WAS , In Fact, THE FIRST! And by a long period.

    Reply
    • Roberto says

      September 25, 2020 at 3:59 am

      Was NZ an independent country in 1893? No. It was a British colony. I’d suggest that Australia, an independent country when it introduced female suffrage in 1902, has more claim to the ‘first county’ title.

      Reply
    • Danny says

      November 24, 2022 at 3:39 pm

      Most of the dates given are those countries independence from colonial masters where they (Europeans) did not give people the vote or basic human rights, both men and women, as soon as they got independence that European inequality was corrected.

      Reply
  5. JUERGEN MR KLECKER says

    August 10, 2020 at 9:38 am

    In the case of the UK, the asterisk probably means that only wealthy women gained suffrage in 1918, while universal female suffrage took another 10 years. I had this conversation with some British people who insisted that they were oh so progressive, compared to Germany, where I live. Over here, all women had the right to vote in 1918.
    So, in some cases (like US states), your asterisk indicates some women voted earlier than the the year shown, in other cases, the asterisk means most women voted later than shown in the map. Not really consistent, is it?

    Reply
  6. Noel says

    August 10, 2020 at 12:13 pm

    1902 saw some states of Australia give the vote to White women only. It was 1967 before Aborigines, both men and women, were given the vote.

    Reply
  7. J says

    August 11, 2020 at 11:44 am

    The map is wrong. In Australia Women were able to vote from different years dependinguponwhat State they lived in. South Australia was 1894 not 1902.

    Reply
  8. Claudio Salvo says

    August 11, 2020 at 10:29 pm

    In Uruguay women used the right to vote in 1927 not in 1932, it was the first country in Latin America to allow women to vote

    Reply
  9. Brooklyn92864 says

    November 30, 2020 at 3:47 pm

    Cool!

    Reply
  10. Rex says

    December 21, 2020 at 3:28 pm

    In the USA, black women got the right to vote in 1965…

    Reply
  11. Shubham says

    January 20, 2021 at 12:24 pm

    Absolutely ridiculous map. Eastern philosophy has never considered women unequal. The UK forcefully ruled India (and other countries) for so long, and only considered white males as first class citizens.
    When India became a republic in 1950, we gave the right to vote to everyone above 18. Universal adult franchise – ever heard of it?
    The mal should be coloured considering (Year right to vote given to women) – (Year country became independent)

    Reply
    • Danny says

      November 24, 2022 at 3:42 pm

      and this is just since modern democracy, In India there has been many matriarchal societies and old vedanta philosophy there was womens rights in divorce and inheritance. Its was only since the brahmins monopolised religion this practice was lost

      Reply
  12. Wilhelm Deussen says

    June 13, 2022 at 6:44 am

    This map is very misleading. e.g. Algerian women “got the vote” in 1962, but so did the men. India the same. And lots of other colonies too.

    More interesting maps would be ones that show the time between when men got the vote and when women got the vote, or between when white people and non-white people got the vote.

    Also note that almost all Maori women in NZ could only vote for their “own” parliament, not for the national parliament that did rule over them.

    Reply
  13. Charles says

    June 30, 2022 at 4:57 am

    No one has the right to vote in PR China today, so the 1947 date is absolutely incorrect. It is a communist country, and therefore there is no freedom at all, let alone the right to vote.

    Reply
  14. BKR says

    August 26, 2022 at 8:51 pm

    Bosnian Women got their right to vote in 1910 elections for the Parliament. Bosnia was the 4th country worldwide to give same voting rights to women!
    Source: National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies. “The Common Cause June 30 1910,” 1910. https://jstor.org/stable/community.29696076, p.188

    Reply

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