For decades, women have been struggling for the right to participate in democracy as much as men. Much has changed since 1893, when New Zealand gave women the right to vote. Shortly after the First World War, women from many countries of the world enjoyed the right to vote, for example in Czechoslovakia.
In the Czechoslovak constitution, the right to vote for women was introduced on 29th February 1920. Today on 29th February 2020, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of this milestone in women's rights, we published this map. During the 20th century, most women in the world enjoyed the right to vote. On the way to those rights, women overcame many prejudices, racism, constraints and rage. However, there are still countries where not only women but even men cannot vote. This applies to some absolute monarchies such as Brunei. Recently, in 2011, Saudi Arabia joined the countries where women can vote and be elected.
Sources: Map is based on original research of Queer Geography. Last update February 2020.
Recommended quotation:
Queer Geography: Tereza Teichmannová and Michal Pitoňák, Map of global chronology of the acquisition of women's right to vote, 2020.
Equal rights years
| Name of the country | Year of equal rights | Note | |
| New Zealand | 1893 | ||
| Niue (NZ) | 1893 | ||
| Tokelau (NZ) | 1893 | ||
| Finland | 1906 | ||
| Åland (FI) | 1906 | ||
| Norway | 1907 | Special conditions related to private mans, property, and income. Those restrictions were removed in 1913. | |
| Svalbard and Jan Mayen (NO) | 1907 | Special conditions related to private mans, property, and income. Those restrictions were removed in 1913. | |
| Denmark | 1915 | In 1908 local authorities. | |
| Faroe Islands (DK) | 1915 | ||
| Greenland (DK) | 1915 | ||
| Iceland | 1915 | ||
| Kyrgyzstan | 1918 | ||
| Austria | 1918 | ||
| Estonia | 1918 | ||
| Georgia | 1918 | ||
| Germany | 1918 | ||
| Hungary | 1918 | ||
| Latvia | 1918 | ||
| Poland | 1918 | ||
| Russia | 1918 | ||
| United Kingdom | 1918 | Right to vote granted in 1918 (over 30 years of age + qualification estimates ), equality in rights in 1928. | |
| Gibraltar (UK) | 1918 | Right to vote granted in 1918 (over 30 years of age + qualification estimates ), equality in rights in 1928. | |
| Pitcairn Islands (UK) | 1918 | Right to vote granted in 1918 (over 30 years of age + qualification estimates ), equality in rights in 1928. | |
| British Indian Ocean Territory (UK) | 1918 | Right to vote granted in 1918 (over 30 years of age + qualification estimates ), equality in rights in 1928. | |
| Falkland Islands (Malvinas) | 1918 | Right to vote granted in 1918 (over 30 years of age + qualification estimates ), equality in rights in 1928. | |
| Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha (UK) | 1918 | Right to vote granted in 1918 (over 30 years of age + qualification estimates ), equality in rights in 1928. | |
| South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands | 1918 | Right to vote granted in 1918 (over 30 years of age + qualification estimates ), equality in rights in 1928. | |
| Jersey | 1918 | Right to vote granted in 1918 (over 30 years of age + qualification estimates ), equality in rights in 1928. | |
| Isle of Man | 1918 | Right to vote granted in 1918 (over 30 years of age + qualification estimates ), equality in rights in 1928. | |
| Guernsey | 1918 | Right to vote granted in 1918 (over 30 years of age + qualification estimates ), equality in rights in 1928. | |
| Montserrat | 1918 | Right to vote granted in 1918 (over 30 years of age + qualification estimates ), equality in rights in 1928. | |
| Anguilla | 1918 | Right to vote granted in 1918 (over 30 years of age + qualification estimates ), equality in rights in 1928. | |
| Cayman Islands (UK) | 1918 | Right to vote granted in 1918 (over 30 years of age + qualification estimates ), equality in rights in 1928. | |
| Turks and Caicos (UK) | 1918 | Right to vote granted in 1918 (over 30 years of age + qualification estimates ), equality in rights in 1928. | |
| Bermuda | 1918 | Right to vote granted in 1918 (over 30 years of age + qualification estimates ), equality in rights in 1928. | |
| British Virgin Islands (UK) | 1918 | Right to vote granted in 1918 (over 30 years of age + qualification estimates), equality in rights in 1928. | |
| Belarus | 1919 | ||
| Luxembourg | 1919 | ||
| Netherlands | 1919 | ||
| Aruba | 1919 | ||
| Caribbean Netherlands | 1919 | ||
| Sint Maarten (Dutch part) | 1919 | ||
| Sweden | 1919 | 1862/1918 “local elections”/May 1919 “granted”/1921 “in effect”. | |
| Ukraine | 1919 | ||
| Curaçao | 1919 | ||
| Albania | 1920 | ||
| Czechia | 1920 | ||
| Slovakia | 1920 | ||
| USA | 1920 | ||
| Northern Mariana Islands (USA) | 1920 | ||
| US Virgin Islands (USA) | 1920 | ||
| Guam (USA) | 1920 | ||
| American Samoa (USA) | 1920 | ||
| Armenia | 1921 | ||
| Azerbaijan | 1921 | ||
| Lithuania | 1921 | ||
| Kazakhstan | 1924 | ||
| Mongolia | 1924 | ||
| Tajikistan | 1924 | ||
| Saint Lucia | 1924 | ||
| Turkmenistan | 1927 | ||
| Ireland | 1928 | In 1918 women over 30 years of age. | |
| Ecuador | 1929 | Some sources 1967 - mandatory voting. | |
| Puerto Rico | 1929 | Since 1929 literate women, since 1932 all women. | |
| Turkey | 1930 | ||
| Sri Lanka | 1931 | ||
| Portugal | 1931 | In 1931, women were given the right to vote and stand for election, with the restriction that they had to have completed secondary or higher education (men only had to know how to read and write). All citizens who were literate were granted the right to vote and stand for election in 1934. Some restrictions on women, however, remained for election to certain local administrative authorities under a 1968 law. Full equality of the sexes with regard to the franchise and right of election to all people was achieved in 1976. | |
| Spain | 1931 | ||
| Maldives | 1932 | ||
| Thailand | 1932 | ||
| Uruguay | 1932 | ||
| Brazil | 1934 | ||
| Cuba | 1934 | ||
| Myanmar | 1935 | ||
| Philippines | 1937 | ||
| Uzbekistan | 1938 | ||
| Salvador | 1939 | ||
| Panama | 1941 | In 1941 only educated women, 1946 restrictions lifted. | |
| Dominican republic | 1942 | ||
| Bulgaria | 1944 | ||
| France | 1944 | ||
| French Guiana | 1944 | ||
| Saint Barthelemy (FR) | 1944 | ||
| Reunion (FR) | 1944 | ||
| Mayotte (FR) | 1944 | ||
| Martinique (FR) | 1944 | ||
| Guadeloupe (FR) | 1944 | ||
| French Polynesia | 1944 | ||
| French Southern and Antarctic Lands | 1944 | ||
| Saint Martin (French part) | 1944 | ||
| Wallis and Futuna (FR) | 1944 | ||
| Jamaica | 1944 | ||
| new Caledonia | 1944 | ||
| senegal | 1945 | ||
| Togo | 1945 | ||
| Indonesia | 1945 | ||
| Croatia | 1945 | ||
| Italy | 1945 | ||
| Slovenia | 1945 | ||
| Cameroon | 1946 | ||
| Djibouti | 1946 | ||
| Liberia | 1946 | ||
| South Korea | 1946 | ||
| Vietnam | 1946 | ||
| Kosovo | 1946 | In 1946 women of Yugoslavia were granted voting rights. | |
| Northern Macedonia | 1946 | ||
| Montenegro | 1946 | In 1946 women of Yugoslavia were granted voting rights. | |
| Romania | 1946 | In 1929 restricted electoral rights. In 1946 under the same conditions as men. | |
| Serbia | 1946 | ||
| Guatemala | 1946 | ||
| Trinidad and Tobago | 1946 | ||
| Venezuela | 1946 | ||
| Japan | 1947 | 1945 for the House of Representatives. 1947 for the House of Councillors. | |
| Pakistan | 1947 | ||
| Singapore | 1947 | ||
| Taiwan | 1947 | ||
| Malta | 1947 | ||
| Argentina | 1947 | ||
| Mexico | 1947 | Women were permitted to vote in some local and state elections at an earlier date. Yucatan and San Luis Potosi were the first states to extend the franchise, in 1922 and 1923 respectively. | |
| Tuvalu | 1947 | ||
| Niger | 1948 | ||
| Seychelles | 1948 | ||
| Israel | 1948 | ||
| North Korea | 1948 | ||
| Belgium | 1948 | Right to vote in national elections to the widows and mothers of servicemen killed in World War I, to the widows and mothers of citizens shot or killed by the enemy, and to female political prisoners who had been held by the enemy. Right to vote extended to all women with the same conditions applied to men. | |
| Suriname | 1948 | ||
| China | 1949 | ||
| Syria | 1949 | Women who had reached a sixth-grade educational level; it was then extended to all literate women, and in 1953 all educational restrictions on voting were lifted for women. | |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | 1949 | ||
| Costa Rica | 1949 | ||
| Chile | 1949 | ||
| India | 1950 | ||
| Barbados | 1950 | ||
| Haiti | 1950 | ||
| Nepal | 1951 | ||
| Antigua and Barbuda | 1951 | ||
| Dominika | 1951 | ||
| Grenada | 1951 | ||
| Saint Kitts and Nevis | 1951 | ||
| St. Vincent and the Grenadines | 1951 | ||
| Ivory Coast | 1952 | ||
| Lebanon | 1952 | ||
| Greece | 1952 | ||
| Bolivia | 1952 | In 1938 only educated women with certain high of income, 1952 restrictions lifted | |
| Bhutan | 1953 | ||
| Guyana | 1953 | ||
| Ghana | 1954 | ||
| Belize | 1954 | ||
| Colombia | 1954 | ||
| Eritrea | 1955 | ||
| Ethiopia | 1955 | ||
| Cambodia | 1955 | ||
| Honduras | 1955 | ||
| Nicaragua | 1955 | ||
| Peru | 1955 | ||
| Benin | 1956 | ||
| Comoros | 1956 | ||
| Egypt | 1956 | ||
| Gabon | 1956 | ||
| Mali | 1956 | ||
| Mauritius | 1956 | ||
| Somalia | 1956 | ||
| Zimbabwe | 1957 | Before 1957 (“Only men and European women”)/After 1957 (“a qualified right to vote was gradually extended over the years to black women”). | |
| Malaysia | 1957 | ||
| Burkina Faso | 1958 | ||
| CAD | 1958 | ||
| Guinea | 1958 | ||
| Iraq | 1958 | Government overthrown during the summer of 1958, before any elections with female participation | |
| Laos | 1958 | ||
| Madagascar | 1959 | ||
| Tanzania | 1959 | ||
| Tunisia | 1959 | ||
| San Marino | 1959 | ||
| Gambia | 1960 | ||
| Cyprus | 1960 | ||
| Canada | 1960 | In 1917 women who had close male relatives serving in the military were granted the right to vote at the federal level. In 1918 most women won the federal vote, but most Aboriginal women excluded. In 1950 Right to vote extended only if they waived their tax exemption under the Indian Act. In August 1960, the unqualified extension of federal voting rights. | |
| Tonga | 1960 | ||
| Burundi | 1961 | ||
| Malawi | 1961 | ||
| Mauritania | 1961 | ||
| Rwanda | 1961 | ||
| Sierra Leone | 1961 | ||
| Paraguay | 1961 | ||
| Algeria | 1962 | ||
| Uganda | 1962 | ||
| Zambia | 1962 | ||
| Monaco | 1962 | ||
| Bahamas | 1962 | ||
| Australia | 1962 | In 1902 were white women granted voting rights, in 1962 were granted all women and also all aboriginals voting rights. | |
| Christmas Island (AU) | 1962 | In 1902 were white women granted voting rights, in 1962 were granted all women and also all aboriginals voting rights. | |
| Cocos (AU) | 1962 | In 1902 were white women granted voting rights, in 1962 were granted all women and also all aboriginals voting rights. | |
| Norfolk Island (AU) | 1962 | In 1902 were white women granted voting rights, in 1962 were granted all women and also all aboriginals voting rights. | |
| Heard Island and McDonald Islands (AU) | 1962 | In 1902 were white women granted voting rights, in 1962 were granted all women and also all aboriginals voting rights. | |
| Cooks Islands | 1962 | In 1902 were white women granted voting rights, in 1962 were granted all women and also all aboriginals voting rights. | |
| West Africa | 1963 | Territory under Maroccan control. | |
| Republic of Congo | 1963 | ||
| Equatorial Guinea | 1963 | ||
| Kenya | 1963 | The right to vote and stand for office had been given to European women in Kenya in 1919; in 1956, those rights were extended to African men and women under certain conditions related to educational level and property ownership. In 1963, all Kenyans, regardless of color and other previously restricting factors, were given the right to vote and stand for election. | |
| Morocco | 1963 | ||
| Iran | 1963 | ||
| Fiji | 1963 | ||
| Libya | 1964 | ||
| South Sudan | 1964 | ||
| Sudan | 1964 | ||
| Papua New Guinea | 1964 | ||
| Botswana | 1965 | ||
| Lesotho | 1965 | ||
| Afghanistan | 1965 | Revoked during Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001. | |
| Democratic Republic of Congo | 1967 | ||
| Kiribati | 1967 | ||
| Swaziland | 1968 | ||
| Nauru | 1968 | ||
| Yemen | 1970 | Until 1990 there existed two Yemen republics: People´s republic of Yemen (1967) and Arab Republic of Yemen (1970). | |
| Andorra | 1970 | ||
| Switzerland | 1971 | ||
| Bangladesh | 1972 | ||
| Jordan | 1974 | Women actually exercised the right to vote and stand for election for the first time in 1989. | |
| Angola | 1975 | ||
| Cape Verde | 1975 | ||
| Mozambique | 1975 | ||
| São Tomé and Príncipe | 1975 | ||
| Vanuatu | 1975 | ||
| Guinea-Bissau | 1977 | ||
| Nigeria | 1978 | Southern Nigeria (1958), Northern Nigeria (1978). | |
| Moldova | 1978 | ||
| Solomon Islands | 1978 | ||
| Marshall Islands | 1979 | ||
| Micronesia | 1979 | ||
| Palau | 1979 | ||
| Lichtenstein | 1984 | Last country in Europe to grant women suffrage. | |
| Central African Republic | 1986 | ||
| Namibia | 1989 | ||
| Samoa | 1990 | ||
| South Africa | 1994 | White women (1930), Inds + crossbreds women(1984), black women (1994). | |
| Oman | 1997 | ||
| Catarrh | 1999 | ||
| Bahrain | 2002 | ||
| East Timor | 2002 | ||
| Kuwait | 2005 | ||
| United Arab Emirates | 2006 | ||
| Hong Kong | 2007 | ||
| Saudi Arabia | 2011 | First elections where women could vote were held in 2015. | |
| Brunei | (unknown) | ||
| Palestinian territories | (unknown) | Women posses the right to vote same as men. | |
| Vatican | (unknown) |
Sources
Sources:
ipu.org
nytimes.com
genderindex.org
qataramerica.org
parliament.uk
eca.unwomen.org
womensuffrage.org
constitutionnet.org
historynet.com
cob-bs.libguides.com
ohrh.law.ox.ac.uk
enciclopediapr.org
rnz.co.nz
bbc.com
theguardian.com
lop.parl.ca
venice.coe.int
irishtimes.com
me.undp.org
eu.usatoday.com
ergo.slv.vic.gov.au
carnegieendowment.org