mixed

Women's Suffrage

A map filling in, one country at a time, 1893-2012

Map of Women's Suffrage Play it on the globe →

In 1893 there was no country on earth where women could vote in a national election. This map opens on that world and fills in, one country at a time, over the next hundred and nineteen years. What the order shows is the surprise: the vote does not spread outward from the great democracies, it arrives at them last. New Zealand, Australia, Finland and Norway go first; France waits until the Liberation, Switzerland until 1971 — forty-seven years after Mongolia. The dates are the year it became true, not the year a law was passed, which is why Britain is 1928 rather than 1918 and the United States 1965 rather than 1920. Five countries are still dark at the end, and they are not an oversight.

How this is made →
199events
1 January 1893 – 31 December 2015span
Societycategory
Still no vote for women, todayThe vote

What is on the map

  • 194 The vote
  • 5 Still none

Chronology

  1. New Zealand, the first country in the world where women vote — a colony of 700,000 people, thirty-five years before Britainevent▸
  2. Australia, where women can also stand for parliament from the start — though Aboriginal women wait until 1962event▸
  3. Finland, the first in Europe, and the first anywhere to elect women: nineteen of them, the following yearevent▸
  4. Norway — women get the voteevent▸
  5. Denmark — women get the voteevent▸
  6. Iceland — women get the voteevent▸
  7. Azerbaijan — women get the voteevent▸
  8. Belarus — women get the voteevent▸
  9. Estonia — women get the voteevent▸
  10. Georgia — women get the voteevent▸
  11. Kazakhstan — women get the voteevent▸
  12. Kyrgyzstan — women get the voteevent▸
  13. Moldova — women get the voteevent▸
  14. Russia, months after the Tsar falls and before the Bolsheviks take over — by far the largest country yetevent▸
  15. Tajikistan — women get the voteevent▸
  16. Turkmenistan — women get the voteevent▸
  17. Austria — women get the voteevent▸
  18. Ireland — women get the voteevent▸
  19. Latvia — women get the voteevent▸
  20. Lithuania — women get the voteevent▸
  21. Germany, at the first election of the republic born out of defeat: forty-one women enter the Reichstagevent▸
  22. Hungary — women get the voteevent▸
  23. Luxembourg — women get the voteevent▸
  24. Netherlands — women get the voteevent▸
  25. Poland — women get the voteevent▸
  26. Sweden — women get the voteevent▸
  27. Canada — women get the voteevent▸
  28. Czech Republic — women get the voteevent▸
  29. Slovakia — women get the voteevent▸
  30. Armenia — women get the voteevent▸
  31. Ukraine — women get the voteevent▸
  32. Uzbekistan — women get the voteevent▸
  33. Mongolia — women get the voteevent▸
  34. Britain, at last on the same terms as men. Ten years earlier the vote had been given only to women over thirty who held propertyevent▸
  35. Ecuador — women get the voteevent▸
  36. Turkey, ahead of France and Italy: the first majority-Muslim country to get thereevent▸
  37. Spain — women get the voteevent▸
  38. Brazil — women get the voteevent▸
  39. Maldives — women get the voteevent▸
  40. Sri Lanka — women get the voteevent▸
  41. Thailand — women get the voteevent▸
  42. Uruguay — women get the voteevent▸
  43. Cuba — women get the voteevent▸
  44. Myanmar — women get the voteevent▸
  45. Philippines — women get the voteevent▸
  46. El Salvador — women get the voteevent▸
  47. Dominican Republic — women get the voteevent▸
  48. France, at the Liberation. The country of the Rights of Man arrives after forty othersevent▸
  49. Jamaica — women get the voteevent▸
  50. Bosnia and Herzegovina — women get the voteevent▸
  51. Bulgaria — women get the voteevent▸
  52. Croatia — women get the voteevent▸
  53. Japan, written in during the occupation: thirty-nine women enter the Diet at the first election, and one in three voters is a woman who has never votedevent▸
  54. Kosovo — women get the voteevent▸
  55. Macedonia — women get the voteevent▸
  56. Montenegro — women get the voteevent▸
  57. Republic of Serbia — women get the voteevent▸
  58. Slovenia — women get the voteevent▸
  59. Albania — women get the voteevent▸
  60. Guatemala — women get the voteevent▸
  61. Italy, at the referendum that abolished the monarchy — the first national vote women had ever taken part inevent▸
  62. Panama — women get the voteevent▸
  63. Romania — women get the voteevent▸
  64. Senegal — women get the voteevent▸
  65. Trinidad and Tobago — women get the voteevent▸
  66. Venezuela — women get the voteevent▸
  67. Vietnam — women get the voteevent▸
  68. Argentina — women get the voteevent▸
  69. China, on paper first and in a civil war, two years before the People's Republicevent▸
  70. Liberia — women get the voteevent▸
  71. Malta — women get the voteevent▸
  72. Singapore — women get the voteevent▸
  73. Taiwan — women get the voteevent▸
  74. North Korea — women get the voteevent▸
  75. Seychelles — women get the voteevent▸
  76. South Korea — women get the voteevent▸
  77. Belgium — women get the voteevent▸
  78. Chile — women get the voteevent▸
  79. Costa Rica — women get the voteevent▸
  80. Israel — women get the voteevent▸
  81. Suriname — women get the voteevent▸
  82. Barbados — women get the voteevent▸
  83. Haiti — women get the voteevent▸
  84. India, written into the constitution: the largest electorate ever created in a single dayevent▸
  85. Marshall Islands — women get the voteevent▸
  86. Antigua and Barbuda — women get the voteevent▸
  87. Dominica — women get the voteevent▸
  88. Ghana — women get the voteevent▸
  89. Grenada — women get the voteevent▸
  90. Nauru — women get the voteevent▸
  91. Nepal — women get the voteevent▸
  92. Saint Lucia — women get the voteevent▸
  93. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines — women get the voteevent▸
  94. Bolivia — women get the voteevent▸
  95. Eritrea — women get the voteevent▸
  96. Guyana — women get the voteevent▸
  97. Lebanon — women get the voteevent▸
  98. Saint Kitts and Nevis — women get the voteevent▸
  99. East Timor — women get the voteevent▸
  100. Indonesia — women get the voteevent▸
  101. Mexico — women get the voteevent▸
  102. Syria — women get the voteevent▸
  103. Belize — women get the voteevent▸
  104. Honduras — women get the voteevent▸
  105. Ethiopia — women get the voteevent▸
  106. Malaysia — women get the voteevent▸
  107. Peru — women get the voteevent▸
  108. Benin — women get the voteevent▸
  109. Cambodia — women get the voteevent▸
  110. Egypt — women get the voteevent▸
  111. Greece — women get the voteevent▸
  112. Laos — women get the voteevent▸
  113. Pakistan — women get the voteevent▸
  114. The Bahamas — women get the voteevent▸
  115. Burkina Faso — women get the voteevent▸
  116. Central African Republic — women get the voteevent▸
  117. Chad — women get the voteevent▸
  118. Colombia — women get the voteevent▸
  119. Comoros — women get the voteevent▸
  120. Djibouti — women get the voteevent▸
  121. Gabon — women get the voteevent▸
  122. Guinea — women get the voteevent▸
  123. Ivory Coast — women get the voteevent▸
  124. Madagascar — women get the voteevent▸
  125. Mauritania — women get the voteevent▸
  126. Nicaragua — women get the voteevent▸
  127. Niger — women get the voteevent▸
  128. Republic of the Congo — women get the voteevent▸
  129. San Marino — women get the voteevent▸
  130. Togo — women get the voteevent▸
  131. Iraq — women get the voteevent▸
  132. Sierra Leone — women get the voteevent▸
  133. Somalia — women get the voteevent▸
  134. Cyprus — women get the voteevent▸
  135. Mauritius — women get the voteevent▸
  136. Tunisia — women get the voteevent▸
  137. Cameroon — women get the voteevent▸
  138. Gambia — women get the voteevent▸
  139. Mali — women get the voteevent▸
  140. Tonga — women get the voteevent▸
  141. Botswana — women get the voteevent▸
  142. Burundi — women get the voteevent▸
  143. Paraguay — women get the voteevent▸
  144. Rwanda — women get the voteevent▸
  145. Algeria — women get the voteevent▸
  146. Federated States of Micronesia — women get the voteevent▸
  147. Monaco — women get the voteevent▸
  148. Morocco — women get the voteevent▸
  149. Uganda — women get the voteevent▸
  150. Fiji — women get the voteevent▸
  151. Iran — women get the voteevent▸
  152. Kenya — women get the voteevent▸
  153. United Republic of Tanzania — women get the voteevent▸
  154. Afghanistan — women get the voteevent▸
  155. Kiribati — women get the voteevent▸
  156. Libya — women get the voteevent▸
  157. Malawi — women get the voteevent▸
  158. Papua New Guinea — women get the voteevent▸
  159. Solomon Islands — women get the voteevent▸
  160. Sudan — women get the voteevent▸
  161. Swaziland — women get the voteevent▸
  162. Zambia — women get the voteevent▸
  163. Lesotho — women get the voteevent▸
  164. The United States. Women had the vote in law from 1920, but for Black women in the South it took the Voting Rights Act, forty-five years laterevent▸
  165. Democratic Republic of the Congo — women get the voteevent▸
  166. Equatorial Guinea — women get the voteevent▸
  167. Andorra — women get the voteevent▸
  168. Bangladesh — women get the voteevent▸
  169. Switzerland, by a referendum in which only men could vote. The last canton is forced to comply by the courts in 1990event▸
  170. Guinea Bissau — women get the voteevent▸
  171. Jordan — women get the voteevent▸
  172. Angola — women get the voteevent▸
  173. Cape Verde — women get the voteevent▸
  174. Mozambique — women get the voteevent▸
  175. Portugal — women get the voteevent▸
  176. Sao Tome and Principe — women get the voteevent▸
  177. Tuvalu — women get the voteevent▸
  178. Vanuatu — women get the voteevent▸
  179. Nigeria — women get the voteevent▸
  180. Palau — women get the voteevent▸
  181. Zimbabwe — women get the voteevent▸
  182. Liechtenstein — women get the voteevent▸
  183. Namibia — women get the voteevent▸
  184. Samoa — women get the voteevent▸
  185. Yemen — women get the voteevent▸
  186. South Africa, at the first election open to everyone. White women had voted since 1930event▸
  187. West Bank — women get the voteevent▸
  188. Bahrain — women get the voteevent▸
  189. Oman — women get the voteevent▸
  190. Somaliland — women get the voteevent▸
  191. Kuwait — women get the voteevent▸
  192. Bhutan — women get the voteevent▸
  193. Western Sahara — women get the voteevent▸
  194. South Sudan, the newest country on earth, and the last to arriveevent▸
  195. Saudi Arabia: still no national election women can vote in — no national elections at all; women could first vote in the municipal poll of 2015event▸
  196. Qatar: still no national election women can vote in — the first legislative election was held in 2021, then suspendedevent▸
  197. United Arab Emirates: still no national election women can vote in — half the federal council is appointed, the rest elected by a body the rulers chooseevent▸
  198. Brunei: still no national election women can vote in — no national election has been held since 1962, for anyoneevent▸
  199. Vatican: still no national election women can vote in — the only vote is the conclave, and only cardinals vote — all of them menevent▸

Background reading: the parent article.

The world in those years

What else was happening while this story unfolded, one year at a time:

1893 · 1898 · 1903 · 1908 · 1913 · 1918 · 1923 · 1928 · 1933 · 1938 · 1943 · 1948 · 1953 · 1958 · 1963 · 1968 · 1973 · 1978 · 1983 · 1988 · 1993 · 1998 · 2003 · 2008 · 2013

Other stories

Out of AfricaHow one species took the whole planet, 300,000 BC – AD 1300The Discovery of the Pacific IslandsFinding a third of the planet without instruments, 3000 BC - AD 1500RomeA thousand years of one border, 509 BC – AD 565The Unification of ChinaFrom the partition of Jin to the founding of Han, 403–202 BCThe Gallic WarsCaesar's conquest of Gaul, 58–50 BCGenghis KhanFrom a boy on the Onon to the Caspian, c. 1162–1227Marco Polo's TravelsVenice to Xanadu and back, 1271–1295The Hundred Years' WarFrom the seizure of Aquitaine to the fall of Bordeaux, 1337–1453The Black DeathSix years, and a third of Europe, 1346–1353The Unification of JapanFrom the Ōnin War to the fall of Osaka, 1467–1615The Discovery of AmericaFifty-three years, from a beach in the Bahamas to the silver of Potosí, 1492–1545Volcanic EruptionsEvery significant eruption on record since 1500Magellan's CircumnavigationFive ships out, one ship home, 1519–1522How America Filled UpEvery American city of 60,000 people, in the year it beganNapoleonFrom Ajaccio to Saint Helena, 1769–1821The American RevolutionFrom Lexington to the last ship out of New York, 1775–1783The American Civil WarOne country, torn in two and taken back battle by battle, 1860–1865The First World WarSarajevo to Versailles, five years to the dayThe Second World WarFrom the Marco Polo Bridge to Tokyo Bay, 1937–1945DecolonisationHow a third of the world stopped belonging to somebody else, 1945–1990Nuclear detonationsEvery recorded nuclear test, 1945–1998