On 19 September 1893 the governor, Lord Glasgow, signed a new Electoral Act into law. As a result of this landmark legislation, New Zealand became the first self-governing country in the world in which all women had the right to vote in parliamentary elections.
In most other democracies – including Britain and the United States – women did not win the right to the vote until after the First World War. New Zealand’s world leadership in women’s suffrage became a central part of our image as a trail-blazing ‘social laboratory’.
Download
ISBN
- Mobi: 978-0-478- 39835-9
Further Information
This eBook was compiled by the Ministry for Culture and Heritage from content that originally appeared online on the NZHistory website and the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, part of Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand.
Links
Updated on 23rd July 2015