Only relatively recently has universal suffrage has been achieved throughout the European Union and beyond. So when did each country grant full and equal rights for women’s voting?
What is universal suffrage?
Universal suffrage means that all adults - women and men - can vote on an equal footing.
Through the years, universal suffrage hasn’t only been sought to make things fair for women, but also to those men who could not vote because of restrictions such as those based on religion, ethnicity, education, or wealth. For example, in 1865 in the USA, following the end of the American Civil War, enslaved people - who were denied voting rights - were freed from enslavement and granted rights as citizens. Then in 1870, male suffrage was granted to all adult males, meaning that formerly enslaved adult males could now vote (although some states then enacted other restrictions).
When did male and female voting become equal in the European Union?
This list shows all current EU countries and the years permanent universal suffrage was achieved, that is to say, the date from which both men and women have been able to vote in national elections on an equal footing.
Which country was the first to allow women an equal vote?
Many countries implemented a two (or more) step legislation in which only certain women could vote to begin with. For example, in 1918, women in Ireland obtained the right to vote at the age of 30 (if they owned sufficient property), while men could vote at age 21 whether they owned property or not. In 1922, the Irish Free State gave equal voting rights to men and women. The Isle of Man (a self-governing British Crown dependency whose people are British citizens) gave the vote to land-owning women in 1881, 37 years before the United Kingdom did, and 47 years before universal suffrage was granted throughout the UK in 1928.
Just because universal suffrage was granted, it didn’t mean that women could immediately take up their right to vote. First election opportunities often came months or even years later. In Lithuania, for example, the constitution changed in 1918 and women used their right for the first time in 1919. In Greece, the law came in 1952 but women had to wait until 1956 for the next general election. In Eritrea, East Africa, all citizens were granted the right to vote in 1997 but a national election still hasn’t been held there.
Women could often vote in local elections before they were allowed to vote in national elections. This means that the first ever women’s vote might have been in the rural districts of the States of Friesland (now a province of the Netherlands) when female landowners were allowed to vote locally in 1689. Swedish women could vote in certain local elections in 1718 but this right was rescinded a few decades later.
What prompted EU countries to change their laws on votes for women?
Women’s suffrage and rights movements made the ‘woman question’ part of public and political debate for decades or even centuries before women were granted the vote in each country.
But these movements didn’t happen in a vacuum - they were part of an ever-changing political context. Look at the list above and you’ll see that many of the dates of change fall around historical periods linked to big political shifts, like a country becoming independent, or the aftermath of a regional or world war.
Finland’s legislation in 1906 came about during the time that it was an autonomous Grand Duchy annexed to Russia. In 1907, Finland elected the world’s first female members of parliament, but it took until 2000 for a woman to be voted in as President, and 2003 as Prime Minister.
In Estonia, Latvia and Poland, it happened when the country gained independence from Russia in 1918. This period towards the end of World War I and the few years afterwards also led to universal suffrage being granted in Austria, Czechia and Slovakia (as Czechoslovakia at the time), Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Lithuania, the Netherlands, and Sweden.
Changes during the Second Spanish Republic (1931-1937) are what led to women’s right to vote in Spain being established in 1931, but efforts towards this milestone date back to the mid-1800s. In fact, women were allowed to vote for a short time from 1924-1926 but no elections were held in that time.
Modern day Croatia and Slovenia were granted universal suffrage as part of the formation of the second Yugoslavia following the area’s release from German rule in 1944-1945. Other countries that changed their legislation in this time period of the end of World War II include Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, and Malta. In Romania, the final restriction on voting was abolished in 1946. The restriction had been that only men and women who could read and write could vote, something that affected women disproportionately.
Greece’s change to a nation state in the 1950s following the end of a civil war brought about many questions about society including women’s role in it. As a result, the ‘women question’ was at least partly resolved by a law in 1952 giving women the right to vote. This was also the year that Greece joined NATO.
Cyprus granted universal suffrage in 1960 after the country's liberation from Britain.
Women in Portugal first gained a limited right to vote in 1931, but it wasn’t until 1976 that women actually gained full voting rights on equal terms with men, following the end of the Estado Novo authoritarian political regime.
Which places were the last to allow women an equal vote?
In Europe, the last jurisdictions to grant women the right to vote were Liechtenstein in 1984 and the Swiss canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden in 1991. Switzerland granted full suffrage in 1971 but it didn’t apply in the Appenzell Innerrhoden region.
Women in Saudi Arabia were granted the right to vote in 2011 and voted for the first time in 2015. And while women in Brunei have the right to vote, the country hasn’t held an election since 1962 and so women have not been able to exercise this right.
There is only one country in the world in which women do not have the legal right to vote - Vatican City. That’s because the only elections that take place there are to elect a pope, and only Catholic Church cardinals, who must be male, have the right to vote.
Of course, there’s a difference between a legal right and practical reality. Even though universal suffrage exists, it doesn’t mean that everyone can always take up the opportunity to vote. Fears of harassment or violence, or the prospect of repercussions or rejection by family or society, or even practical limitations like the requirement to show official identification, prevent some people - a disproportionate amount of whom are women or part of disadvantaged communities - from making their votes count.
And so the fight goes on.