When Women Received the Full Vote in Every Country: Interactive Timeline

2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, where women were giving full voting rights in the United States. In commemoration of this momentous year in history, this interactive timeline shows the year in which each country gave the vote to women. The data refers to women from that country being able to vote on a national level.

Choose a country from the drop down menu, or click on a year on the graph to see which countries granted the full vote that year.

The graph includes countries that no longer exist or merged i.e North and South Yemen.

The only countries where women still cannot vote fully are Vatican City and the United Arab Emirates.

It must also be noted that although women have full voting rights in the majority of countries, they still struggle to vote in a number of countries due to stigmas surrounding women's rights or due to one-party states.

The graphic below shows the top 12 countries with the greatest disparity in time between women initially being given limited voting rights to when they were given full enfranchisement. This highlights the fact that despite women being initially granted the vote, the right to vote was often dependant on their wealth, or race, for a long time.

Australia (68 years): Though Australia was technically the second country to award women the vote after New Zealand in 1894, this was restricted to colonials; aboriginal peoples were not allowed to vote until 1962.

South Africa (63 years): Voting was limited to white women on the same basis as white men. Coloured people were not given voting rights until 1984, while Africans had to wait until the fall of Apartheid in 1994.

Afghanistan (45 years): After gaining independence from Britain, women had limited enfranchisement until 1929, but when the country adopted Sharia law, they could no longer vote at all.

Portugal (45 years): The restrictions on voting were based on a woman's level of education, and were lifted after the revolution in 1974.

Kenya (44 years): In 1919 European women living in Kenya were given the right to vote. In 1956 these rights were extended to African men and women with a certain level of education or property ownership. In 1963 everyone could vote regardless of race.

Canada (42 years): Voting rights were limited to women over 21, "not alien-born", and who met provincially determined property qualifications. By 1920 Canadian women (excluding aboriginal) could vote. In 1960 First Nation people were granted the right to vote.

Nigeria (26 years): In 1950, women in the south were partially enfranchised, whereas women in the north (who were predominantly Muslim) weren't allowed to vote at all until the country gave full enfranchisement in 1976.

Bermuda (24 years): Voting rights were limited to property holding women.

Guatemala (19 years): Only literate women were granted voting rights.

United Arab Emirates (12 years): Still limited suffrage for women and men, the rulers of the seven Emirates each select a proportion of voters for the Federal National Council (FNC) that together account for about 12% of Emirati citizens.

El Salvador (11 years): Voting rights were restricted in regards to literacy level.

United Kingdom (10 years): Voting rights were limited to women over 30, compared to 21 for men and 19 for those who had fought in World War One. Additionally, various property restrictions remained in place (see The Representation of the People Act 1918).

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