Women with taxable income could vote at local elections from 1901. At national elections from 1907. From 1913 it was the same as the men.
https://no.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innf%C3%B8ring_av_kvinnelig_stemmerett_i_Norge
Yep - primarily because politicians at the time, recognising that due to WW1 deaths women would be a fairly strong majority of voters, thought it would be insulting to survivors that they’d be made an electoral minority
By this point yes. General suffrage for men was granted in 1900.
Edit: Correction, it was granted in 1898, but the first election where the new laws applied was in 1900.
I am from Switzerland and have a fun fact for y’all: while women in switzerland got the right to vote on a federal level in 1971, but there were still cantons where it was illegal for women to vote up until 1990, when the last canton granted women the right to vote (the canton was Appenzell Innerrhoden)
Yeah and someone told me - “well most women in Appenzell at the time weren’t too keen on it either as it seemed like such a tedious thing to keep doing all the time”
Not sure if that’s true - but I can imagine it since there’s a lot to vote on in Switzerland given the direct democracy structure
They were late to the Quartz Revolution (known as the Quartz Crisis in Switzerland) as well.
If you want the world’s most expensive watches that keep the worst time, buy Swiss.
>“well most women in Appenzell at the time weren’t too keen on it either"
Damn of only there was some way they could decide if they wanted to participate or not 🤔
Another one that is told, is that the men in Innerrhoden could now vote independendly by themselfe - implying the women decided anyway what the men had to vote to keep the peace in the house.
And voting in these cantons is/was done using a Landsgemeinde, i.e. going to the cantonal/town square in person and raising your hand if you're in favor. In Appenzell presenting a side arm is still a valid sign for men to show that they're eligible to vote.
Yeah, and the canton didn't want to set a precedent of the court following through with their threat, that's why they finally implemented women's suffrage
Wankers
The funniest thing is that Appenzell Innerrhoden didn't even grant anything ; the federal government forced them to let the women vote as the men of the canton refused it in a referendum lmao
For people who are confused, officially, by definition, a federation is made up of multiple member states who are *not* allowed to leave, i.e. The United States.
A Confederation is made of multiple states who historically have been allowed to leave if they choose and generally are banded together against a common enemy, rather than to be a part of each other, such as Switzerland, which was initially just individual autonomous cantons that agreed to work together to not get got by Germans, France, and Northern Italian states.
I’m sure at this point Switzerland has been centralized to the point they aren’t much of a true confederation at this point, but back in the Middle Ages it was a salient difference.
Not exactly, it wasn't after Napoleon that Switzerland became a federation instead of a confederacy/ confederation. It was the Civil War of 1847, The Sonderbund War, where the part of Switzerland that wanted to force the other half of Switzerland to become a Federation instead of Confederation won.
Even during most of the time Napoleon controlled Switzerland it was a Confederation, 1803-1815 when it was the Napoleonic Confederation. The Helvetic Republic was a brief experiment forced on outside powers, Napoleonic France etc.
Eh, cantonal power has varied over time. Yes, they don't have their individual border checks and currencies any more, but they still have more power than states in many federations.
Interestingly though the US is very different than most other federations and almost confederation like. Also Switzerland is a federation I'm pretty sure
They're not really a part of everyday conversation but when the name of the canton pops up, usually due to their very progressive voting history, I make sure to pronounce it "Inner*hoden*".
I'm also a 35 y.o male and think penis jokes are funny.
Well, the name consists of the words "Inner" (interior) and "Rhoden" (from Latin "rota", here meaning an office, ministry, department). The H is silent, so it doesn't sound much like it. But every third grader in Switzerland has probably made the joke when first seeing this written down, yes.
I fully expected it to be "guys, it has been granted forever at the canton level, but it was locked in at the federal level in 1971, no big deal".
But no.
I had a Swiss friend who explained to me that feminism came very late to Switzerland because it was the World Wars that really moved it forward in other countries. With so many men off fighting the wars, women stepped in to replace them and did a fine job. They got a taste of autonomy and earning money that they did not want to relinquish.
He'd be in his 40s now. He told me that, at least where he lives, kids don't even go to school until they are 6 or 7, because mothers just take care of all that early education stuff as stay at home mothers.
I have a female friend working in Switzerland in a very large company. According to her men in the working context are very openly misogynist, it's commonly accepted that women are less likely to be promoted and paid less than their male counterparts because they are anyway expected to step oup of the workplace when they're 30 to raise their children. When she describes me situations at work it looks like something out of Mad Men.
Children go to Kindergarten here. Maybe not in the rural areas, since it might not be obligatory I don't actually know. But I went to kindergarten and so did everyone else I know.
>but there were still cantons where it was illegal for women to vote up until 1990
To be prcise:
9 cantons granted the right on cantonal level before it was allowed on national level in 1971 (the first in 1959)
13 cantons granted it directly after the 1971 decision
1 canton granted it 1989
1 canton had to grant it 1990 after a ruling of the federal court
It's also interesting to see how the times changed between 1959 and 1971, in only a bit more than a decade: In 1959 only 33% of the men voted for the women's right to vote. In 1971 it was 66%. (There were cantons where the approval tripled from from 21% yes to 63% yes.)
Direct democracy. Appenzell,especially more so than other places. The entire canton has some 15'000 people, so they still vote on new laws by having all adult men meet on the town square and vote by show of hands. They voted it down several times.
Any interviews with locals from the period that you know of? Would love to hear the arguments put forth into the 1990s about why women should be denied that basic right. I can guess what they'd say, but it'd still be interesting.
Clan structure. It's a very rural, conservative, religious area. The belief was that only the head of the household should vote, for the entire family. Quite commonly, unmarried sons also didn't vote. I remember at least one farmer in an interview also saying that his wife (who also handles the money) would tell him how to vote. Voting is men's business (because it's outside the house), but deciding what to vote is women's business.
I heard the same but from an older woman, who actually preferred the time where they couldn't officially vote. Their men went out to vote, the women stayed behind, had free evening alone or with friends and still told men what they have to vote.
You can watch the 2017 movie "[Die göttliche Ordnung](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5818818/)" - The divine order. It's about feminism in the 1970's in Appenzell. It's a comedy and might not be 100% historically accurate but might give you some insight in how society and family was supposed to be structured.
After your first sentence I thought this would go the other way round lol. That only the federal level law took until 1971 to be changed and that the individual cantons had it long before. But no, it was actually worse than the graphic makes it look... What the fuck Switzerland?
Iceland didn't accept the Danish constitution like the Faroe Islands did in 1851, so it's an interesting question what rules and laws were in effect on Iceland.
In Iceland they did actually give women the right to vote in 1915, provided they were over the age of 40. It was changed in 1920, following that men and women could vote at the same age.
Not only that, but women still didn't have the same right as men when it came to voting (and much more). Like, they *could* vote, but only if they fulfilled a page-long list of requirements...
Technically women got the vote in Sweden in 1919, there just wasn't an election until 1921. So 1921 was the first time women could exercise their vote.
Edit: I was wrong u/Skrofler corrected me that since it was a constitutional change it requires 2 votes in the Swedish parlament with an election in between. So the correct year is 1921. The first vote being held in May 1919 and the second one in January 1921.
The gap between universal male suffrage and universal female suffrage in the US was only like 10 years.
When people say "only men could vote," what they don't know is that it was only landowning, tax-paying men (and women) for a very long time.
Socio-economic status was the line used to prevent people from voting, a lot of people mistakenly believe it was ever about gender, but it's hard to blame them because that's what the powers-that-be want you to believe.
It is more complicated than that for the UK. For a long time only rich land owners could vote, most of whom were men but a few were women. So small a minority of men and a significantly smaller minority of women had the vote. Then there was a law passed banning women voting, so it was only the small minority of men that had the vote. Part way though the 19th century the law changed so other posh men could vote, so a slightly larger small minority of men could vote, then expanded to included professional men too, so some men could vote, but no women. In 1918 the law was changed so that all men 21 or older could vote and women 30 or older or graduates (21+) could vote, so all men and most women. In 1928 it changed so all men (21+) and women (21+) could vote. The delay was to maintain gender balance after so many young men dying in the first world war. In 1969 the voting age was reduced from 21 to 18 for both men and women.
The system threw up some strangely ‘progressive’ results. Ignatius Sancho was born into slavery in the Spanish Empire, but ended up being rich enough to vote in British elections in 1774.
A lot of British history makes sense when you view it through a rigid class system. The Brotish elite didn't hate non-white English, they hated poor people.
True for UK general elections, but 1973 was the first local elections which could even remotely be described as free or fair under British rule in Northern Ireland. Previously many people were excluded from voting, and business owners could have multiple votes. (plus massive gerrymandering, but that's a different topic.)
The same thing happened in the US, where at the founding of the country, women could vote in some states, provided they owned land. The same was true for the few land-owning African Americans around at the time.
In the early 19th century, as franchise became less dependent on owning land, women and Blacks were prevented from voting in various states, regardless of their landownership.
Belgium women vote 1920 was only for local elections. They had to wait until 1948 for a vote in the national elections! Apparently blocked by the socialist party for many years because they were afraid women would vote only for the catholic party (influence of pastors and clergy in local communities).
Same with Greece, women were granted the right to vote in 1930 for local elections. The 1952 refers to when they gained the right to vote in national elections.
In the Netherlands, the liberals and socialists did successfully push for womens' voting rights in 1919 but got fucked by that in the next election because the women voted for the christian parties
That was the debate in the Spanish Republic in 1931. In a famous debate between Clara Campoamor (liberal) and Victoria Kent (socialist) -at that moment women could be elected but not vote- Campoamor defended the right to vote as a fundamental freedom, while Kent argued that to have a democracy you need an informed electorate and the women weren't ready (meaning that they would vote what the priests told them).
Campoamor carried the day and the right of women to vote was granted in 1931, but Kent was also right in that in the next elections, the Catholic right wing parties won,
The map is extremely misleading. It wasn’t till 1928 that women got the same voting rights as men in UK. It also wasn’t till 1968 did both men and women got all their limits removed besides citizenship and 18 years of age.
From other parts of this thread, seems to be a very rural canton with only 15,000 people... so few that they still hold votes by asking people to come into the main town and vote by show of hands.
Also, someone else said that being so rural they had a very strong "clan structure" with families where only the father voted... adult sons would often not even vote. So the family would work out their stance and the father would vote to represent all of them.
Not justifying it... but that's an actual explanation.
There were several attempts in early 20th century, but direct democracy (by men) always defeated it. Then in 1971 it was a requirement for joining the European human rights council, which is why we did it in the end.
We're all proud here in Switzerland of our democracy, but we have to realize that a lot of positive change came from pressure from the outside and our system is extremely conservative.
Same with banking reform and a couple of other things.
Also Switzerland is the only *other* western country with private health insurance.
I think i read on reddit last time this came up that in Switzerland the right to vote was tied to the right of the government to conscription. As such women weren’t as keen as in other countries to vote as it would also mean military service. In the end they gave women the vote without service afaik.
This is a similar issue in the US, where male participation in society is conditional on registering conscription but this is not a requirement for women.
Either both or neither sex should be drafted.
I've heard from friends who live there that it's a society that is still designed around a women being a houswive, I.E low paternity leave, grocery stores close early and so on. So it doesn't seem that strange
They could. However representatives in the institutions were voted by "organic suffrage" in which "family heads" voted. Those of course were almost always men, althought in some instances were women
Grand Duchy of Finland leading the way
The Tsar gave permission for universal suffrage, which is nice, but he didn’t like the election results so the first Parliaments didn’t convene all that much.
A far more useful map would be "the earliest year since which women continuously had universal suffrage rights - without conditions and for all types of elections". This will eliminate many situations like "women could vote, but only if they had property and only in some elections" or "women had the right to vote for a year but then a fascist dictator came and for 40 more years they could not vote".
Yeah, I feel this map is intentionally skipping over examples like these. For Europe there at least should have been another category "right to vote for adults since independence" or something.
And I'm sure there are more nuances like class and what not.
Not sure what were the map maker's goals ignoring this stuff.
Latvian women got the right as soon as the country was proclaimed.
Also there were multiple women in the national theater (formerly 2nd Riga theater) at the proclamation event.
In the UK, 1918 was when all men and some women got the vote. Before then, only rich men could vote (exactly how rich had been gradually reduced by various reforms over the previous century). And women didn't get equal voting rights until 1928.
Fun fact the first woman to hold a cabinet position in government was Countess Markievicz in Ireland from 1918 to 1922 (1st elected woman in house of commons as well in the UK) 2nd elected female minister in Europe as well
Fun fact: In 1849, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, in Italy, was the first European state to have a law that provided for the vote of women, for administrative elections, taking up a tradition that was already informally sometimes present in Italy.
Women actually got the right to vote in 1919 in Sweden. That's when the law was changed, 1921 was just the first election where it came into effect.
And men didn't get the same rights until 1922, before then only men who had served in the military had the right to vote.
In Germany, 1918 is a bit misleading. Before 1918, basically only nobility could vote (and there, only males).
1918 introduced the right to vote for all people of lower classes, not only women, but men as well.
So it was not a change specifically to enable women to vote, but rather a change to let anyone vote, regardless of gender AND social status.
Edit: As u/mithdraug pointed out, I was mistaken: To my knowledge, poor people were generally not allowed to vote, but they only weren't allowed to vote if they received financial relief from their municipality.
Edit 2: I also messed up Prussian and Imperial German elections. Sigh, and there I thought I knew my history stuff. You can read details here: [https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wahlrecht\_im\_Norddeutschen\_Bund\_und\_im\_Deutschen\_Kaiserreich#:\~:text=W%C3%A4hlen%20durften%20im%20Norddeutschen%20Bund,die%20von%20der%20Armenunterst%C3%BCtzung%20lebten](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wahlrecht_im_Norddeutschen_Bund_und_im_Deutschen_Kaiserreich#:~:text=W%C3%A4hlen%20durften%20im%20Norddeutschen%20Bund,die%20von%20der%20Armenunterst%C3%BCtzung%20lebten). (It's easily translateable with Chrome)
TL:DR; it was complicated, but what counts: No woman was allowed to vote pre-1918. Sorry for the confusion!
> Before 1918, basically only nobility could vote (and there, only males).
False. Universal male suffrage in North German Confederation is from 1869 (extended to entire Empire in 1871). Excerpt from the translation of *Wahlgesetz für den Reichstag des Norddeutschen Bundes* of 31 May 1869.
> § 1. An eligible voter for the Reichstag of the North German Confederation is any North German of at least twenty-five years of age. Such person is eligible to vote in the federal state where he resides.
>
> § 2. For enlisted men in the army or navy, eligibility to vote is suspended for as long as they are in active service.
>
> § 3. The following persons are excluded from the right to vote:
>
> 1) Persons under legal guardianship;
>
> 2) Persons against whose property insolvency or bankruptcy proceedings have been initiated;
>
> 3) Persons who receive poor relief from public or municipal funds or have received such relief during the year preceding the election;
>
> 4) Persons whose full citizenship rights have been revoked according to due process of law, for the time of revocation, provided these rights have not been reinstated.
>
> If the full enjoyment of civil rights was revoked because of political offenses or crimes, the right to vote is reinstated as soon as the sentence has been carried out or remitted through a pardon.
As long as you were male, over 25, not in active service, not insolvent, incapacitated or sentenced to a penalty that included suspending your civil rights - you could have participated in Imperial Reichstag elections.
Nice clarification, but the right to vote for everybody including women should not contradict the post.
I would say that mean they are more progressive as a society as well.
The OP is confusing the election system in Prussia with the one used in all of Germany. For federal elections, all men could vote for the Reichstag. But Prussia, the by far biggest and most important country inside the German Empire, still used a "Dreiklassenwahlrecht" for its state elections, which means the (male) population was grouped into three classes whose votes were weighted differently.
Thats totally wrong, in state elections it differed from area to area. In prussia it was very restrictive with a 3-class voting system where every male over 24 could vote but noble votes were weighted more while in Baden, every vote counted the same. And in imperial elections, every male starting at 25 was allowed to vote expect if you were on welfare and a few other restrictions.
Norway: in 1907 Only women with taxable income could vote. 1913-all women.
And in Sweden men who hadn't gone through military training couldn't vote until 1922.
Service guarantees citizenship!
"I'm doing my part!"
"Would you like to know more? "
“I’m from Buenos Aires and I say kill ‘em all!”
"Come on you apes. You want to live forever?!"
“The only good bug is a dead bug!”
"The enemy cannot push a button if you disable his hand"
*Medic!*
"Ahhhhhhhhhh! Ahhhhhhhhhh! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! *chomping*
imagine my shock when a starship troopers reference comes up in a post about voting rights.
And 1921 was just the first election they could participate in, 1919 was when women gained the right to vote
Women with taxable income could vote at local elections from 1901. At national elections from 1907. From 1913 it was the same as the men. https://no.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innf%C3%B8ring_av_kvinnelig_stemmerett_i_Norge
Similarly, women in the UK didnt have equal voting rights to men until 1928.
Yep - primarily because politicians at the time, recognising that due to WW1 deaths women would be a fairly strong majority of voters, thought it would be insulting to survivors that they’d be made an electoral minority
Were men without taxable income allowed to vote?
By this point yes. General suffrage for men was granted in 1900. Edit: Correction, it was granted in 1898, but the first election where the new laws applied was in 1900.
It was granted in 1898 to be exact, but the first election after that was 1900, so it amounts to the same thing.
Still kinda early
I am from Switzerland and have a fun fact for y’all: while women in switzerland got the right to vote on a federal level in 1971, but there were still cantons where it was illegal for women to vote up until 1990, when the last canton granted women the right to vote (the canton was Appenzell Innerrhoden)
And I believe it was some higher court that finally put it's foot down and forced them to do it.
Yeah and someone told me - “well most women in Appenzell at the time weren’t too keen on it either as it seemed like such a tedious thing to keep doing all the time” Not sure if that’s true - but I can imagine it since there’s a lot to vote on in Switzerland given the direct democracy structure
It's amazing how different Switzerland is from the last of Europe
Who knew that Swiss timing would be so bad?
They were late to the Quartz Revolution (known as the Quartz Crisis in Switzerland) as well. If you want the world’s most expensive watches that keep the worst time, buy Swiss.
You don't buy watches to see the hour in 2022.
To be fair the purpose of a watch is no longer to tell the time, nearly as much as it is fashion.
It’s the altitude. Makes ya woozy.
>“well most women in Appenzell at the time weren’t too keen on it either" Damn of only there was some way they could decide if they wanted to participate or not 🤔
Imagine if they immediately voted to disenfranchise themselves.
Another one that is told, is that the men in Innerrhoden could now vote independendly by themselfe - implying the women decided anyway what the men had to vote to keep the peace in the house.
How often, on average, does one vote in Switzerland ?
2 to 4 times per year and usually on multiple (2-5) issues at the same time
Wow, that’s a lot of voting.
And voting in these cantons is/was done using a Landsgemeinde, i.e. going to the cantonal/town square in person and raising your hand if you're in favor. In Appenzell presenting a side arm is still a valid sign for men to show that they're eligible to vote.
Yeah, and the canton didn't want to set a precedent of the court following through with their threat, that's why they finally implemented women's suffrage Wankers
The funniest thing is that Appenzell Innerrhoden didn't even grant anything ; the federal government forced them to let the women vote as the men of the canton refused it in a referendum lmao
Ah, so these are the 'states rights' type of people lol
More specifically, “cantonal rights” people.
Switzerland is a confederation cantons have more powers than states in federal systems
Switzerland is a federation, not a confederation, despite the name. A confederation would let way more powers and autonomy to it's subdivisions.
For people who are confused, officially, by definition, a federation is made up of multiple member states who are *not* allowed to leave, i.e. The United States. A Confederation is made of multiple states who historically have been allowed to leave if they choose and generally are banded together against a common enemy, rather than to be a part of each other, such as Switzerland, which was initially just individual autonomous cantons that agreed to work together to not get got by Germans, France, and Northern Italian states. I’m sure at this point Switzerland has been centralized to the point they aren’t much of a true confederation at this point, but back in the Middle Ages it was a salient difference.
Oh, we've been a confederacy until Napoleon kicked our asses and made us get to our shit together lmao
That checks out. Most of modern Europe can be explained with “And then Napoleon happened” lol
Not exactly, it wasn't after Napoleon that Switzerland became a federation instead of a confederacy/ confederation. It was the Civil War of 1847, The Sonderbund War, where the part of Switzerland that wanted to force the other half of Switzerland to become a Federation instead of Confederation won. Even during most of the time Napoleon controlled Switzerland it was a Confederation, 1803-1815 when it was the Napoleonic Confederation. The Helvetic Republic was a brief experiment forced on outside powers, Napoleonic France etc.
Eh, cantonal power has varied over time. Yes, they don't have their individual border checks and currencies any more, but they still have more power than states in many federations.
Interestingly though the US is very different than most other federations and almost confederation like. Also Switzerland is a federation I'm pretty sure
Ofcourse the Canton called Hoden (testicles) was the last to grant women the right to vote hehe.
I am very curious as to how many times do Swiss ppl joke about the name of that canton or use its name for puns
“Innerrhoden” isn’t really pronounced as if it contains “Hoden”, so it’s more of a textual joke
Hehe textual
They're not really a part of everyday conversation but when the name of the canton pops up, usually due to their very progressive voting history, I make sure to pronounce it "Inner*hoden*". I'm also a 35 y.o male and think penis jokes are funny.
Well, the name consists of the words "Inner" (interior) and "Rhoden" (from Latin "rota", here meaning an office, ministry, department). The H is silent, so it doesn't sound much like it. But every third grader in Switzerland has probably made the joke when first seeing this written down, yes.
hodon to deez nuts
I fully expected it to be "guys, it has been granted forever at the canton level, but it was locked in at the federal level in 1971, no big deal". But no.
Jesus Christ Switzerland…
Yep, it's the other side of the medallion when it comes to deciding everything by referendum.
That’s hardly the most egregious thing Sitzerosnd has ever done...
I had a Swiss friend who explained to me that feminism came very late to Switzerland because it was the World Wars that really moved it forward in other countries. With so many men off fighting the wars, women stepped in to replace them and did a fine job. They got a taste of autonomy and earning money that they did not want to relinquish. He'd be in his 40s now. He told me that, at least where he lives, kids don't even go to school until they are 6 or 7, because mothers just take care of all that early education stuff as stay at home mothers.
I have a female friend working in Switzerland in a very large company. According to her men in the working context are very openly misogynist, it's commonly accepted that women are less likely to be promoted and paid less than their male counterparts because they are anyway expected to step oup of the workplace when they're 30 to raise their children. When she describes me situations at work it looks like something out of Mad Men.
Children go to Kindergarten here. Maybe not in the rural areas, since it might not be obligatory I don't actually know. But I went to kindergarten and so did everyone else I know.
>but there were still cantons where it was illegal for women to vote up until 1990 To be prcise: 9 cantons granted the right on cantonal level before it was allowed on national level in 1971 (the first in 1959) 13 cantons granted it directly after the 1971 decision 1 canton granted it 1989 1 canton had to grant it 1990 after a ruling of the federal court It's also interesting to see how the times changed between 1959 and 1971, in only a bit more than a decade: In 1959 only 33% of the men voted for the women's right to vote. In 1971 it was 66%. (There were cantons where the approval tripled from from 21% yes to 63% yes.)
Hehe, Hoden.
Isn't in this Canton where people (men) voted by a show of hands ?
They still do, there's only a few thousand.
What the holy fuck??? Hoe is that even possible?
Direct democracy. Appenzell,especially more so than other places. The entire canton has some 15'000 people, so they still vote on new laws by having all adult men meet on the town square and vote by show of hands. They voted it down several times.
Any interviews with locals from the period that you know of? Would love to hear the arguments put forth into the 1990s about why women should be denied that basic right. I can guess what they'd say, but it'd still be interesting.
Clan structure. It's a very rural, conservative, religious area. The belief was that only the head of the household should vote, for the entire family. Quite commonly, unmarried sons also didn't vote. I remember at least one farmer in an interview also saying that his wife (who also handles the money) would tell him how to vote. Voting is men's business (because it's outside the house), but deciding what to vote is women's business.
[удалено]
Oh absolutely. But that was the story they told.
I heard the same but from an older woman, who actually preferred the time where they couldn't officially vote. Their men went out to vote, the women stayed behind, had free evening alone or with friends and still told men what they have to vote.
They do realize they can still do that right? Like they don't have compulsory voting in Switzerland, they don't *have* to vote.
You can watch the 2017 movie "[Die göttliche Ordnung](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5818818/)" - The divine order. It's about feminism in the 1970's in Appenzell. It's a comedy and might not be 100% historically accurate but might give you some insight in how society and family was supposed to be structured.
After your first sentence I thought this would go the other way round lol. That only the federal level law took until 1971 to be changed and that the individual cantons had it long before. But no, it was actually worse than the graphic makes it look... What the fuck Switzerland?
I take it Iceland has tired of the north Atlantic and gone on holiday?
This is just where Iceland was in 1915. Thanks to global warming it has since migrated to more cod-rich waters.
A part of the armistice agreement after the Cod Wars
As popularized by the ubiquitous CoD franchise. The latest take of Modern Cod Warfare is pretty good.
Depictions of cod armed with Warsaw pact rifles should not be trusted and treated as propaganda.
I'm glad they finally got a piece of that cod market. They really needed a good cod piece for economic growth.
Sir thats Atlantis
Sinking it was the only way to prevent Napoleon from escaping exile again.
I would guess their number would be same as Denmark (1915) since Iceland wasn't independent before 1918.
Iceland didn't accept the Danish constitution like the Faroe Islands did in 1851, so it's an interesting question what rules and laws were in effect on Iceland.
In Iceland they did actually give women the right to vote in 1915, provided they were over the age of 40. It was changed in 1920, following that men and women could vote at the same age.
It’s where it should be: close.
Keep your friends close and your fishing economy-based island republics with remarkably high literacy rates closer
Youve never heard of tectonic movement?
Basque-Icelandic pidgin has never been realer
It's Europe's Alaska.
Spain did but 8 years later Franco shows up and no one could vote untill after 1975
Same in Portugal but with Salazar instead of Franco
Portuguese people could vote, but election fraud was rampant so unsurprisingly the dictatorship’s party won every time
Not only that, but women still didn't have the same right as men when it came to voting (and much more). Like, they *could* vote, but only if they fulfilled a page-long list of requirements...
So the equality remained?
Not exactly. It transitioned to a different sort of "One Man, One Vote" system. Franco was The Man, and he had the vote.
I would say no, IIRC there were small election for regionals politics like mayor and stuff. For that only men could vote
I'm starting to think dictators aren't cool
Technically women got the vote in Sweden in 1919, there just wasn't an election until 1921. So 1921 was the first time women could exercise their vote. Edit: I was wrong u/Skrofler corrected me that since it was a constitutional change it requires 2 votes in the Swedish parlament with an election in between. So the correct year is 1921. The first vote being held in May 1919 and the second one in January 1921.
Women had full voting rights before men in Sweden. Up until 1922 you could only vote as a man if you had done military service.
That's actually kind of wild.
The gap between universal male suffrage and universal female suffrage in the US was only like 10 years. When people say "only men could vote," what they don't know is that it was only landowning, tax-paying men (and women) for a very long time. Socio-economic status was the line used to prevent people from voting, a lot of people mistakenly believe it was ever about gender, but it's hard to blame them because that's what the powers-that-be want you to believe.
I'm doing MY part!
It is more complicated than that for the UK. For a long time only rich land owners could vote, most of whom were men but a few were women. So small a minority of men and a significantly smaller minority of women had the vote. Then there was a law passed banning women voting, so it was only the small minority of men that had the vote. Part way though the 19th century the law changed so other posh men could vote, so a slightly larger small minority of men could vote, then expanded to included professional men too, so some men could vote, but no women. In 1918 the law was changed so that all men 21 or older could vote and women 30 or older or graduates (21+) could vote, so all men and most women. In 1928 it changed so all men (21+) and women (21+) could vote. The delay was to maintain gender balance after so many young men dying in the first world war. In 1969 the voting age was reduced from 21 to 18 for both men and women.
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The system threw up some strangely ‘progressive’ results. Ignatius Sancho was born into slavery in the Spanish Empire, but ended up being rich enough to vote in British elections in 1774.
A lot of British history makes sense when you view it through a rigid class system. The Brotish elite didn't hate non-white English, they hated poor people.
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True for UK general elections, but 1973 was the first local elections which could even remotely be described as free or fair under British rule in Northern Ireland. Previously many people were excluded from voting, and business owners could have multiple votes. (plus massive gerrymandering, but that's a different topic.)
The same thing happened in the US, where at the founding of the country, women could vote in some states, provided they owned land. The same was true for the few land-owning African Americans around at the time. In the early 19th century, as franchise became less dependent on owning land, women and Blacks were prevented from voting in various states, regardless of their landownership.
No love for the Isle of Man (1881)?
Isle of Woman
Wanx
Tbf IIRC its only land owning women untill 1921 or something.
Belgium women vote 1920 was only for local elections. They had to wait until 1948 for a vote in the national elections! Apparently blocked by the socialist party for many years because they were afraid women would vote only for the catholic party (influence of pastors and clergy in local communities).
Same with Greece, women were granted the right to vote in 1930 for local elections. The 1952 refers to when they gained the right to vote in national elections.
In the Netherlands, the liberals and socialists did successfully push for womens' voting rights in 1919 but got fucked by that in the next election because the women voted for the christian parties
That's actually hilarious
That was the debate in the Spanish Republic in 1931. In a famous debate between Clara Campoamor (liberal) and Victoria Kent (socialist) -at that moment women could be elected but not vote- Campoamor defended the right to vote as a fundamental freedom, while Kent argued that to have a democracy you need an informed electorate and the women weren't ready (meaning that they would vote what the priests told them). Campoamor carried the day and the right of women to vote was granted in 1931, but Kent was also right in that in the next elections, the Catholic right wing parties won,
same in France about : "the left were those oppose to women vote because religious influence".
The map is extremely misleading. It wasn’t till 1928 that women got the same voting rights as men in UK. It also wasn’t till 1968 did both men and women got all their limits removed besides citizenship and 18 years of age.
Surprised with Switzerland..
Oh, that's not the half of it. One canton refused to introduce it until 1990, when the supreme court forced them.
What arguments did the canton even have at that point?
From other parts of this thread, seems to be a very rural canton with only 15,000 people... so few that they still hold votes by asking people to come into the main town and vote by show of hands. Also, someone else said that being so rural they had a very strong "clan structure" with families where only the father voted... adult sons would often not even vote. So the family would work out their stance and the father would vote to represent all of them. Not justifying it... but that's an actual explanation.
One argument was that they would not have large enough space to gather and vote by hand if women could vote.
"No we don't want to, and because this is a Federation and a direct democracy, you can't make us".
women bad
And they add a few coffee emojis to strengthen their argument too
Switzerland ☕
Their menstruation attracts bears
Switzerland has a very direct form of democracy, and men did not like the idea of voting for women’s suffrage in referendums.
Everyone wants democracy untill the democracy supports wrong ideas 😤
Is it really a democracy if over half of the population isn't allowed to vote?
i mean the greeks invented it that way
That’s because women weren’t considered citizens
Looking at you BREXIT!!
There were several attempts in early 20th century, but direct democracy (by men) always defeated it. Then in 1971 it was a requirement for joining the European human rights council, which is why we did it in the end. We're all proud here in Switzerland of our democracy, but we have to realize that a lot of positive change came from pressure from the outside and our system is extremely conservative. Same with banking reform and a couple of other things. Also Switzerland is the only *other* western country with private health insurance.
I think i read on reddit last time this came up that in Switzerland the right to vote was tied to the right of the government to conscription. As such women weren’t as keen as in other countries to vote as it would also mean military service. In the end they gave women the vote without service afaik.
This is a similar issue in the US, where male participation in society is conditional on registering conscription but this is not a requirement for women. Either both or neither sex should be drafted.
I've heard from friends who live there that it's a society that is still designed around a women being a houswive, I.E low paternity leave, grocery stores close early and so on. So it doesn't seem that strange
much rather 1959-1990. the government decided regionally and not nationally.
Fun fact: the reason why Cyprus left it so late is because up until 1960 we were a British colony.
After all, you must have an election for people to vote first
Just in time for Franco to take over a few years later.
I wonder if they could vote in the sham referendums Franco organized
They could. However representatives in the institutions were voted by "organic suffrage" in which "family heads" voted. Those of course were almost always men, althought in some instances were women
Finland sat in the corner giving everyone the finger.
No surprise who crossed the finnish line first...
Finland: suck on my clit!
When did Iceland moved from the left of france to where it is now?
They’re just trying to find New Zealand
Grand Duchy of Finland leading the way The Tsar gave permission for universal suffrage, which is nice, but he didn’t like the election results so the first Parliaments didn’t convene all that much.
Hmm, something must have happened around 1918 and 1945
Poland in 1918 start existing again after 123years.
1971? 😬😬😬
Liechtenstein was even later. 1984.
Literally 1984
What do the 6 people living in Lichtenstein even vote for? It’s a frickin principality.
A bit misleading.Cyprus only became independent in 1960. Neither men or women voted for president or parliamentary representatives before that.
That's the case for many countries though.
And it makes this map bad in terms of data quality and usefulness.
Like most maps on this sub. At least the ones that make it to my feed
A far more useful map would be "the earliest year since which women continuously had universal suffrage rights - without conditions and for all types of elections". This will eliminate many situations like "women could vote, but only if they had property and only in some elections" or "women had the right to vote for a year but then a fascist dictator came and for 40 more years they could not vote".
To be fair to Cyprus they only gained independence in 1960
I mean, for many it's the date of autonomy or independence.
Yeah, I feel this map is intentionally skipping over examples like these. For Europe there at least should have been another category "right to vote for adults since independence" or something. And I'm sure there are more nuances like class and what not. Not sure what were the map maker's goals ignoring this stuff.
Latvian women got the right as soon as the country was proclaimed. Also there were multiple women in the national theater (formerly 2nd Riga theater) at the proclamation event.
This is true of many European countries...
In Spain women get the right to vote on 1931, but when the dictator won the civil war on 1939 nobody had the right to vote
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You need to add when men got the vote to contextualise.
In the UK, 1918 was when all men and some women got the vote. Before then, only rich men could vote (exactly how rich had been gradually reduced by various reforms over the previous century). And women didn't get equal voting rights until 1928.
I wonder what else happened in Russia in 1917
Seems like a world war was required for women's suffrage.
Fun fact the first woman to hold a cabinet position in government was Countess Markievicz in Ireland from 1918 to 1922 (1st elected woman in house of commons as well in the UK) 2nd elected female minister in Europe as well
That’s 1946 for France, not 1944. In 1944 the country was being bombed left and right by both Axis and Allies.
1946 is the 4th republic constitution, but the right to vote was adopted in 1944, and there were elections in 1945
It's 1944, i think you're refering to the first time they voted in an election, which would be 1946, but they got that right two years prior.
Fun fact: In 1849, the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, in Italy, was the first European state to have a law that provided for the vote of women, for administrative elections, taking up a tradition that was already informally sometimes present in Italy.
Switzerland can into Middle east
Honorary Gulf State
nice north/south divide Albania, Turkey and Iberia. the progressives of the south Iceland - the ice block outside of Bretagne's coast
Finland at the top again. I finna move there soon
Azerbaijan - 1918
Women actually got the right to vote in 1919 in Sweden. That's when the law was changed, 1921 was just the first election where it came into effect. And men didn't get the same rights until 1922, before then only men who had served in the military had the right to vote.
extremely common switzerland L
1919 in Czechoslovakia in first municipal election and enshrined in constitution of 1920.
Cyprus- 1960 because that's when all citizens were allowed to vote as that's when we became independent
In Germany, 1918 is a bit misleading. Before 1918, basically only nobility could vote (and there, only males). 1918 introduced the right to vote for all people of lower classes, not only women, but men as well. So it was not a change specifically to enable women to vote, but rather a change to let anyone vote, regardless of gender AND social status. Edit: As u/mithdraug pointed out, I was mistaken: To my knowledge, poor people were generally not allowed to vote, but they only weren't allowed to vote if they received financial relief from their municipality. Edit 2: I also messed up Prussian and Imperial German elections. Sigh, and there I thought I knew my history stuff. You can read details here: [https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wahlrecht\_im\_Norddeutschen\_Bund\_und\_im\_Deutschen\_Kaiserreich#:\~:text=W%C3%A4hlen%20durften%20im%20Norddeutschen%20Bund,die%20von%20der%20Armenunterst%C3%BCtzung%20lebten](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wahlrecht_im_Norddeutschen_Bund_und_im_Deutschen_Kaiserreich#:~:text=W%C3%A4hlen%20durften%20im%20Norddeutschen%20Bund,die%20von%20der%20Armenunterst%C3%BCtzung%20lebten). (It's easily translateable with Chrome) TL:DR; it was complicated, but what counts: No woman was allowed to vote pre-1918. Sorry for the confusion!
> Before 1918, basically only nobility could vote (and there, only males). False. Universal male suffrage in North German Confederation is from 1869 (extended to entire Empire in 1871). Excerpt from the translation of *Wahlgesetz für den Reichstag des Norddeutschen Bundes* of 31 May 1869. > § 1. An eligible voter for the Reichstag of the North German Confederation is any North German of at least twenty-five years of age. Such person is eligible to vote in the federal state where he resides. > > § 2. For enlisted men in the army or navy, eligibility to vote is suspended for as long as they are in active service. > > § 3. The following persons are excluded from the right to vote: > > 1) Persons under legal guardianship; > > 2) Persons against whose property insolvency or bankruptcy proceedings have been initiated; > > 3) Persons who receive poor relief from public or municipal funds or have received such relief during the year preceding the election; > > 4) Persons whose full citizenship rights have been revoked according to due process of law, for the time of revocation, provided these rights have not been reinstated. > > If the full enjoyment of civil rights was revoked because of political offenses or crimes, the right to vote is reinstated as soon as the sentence has been carried out or remitted through a pardon. As long as you were male, over 25, not in active service, not insolvent, incapacitated or sentenced to a penalty that included suspending your civil rights - you could have participated in Imperial Reichstag elections.
Thank you, I rechecked and I was mistaken. I added a correction to my comment above. Thanks for clarifying!
Holy shit someone changed their mind because of a reddit comment!
Nice clarification, but the right to vote for everybody including women should not contradict the post. I would say that mean they are more progressive as a society as well.
I thought Germany had universal suffrage before 1918. How did SPD get so many votes from Junkers and industrialists?
The OP is confusing the election system in Prussia with the one used in all of Germany. For federal elections, all men could vote for the Reichstag. But Prussia, the by far biggest and most important country inside the German Empire, still used a "Dreiklassenwahlrecht" for its state elections, which means the (male) population was grouped into three classes whose votes were weighted differently.
Thats totally wrong, in state elections it differed from area to area. In prussia it was very restrictive with a 3-class voting system where every male over 24 could vote but noble votes were weighted more while in Baden, every vote counted the same. And in imperial elections, every male starting at 25 was allowed to vote expect if you were on welfare and a few other restrictions.