Timeline of Women’s Suffrage Granted, by Country

Learn the year in which women's suffrage was granted, organized by year. New Zealand was the first country to allow women to vote (in 1893), while the United Arab Emirates is the most recent addition to this list, adding women's suffrage in 2006. The United States finally began allowing women to vote in 1920, after the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. In 2011 King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia granted women the right to vote. Prior to his, decree Saudi Arabia was the only country in the world that did not allow its women to vote.

1893 New Zealand
1902 Australia¹
1906 Finland
1913 Norway
1915 Denmark
1917 Canada²
1918 Austria, Germany, Poland, Russia
1919 Netherlands
1920 United States
1921 Sweden
1928 Britain, Ireland
1931 Spain
1934 Turkey
1944 France
1945 Italy
1947 Argentina, Japan, Mexico, Pakistan
1949 China
1950 India
1954 Colombia
1957 Malaysia, Zimbabwe
1962 Algeria
1963 Iran, Morocco
1964 Libya
1967 Ecuador
1971 Switzerland
1972 Bangladesh
1974 Jordan
1976 Portugal
1989 Namibia
1990 Western Samoa
1993 Kazakhstan, Moldova
1994 South Africa
2005 Kuwait
2006 United Arab Emirates
2011 Saudi Arabia³

NOTE: One country does not allow their people, male or female, to vote: Brunei.

1. Australian women, with the exception of aboriginal women, won the vote in 1902. Aborigines, male and female, did not have the right to vote until 1962.

2. Canadian women, with the exception of Canadian Indian women, won the vote in 1917. Canadian Indians, male and female, did not win the vote until 1960. Source: The New York Times, May 22, 2005.

3. Women in Saudi Arabia will not be eligible to vote until 2015.

20 Leading Occupations of Employed Women, U.S.

Gender Issues

Facts About Women in the House and the Senate