What was the first country where women obtained the right to vote?
Critical Analysis
Find answers to the following questions using the visual above, any links below, your big brain, and your knowledge of American government and politics:
What was the first country where women obtained the right to vote?
Many countries have been slow to give women equal voting rights. Notable slowpokes include the UAE (2006), Bahrain (2002), Oman (1997), Qatar (1997) and Samoa (1990). But none of those was the last! What is the most recent country where women obtained the right to vote?
When did all women in the United States obtain the right to vote?
How many years late to equal voting rights was the United States?
What reasonable conclusion can you draw about latitude and timing of the right to vote.
Ironically, the Isle of Man gave women who owned property the right to vote in 1881 making it one of the first jurisdictions in the world to do so. Why don’t they rename it the Isle of Woman?
Women still don’t have the right to vote in the Vatican, but then again neither can men. The Pope is elected by the by the College of Cardinals, who can only be men, which means that the Vatican City is the only country remaining with no voting or electoral rights for women. Do you think that eventually women will obtain the right to vote in Vatican City?
Contrary to popular opinion, the 19th Amendment did not give women the right to vote - it guaranteed women the right to vote. By the time the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920, women in many states and territories already had the right to vote. The following states granted women the right to vote prior to the 19th Amendment: 1890 Wyoming; 1893 Colorado; 1896 Utah; 1914 Montana: 1917 New York, and others. Explain the difference between giving and guaranteeing voting rights.
According to Virginia Scharff, distinguished professor emeritus at the University of New Mexico and senior scholar at the Autry Museum of the American West, Wyoming was just a territory when it started letting women vote in 1869, which led to a cascade of other Western territories and states allowing the same. Territories like Wyoming wanted more white settlers. More white settlers would allow territories to become states. Western states figured they could bring more white women out by allowing them to vote. According to Scharff, “Long story short, if they could get white women out here, white men would be more likely to settle down, and unsettle the Native People who live there. Really the bottom line is colonialism and white supremacy kind of combined to create ideal conditions under which this women’s suffrage law could pass.” Make a claim explaining why Australia and New Zealand (both British colonies at the time) were so early in granting women suffrage?
How do you imagine that women having the right to vote changed the politics of those first nations to grant female suffrage?
Write and Discuss
Take ten minutes to write about the question at the top of the page and then discuss with your classmates.
Act on your Learning
Take advantage of your right. Register to vote online (it only takes five minutes). If you’re not old enough to register, share this link with an unregistered person who is 18.
Get Creative
Make a timeline of ten highlights in the march towards voting equality. Share information about each of the ten milestones and illustrate it with images.
