kittyinva asked: Thank you for your in-depth reply, it was much appreciated. AND thank you for reminding me that we American ladies got the vote on this day. I'm going to go tell my daughter! Did you notice- and I bet you did! - that the lady in the picture attending a votes for women rally, is powdering her nose? Men are such asses some times! Just like calling Suffragists "Suffragettes", which to my dismay has become common usage. BTW, when did women get the right to vote in Australia? Kathie
Hi Kathie :) I’ve just heard that “Suffragettes” has apparently become the new derogatory term of choice for the far right fringe in the US for women whose opinions they wish to deride! I must admit to having the bad habit of lapsing into “Suffragettes”, possibly because I spend too much time reading material from the period (particularly c.1912). I still wince at all those dreadful Edwardian “humour” cards mocking the women who campaigned for the vote…I think there was an exhibition recently featuring the pro- and anti- depictions.
Women achieved the vote at different times in different Australian colonies/states. Each Australian state has its own parliament, and some granted women the right to vote when they were still colonies. In South Australia women first acehived the vote in state elections in 1894 - an extension of the right for property holding women to vote in local elections that they’d held since 1861. Women were also able to stand for state parliament, the first country in the world to allow them to do so. In Western Australia the right to vote came in 1899 and the right to stand for parliament in 1900, after federation (nationhood) in 1901 women achieved the right to vote in Commonwealth (national) elections or to stand for the Federal parliament in 1902, in my state of New South Wales the right to vote came in 1902 although the right to stand for parliament didn’t follow until 1918, in Tasmania it was 1903 (standing for parliament in 1921), Queensland in 1905 (standing for parliament 1915) and Victoria in 1908 (right to stand for parliament in 1923).
New Zealand granted women voting rights in 1893, although Sweden had allowed a form of female sufferage in the 18th century for a period.
