Feminism

Women and Politics: The Legacy of the 20th Century

In 1906, Finland became the first country in the world to give women the right to vote and to stand for election. One year later, 19 women were sent to the Finnish parliament. This is a momentous landmark in the story of women's participation in public affairs since it was the first time in history when involvement in democratic politics became a right for all women and not the privilege of some. In addition, this also represents a first milestone in a century of unprecedented activism on gender equality.

The right to vote and be elected to parliament was an agenda around which the first great wave of women's mobilization rallied—a movement that soon became a global one as it spread rapidly, with mass demonstrations, rallies, and marches. Winning the vote created a demand for women to become political party activists, speakers at public meetings, and candidates, though their latter role was largely tokenist at the time. It realized, in some measure, the dreams of 18th- and 19th-century feminist political philosophers and women's rights advocates such as Olympe de Gouge, Mary Woolstonecraft, and Harriet Taylor Mill. However, not all countries accorded women the right to vote at the turn of the 20th century as in many of them, women did not have access to this political right until well into the middle of the century. Thus, Spain accorded women voting rights in 1931, France in 1944, and Italy in 1946. Indonesian women won the vote in 1945, while Peruvian women followed a decade later in 1955. Switzerland finally extended the franchise to women in 1971, while the Kuwaiti parliament passed a law enfranchising women in 2005.

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