Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Western Australia granted women the right to vote from 1899, although with racial restrictions. In 1902, the newly established Australian Parliament passed the Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902, which gave women equal voting rights to men and the right to stand for federal parliament (although excluding almost all non-white people of both sexes). [2]
Suffrage in Australia is the voting rights in the Commonwealth of Australia, its six component states (before 1901 called colonies) and territories, and local governments. The colonies of Australia began to grant universal male suffrage from 1856, with women's suffrage on equal terms following between the 1890s and 1900s.
Australia was the second country in the world to give women the right to vote (after New Zealand in 1893) and the first to give women the right to be elected to a national parliament. [1] The Australian state of South Australia , then a British colony, was the first parliament in the world to grant some women full suffrage rights. [ 2 ]
The Liberal–National government's Second Morrison Ministry reached an historic high of seven women in Cabinet, including Foreign Minister Marise Payne, who previously served as Australia's first female Defence Minister, and became the longest-serving female senator in Australian history, as well as the longest current serving female member of ...
Daniels, Kay, ed. Australia's women, a documentary history: from a selection of personal letters, diary entries, pamphlets, official records, government and police reports, speeches, and radio talks (2nd ed. U of Queensland Press, 1989) 335pp. The first edition was entitled Uphill all the way : a documentary history of women in Australia (1980).
The Act was the first legislation in the world to grant the right for women to be elected to a parliament, [11] and made the colony the fourth place in the world to give women the vote after the Isle of Man (1880), New Zealand (1893) and Colorado (1893). [12] [13] The Act enfranchised female citizens of South Australia, including indigenous women.
The Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902 (Cth) was an Act of the Parliament of Australia which set out who was entitled to vote in Australian federal elections.The Act established, in time for the 1903 Australian federal election, suffrage for federal elections for those who were British subjects over 21 years of age who had lived in Australia for six months.
The history of women's rights in Australia is a contradictory one: while Australia led the world in women's suffrage rights in the 19th century, it has been very slow in recognizing women's professional rights – it was not until 1966 that its marriage bar was removed. [140]