New Zealand was the first country in the world to grant women the vote. Kate Sheppard, leading light of the suffrage movement, was vindicated when 65% of New Zealand women took the chance to vote in their first general election.
Kate Sheppard
Personal details
Full Name:
Katherine Wilson Sheppard
Lifetime:
10 Mar 1847 – 13 Jul 1934
Biography
Events In History
19 September 1893
When the governor, Lord Glasgow, signed a new Electoral Act into law, New Zealand became the first self-governing country in the world in which women had the right to vote in parliamentary elections.
Main image: Suffrage petition, 1893
This is the first sheet of the Canterbury section of the huge 1893 suffrage petition, which was signed by more than 25,000 women.
