The term “Women’s Suffrage” means giving the right to women to vote as well as run for office. Finland was the first country to grant full suffrage to women, which was in 1906, though New Zealand allowed all of its citizens to vote in 1893 (it took till 1939 for women to be able to run for New Zealand legislature).

The roots of women’s suffrage originally began back in 18th century France. According to a survey conducted using online survey software, women having the ability to vote was very limited previously. Typically on the head of the household was allowed to vote (probably with the idea that he voted for what was best for his family). Some European countries before this time allowed some women to vote as long as she paid taxes. Some areas allowed women to vote is she never married or was a widow including in the Corsican Republic in 1755.

In the New World, women were allowed to vote in New Jersey as long as they owned land, which wasn’t likely if they were married, which meant only unmarried women and widows were able to qualify for this. This, however, was changed in 1807 when the state’s constitution was changed to specify only white males.

Norway and Denmark gave women the right to vote in the years 1913 and 1915, respectively. In the years following, many countries began to allow women to vote including Germany, Poland, Canada, and Soviet Russia. In the U.S., some states allowed women to vote, but in 1920, this became a universal right for all women across the country.

In 1917, the National Woman’s Party was formed as an organization to help fight for a woman’s right to be able to vote in the United States. The idea was that women should have just as much right as a man to be involved in voting for legislation items and members of political offices. Their main purpose was to get an amendment to the Constitution passed that ensured women’s suffrage. World War I was the push that women needed to get women’s suffrage passed, finally convincing Woodrow Willson to support it.