New Zealand was the first country to give women the vote, in 1893

On 19 September 1893, Governor Lord Glasgow signed the Electoral Act into law, and New Zealand became the first self-governing country in the world to grant all adult women the right to vote in national elections.

The victory followed a seven-year campaign led by suffragists such as Kate Sheppard. Their case reached Parliament through a series of giant petitions; the final one, in 1893, carried 31,872 signatures — pasted into a roll over 270 metres long and unrolled across the debating chamber floor.

Less than two months later, 109,461 women had enrolled to vote.

The reform was strikingly early. In most other democracies — including Britain and the United States — women would not win the national vote until after the First World War. New Zealand’s example became a reference point for suffrage movements worldwide.