Editing Women's suffrage (section)

==== Australia ====
{{main|Women's suffrage in Australia}}[[File:Edith Cowan.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Edith Cowan]] (1861–1932) was elected to the [[Western Australian Legislative Assembly]] in 1921 and was the first woman elected to any Australian Parliament (though women in Australia had already had the vote for two decades).]]

Propertied women in the colony of South Australia were granted the vote in local elections (but not parliamentary elections) in 1861. [[Henrietta Dugdale]], [[Annie Lowe]], and [[Elizabeth Rennick]] formed the [[Victorian Women's Suffrage Society]], the first suffrage society in Australia in 1884.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Smart |first=Judith |date=July 2008 |title=Women's Suffrage Organisations - Entry - |url=https://www.emelbourne.net.au/biogs/EM01637b.htm |access-date=2025-04-22 |website=eMelbourne - The Encyclopedia of Melbourne Online: School of Historical Studies, Department of History |language=en-gb}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Carey |first=Jane |date=4 May 2009 |title=The Victorian Women's Suffrage Society |url=https://www.womenaustralia.info/entries/the-victorian-womens-suffrage-society/ |access-date=2025-04-22 |website=Australian Women's Register |language=en-AU}}</ref> [[Womanhood Suffrage League of New South Wales|The Womanhood Suffrage League of New South Wales]] was founded in Sydney in 1891. Women became eligible to vote for the [[Parliament of South Australia]] in 1895, as were Aboriginal men and women.<ref name=SA1895/> In 1897, [[Catherine Helen Spence]] became the first female political candidate for political office, unsuccessfully standing for election as a delegate to Federal Convention on Australian Federation. [[Western Australia]] granted voting rights to women in 1899.<ref name="aec.gov.au">{{cite web|url=http://www.aec.gov.au/Elections/Australian_Electoral_History/milestone.htm |title=AEC.gov.au |publisher=AEC.gov.au |date=August 9, 2007 |access-date=January 8, 2011}}</ref>

The first election for the Parliament of the newly formed Commonwealth of Australia in 1901 was based on the electoral provisions of the six pre-existing colonies, so that women who had the vote and the right to stand for Parliament at state level had the same rights for the 1901 Australian Federal election. In 1902, the Commonwealth Parliament passed the Commonwealth Franchise Act, which enabled all non-indigenous women to vote and stand for election to the Federal Parliament. The following year [[Nellie Martel]], [[Mary Moore-Bentley]], [[Vida Goldstein]], and [[Selina Siggins]] stood for election.<ref name="aec.gov.au"/> The Act specifically excluded 'natives' from Commonwealth franchise unless already enrolled in a state, the situation in South Australia. In 1949, the right to vote in federal elections was extended to all indigenous people who had served in the armed forces, or were enrolled to vote in state elections (Queensland, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory still excluded indigenous women from voting rights). Remaining restrictions were abolished in 1962 by the Commonwealth Electoral Act.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aec.gov.au/Voting/indigenous_vote/indigenous.htm |title=AEC.gov.au |publisher=AEC.gov.au |access-date=January 8, 2011}}</ref>

[[Edith Cowan]] was elected to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly in 1921, the first woman elected to any Australian Parliament. Dame [[Enid Lyons]], in the [[House of Representatives (Australia)|Australian House of Representatives]] and Senator [[Dorothy Tangney]] became the first women in the Federal Parliament in 1943. Lyons went on to be the first woman to hold a [[Cabinet of Australia|Cabinet]] post in the 1949 ministry of [[Robert Menzies]]. [[Rosemary Follett]] was elected [[Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory]] in 1989, becoming the first woman elected to lead a state or territory. By 2010, the people of Australia's oldest city, [[Sydney]] had female leaders occupying every major political office above them, with [[Clover Moore]] as Lord Mayor, [[Kristina Keneally]] as Premier of New South Wales, [[Marie Bashir]] as Governor of New South Wales, [[Julia Gillard]] as prime minister, [[Quentin Bryce]] as [[Governor-General of Australia]] and [[Elizabeth II]] as [[Monarchy of Australia|Queen of Australia]].