Editing Women's suffrage (section)

=== The Americas ===
Women in Central and South America, and in Mexico, lagged behind those in Canada and the United States in gaining the vote. Ecuador enfranchised women in 1929 and the last was Paraguay in 1961.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1215/00182168-3824053|title=Women's Suffrage, the Anti-Chinese Campaigns, and Gendered Ideals in Sonora, Mexico, 1917–1925|year=2017|last1=Augustine-Adams|first1=Kif|journal=Hispanic American Historical Review|volume=97|issue=2|pages=223–258}}</ref> By date of full suffrage:
{{Div col|colwidth=30em}}
* (date needed) Canada
* (date needed) United States
* 1929: Ecuador
* 1932: Uruguay
* 1934: Brazil, Cuba
* 1939: El Salvador
* 1941: Panama
* 1946: Guatemala, Venezuela
* 1947: Argentina
* 1948: Suriname
* 1949: Chile, Costa Rica
* 1950: Haiti
* 1952: Bolivia
* 1953: Mexico
* 1954: Belize, Colombia
* 1955: Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru,
* 1961: Paraguay<ref name="womensuffrage.org1">{{cite web|url=http://womensuffrage.org/?page_id=69|title=Timeline « Women Suffrage and Beyond|website=womensuffrage.org|access-date=August 7, 2015|archive-date=December 16, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181216151820/http://womensuffrage.org/?page_id=69|url-status=dead}}</ref>
{{colend|3}} 
There were political, religious, and cultural debates about women's suffrage in the various countries.<ref>Barry, Carolina, ed. ''Sufragio feminino: Prácticas y debates políticos, religiosos, y culturales en la Argentina y América Latina''. Caseros, Argentina: Editorial de la Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero 2011.</ref>  Important advocates for women's suffrage include [[Hermila Galindo]] (Mexico), [[Eva Perón]] (Argentina), [[Alicia Moreau de Justo]] (Argentina), [[Julieta Lanteri]] (Argentina), [[Celina Guimarães Viana]] (Brazil), [[Ivone Guimarães]] (Brazil), [[Henrietta Müller]] (Chile), [[Marta Vergara]] (Chile), [[Lucila Rubio de Laverde]] (Colombia), [[María Currea Manrique]] (Colombia), [[Josefa Toledo de Aguerri]] (Nicaragua), [[Elida Campodónico]] (Panama), [[Clara González]] (Panama), [[Gumercinda Páez]] (Panama), [[Paulina Luisi Janicki]] (Uruguay), [[Carmen Clemente Travieso]], (Venezuela).

==== Argentina ====
The modern suffragist movement in Argentina arose partly in conjunction with the activities of the [[Socialist Party (Argentina)|Socialist Party]] and anarchists of the early twentieth century. Women involved in larger movements for social justice began to agitate equal rights and opportunities on par with men; following the example of their European peers, Elvira Dellepiane Rawson, [[Cecilia Grierson]] and [[Alicia Moreau de Justo]] began to form a number of groups in defense of the civil rights of women between 1900 and 1910.  The first major victories for extending the civil rights of women occurred in the [[San Juan Province, Argentina|Province of San Juan]].  Women had been allowed to vote in that province since 1862, but only in municipal elections.  A similar right was extended in the [[Santa Fe Province|province of Santa Fe]] where a constitution that ensured women's suffrage was enacted at the municipal level, although female participation in votes initially remained low. In 1927, San Juan sanctioned its Constitution and broadly recognized the equal rights of men and women. However, the [[1930 Argentine coup d'état|1930 coup]] overthrew these advances.

[[File:Buenos Aires - Balvanera - Manifestación por el voto femenino en 1948.jpg|thumb|left|Women's demonstration in Buenos Aires in front of the National Congress by law for universal suffrage, 1947]]

A great pioneer of women's suffrage was [[Julieta Lanteri]], the daughter of Italian immigrants, who in 1910 requested a national court to grant her the right to citizenship (at the time not generally given to single female immigrants) as well as suffrage. The Claros judge upheld her request and declared: "As a judge, I have a duty to declare that her right to citizenship is enshrined in the Constitution, and therefore that women enjoy the same political rights as the laws grant to male citizens, with the only restrictions expressly determined such laws, because no inhabitant is deprived of what they do not prohibit."

In July 1911, [[Julieta Lanteri|Dr. Lanteri]] were enumerated, and on November 26 of that year exercised her right to vote, the first Ibero-American woman to vote. Also covered in a judgment in 1919 was presented as a candidate for national deputy for the Independent Centre Party, obtaining 1,730 votes out of 154,302.

In 1919, Rogelio Araya UCR Argentina had gone down in history for being the first to submit a bill recognizing the right to vote for women, an essential component of universal suffrage. On July 17, 1919, he served as deputy national on behalf of the people of [[Santa Fe Province|Santa Fe]].

On February 27, 1946, three days after the [[1946 Argentine general election|elections]] that consecrated president [[Juan Perón]] and his wife First Lady [[Eva Perón]] 26 years of age gave his first political speech in an organized women to thank them for their support of Perón's candidacy. On that occasion, Eva demanded equal rights for men and women and particularly, women's suffrage:

{{blockquote|The woman Argentina has exceeded the period of civil tutorials. Women must assert their action, women should vote. The woman, moral spring home, you should take the place in the complex social machinery of the people. He asks a necessity new organize more extended and remodeled groups. It requires, in short, the transformation of the concept of woman who sacrificially has increased the number of its duties without seeking the minimum of their rights.}}

The bill was presented the new constitutional government assumed immediately after the May 1, 1946. The opposition of conservative bias was evident, not only the opposition parties but even within parties who supported [[Peronism]]. Eva Perón constantly pressured the parliament for approval, even causing protests from the latter for this intrusion.

Although it was a brief text in three articles, that practically could not give rise to discussions, the Senate recently gave preliminary approval to the project August 21, 1946, and had to wait over a year for the House of Representative to publish the September 9, 1947, Law 13,010, establishing equal political rights between men and women and universal suffrage in [[Argentina]]. Finally, Law 13,010 was approved unanimously.

[[File:Eva Perón votando.jpg|thumb|[[Eva Perón]] voting at the hospital in 1951. It was the first time women had been permitted to vote in national elections in Argentina. To this end Eva Perón received the Civic Book No. 00.000.001. It was the first and only time she would vote; she died July 26, 1952, after developing cervical cancer.]]

In an official statement on national television, Eva Perón announced the extension of suffrage to Argentina's women:

{{blockquote|Women of this country, this very instant I receive from the Government the law that enshrines our civic rights. And I receive it in front of you, with the confidence that I do so on behalf and in the name of all Argentinian women. I do so joyously, as I feel my hands tremble upon contact with victory proclaiming laurels. Here it is, my sisters, summarized into few articles of compact letters lies a long history of battles, stumbles, and hope.
Because of this, in it there lie exasperating indignation, shadows of menacing sunsets, but also cheerful awakenings of triumphal auroras. And the latter which translates the victory of women over the incomprehensions, the denials, and the interests created by the castes now repudiated by our national awakening.
And a leader who destiny forged to victoriously face the problems of our era, General [Perón]. With him, and our vote we shall contribute to the perfection of Argentina's democracy, my dear comrades.}}

On September 23, 1947, they enacted the Female Enrollment Act (No. 13,010) during the first presidency of Juan Domingo Perón, which was implemented in the [[1951 Argentine general election|elections of November 11, 1951]], in which 3,816,654 women voted (63.9% voted for the [[Justicialist Party]] and 30.8% for the [[Radical Civic Union]]). Later in 1952, the first 23 senators and deputies took their seats, representing the Justicialist Party.

==== The Bahamas ====

In 1951, a women's committee, the [[Women's Suffrage Movement]] (WSM), was formed under the leadership of [[Mary Ingraham]] who collected over 500 signatures in favor of women's suffrage and turned in a petition to the [[Parliament of the Bahamas]].<ref name="The women's suffrage in The Bahamas">{{cite web|first=Janet|last=Bostwick|url=http://www.thebahamasweekly.com/publish/the-bahamas-boasts/The_women_suffrage_in_The_Bahamas21748.shtml|title=The women's suffrage in The Bahamas|work=The Bahamas Weekly|date=May 16, 2012}}</ref>
 
In 1958, the [[National Women's Council]] was founded by [[Doris Sands Johnson]] with [[Erma Grant Smith]] as president; the organization was given the support of the [[Progressive Liberal Party]] (PLP), and when the [[United Bahamian Party]] (UBP) finally gave its support after long resistance, women's suffrage could finally be passed in parliament in 1960.<ref name="The women's suffrage in The Bahamas" />

==== Belize ====

In Belize, [[The Nationalist Movement (Belize)]] formed a women's group, the [[Women's League (Belize)|Women's League]] under [[Elfreda Trapp]], who campaigned for women's suffrage among the demands the worker's and independence movement's put upon the British authorities, and presented a petition of women's suffrage to governor [[Alan Burns (colonial administrator)|Alan Burns]] in 1935.<ref>Macpherson,&nbsp;A.&nbsp;S.&nbsp;(2007).&nbsp;From Colony to Nation: Women Activists and the Gendering of Politics in Belize, 1912–1982.&nbsp;Ukraina:&nbsp;University of Nebraska Press.</ref>
Women's suffrage was finally introduced in the reform bill of 1954, when full male suffrage was also introduced.

==== Bermuda ====

In 1918, [[Gladys Morrell]] held a public speech in favor of women's suffrage, and in 1923 the women's movement organized in the [[Bermuda Woman's Suffrage Society]] chaired by [[Rose Gosling]] to campaigned for women's suffrage.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.thebermudian.com/heritage/heritage-heritage/women-and-the-vote/ | title=Women and the Vote | date=October 2020 }}</ref> 
Women's suffrage was finally introduced in 1944.

==== Bolivia ====

In Bolivia, the first women's organization in the country, the [[Atene Femenino]], was active for the introduction of women's suffrage from the 1920s.<ref name="Tétreault, Mary Ann">Tétreault, Mary Ann (1994) ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=X95R043HBJwC&dq=chanyang-hoe+1898&pg=PA163 Women and Revolution in Africa, Asia, and the New World]''. Univ of South Carolina Press. p. 163. {{ISBN|9781570030161}}</ref>

Municipal women's suffrage and granted in 1947, and full suffrage in 1952.

==== Brazil ====
[[File:Primeiras eleitoras do Brasil.jpg|thumb|First women electors of [[Brazil]], [[Rio Grande do Norte]], 1928]]

In Brazil, the issue was lifted foremost by the organization [[Federação Brasileira pelo Progresso Feminino]] from 1922.  The struggle for women's suffrage was part of a larger movement to gain rights for women.<ref>Hahner, June E., ''Emancipating the Female Sex: The Struggle for Women's Rights in Brazil, 1850–1940''. Durham: Duke University Press, 1990.</ref>  Most of the suffragists consisted of a minority of women from the educated elite, which made the activism appear less threatening to the political male elite.

The law of [[Rio Grande do Norte]] State allowed women to vote in 1926.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.justicaeleitoral.jus.br/arquivos/tre-sp-o-voto-feminino-pdf|title=Women's suffrage in Brazil (official page in Portuguese)|access-date=March 6, 2016|archive-date=April 27, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427202356/http://www.justicaeleitoral.jus.br/arquivos/tre-sp-o-voto-feminino-pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Women were granted the right to vote and be elected in Electoral Code of 1932, followed by Brazilian Constitution of 1934.

==== Canada ====
{{main|Women's suffrage in Canada}}
Women's political status without the vote was promoted by the [[National Council of Women of Canada]] from 1894 to 1918. It promoted a vision of "transcendent citizenship" for women. The ballot was not needed, for citizenship was to be exercised through personal influence and moral suasion, through the election of men with strong moral character, and through raising public-spirited sons. The National Council position was integrated into its nation-building program that sought to uphold Canada as a white settler nation. While the women's suffrage movement was important for extending the political rights of white women, it was also authorized through race-based arguments that linked white women's enfranchisement to the need to protect the nation from "racial degeneration."<ref>Knahan, Anne-Marie, "Transcendent Citizenship: Suffrage, the National Council of Women of Canada, and the Politics of Organized Womanhood", ''Journal of Canadian Studies'' (2008), 42#3 pp. 5–27.</ref>

Women had local votes in some provinces, as in Ontario from 1850, where women owning property ([[Freehold (English law)|freeholders]] and householders) could vote for school trustees.<ref>Frederick Brent Scollie, "The Woman Candidate for the Ontario Legislative Assembly 1919–1929," ''Ontario History'', CIV (Autumn 2012), 5–6, discusses the legal framework for election to Ontario school boards and municipal councils.</ref> By 1900 other provinces had adopted similar provisions, and in 1916 Manitoba took the lead in extending women's suffrage.<ref name="Jackel">{{cite encyclopedia|author=Susan Jackel|url=http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/womens-suffrage|title=Women's Suffrage|encyclopedia=The Canadian Encyclopedia|access-date=December 2, 2014|archive-date=October 16, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016084447/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/en/article/womens-suffrage/|url-status=dead}}</ref> Simultaneously suffragists gave strong support to the Prohibition movement, especially in Ontario and the Western provinces.<ref>John H. Thompson, "'The Beginning of Our Regeneration': The Great War and Western Canadian Reform Movements," ''Canadian Historical Association Historical Papers'' (1972), pp. 227–45.</ref><ref>Voisey, Paul, "'The "Votes For Women' Movement", ''Alberta History'' (1975), 23#3, pp. 10–23.</ref>

The [[Wartime Elections Act]] of 1917 gave the vote to British women who were war widows or had sons, husbands, fathers, or brothers serving overseas. [[Unionist Party (Canada)|Unionist]] Prime Minister Sir [[Robert Borden]] pledged himself during the 1917 campaign to equal suffrage for women. After his landslide victory, he introduced a bill in 1918 for extending the franchise to women. On May 24, 1918, women considered citizens (not Aboriginal women, or most women of colour) became eligible to vote who were "age 21 or older, not alien-born and meet property requirements in provinces where they exist".<ref name="Jackel" />

Most women of Quebec gained full suffrage in 1940.<ref name="Jackel" /> Aboriginal women across Canada were not given federal voting rights until 1960.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.cbc.ca/strombo/news/women-the-right-to-vote-in-canada-an-important-clarification.html|title=Women & The Right To Vote In Canada: An Important Clarification|website=CBC News|access-date=October 18, 2019}}</ref>

The first woman elected to Parliament was [[Agnes Macphail]] in Ontario in 1921.<ref>Cleverdon, Catherine (1974) ''The woman suffrage movement in Canada: The Start of Liberation, 1900–20''.</ref>

==== Chile ====
{{Main|Women's suffrage in Chile}}
Debate about women's suffrage in Chile began in the 1920s.<ref name="MemCHLfeme">{{Citation|title=Elecciones, sufragio y democracia en Chile (1810–2012): Voto femenino|url=http://www.memoriachilena.cl/temas/dest.asp?id=eleccionesvotofemenino|work=Memoria chilena|language=es|access-date=June 30, 2013}}</ref> Women's suffrage in [[communes of Chile|municipal]] elections was first established in 1931 by decree (decreto con fuerza de ley); [[voting age]] for women was set at 25 years.<ref name="lopezvaldivia">{{Citation|last1=López Cárdenas|first1=Patricio|title=Las administraciones municipales en la historia de Valdivia|page=32|year=2009|publisher=Editorial Dokumenta Comunicaciones|language=es}}</ref><ref name="Eltit">{{Citation|last1=Eltit|first1=Diamela|title=Crónica del sufragio femenino en Chile|page=55|year=1994|publisher=Servicio Nacional de la Mujer|language=es|author-link1=Diamela Eltit}}</ref> In addition, the [[Chamber of Deputies of Chile|Chamber of Deputies]] approved a law on March 9, 1933, establishing women's suffrage in municipal elections.<ref name="lopezvaldivia" />

Women obtained the legal right to vote in parliamentary and presidential elections in 1949.<ref name="MemCHLfeme" /> Women's share among voters increased steadily after 1949, reaching the same levels of participation as men in 1970.<ref name="MemCHLfeme" />

==== Colombia ====
{{Main|Women's suffrage in Colombia}}
Women organized in the Liberal ''[[Union Femenina de Colombia]]'' (UFC) in 1944 and the Socialist ''[[Alianza Femenina|Aliazna Femenina]]'' in 1945 to demand women's suffrage. The Liberal and Socialist party supported the reform; the conservatives initially did not, but changed its attitude when the Catholic church supported it after the Pope's statement that women were loyal conservatives and thus supporters against Communism.<ref>Franceschet, Susan; Mona Lena Krook, Netina Tan: ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=aPZ0DwAAQBAJ&dq=Comit%C3%A9+Nacional+pro+Derechos+de+la+Mujer+suffrage&pg=PA14  The Palgrave Handbook of Women's Political Rights]''.</ref>
The vote was finally introduced in 1954.

==== Costa Rica ====

The campaign for women's suffrage in begun in the 1910s, and the campaigns were active during all electoral reforms in 1913, 1913, 1925, 1927 and 1946, notably by the [[Liga Feminista Costarricense|Feminist League]] (1923), which was a part of the [[International League of Iberian and Hispanic-American Women]], who had a continuing campaign between 1925 and 1945.<ref name="BGSmith">Smith, Bonnie G. (2008), ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=EFI7tr9XK6EC&dq=women%27s+suffrage+costa+rica&pg=PA315 The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History]'', Vol. 1, p. 315. Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|9780195148909}}.</ref>

Women obtained the legal right to vote in parliamentary and presidential elections in 1949.<ref name="BGSmith" />

==== Cuba ====

The campaign for women's suffrage begun in the 1920s, when Cuban elite feminists started to organize in associations such as [[Club Femenino de Cuba]] and [[Partido Democrata Sufragista]] and collaborate and campaign for women's issues; they arranged congresses in 1923, 1925 and 1939, and managed to achieve a reformed property rights law (1917) a no-fault divorce law (1918), and finally women's suffrage in 1934.<ref name="BGSmith" />

Women obtained the legal right to vote in parliamentary and presidential elections in 1934.<ref name="BGSmith" />

==== Dominican Republic ====

The women's movement in the Dominican Republic organized in 1931 in the [[Acción Feminista Dominicana]] (AFD), who allied with [[Rafael Trujillo]] in order to reach their goal of women's suffrage. Trujillo finally fulfilled his promise to the AFD for its support after eleven years, when he introduced women's suffrage on the Dominican Republic in 1942.<ref>Fernandez-Asenjo, Maria-Mercedes (2015-01-01). "De maestras normalistas a 'damas trujillistas': El feminismo Dominicano, 1915–1946" (Thesis) – via ProQuest.</ref>

==== Ecuador ====
{{Main|Women's suffrage in Ecuador}}

Women obtained the legal right to vote in parliamentary and presidential elections in 1929.<ref>Valdés, Teresa; Gomariz, Enrique (1992). Mujeres latinoamericanas en cifras: Ecuador. Madrid, España: Editorial FLACSO. {{ISBN|956-205-047-5}}.</ref>  This was the first time in South America.

==== El Salvador ====

Between June 1921 and January 1922, when El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Rica formed a (second) [[Federal Republic of Central America|Federation of Central America]], the Constitution of this state included women's suffrage on 9 September 1921, but the reform could never be implemented because the Federation (and thereby its constitution) did not last.<ref name="BGSmith" />

The campaign for women's suffrage begun in the 1920s, notably by the leading figure [[Prudencia Ayala]].<ref name="BGSmith" />

Women obtained the legal right to vote in parliamentary and presidential elections in 1939.<ref name="BGSmith" />  However, the qualifications were extreme and excluded 80 percent of women so the suffrage movement continued its campaign in the 1940s, notably by [[Matilde Elena López]] and [[Ana Rosa Ochoa]], until the restrictions was lifted in 1950.<ref name="BGSmith" />

==== Guatemala ====

Between June 1921 and January 1922, when El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Rica formed a (second) [[Federal Republic of Central America|Federation of Central America]], the Constitution of this state included women's suffrage on 9 September 1921, but the reform could never be implemented because the Federation (and thereby its constitution) did not last.<ref name="BGSmith" />

The campaign for women's suffrage in begun in the 1920s, notably by the organisations Gabriela Mistral Society (1925) and [[Graciela Quan]]'s Guatemalan Feminine Pro-Citizenship Union (1945).

Women obtained the legal right to vote in parliamentary and presidential elections in 1945 (without restrictions in 1965).<ref name="BGSmith" />

==== Guyana ====

In Guyana, the [[Women’s Political and Economic Organization]] (WPEO) was founded by [[Janet Jagan]], [[Winifred Gaskin]] and [[Frances Van Stafford]] in 1946 to campaign for women's suffrage,<ref name="Politics 1999">Women in Politics: Voices from the Commonwealth.&nbsp;(1999).&nbsp;Storbritannien:&nbsp;Commonwealth Secretariat.</ref><ref name="Peake, 2002">Peake,&nbsp;L.,&nbsp;Trotz,&nbsp;D.&nbsp;A.&nbsp;(2002).&nbsp;Gender, Ethnicity and Place: Women and Identity in Guyana.&nbsp;Storbritannien:&nbsp;Taylor & Francis.</ref> and the campaign was given support by the [[People's Progressive Party (Guyana)|People's Progressive Party]] (PPP) and its women's group [[Women’s Progressive Organization]] (WPO), until full women's suffrage was introduced in connection to the new reformed constitution in 1953.<ref name="Politics 1999"/><ref name="Peake, 2002"/>

==== Haiti ====

The campaign for women's suffrage in Haiti begun after the foundation of ''[[Ligue Feminine d’Action Sociale]]'' (LFAS) in 1934.

Women obtained the legal right to vote in parliamentary and presidential elections on 4 November 1950.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://islandluminous.fiu.edu/part09-slide22.html |title=Women and the Vote |last=Sanders |first=Grace |website=islandluminous.fiu.edu |access-date=23 July 2021 }}</ref>

==== Honduras ====

Between June 1921 and January 1922, when El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Costa Rica formed a (second) [[Federal Republic of Central America|Federation of Central America]], the Constitution of this state included women's suffrage on 9 September 1921, but the reform could never be implemented because the Federation (and thereby its constitution) did not last.<ref name="BGSmith" />

The campaign for women's suffrage begun in the 1920s, notably by the leading figure [[Visitación Padilla]], who was the leader of the biggest women's organisation ([[Sociedad Cultural Femenina]]).<ref name="BGSmith" />

Women obtained the legal right to vote in parliamentary and presidential elections in 1955.<ref name="BGSmith" />

==== Jamaica ====

After women's suffrage had been introduced in Britain in 1918, white elite women organized in the [[Women's Social Service Club]] (also known as the [[Women's Social Service Association]] or WSSA) campaigned under the leadership of [[Nellie Latrielle]] and [[Judith DeCordova]] for the introduction of the reform on Jamaica from May 1918, and succeeded when limited suffrage for taxpaying women of property was introduced in May 1919.<ref>Bean,&nbsp;D.&nbsp;(2017).&nbsp;Jamaican Women and the World Wars: On the Front Lines of Change.&nbsp;Tyskland:&nbsp;Springer International Publishing.</ref>
The women's suffrage – as was male suffrage at the time – was, however, limited to a minority of women, and during the 1930s, women campaigned for universal women's suffrage via the [[Universal Negro Improvement Association]] (UNIA) the [[Jamaica Women's League]] (JWL) and the [[Women's Liberal Club]] (1936), until full suffrage was finally introduced in 1944.<ref>Clarke,&nbsp;C.,&nbsp;Nelson,&nbsp;C.&nbsp;(2020).&nbsp;Contextualizing Jamaica's Relationship with the IMF.&nbsp;Tyskland:&nbsp;Springer International Publishing.</ref>

==== Mexico ====
{{Main|Women's suffrage in Mexico}}
{{See also|Women in Mexico}}
Women gained the right to vote in 1947 for some local elections and for national elections in 1953, coming after a struggle dating to the 19th century.<ref>Morton, Ward M., ''Woman Suffrage in Mexico''. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1962.</ref>

==== Nicaragua ====

A women's movement was organized in Nicaragua in the 1920s. Their demand for women's suffrage was supported by the [[Nationalist Liberal Party]], who allied themselves with the women's movement in order to get their support during their regime.<ref name="Smith">Smith, Bonnie G.: [https://books.google.com/books?id=EFI7tr9XK6EC&dq=women%27s+suffrage+costa+rica&pg=PA315 ''The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History''], Vol. 1.</ref>

The Nationalist Liberal Party promised to introduce the reform of women's suffrage, and in 1939, the leader of the Nicaraguan women's movement [[Josefa Toledo]] (leader of the Nicaragua branch of the [[International League of Iberian and Latin American Women]]) demanded that the regime fulfil their promise to the women's movement.<ref name="Smith"/>

The promise was finally fulfilled in 1950, and the reform introduced in 1955. After this, the Nicaraguan women's associations were incorporated in the women's wing of the Nationalist Liberal Party, the [[Ala Femenina Liberal]], under the leadership of [[Olga Nunez de Saballos]] (who became the first woman MP), and gave the Party its official support in the following elections.<ref name="Smith"/>

==== Panama ====

The campaign for women's suffrage begun after the foundation of [[Federation of Women's Club of the Canal]] in 1903, which became a part of the [[General Federation of Clubs]] in New York City, which made the suffrage movement in Panama heavily influenced by the suffrage movement in the United States.<ref name="BGSmith" /> In 1922 The Feminist Group Renovation (FGR) was founded by [[Clara González]], which became the first Feminist Political women's party in Latin America when it was transformed to the Feminist National Party in 1923.<ref name="BGSmith" />

Women obtained the legal right to vote in communal elections in 1941, and in parliamentary and presidential elections 1946.<ref name="BGSmith" />

==== Paraguay ====
Paraguay was the last country in the Americas to grant women's suffrage. [[Liga Paraguaya de los Derechos de la Mujer]] campaigned for women's suffrage during the 1950s. Women's suffrage was gained in Paraguay in 1961, primarily because the [[Dictator|strongarm]] president, [[Alfredo Stroessner]], lacking the approval of his male constituents, sought to bolster his support through women voters.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Przeworski|first1=Adam|last2=Shin|first2=Kong Joo|last3=Xi|first3=Tianyang|title=A Simple Partisan Calculus of Women's Suffrage|url=http://www.fflch.usp.br/centrodametropole/upload/aaa/495-wsuffrage_092613.pdf|website=Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas|publisher=Universidade de São Paulo|access-date=9 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170909142541/http://www.fflch.usp.br/centrodametropole/upload/aaa/495-wsuffrage_092613.pdf|archive-date=9 September 2017|location=São Paulo, Brazil|page=22|date=September 26, 2013}}</ref>

====Peru====

[[Women's suffrage in Peru]] was first introduced on communal level in 1932, and on national level on 7 September 1955.<ref>Aguilar Gil, Roisida (2002). «El sufragio de la mujer: Debate en el Congreso Constituyente de 1931-1932». Elecciones (Lima: ONPE): 123-164. ISSN 1994-5272</ref>   Peru was the second to last country in South America to introduce women's suffrage.

==== United States ====
[[File:Official Program Woman Suffrage Procession - March 3, 1913.jpg|thumb|Program for [[Woman Suffrage Procession]], Washington, D.C., March 3, 1913. The parade was organized by suffragists [[Alice Paul]] and [[Lucy Burns]]. ]]
{{Main|Women's suffrage in the United States}}Long before the [[Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Nineteenth Amendment]] was passed in 1920, some individual U.S. states granted women suffrage in certain kinds of elections. Some allowed women to vote in school elections, municipal elections, or for members of the Electoral College. Some territories, like Washington, Utah, and Wyoming, allowed women to vote before they became states.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://depts.washington.edu/moves/WomanSuffrage_map.shtml|title=Timeline and Map of Woman Suffrage Legislation State by State 1838–1919}}</ref> While many consider suffrage to include both voting rights and officeholding rights, many women were able to hold office prior to receiving voting rights.<ref name="Katz-2021" /> In fact, suffragists in the United States employed the strategy of petitioning for and utilizing officeholding rights first to make a stronger argument in favor of giving women the right to vote.<ref name="Katz-2021" />

The [[New Jersey]] constitution of 1776 enfranchised all adult inhabitants who owned a specified amount of property. Laws enacted in 1790 and 1797 referred to voters as "he or she", and women regularly voted. A law passed in 1807, however, excluded women from voting in that state by moving towards [[universal manhood suffrage]].<ref>{{cite book|year=2004|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IV6rt59asF8C&pg=PA138| page= 138|author=Wellman, Judith|title=The Road to Seneca Falls: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and the First Woman's Rights Convention |publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=0252071735}}</ref>

[[Lydia Taft]] was an early forerunner in [[Colonial history of the United States|Colonial America]] who was allowed to vote in three [[New England]] town meetings, beginning in 1756, at [[Uxbridge, Massachusetts]].<ref>Chapin, Judge Henry (1881). Address Delivered at the Unitarian Church in Uxbridge, 1864. Worcester, Massachusetts: Charles Hamilton Press (Harvard Library; from Google Books). p. 172.</ref> The women's suffrage movement was closely tied to [[abolitionism]], with many suffrage activists gaining their first experience as anti-slavery or [[Starving Time|anti-cannibalism]] activists.<ref>{{cite book|title=Women's Rights Changing Attitudes 1900–2000|last=Stearman|first=Kaye|date=2000}}</ref>

{| style="margin:auto"
| [[File:Women Suffrage Issues of the 20th century.jpg|thumb|upright=3.4| During the 20th century, the U.S. Post Office, under the auspices of the U.S. Government, had issued commemorative postage stamps celebrating notable women who fought for women suffrage and other rights for women. From left to right:<br /> — <big>[[Susan B Anthony]]</big>, 1936 issue<br />— <big>[[Elizabeth Cady Stanton|Elizabeth Stanton]], [[Carrie Catt|Carrie C. Catt]], [[Lucretia Mott]]</big>, 1948 issue<br />— <big>[[Women's suffrage in the United States|Women Suffrage]]</big>, 1970 issue, celebrating the 50th anniversary of voting rights for women]]
|}
In June&nbsp;1848, [[Gerrit Smith]] made women's suffrage a [[Party platform|plank]] in the [[Liberty Party (United States, 1840)|Liberty Party]] [[Party platform|platform]]. In&nbsp;July, at the [[Seneca Falls Convention]] in [[upstate New York]], activists including [[Elizabeth Cady Stanton]] and [[Susan B. Anthony]] began a seventy-year struggle by women to secure the right to vote.<ref name="Katz-2021" /> Attendees signed a document known as the [[Declaration of Sentiments|Declaration of Rights and Sentiments]], of which Stanton was the primary author. Equal rights became the rallying cry of the early movement for women's rights, and equal rights meant claiming access to all the prevailing definitions of freedom. In&nbsp;1850 [[Lucy Stone]] organized a larger assembly with a wider focus, the [[National Women's Rights Convention]] in [[Worcester, Massachusetts]]. [[Susan B. Anthony]], a resident of [[Rochester, New York]], joined the cause in&nbsp;1852 after reading Stone's 1850&nbsp;speech. Stanton, Stone and Anthony were the three leading figures of this movement in the U.S. during the 19th century: the "triumvirate" of the drive to gain voting rights for women.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/awhhtml/awmss5/leaders.html|title=Women's Suffrage: The Early Leaders|work=[[American Memory]]: American Women|publisher=The Library of Congress|access-date=April 6, 2014}}</ref> Women's suffrage activists pointed out that black people had been granted the franchise and had not been included in the language of the [[United States Constitution]]'s Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments (which gave people equal protection under the law and the right to vote regardless of their race, respectively). This, they contended, had been unjust. Early victories were won in the territories of [[Wyoming Territory|Wyoming]] (1869)<ref name="wyoming">see facsimile at {{Cite web|date=December 10, 1869|title=An Act to Grant to the Women of Wyoming Territory the Right of Suffrage and to Hold Office|url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/displayPhoto.pl?path=/pnp/ppmsca/03000/&topImages=03000r.jpg |publisher=[[Library of Congress]]|access-date=December 9, 2007}}</ref> and [[Utah Territory|Utah]] (1870).

[[File:Suffragette banner. One of the banners, the women who picketed the White House . . . - NARA - 533769.tif|thumb|left|upright|"Kaiser Wilson" banner held by a woman who picketed the [[White House]]]]

[[John Allen Campbell]], the first Governor of the Wyoming Territory, approved the first law in United States history explicitly granting women the right to vote entitled "An Act to Grant to the Women of Wyoming Territory the Right of Suffrage, and to Hold Office.”<ref name="Katz-2021" /> The law was approved on December 10, 1869. This day was later commemorated as Wyoming Day.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/dec10.html|title=Today in History|publisher=The Library of Congress|access-date=July 20, 2012}}</ref><!-- Meaning what, specifically?  Women were allowed to vote in all elections in those places?  If so, it should say so. And who decided that?  The territorial legislature?  Congress?  A referendum?  Was it part of the Constitution of the Territory (if such a thing existed)?  Or just a statute that could be changed by the legislature? --> On February 12, 1870, the Secretary of the Territory and Acting Governor of the [[Territory of Utah]], S. A. Mann, approved a law allowing twenty-one-year-old women to vote in any election in Utah.<ref>"[[:File:An Act Conferring upon Women the Elective Franchise.jpg|An Act Conferring upon Women the Elective Franchise]]", approved February 12, 1870. Acts, Resolutions and Memorials of the Territory of Utah, Passed at the Nineteenth Annual Session of the Legislature, 1870, p. 8.</ref> Utah women were disenfranchised by provisions of the federal [[Edmunds–Tucker Act]] enacted by the [[United States Congress|U.S.&nbsp;Congress]] in 1887.<ref name="Katz-2021" />

[[File:Toledo Woman Suffrage Association, 1912 - DPLA - f060daf84c2df3902cab10b0ae3fd689.jpg|thumb|right|Toledo Woman Suffrage Association, [[Toledo, Ohio]], 1912]]

The push to grant Utah women's suffrage was at least partially fueled by the belief that, given the right to vote, Utah women would dispose of [[polygamy]].<ref name="Katz-2021" /> In actuality, it was the men of [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] that ultimately fought for women's enfranchisement to dispel myths that polygamy was akin to modern-day slavery.<ref name="Katz-2021" /> It was only after Utah women exercised their suffrage rights in favor of polygamy that the male-dominated U.S.&nbsp;Congress unilaterally disenfranchised Utah women.<ref>Van Wagenen, Lola (2001) ''Sister-Wives and Suffragists: Polygamy and the Politics of Woman Suffrage 1870–1896'', BYU Studies.</ref>

By the end of the 19th century, [[Idaho]], [[Utah]], and [[Wyoming]] had enfranchised women after effort by the suffrage associations at the state level; [[Colorado]] notably [[1893 Colorado women's suffrage referendum|enfranchised women by an 1893 referendum]].<ref name="Katz-2021" /> [[Women's suffrage in California|California voted to enfranchise women in 1911]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/celebrating-womens-suffrage/california-women-suffrage-centennial/|title=California Women Suffrage Centennial {{!}} California Secretary of State|website=www.sos.ca.gov|access-date=March 30, 2020}}</ref>

During the beginning of the 20th&nbsp;century, as women's suffrage faced several important federal votes, a portion of the suffrage movement known as the [[National Woman's Party]] led by suffragist [[Alice Paul]] became the first "cause" to picket outside the White House. Paul had been mentored by Emeline Pankhurst while in England, and both she and [[Lucy Burns]] led a series of protests against the [[Woodrow Wilson|Wilson Administration]] in Washington.<ref>Zahniser, Jill Diane and Fry, Amelia R. (2014). ''Alice Paul: Claiming Power''. p. 175. Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0199958424}}.</ref>

Wilson ignored the protests for six months, but on June 20, 1917, as a Russian delegation drove up to the White House, suffragists unfurled a banner which stated: "We women of America tell you that America is not a democracy. Twenty million women are denied the right to vote. President Wilson is the chief opponent of their national enfranchisement".<ref name="Clement">Ciment, James and Russell, Thaddeus (2007). ''The home front encyclopedia: United States, Britain, and Canada in World Wars I and II'', Vol. 1. p. 163. ABC-CLIO.</ref> Another banner on August&nbsp;14,&nbsp;1917, referred to "[[Kaiser]] Wilson" and compared the plight of the German people with that of American women. With this manner of protest, the women were subject to arrests and many were jailed. Another ongoing tactic of the National Woman's Party was watchfires, which involved burning copies of President Wilson's speeches, often outside the White House or in the nearby Lafayette Park. The Party continued to hold watchfires even as the war began, drawing criticism from the public and even other suffrage groups for being unpatriotic.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://depts.washington.edu/moves/NWP_storymap.shtml|title=National Woman's Party 1912–1922: Timeline Story Map|publisher=depts.washington.edu}}</ref> On October 17, Alice Paul was sentenced to seven months and on October 30 began a [[hunger strike]], but after a few days prison authorities began to force feed her.<ref name="Clement" /> After years of opposition, Wilson changed his position in 1918 to advocate women's suffrage as a war measure.<ref>Lemons, J. Stanley (1973). ''The woman citizen: social feminism in the 1920s'', p. 13. University of Virginia Press.</ref>

[[File:Women suffragists picketing in front of the White house.jpg|thumb|The [[Silent Sentinels]], women suffragists picketing in front of the White House {{Circa|February 1917|lk=no}}. Banner on the left reads, "Mr President, How long must women wait for Liberty?", and the banner to the right, "Mr President, What will you do for women's suffrage?"<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.loc.gov/item/97500299/|title=The first picket line – College day in the picket line|work=The Library of Congress|access-date=March 2, 2017}}</ref>]]

The key vote came on June&nbsp;4, 1919,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=63|title=Our Documents – 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Women's Right to Vote (1920)|work=ourdocuments.gov|date=April 9, 2021 }}</ref> when the Senate approved the amendment by 56 to 25 after four hours of debate, during which Democratic Senators opposed to the amendment [[filibuster]]ed to prevent a roll call until their absent Senators could be protected by pairs. The Ayes included 36 (82%) Republicans and 20 (54%) Democrats. The Nays were from 8 (18%) Republicans and 17 (46%) Democrats. The [[Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Nineteenth Amendment]], which prohibited state or federal sex-based restrictions on voting, was ratified by sufficient states in 1920.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1920womensvote.html|title=Suffrage Wins in Senate; Now Goes to States|date=June 5, 1919|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=November 17, 2011}}</ref> According to the article, "Nineteenth Amendment", by Leslie Goldstein from the Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States, "by the end it also included jail sentences, and hunger strikes in jail accompanied by brutal force feedings; mob violence; and legislative votes so close that partisans were carried in on stretchers" (Goldstein, 2008). Even after the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified, women were still facing problems. For instance, when women had registered to vote in Maryland, "residents sued to have the women's names removed from the registry on the grounds that the amendment itself was unconstitutional" (Goldstein, 2008).

Before 1965, women of color, such as African Americans and Native Americans, were [[disfranchisement|disenfranchised]], especially in the [[Southern United States|South]].<ref name="Voting Rights Act">{{Source-attribution|sentence=yes|{{cite web|title=Introduction to Federal Voting Rights Laws: The Effect of the Voting Rights Act|url=https://www.justice.gov/crt/about/vot/intro/intro_c.php|publisher=U.S. Department of Justice|access-date=August 4, 2016|date=June 19, 2009}}}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/africanamericanw00terb|title=African American women in the struggle for the vote, 1850–1920|last=Terborg-Penn|first=Rosalyn|date=1998|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0-253-33378-0|location=Bloomington|oclc=37693895}}</ref> The [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]] prohibited racial discrimination in voting, and secured voting rights for racial minorities throughout the U.S.<ref name="Voting Rights Act" />

==== Puerto Rico ====

On Puerto Rico, the organized struggle for women's suffrage on the American dependency of Puerto Rico begun when the United States introduced suffrage for males only via the  Jones Act in 1917, and the [[Liga Femínea Puertorriqueña]] (from 1920 known as [[Liga Social Sufragista]]) was founded by [[Ana Roque de Duprey]] to campaign for voting rights to be extended also to women.<ref>Jiménez-Muñoz, Gladys M. (1998). "7. Literacy, Class, and Sexuality in the Debate on Women's Suffrage in Puerto Rico during the 1920s". In Matos-Rodriguez, Felix V.; Delgado, Linda C. (eds.). Puerto Rican Women's History: New Perspectives. Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, pp. 143–170. {{ISBN|978-0-7656-3175-6}}.</ref>
When women's suffrage was introduced in the US in 1920, the suffragists on Puerto Rico stated that this reform should apply to Puerto Rico as well, and sued under the leadership of [[Milagros Benet de Mewton]] for this purpose. Women's suffrage was extended to Puerto Rico in 1929, but only for literate women; full women's suffrage was introduced by the US on Puerto Rico first in 1932.
[[File:Sufragio femenino Uruguay 1938.jpg|thumb|Commemorative poster of the [[1938 Uruguayan general election]].]]

==== Uruguay ====
{{Main|Women's suffrage in Uruguay}}
Women's suffrage was announced as a principle in the [[Constitution of Uruguay of 1917]], and declared as law in a decree of 1932. The first national election in which women voted was the [[1938 Uruguayan general election]].<ref name="Miller1991"/>

==== Venezuela ====
{{Main|Women's suffrage in Venezuela}}
After the [[Generation of 1928|1928 Student Protests]], women started participating more actively in politics.  In 1935, women's rights supporters founded the [[Asociacón Cultural Feminina|Feminine Cultural Group]] (known as 'ACF' from its initials in Spanish), with the goal of tackling women's problems. The group supported women's political and social rights, and believed it was necessary to involve and inform women about these issues to ensure their personal development. It went on to give seminars, as well as founding night schools and the House of Laboring Women.

Groups looking to reform the 1936 Civil Code of Conduct in conjunction with the Venezuelan representation to the Union of American Women called the First Feminine Venezuelan Congress in 1940. In this congress, delegates discussed the situation of women in Venezuela and their demands. Key goals were women's suffrage and a reform to the Civil Code of Conduct. Around twelve thousand signatures were collected and handed to the Venezuelan Congress, which reformed the Civil Code of Conduct in 1942.

In 1944, groups supporting women's suffrage, the most important being Feminine Action, organized around the country. During 1945, women attained the right to vote at a municipal level. This was followed by a stronger call of action. Feminine Action began editing a newspaper called the Correo Cívico Femenino, to connect, inform and orientate Venezuelan women in their struggle. Finally, after the [[1945 Venezuelan coup d'état]] and the [[1946 Venezuelan Constituent Assembly election|call for a new Constitution]], to which women were elected, women's suffrage became a constitutional right in the country.