-
In 1870 in the United States, following the American Civil War, the right to vote was extended by the Fifteenth Amendment to all adult males, regardless of ‘race, colour or previous condition of servitude’. In New Zealand, Maˉori voters were not expressly excluded from voting, but a requirement of property ownership effectively excluded them.
-
In 1893, New Zealand became the first country in the world
to give women an equal right to vote. -
The Australian state of South Australia followed in 1894, with the Australian Commonwealth granting women’s
suffrage in 1902. -
In Australia, indigenous peoples had the right to vote since the time of Federation in 1901, if their state of residence granted them that right, and some South Australian Aboriginal men and women voted for the first Commonwealth Parliament.
-
It was not until 1918, after the end of World War I, that the United Kingdom gave women a limited right to vote; this was not made equal with men’s rights until 1928.
-
The United States passed the Nineteenth Amendment, allowing women to vote, in 1920. Apart from status and gender, race was another issue that conflicted with rights to vote.
-
By the end of World War II, free and compulsory education had spread throughout developed countries and was regarded as not only a desirable goal for all governments to pursue but also a basic human right.
-
The right to vote was recognised as a universal human right in Article 21 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) but it was only with the end of the Cold War in 1990 that this right had the prospect of being accepted globally.