New Zealand became the first self-governing country where women could vote in national elections in 1893.
The Electoral Act 1893 was signed into law on 19 September 1893, giving women the right to vote in parliamentary elections. Women participated in the general election held later that year. The campaign was strongly associated with suffrage leader Kate Sheppard and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union.
New Zealand’s reform was significant, but it did not immediately grant women the right to stand for Parliament. Women gained that right in 1919, and Elizabeth McCombs became the first woman elected to New Zealand’s Parliament in 1933.
The wording “self-governing” matters because earlier reforms existed in some colonies or territories with different constitutional arrangements. Australia followed with federal voting rights for most women in 1902, although Indigenous Australians faced major exclusions. New Zealand’s 1893 law therefore holds a distinctive place in the global history of voting rights.