New Zealand was the first self-governing country to grant women the right to vote in national elections, doing so in 1893.
The Electoral Act became law on 19 September 1893 after sustained campaigning by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and other activists. Kate Sheppard was the movement’s most prominent leader and helped organize petitions, public meetings, and political lobbying.
New Zealand women could vote in parliamentary elections, but the reform did not immediately give them the right to stand for Parliament. Women became eligible to be elected in 1919, and Elizabeth McCombs became the first woman elected to New Zealand’s Parliament in 1933.
The achievement is sometimes described too broadly. Several territories had earlier granted women voting rights in limited elections, and the Cook Islands extended the franchise to women in 1893 as well. New Zealand’s distinction concerns national parliamentary voting in a self-governing country.