Women’s suffrage and women in national parliaments, 1893-2018

Comment
The database of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (an international parliamentary organization created in 1889) enables the course of women’s struggle for political rights to be followed. Obtaining the right to vote extended from 1893 (New Zealand) to 2015 (Saudi Arabia), with 56 states achieving it before World War II (part of the Americas and of Europe, as well as Russia). It was extended to all the Americas and to Europe, as well as to India and China, between 1939 and 1960 (89 states), and finally to the rest of the world (66 states). Women’s eligibility generally came later and their presence in national parliaments is far from achieving parity (only 3 countries, with 61% in Rwanda). It exceeds 30% in only 48 countries; in the 138 other parliaments numbers of women vary between 29% and 1% (Oman).