In short
On September 19, 1893, New Zealand became the first nation to grant women the right to vote in a general election. The Electoral Act of that year extended suffrage to all women over 21, making the country a global outlier and setting a precedent that would influence women's movements worldwide for decades.
How it unfolded.
The five-minute version
What actually happened.
The First Women's League of Republika Srpska in basketball (Serbian: Прва женска лига Републике Српске у кошарци, Prva ženska liga Republike Srpske u košarci), known as the Meridianbet Prva ženska liga RS for sponsorship reasons, is a professional women's basketball competition held in Republika Srpska, an entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Year by year.
Across 14 years, 5 pivotal moments.
Timeline
How it actually unfolded.
Women's suffrage petition campaign begins
Kate Sheppard and other activists launch a major petition drive demanding voting rights for women.
Electoral Act passes House
The Electoral Act clearing the final parliamentary hurdle, with support from Premier Richard Seddon and the Liberal government.
Electoral Act receives Royal Assent
Governor General Glasgow formally signs the Electoral Act, making women's suffrage law. New Zealand becomes the first nation to grant women full voting rights.
First general election with women voters
Women vote in New Zealand's general election for the first time, with over 150,000 eligible female voters participating.
Australia adopts women's suffrage
Australia follows New Zealand's lead, becoming the second nation to grant women voting rights, nine years later.
The numbers.
4 numbers that anchor the scale.
By the numbers
The countable parts.
Voting age requirement
0 years old
First general election with women voters
0
Years ahead of Australia
0 years (New Zealand 1893, Australia 1902)
Years ahead of Britain
0 years (New Zealand 1893, Britain 1928)
The visual record.
The chain begins -
The chain of consequence.
Impact
What followed.
New Zealand's decision predated women's suffrage in Australia (1902), Finland (1906), and Britain (1928) by years or decades, establishing the country as an unexpected pioneer in democratic inclusion. The victory relied on tactical political maneuvering—Premier Richard Seddon backed the measure partly to boost the Liberal Party's electoral prospects—but the outcome was irreversible and emboldened suffragists globally.
Captured in time.
Captured before it changed
The web as it looked, the day it happened.
Wayback Machine snapshots of the pages people actually loaded that day. Click any card to open the archive at full size.
Sources & citations.
Sources
Where this came from.
Every claim on this page traces to a public, license-clean source. We don't asterisk well.
Wikipedia
1 source- 1.First Women's League of Republika Srpska in basketball
en.wikipedia.org