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Time Line of the Continuing Struggle for Women's Liberation
1848 USA The Women's suffrage movement began.
1869 New Zealand The suffrage movement began.
1884 Australia Henrietta Dugdale formed the first Australian women’s suffrage society.
1889 UK Emmeline Pankhurst helped found the Women's Franchise League.
1893 New Zealand NEW ZEALAND BECOMES THE FIRST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD TO GRANT WOMEN THE VOTE. (Thank you to Melisende for the information.)
1894 South Australia Women who were British subjects, 21 years and older, gained the right to vote.
1908 Australia By this stage all Australian women, who were British subjects, 21 years and older had a vote.
1918 UK and Ireland First woman is elected a Member of Parliament
1918 UK and Ireland Women gained the vote if they were over 30 and "occupied premises of a yearly value of not less than £5".
1920 USA Women gain the vote after 72 years of the largest civil rights movement in the history of the world.
1921 Australia Edith Cowan elected to Legislative Assembly, the first woman elected to any Australian Parliament.
1923 Ireland Women over 21 gain the vote
1928 UK The voting age for women was lowered to 21 in line with men.
1943 South Africa ANC Women's League is founded
1954 South Africa The Federation of South African Women (FSAW), a multi-racial body, was established,  with the ANC Women's League as its largest component, to organise a united struggle against apartheid
1956 Ireland An Act is passed specifically excluding women from employment in the Civil Service
1956 South Africa Women march to the Union Buildings in Pretoria in 1956 to denounce the pass laws.
1957 Ireland Married women are given the right to own property and enter into contracts in their own right
1960 Sri Lanka The World's first woman Prime Minister, Sirimavo Bandaranaike,  is elected.  
1960 Canada Women gain the right to stand for election
1960 South Africa Ruthless repression by the regime prevented the Federation of South African Women  and the Women's League from functioning.
1962 Australia The right to vote in federal elections was granted to Australian Aboriginal women
1970 Andorra & San Marino Women gain the right to stand for election
1971 Switzerland Women gain the vote
1973 Ireland The law making married women ineligible for employment in the Civil Service is repealed.
1990 South Africa The ANC Women's League was re-launched in Durban, after the unbanning of the ANC.
1996 Afghanistan The Taliban issued decrees banning women and girls from going to school, to work, or leaving their homes without a male relative and a burqa. Violating Taliban decrees brings brutal punishment: beating, stoning, and death.  
1996 Tanzania In December 1996 a mass ceremony of Female Genital Mutilation was carried out.  Of the 5,000 girls who were cut in this ceremony, twenty girls died from medical complications.  Mass circumcisions still take place.
2000 Pakistan For the first time seats in local government elections were reserved for women and peasants
2001 Mexico Indigenous Rights Bill recognises Women's Rights too
2001 Saudi Arabia Laws in Saudi Arabia discriminate against women in almost all aspects of life: decision-making, employment, education and family relationships.
2001 Of the world's 1.3 billion people living in poverty 70% are women
2002 Afghanistan The Taliban retreat but what difference does this make for the women of Afghanistan - find out here: Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan RAWA