Introduction of women's suffrage in each state in Australia

It was the fact that South Australian women had the vote which led to Australian women getting the federal vote. The Australian Commonwealth Constitution of 1900 gave the federal franchise to all persons allowed to vote for the lower house in each state. South Australian and Western Australian women thus qualified in 1900. This table shows the dates of the introduction of the right to vote and the right to stand for State Parliaments. It is taken from It happened here: votes for South Australian women produced for the Centenary of Women's Suffrage.

Even more interesting observations about the significance of the introduction of women's suffrage in South Australia are made by Susan Magarey in Suffrage and beyond: international feminist perspectives, edited by Caroline Daley and Melanie Nolan (Auckland, Auckland University Press, 1994) on pages 70-71, 'on the cutting edge of democracy'.