… That Australia was the second country in the World to allow women to vote? Sound pretty good, right? Well… wait for it:
However, despite granting the vote to all women in 1903, progress was slow in other areas, and it was not until 1926 that women were able to both vote and stand for all Houses of Parliament in all parts of the Commonwealth.
The right to vote and sit in Parliament was confined to men and women over the age of 21 years.
The Commonwealth rights excluded Aboriginal natives of Australia, Asia, Africa or the Pacific Islands except New Zealand, unless they already had the franchise at the State level. Aboriginal Australians were not granted the full franchise at the Federal level until 1962.
At the Federation referendums of the late-1890s and the first Federal Election in 1901, only women from South Australia and Western Australia were entitled to vote.
The first woman to win election to an Australian Parliament was Edith Cowan. She was elected to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly district of West Perth in 1921 and held the seat until 1924.
The first country to grant women the right to vote was New Zealand in 1893.
Speaking of women in Australia:
In 1832, 300 female convicts mooned the governor of Tasmania. It was said that in a “rare moment of collusion with the Convict women, the ladies in the Governor’s party could not control their laughter.”
Surprise ending! 😉
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Hehehehe…
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wow!
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That is hilarious at the end, but awesome to know!!great post!♡♡
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hahahaha…
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No! I never knew about the mooning………yes to the rest, great read
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The mooning is funny…
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and people thought it was all stern and serious back then, I think we forget that did have a sense of humour
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Oh, definitely.
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Thanks for the chuckle at the end!
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Hehehehehe
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Ha ha! I did not expect that.
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😉
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Which reminds me of some great advice once received: Never moon someone you suspect might be a werewolf.
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Hehehehehehehehe… you just made me laugh out loud! good one!!! I will keep it in mind, just in case…
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Haha, only in Australia!
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Hehehehe… yep…
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Hey, I’m from Western Australia I thought you might like to know why women got the vote so early. Gold had been discovered, and there was a “disturbing number’ of young non conservative men flooding into the colony. Sensible stalwarts were concerned that these ‘undisciplined rabble’ outvoted them. They noted that while most established gentlemen had wives, sisters and daughters in their household, the newcomers were predominantly single. Giving the vote to women was aimed at giving married men a minimum of two votes, as no ‘decent’ woman would disobey their husband.
It didn’t work history suggests the women, given the safe anonymity of the ballot, immediately voted against their husbands. But at any rate women’s sufferage in WA had nothing to do with women getting the vote. It was overconfident conservative patriarchal chavinism.
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Woah! Interesting!!!! Thanks for that!
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