On 19 September 1893 a new Electoral Act was signed into law making New Zealand the first self-governing country in the world in which women had the right to vote in parliamentary elections. Suffrage campaigners, led by Kate Sheppard, compiled a series of massive petitions calling on Parliament to grant the vote to women.
Most other democracies did not grant women the right to the vote until after the First World War. In the early 21st century women have held each of the country’s key constitutional positions: prime minister, governor-general, speaker of the House of Representatives, attorney-general and chief justice.
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