On September 19, 1893, New Zealand became the first self-governing country in the world to grant all women the right to vote in parliamentary elections. The achievement was the culmination of years of campaigning led by Kate Sheppard and the Women's Christian Temperance Union, who gathered a petition of nearly 32,000 signatures — roughly a quarter of the adult female population. The victory inspired suffrage movements worldwide and established New Zealand as a pioneer in democratic rights. Women's suffrage would take decades longer in other nations — the United States in 1920, the United Kingdom in 1928, France in 1944, and Switzerland not until 1971.
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