Introduction

The Meaning of the Term “Universal Suffrage”

The term, “Universal Suffrage,” is being used in this booklet as a synonym for “Democracy.” Historically the term referred to any form of “individual suffrage” as opposed to “representational suffrage.” Even though the women’s rights movement of the 1800’s was one form of universal suffrage, the term goes far beyond women’s rights. For example, in Indiana’s Constitutional debates in 1850, Mr. Kelso remarked:

According to our general understanding of the right of universal suffrage, I have no objection… but if it be the intention of the mover of the resolution to extend the right of suffrage to females and negroes, I am against it. “All free white male citizens over the age of twenty-one years,” – I understand this language to be the measure of universal suffrage.

Modern minds are immediately focused on the outrage of Mr. Kelso’s racist words, but they fail to see that he was advocating something revolutionary in American politics. We might wonder how expanding the vote to “all white male citizens over the age of twenty-one years” would constitute universal suffrage, let alone be considered revolutionary, yet he was indeed promoting a form of universal suffrage that America’s founding fathers argued vigorously against. “Why!?” we might ask. Because the founding fathers found democracy far more dangerous than a monarchy. They opted for a very limited form of suffrage found in a republic. So what is the difference between a democracy and a republic?

A democracy is not a nation in which every citizen votes. All forms of government limit the vote. For example, Australia is a democracy, yet it keeps the vote away from citizens who are under the age of 18, who are mentally handicapped, or who have committed felony crimes. Almost all democracies have such limitations. They also limit the vote to citizens and deny the vote to long-term residents who are not citizens. The difference between a democracy and a republic is not primarily in how many people can vote. Most early democracies only recognized a male vote. The difference can be summarized partially in the following two contrasts:

• A democracy is a nation of individuals in relationship with a government. A republic is a nation of governments (whether family or state) in relationship with a government.
• A democracy can override minority rights by a majority vote. A republic recognizes rights that can never be changed by any vote. John Adams captured this contrast in these words: “…rights [are] antecedent to all earthly governments - rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws - rights derived from the Great Legislator of the Universe.”¹

For example, in early America, United States Senators were chosen by the State Legislatures (a lower government), not by the citizens. This was representational government in which a lower government elected someone to represent it. State Legislatures were elected by men who represented families (a lower government), not simply individuals. All citizens are protected from the government by the limitations of the constitution. As we will see in this booklet, the differences between an individualistic approach to suffrage and a representational approach has profound ramifications.

Universal Suffrage in a congregation or in a state is a fairly recent phenomenon.² Though the Arminians of Holland toyed with this practice,³ and though strong advocates for women’s suffrage could be found in the 1800’s, it was not until the 1900’s that there was any significant movement toward universal suffrage in either church or state.

History in the United States of America

It is well known that early American states denied the vote to women, slaves, and children. What is not quite so well known is that the vote was denied to most men. Though the conditions for voting varied from state to state, it was clear that there was strong prejudice against democracy. Indeed, democracy was feared more than the monarchy. Many essays vilified democracy as mob rule. Thus, citizens were encouraged to improve themselves before they were given the right to vote. There were several requirements in some states, including the ability to read and write, sufficient income to pay taxes, and (in the early years) even church membership. The most common qualification was that a citizen must own property. The following quote from John Adams, gives a little insight into the 18^th century mind.

The same reasoning which will induce you to admit all men who have no property, to vote, with those who have, … will prove that you ought to admit women and children; for, generally speaking, women and children have as good judgments, and as independent minds, as those men who are wholly destitute of property; these last being to all intents and purposes as much dependent upon others, who will please to feed, clothe, and employ them, as women are upon their husbands, or children on their parents… Depend upon it, Sir, it is dangerous to open so fruitful a source of controversy and altercation as would be opened by attempting to alter the qualifications of voters; there will be no end of it. New claims will arise; women will demand the vote; lads from twelve to twenty-one will think their rights not enough attended to; and every man who has a farthing, will demand an equal voice with any other, in all acts of state. It tends to confound and destroy all distinctions, and prostrate all ranks to one common level.⁴

John Adams’ view predominated, and the newly crafted Constitution did not change the vote, but allowed states to continue the qualifications already being practiced. However, there were steady changes in the laws for voting in the century that followed. The property requirement was eliminated by Delaware in 1792 with other states gradually following, but it was not until 1850 that Virginia became the last state to overturn a property holding requirement for all voters.

Angelina Grimké made history on February 21, 1838, as being the first woman to address any legislative body in America when she spoke to the Massachusetts legislature about the abolition of slavery. What makes this date stand out in feminist history books is that in 1838, no church in America except the Quakers allowed women to speak in church or to vote in church.⁵ However, there was a growing opinion that this should change. John Quincy Adams gave a speech in that same year that advocated women’s suffrage.⁶ The American Suffrage movement for women began at a convention in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. Numerous women’s rights movements sprang up in the years immediately following. The first woman pastor in a mainline denomination was Antoinette Louisa Brown Blackwell, who was ordained to office in the First Congregational Church of Butler and Savannah, in Wayne County New York on September 15, 1853.⁷ This event created a great deal of concern within the denomination, but the movement toward feminism had gained a foothold.

In 1860, some radical feminists in New York asserted that “In the church, too, behold the spirit of freedom at work. Within the past year, the very altar has been the scene of well-fought battles; women claiming and exercising their right to vote in church matters, in defiance of precedent, priest, or Paul.”⁸ Though permission to vote was sporadic and only on a congregational level in most cases, there was a growing momentum. In 1869, both Wyoming Territory and Utah Territory extended equal suffrage to women. However, Utah’s act was revoked by the United States Congress in the Edmunds-Tucker Act of 1887.

Both state and church seemed to wrestle with feminism at the same time. Anna Howard Shaw became the first woman preacher in the Methodist Church in 1880. More and more local churches began to allow women to vote before the 1900’s, but it was from 1902 and on that the feminist arguments for suffrage began to become deeply entrenched. The International Woman Suffrage Alliance formed in 1902. In 1920 the nineteenth amendment to the US Constitution was ratified. Though many denominations in America resisted this feminist movement, it was not long before a majority of denominations gave women the vote.

History in Britain & Europe

In England, the Church League for Women’s Suffrage was founded in 1909 by a Rev. Claude and Mrs. Hinscliffe in order to “band together, on a non-party basis, Suffragists of every shade of opinion who are Church people in order to secure for women the vote in Church and State, as it is or may be granted to men.” That same year, “A Declaration of Representative Men in Favour of Women’s Suffrage” was issued by the League and was signed by 83 office holders, 49 church leaders, 24 high ranking army and naval officers, and 86 academics.⁹ This organization became more and more militant, engaging in arson¹⁰ demonstrations, petitions, disruption of public meetings, and intimidation in order to accomplish its purposes. After World War I it was renamed The League of the Church Militant.

Numerous other women’s suffrage organizations sprang up in the early 1900’s. There was the Scottish Federation of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies in 1909, followed by the Scottish Church’s League for Woman’s Suffrage in 1912. The Men’s International Alliance for Woman’s Suffrage (founded 1912) developed chapters in Holland, France, Hungary, the United States, Sweden, Germany, and Denmark.

The following timeline shows the advance of feminism in various countries on the issue of the vote.¹¹

* Right subject to conditions or restrictions.

** Restrictions or conditions lifted.

• 1893 - New Zealand (to vote)
• 1894 - South Australia (to Vote and stand for election)
• 1902 - Commonwealth of Australia* (to vote and stand for election)
• 1906 - Finland
• 1907 - Norway (to stand for election)*
• 1913 - Norway**
• 1915 - Denmark, Iceland*
• 1917 - Canada* (to vote)*, Netherlands (to stand for election)
• 1918 - Austria, Canada* (to vote), Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Ireland*, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russian Federation, United Kingdom
• 1919 - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium (to vote for municipal elections), Georgia, Luxembourg, Netherlands (to vote), New Zealand (to stand for election), Sweden*, Ukraine
• 1920 - Albania, Canada* (to stand for election)*, Czech Republic, Iceland², Slovakia, United States of America* (to vote)
• 1921 - Belgium (to stand for election)*, Sweden**
• 1922 - Irish Free State
• 1924 - Kazakhstan*, Mongolia, Saint Lucia, Tajikistan
• 1927 - Turkey
• 1928 - United Kingdom**
• 1929 - Ecuador*, Romania*
• 1930 - South Africa* (Whites), Turkey (to vote), Greece (to vote for municipal elections)
• 1931 - Chile*, Portugal*, Spain, Sri Lanka
• 1932 - Thailand (with first constitutional monarchy), Brazil, Maldives, Uruguay
• 1934 - Cuba, Portugal, Turkey (to stand for election)
• 1935 - Myanmar (to vote)
• 1937 - Philippines
• 1938 - Bolivia*, Uzbekistan
• 1939 - El Salvador (to vote)
• 1941 - Panama*
• 1942 - Dominican Republic
• 1944 - Bulgaria, France, Jamaica
• 1945 - Croatia, Guyana (to stand for election), Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Senegal, Slovenia, Togo
• 1946 - Cameroon, D.P.R. of Korea, Djibouti (to vote), Guatemala, Liberia, Myanmar (to stand for election), Panama**, Romania**, The F.Y.R. of Macedonia, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Vietnam, Serbia, Montenegro
• 1947 - Argentina, Japan, Malta, Mexico (to vote), Pakistan, Singapore
• 1948 - Belgium**, Israel (same year of independence), Niger, Republic of Korea, Seychelles, Suriname
• 1949 - Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chile**, China, Costa Rica, Syria (to vote)
• 1950 - Barbados, Canada (to vote)**, Haiti, India
• 1951 - Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Nepal, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
• 1952 - Bolivia**, Côte d’Ivoire, Greece, Lebanon
• 1953 - Bhutan, Guyana (to vote), Mexico (to stand for election), Syria**
• 1954 - Colombia, Belize, Ghana
• 1955 - Cambodia, Ethiopia (and Eritrea, as then part of Ethiopia), Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru, Greece
• 1956 - Benin, Comoros, Egypt, Gabon, Mali, Mauritius, Somalia
• 1957 - Malaysia, Zimbabwe (to vote)**
• 1958 - Burkina Faso, Chad, Guinea, Lao P.D.R., Nigeria (South)
• 1959 - Madagascar, San Marino (to vote), Tunisia, United Republic of Tanzania
• 1960 - Canada (Indian Canadians - to stand for election)**, Cyprus, Gambia, Tonga
• 1961 - Bahamas*, Burundi, El Salvador (to stand for election), Malawi, Mauritania, Paraguay, Rwanda, Sierra Leone
• 1962 - Algeria, Australia (aboriginals), Monaco, Uganda, Zambia
• 1963 - Afghanistan, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Fiji, Iran, Kenya, Morocco, Papua New Guinea (to stand for election)
• 1964 - Bahamas**, Libya, Papua New Guinea (to vote), Sudan
• 1965 - Botswana, Lesotho
• 1967 - Democratic Republic of the Congo (to vote), Ecuador**, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Yemen (D.P.R.)
• 1968 - Nauru, Swaziland
• 1970 - Andorra (to vote), Democratic Republic of the Congo (to stand for election), Yemen (Arab Republic)*
• 1971 - Switzerland*
• 1972 - Bangladesh
• 1973 - Andorra (to stand for election), San Marino (to stand for election)
• 1974 - Jordan, Solomon Islands
• 1975 - Angola, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe, Vanuatu*
• 1976 - Portugal**
• 1977 - Guinea Bissau
• 1978 - Nigeria* (North), Republic of Moldova, Zimbabwe (to stand for election)
• 1979 - Marshall Islands, Micronesia (Fed. States), Palau
• 1980 - Iraq, Vanuatu*
• 1984 - Liechtenstein, South Africa* (Coloureds + Indians)
• 1986 - Central African Republic, Djibouti (to stand for election)
• 1989 - Namibia
• 1990 - Samoa, Switzerland*
• 1993 - Kazakhstan*, Republic of Moldova*
• 1994 - South Africa* (Blacks)
• 1997 - Qatar*, Eritrea* (stipulated by sovereign constitution)
• 2002 - Bahrain
• 2003 - Oman
• 2005 - Kuwait
• 2006 - United Arab Emirates*
• 2007 - Qatar*