Canada likewise granted full suffrage to women. A bill passed the third reading on May 3d and received Royal Assent May 23d, 1918.
In Nova Scotia a bill was passed April 26th, 1919.
In South Africa Parliament accepted a Woman Suffrage Bill on April 1st, 1919, by 44 votes to 42.
When the revolution came in Russia, equal suffrage for women was accepted by the men of all parties without opposition. It has had, as Catherine Breshkovsky, the “Grandmother of the Russian Revolution,” explained, “a profound effect upon the minds of the peasant women. They used to be often beaten by their husbands. Now the idea of freedom and equal rights has taken firmer root among them. Instead of submitting to beatings from her husband the sturdy peasant woman defends herself, and sometimes she even beats him, especially if he is drunk. The fact that during the war the women have had to do every kind of work has also contributed to this sense of independence.”
When in November, 1918, the German Republic was declared, paragraph 31 of the Constitution provided that the representatives of the people be elected by all men as well as women over twenty years, and that women are eligible for all Federal and State Legislatures and municipal bodies. Under this regulation on January 19th, 1919, 36 women were elected to the Federal Parliament, and 22 to State Legislatures. Among the women elected to the Parliament were several of the most prominent leaders of the suffrage movement in Germany: Dr. Gertrud Bäumer, Dr. Käthe Schirmacher, and Dr. Alice Salomon.
In Austria the downfall of the monarchy nullified the law which forbade women to take part in political societies. The 12th of November, 1918, brought to the women universal, equal, direct, and secret suffrage and eligibility with the announcement of the republic. Seven women were elected, among them the well-known suffragist Adelheid Popp, who was also elected to the Vienna Municipal Council.
The Government of the Hungarian Republic likewise adopted a suffrage law which gives the vote to all men of 21 and to women of 24 if they can read and write. While this is not equality of the sexes yet, the government gave at the same time evidence of its profound respect for the abilities of women by taking one of the most important steps in the history of woman’s progress. It appointed Miss Rose Bédy Schwimmer, highly respected for her activity and literary works on suffrage and peace, as ambassador extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Switzerland. But the conservative members of the Federal Council of that country refused to accept a woman ambassador, and so Miss Bédy Schwimmer found it advisable to tender her resignation, a month after having accepted her difficult task.
The new republic Czecho-Slovakia as well as the newly reconstituted state of Poland at once conceded full political citizenship to their women. In Czecho-Slovakia eight, and in Poland five women were elected to the Parliaments.
In Sweden full suffrage was accorded to women May 28th, 1919, when a bill was passed by large majorities in both houses of the National Parliament, according to which every subject, man or woman, who has attained his or her twenty-third year, is qualified to vote.
In France the “Union Française pour le Suffrage des Femmes” sent on January 24th, 1919, a proclamation to the Parliament demanding that French women be given the franchise. The proclamation pointed to the fact that the right to vote had been recognized in enemy and allied countries and that therefore France should not be backward. But in spite of this on April 4th two women suffrage amendments to the Electoral Reform Bill were killed in the Chamber of Deputies. The provision making women eligible for election to the Chamber was defeated, 302 votes to 187. The vote against transmission of the right to vote to the next of kin of heads of families, without distinction of sex, was defeated 335 to 134. But on May 20th the Chamber of Deputies adopted a bill granting women the right to vote in all elections for members of the Communal and Departmental Assemblies. The vote was 377 to 97. The measure then went to the Senate.