CHAPTER LIII.
WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN MANY COUNTRIES.
When Volume IV of the History of Woman Suffrage was written in 1900 four pages contained all the information that could be obtained in regard to woman suffrage outside of the United States and Great Britain and her colonies. At the time the first International Council of Women was held in Washington, in 1888, under the auspices of the National Woman Suffrage Association of the United States, Great Britain was the only other country that had an organization for this purpose. At the writing of the present volume in 1920 there are comparatively few countries in the world having a constitutional form of government where women are not enfranchised. The only two of influence in Europe are France and Italy; the others are Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Greece and Turkey. Women do not vote in Oriental countries. This is also true of Mexico, Central and South America.
FINLAND.[220]
The first country in Europe to give equal suffrage to women was Finland in 1906, when it was a Grand Duchy of Russia with its own Diet or Parliament, whose bills required the sanction of the Czar to become laws. Girls were admitted to the full privileges of the university in 1878 and in the student organization they were on a footing of perfect equality. Important positions and even places in the civic administration were open to women. As early as 1863 the Diet gave the local or Municipal vote to taxpaying women in the country and in 1872 to those in the towns, but not eligibility to office. In 1897 the Finnish Women's Association presented a petition to the Diet for full suffrage, which did not reach second reading. Its president, Baroness Alexandra Gripenberg, had attended the World's Congress of Women during the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 and become intimately acquainted with Miss Susan B. Anthony, Mrs. May Wright Sewall and other noted suffragists in the United States. In 1899 the sword of Russia descended, the constitution of Finland was wrecked and her autonomy, religion, customs, language, everything sacred was threatened.
The real movement for the full enfranchisement of women began in 1904, when bills were introduced in the Diet. In the autumn the president of the Woman's Alliance Union, Miss Annie Furuhjelm, returned from the inspiration of the great International Council of Women in Berlin and the forming of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance. With the political oppression now existing the women were feeling a strong desire to share in the responsibility for the fate of the country. Under the auspices of the Union the first public meeting for woman suffrage was held in Helsingfors on November 7, attended by more than a thousand women of all classes and all parties. Resolutions were passed that the complete suffrage should be extended to every citizen and a petition demanding it should be sent to the Diet. For the first time the Union included eligibility to office in its demands. Forty-seven addresses of sympathy signed by hundreds of women were received from different parts of the country. From this time the Union devoted all its energies to the movement for the franchise.
In another year the Russo-Japanese War was over and Russia was in the midst of a revolution. In October, 1905, the long pent-up forces of Finland broke the barriers and a "national strike" was inaugurated. Women were members of the central committee elected at a mass meeting to manage it. Those in the highest ranks of society had for the past year been members of a secret organization extending over the country raising funds, smuggling literature and daily risking their lives. For five days not a wheel turned and no work was done except under the most urgent necessity. There was perfect order and at intervals deputations of men and women went to the Russian Governor General in Helsingfors asking for the restoration of Finnish autonomy. At last the Government at St. Petersburg yielded, as all its forces were required in Russia. Meetings of women were then held in all parts of the country to elect delegates to another mass meeting in Helsingfors on December 7, where amid great enthusiasm a resolution was carried demanding full suffrage and eligibility for every citizen twenty-four years old.
On May 28, 1906, this reform was passed by the Diet without objection. It was taken to the Czar by the eminent Senator Mechelin, who assured him that the nation demanded it, and he gave his assent. The Diet consisted of four chambers—nobles, clergy, burghers (taxpayers in towns and cities) and peasants who were landowners. It was now reorganized in a single chamber of 200 members. The first election took place March 15, 16, 1907, and 19 women were chosen, among them the Baroness Gripenberg by the Old Finnish Party. Miss Furuhjelm belongs to the comparatively small National Swedish Party, which elects few candidates. She was elected in 1913 and has been continuously re-elected. Following are the numbers of women members of Parliament: 1907—19; 1908—25; 1909—21; 1910—17; 1911—14; 1913—21; 1916—24; 1917—18; 1919—17. From the beginning the women members have introduced bills for much needed reforms, for the care of children, protection of wives and mothers, benefit of working women and many for social welfare. While the Czar was in power these were all vetoed. Since then, with their small number and the great questions that have pressed upon the Parliament, they have found it difficult to secure domestic legislation but they have united with the men in passing many bills of a political nature.
In 1917 a law gave to every man and woman 21 years old Municipal suffrage, without paying taxes, and eligibility to office and a number of women have been elected to city and rural councils. The Czar had hitherto vetoed this bill. In 1919, after a period of the greatest strife and sorrow, caused by the World War, Finland severed all connection with Russia and became an independent republic. In a new constitution adopted at this time the word "citizen" was used instead of "man" and all legal disqualifications of women were removed. Both the men and women of Finland at last are free.