Women are celebrating 102 years of voting and holding public office

    Thursday, 4 April 2024 12:00

    By Tonya Organ

    The first general election in which women were able to participate occurred in 1928.

    Women gained the right to vote and hold public office for the first time 102 years ago in what was then known as the  Dominion of Newfoundland. This was made possible after years of campaigning by suffragists, who worked tirelessly to make their voices heard and their votes count. The first general election in which women were able to participate occurred in 1928. In that election, 90 percent of eligible women voters cast ballots. Leading the Newfoundland suffrage movement in the 1920s was Armine Nutting Gosling, a pioneer in social reform and feminism. In 2023, PerSIStence Theatre Company started the Raise Her Up fundraising campaign to have a statue of Gosling erected in St. John’s.

     

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