In December 1894, the South Australian Parliament passed a Bill granting women the right to vote and to stand for election to Parliament. Queen Victoria signed Assent for the Bill in February 1895.

South Australia was the first colony in Australia to allow women to vote, and the first place in the world where women had the right to stand for election. This 1899 cartoon depicts a woman from Victoria demanding her right to vote - but the male Conservative Party respondent is not convinced of the positive value of women gaining the vote: 'I assure you they're very unbecoming, ma'am. Just look at Miss South Australia there!'

Finnimore, Christine. Votes for South Australian women, Adelaide: Old Parliament House, 1990

Jones, Helen. In her own name: a history of women in South Australia from 1836, Kent Town, S. Aust.: Wakefield Press, 1994

Oldfield, Audrey. Woman suffrage in Australia: a gift or a struggle?, Cambridge [England]; Melbourne: Cambridge University, 1992

A Matter of Public Importance: Votes for Women [Parliament of Australia]

Documenting a democracy See: South Australia: Constitution (Female Suffrage) Act, 1895

Women & politics in South Australia [State Library of South Australia]

Women in Politics in South Australia [Parliament of South Australia]