52 Films by Women Vol 3. 13. THE DIVINE ORDER (Director: Petra Volpe)
Switzerland was late in giving women the right to vote. This was only achieved in 1971 following a public referendum. In other countries female suffrage was achieved through Act of Parliament. The first country to give women the right to vote was New Zealand in 1893. This was followed by Australia in 1902 (though not, sadly Aborigines until 1962), Finland in 1906 and Norway in 1913. The UK offered women with land the right to vote in 1918, before universal suffrage was declared in 1928. American women got the right to vote in 1920. In France, the land of liberty, fraternity and equality, women got the right to vote in April 1944. Even in Pakistan, women got the vote in 1947, reaffirmed in 1956, when elections took place. Why in Switzerland did it take so long? The country had something called direct democracy, which is to say, that if you pass a law and people weren’t very happy about it, you could amass 50,000 signatures and compel a referendum. The people – that is, up unti...