Women's
suffrage in Asia
In
India, Sarojini
Naidu headed a deputation of the Women's India Association,
which met with the British viceroy to demand the vote in 1919. The
Indian National Congress supported woman suffrage. In 1950, soon after
Indian independence, women were granted the vote.
Ichiwaka Fusae
and other women activists established Fusen Kakutou Domei ("Women's
Suffrage League") in 1924 in Japan. They succeeded in gaining
the right to organize and attend political meetings, from which they
had previously been barred. In the 1920s one of the two major political
parties supported woman suffrage. The Japanese military took control
of the country in the 1930s and quashed all democratic movements,
including the movement for woman suffrage. After the Allied nations
defeated Japan in 1945, Japanese feminists and women staff officers
of the Allied Occupation cooperated in proposing that the new Japanese
constitution should enfranchise women. They hoped that women would
use the ballot to make the Japanese nation less warlike, and that
women would raise their children to believe in peace and democracy.
In
the Philippines, women was allowed to vote in 1937. This was during
the Commonwealth period under the American rule. However, several
Filipinas have been actively engaging in networking with other women
sufraggists from all over the world. For instance, Clemencia
Lopez delivered a speech at the annual meeting of the New
England Woman Suffrage Association on May 29, 1902. Other notable
Filipina suffragists are Concepcion Felix de Calderon who formed the
Asociacion Feminista Filipina in June 1905, Rosa Sevilla de Alvero
and a young Trinidad Almeda, Miss Constancia Poblete, founder of Liga
Femenina de la Paz, Pura Villanueva Kalaw and Paz Mendoza Guazon,
Pilar Hidalgo Lim, President of the National Federation of Women’s
Clubs and Josefa Llanes Escoda, president of the Girl Scouts of the
Philippines. Province-based women were represented by Maria C. Manzano
of Pangasinan.
In
China woman suffrage was granted only after establishment of the People's
Republic of China in 1949.
Sources:
Encyclopedia
Americana
Women
of the Philippines by Clemencia Lopez
Mabuhay
ang Filipina! Mabuhay ang Kalayaan! A
Celebration of Herstory: Women in Legislation, Women in Politics
