Women's suffrage in Estonia: 1917, before the USA and France

Estonian women gained the right to vote in 1917 — before Britain, before the United States, before France. And more remarkable still: The Estonian state has never held an election in which women were not allowed to vote — women's suffrage is as old as Estonian democracy itself. It did not come as a gift, but through women's own fight.

How it happened: 1917

When the Russian tsarist empire collapsed in the February Revolution of 1917, the new authorities' promise of universal suffrage was at first ambiguous about women. Women did not wait: on 19 March (O.S.) some 40,000 women marched in Petrograd, and on the same day Tallinn held two mass gatherings — nearly 2,000 people at the Grand Marina cinema and a rally on New Market Square addressed by Marta Lepp. The pressure worked: on 30 March 1917 (O.S.) the Provisional Government confirmed regulations giving women the vote in the elections of the Estonian province's councils — the first time Estonian women held the franchise. That summer Anna Leetsmann became the first female member of the Maapäev (Provincial Assembly), and Tartu hosted the first Estonian Women's Congress. The model was Finland, where women had won the vote in 1906 — first in Europe; Estonian women demanded the same right for themselves.

The Constituent Assembly, 1919: women building the state

At the Republic of Estonia's first general election — the Constituent Assembly elections of 5–7 April 1919, in the middle of the War of Independence — women voted and were elected. Seven women won seats (nine served in total, counting the substitute members who joined later): Alma Ostra-Oinas, Emma Asson, Helmi Press-Jansen, Minni Kurs-Olesk and Marie Aul for the Social Democrats, Marie Reisik for the People's Party, Johanna Päts for the Labour Party, with Alma Ast-Ani and Anna Tõrvand-Tellmann as substitute members. They served on ten of the twenty-seven commissions — Emma Asson among others on the constitutional commission that wrote the 1920 constitution, in which equal suffrage for women and men already stood as a matter of course. Across five sessions the women gave 138 speeches; Minni Kurs-Olesk alone gave 92, above all for public education.

“Women were elected to the Constituent Assembly as representatives of the people, not as women” — Minni Kurs-Olesk

How early was it?

Finland — 1906 (first in Europe; the Estonian women's model)
Estonia — 1917, fully and permanently
Britain — 1918 partially (women over 30), fully only in 1928
United States — 1920
France — 1944
Switzerland — at the federal level only in 1971

The young Republic of Estonia stood among the world's most advanced states in women's political rights — and unlike in many old democracies, no generation of women here had to wait outside the polling station door.

Interruption and restoration

Like all of Estonian democracy, this story too was cut off in 1940, when the occupation abolished free elections altogether — voting became theatre for everyone, women and men alike. Free elections returned with the restoration of independence: the 1992 Riigikogu elections were once again ones where the vote counted — and women's right in them was the very one won in 1917, not anyone's new gift.

Sources

Feministeerium and Postimees — “Kuidas Eesti naised valimisõiguse said”; the Estonian Bar Association — “Asutav Kogu 100: naised Asutavas Kogus”; the Riigikogu — the Constituent Assembly's board and members; Women's suffrage and the Constituent Assembly elections (Estonian Wikipedia).