1791 Olympe de Gouges wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen to claim the extension to women of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, written during the French Revolution.

1792 Mary Wollstonecraft wrote The Vindication of the Rights of Women.

1859 The Englishwoman’s Journal, one of the first feminist magazines, was published. The starting of newspapers often coincided with the creation of an association. Editorial offices became the heart of the feminist struggles.

1861 After the Italian Union, the Lombard women petitioned the Chamber of Deputies to extend to the whole country the rights, from which they had benefited under the Austrian domination: that's the right to vote, exercised only by women of great wealth.

1865 In Germany a few women from the Saxe gathered to form female associations: they claimed the right, reserved to men, to talk and gather publicly.

1866 In England John Stuart Mill made a petition for the vote to women, after the refusal of the Prime Minister Gladstone. Since then started the National Society for Women’s Suffrage.

1868 Marie Goegg- Pouchoulin made a first try to organize women within the international framework of the democratic European pacifism.

1869 United States: women obtained the right to vote in the Wyoming.

1877 In Italy began the fight for the female suffrage. Anna Maria Mozzoni petitioned the Italian Parliament for the extension of vote to women. 1906 she petitioned, together with Maria Montessori and other women, the Parliament once again.

1878 In England the Married Women’s Property Act recognized, that women may dispose of their own properties and contract.

1888 A suffragist international movement is created, that's the International Council of Women. The proposal to extend the administrative vote to women was discussed, but it didn't pass.

1892 In Erfurt, the German Socialist Party proposed in its program the universal suffrage without any gender discrimination.

1893 Women obtained the right to vote in Colorado and in New Zealand.

1897 The Italian Socialist Female Movement was born.

1899 In Milan started the Women's Union, that 1905 became the National Women's Union. The first women's pacifist demonstration took place in the Hague. The most radical suffragettes, who didn't recognize themselves in the International Council, created the International Suffragist Alliance.

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1901 In Milan the Democratic Women's Group and the Female Catholic League were instituted. In Norway women got the vote, but only on a local level.

1902 The Italian Parliament passed the law n. 242 that safeguarded the work of women and children with the support of the Socialist Party led by Anna Kuliscioff.

1903 Creation of International Council of Women and International Suffragist Alliance Italian sections. Marie Curie won the Nobel Prize for Physics. In England started the Women’s Social and Political Union led by Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters Christabel and Sylvia: this association was radicalized in the struggles for suffrage.

1904 In France, in the occasion of celebrating the centenary of Napoleonic Civil Code (that had legitimated the civil ineptitude of women), Hubertine Auclert, during a feminist demonstration, tore a copy of this Code, while Caroline Kauffman released very big balloons with the following slogan: “The Code crushes women, it dishonours the Republic”.

1905 In England started the activity of suffragettes, carried on until 1917, sometimes with violence, fires, destructions and other demonstrations. In Italy women were allowed to teach in the middle-school.

1906 In Italy the struggle for the women's suffrage became more and more intense: in consequence of the petition presented by Anna Maria Mozzoni and Maria Montessori, Giolitti called the possibility to give the vote to women a “risky business”. The suffragist movement organized further pro voto Committees.

1907 The Finnish women got first the right to vote. In England the women of the Women’s Social and Political Union marched on the English Parliament. They voted in the town elections. In Italy the National Committee pro Women's Suffrage presided by Martini Marescotti.

1908 Women got the right to vote in Denmark.

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1910 The Italian feminist groups wrote a common Manifesto for the vote to women. The Washington Estate allowed women to vote.

1911 The Chinese democratic revolution ratified the access of women to schools, freedom to marry and to participate to politics.

1912 In Italy the new law on the universal (men's) suffrage passed without any amendment on the vote to women. The trade unionists Argentina Altobelli and Carlotta Clerici became members of the Labour Council at the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce. Women got the right to vote in Arizona, Kansas and Oregon.

1913 Women got the right to vote in Norway.
1914 Women got the right to vote in Iceland.

1915 During the Great War, the right to vote to women was first associated to the pacifist struggles, then it was repurposed to feminists. An English Magazine was entitled The Vote to Heroins as to Heroes after the shipwreck of the hospital ship Anglia.

1916 In the United States a little suffragist group demonstrated for months in front of the White House, chained to its gates and laying on the road, to make the President Wilson to establish definitively the women's suffrage with an amendment to the federal Constitution.

1917 In England only women over thirty were given the right to vote: it represented one half victory (or half defeat) excluding 5 out of 12 millions women. The women's suffragist movement was recognized in Russia by the revolutionary government.

1918 The American Congress passed the XIX amendment, giving the right to vote to women: in the following two years it was ratified in other 36 countries. In Germany the Council of popular delegates of the Weimar Republic established the women's suffrage: 37 female deputates were elected to the Constituent Assembly. None of the 15 English candidates was elected to the House of Commons.

1919 On 30th July in Italy The Chamber of Deputies passed the Martini-Gasparotto bill on the universal women's suffrage (first for administrative elections, then for political ones). Nevertheless the legislature ended, before the Senate could vote the bill. Women got the right to vote in Sweden.

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1921 An English magazine reported that Mussolini had said: “I will never give the vote to women… Women must only obey”.

1923 At the 9th Congress of the International Alliance for the women's suffrage Mussolini promised to women the right to vote in administrative elections.

1925 In Italy, in the Official Gazette, a law was reported on the right to vote in administrative elections only for a few categories of women (women over twenty five, the richest ones, fallen mothers or widows, women decorated with Crosses of war or medals for valour's, with parental authority, with elementary school-leaving certificate).

1926 The podestà, instituted in place of Town Councils, Committees and Auditors, gave every right to vote men and women away.

1928 In England women obtained just the same right to vote as men.

1929 Women got the right to vote in Ecuador and Mongolia.

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1930 Women got the right to vote in Brazil.

1931 Women got the right to vote in the Republic of Spain and in Uruguay.

1933 In Italy a decree authorized the public authorities to exclude or to limit the vote of women.

1934 Women got the right to vote in Chile and in Cuba.

1935 Women got the right to vote in India.

1937 Women got the right to vote in the Philippines.

1938 In Italy a decree established that the female presence in the government offices didn't go over 10%.

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1942 Women got the right to vote in Dominican Republic.

1944 Gisella Floreanini was minister of the Ossola Republic. Women got the right to vote in France.

1945 On the 30th January, the Cabinet of the Provisional Government led by Ivanoe Bonomi passed the extension of the right to vote to women. On the 1st February a decree was issued referring to it. Some women were called to the Council of State.

1946 A little before the administrative elections (the first ones for women), a decree ratified the right of women to elect and to be elected. The first female Mayors and town councillors are elected. 89% of woman voters participated to the referendum on the 2nd June to choose between monarchy and republic.  7% of candidates for the Constituent Assembly was composed of women: 21 female candidates out of  556 members were elected. Women got the right to vote in Albania, China, Japan, Yugoslavia, Panama, Romania, San Salvador.

1947 Women got the right to vote in Argentina, Burma, Bulgaria, Venezuela. The Christian democrat Maria Federici, the socialist Lina Merlin and the communist Teresa Noce and Nilde Iotti participated to the Committee of Seventy five, that had to write the new Constitution.

1948 On the 1st January came into force the Constitution of the Italian Republic. In the first Italian Parliament 45 women were called to the Chamber of Deputies and 4 women to the Senate (altogether 4,6%). The Universal Declaration of Human Rights included the gender equality principle.

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1951 Angela Cingolani Guidi was the first woman undersecretary in the Ministry of Industry and Commerce of the seventh Government led by De Gasperi. Women got the right to vote in Nepal and Pakistan.

1952 Women got the right to vote in Bolivia, Greece, Lebanon.

1953 Women got the right to vote in Mexico and Syria.

1954 Women got the right to vote in Colombia.

1955 Women got the right to vote in Ethiopia, Ghana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru, Singapore.

1956 The Federal Republic of Germany recognized the right to vote to women. Women got the right to vote in Upper Volta, Cambodia, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Guinea, Laos, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Central African Republic, Senegal, South Vietnam, Togo too.

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1960 Sirimavo Bandaranaike became Prime Minister of Ceylon (now: Sri Lanka): she remained in charge until 1965, and then from 1970 to 1977.

1963 In the fourth legislature Marisa Cinciari Rodano was elected to the House Vice-President. Women got the right to vote in Iran, Kenya, Libya, Malaysia.

1964 Women got the right to vote in Afghanistan, Iraq, Malawi, Malta and Zambia.

1966 For the first time the Prime Minister of India was a woman: Indira Ghandi. She remained in charge until 1977, and then from 1980 to 1984, when she was assassinated. Women got the right to vote in Bechuanaland, Guyana, Lesotho.

1967 In America  the National Organization of Women (NOW) was instituted.

1969 Golda Meir was the Prime Minister of Israel. She remained in charge until 1974.

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1971 In Switzerland women got the right to vote, except in the Appenzello district.

1974 In Italy a referendum confirmed the right to divorce: 58% of voters wanted to maintain this law. The widow of the Argentine President Peron, Isabel, became President too.

1975 Assembly for the International Women's Year in Mexico City. The UN called the 1975-1985 decade the “Women's Decade”. Elisabeth Domitien became First Minister of the Central African Republic.

1976 Tina Anselmi, appointed Minister of Labour, was the first woman Minister in Italy.

1978 Margaret Thatcher became the new English Premier: she was the only one of the 20th century who was confirmed three times as Head of Government.

1979 Nilde Iotti was elected Prime Minister. UN Convention to remove every kind of discriminations against women. Election for the first European Parliament: 10 Italian women out of 61 women elected on the whole.

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1980 The 2nd General Assembly of UN for the "Women's Decade" took place in Copenhagen.

1981 A referendum confirmed the right to terminate a pregnancy of his own free will. The European Parliament passed a very wide resolution on the women's rights.

1982 Alva Myrdal, the Swedish Minister for Disarmament got the Nobel Peace Price.

1983 In Italy a national Committee was instituted for the fair treatment and equal employment opportunities between men and women.

1984 In Italy a National Committee, presided by Elena Marinucci, was instituted at the Presidency of Ministers' Council for the Equality and the Equal Opportunities between men and women.

1985 Final UN General Assembly for the “Women's Decade”. The government of the Norwegian Gro Harlem Brundtlan, leader of Labour Party, was composed half of men half of women. It represented an exception to the overall overview on the several parliaments in Europe and in the world: nowhere women had reached the same percent as men.

1986 Corazon Aquino became President of the Philippines.

1987 The women of PCI launched the Women's Charter, managing to bring a third of PCI women candidates into the Parliament (53 to the Chamber of Deputies, 10 to the Senate), so that the whole percent went over 10%. The Green Party presented an equal percent of men and women, and its decision-making bodies were mostly composed of women. In Iceland the Women's Party, the only instance of a feminist party, reach 10% of votes.

1988 Rita Sussmuth was appointed President of the German Bundestag. Benazir Bhutto was the first Prime Minister of Pakistan and, above all, the first woman at the head of a Muslim country.

1989 Tina Anselmi was elected to the Presidency of the National Committee for Equality. In France, Catherine Trautmann was the first woman ruling a town (Strasbourg) with over 100 thousands inhabitants.

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1990 Mary Robinson became President of Ireland, Violeta Chamorro of Nicaragua. Carmen Lawrence was the first woman Premier of an Australian Country, that's the Western Australia.

1991 The affirmative actions, starting in the U.S.A. from the awareness, that neutral procedures are discriminating the weakest people, came officially to Italy with the law n.125 passed on 10th April 1991: this law was on the actions to perform to reach the gender equality. The socialist Edith Cresson was the first woman Prime Minister of France. Khaleda Zia became Prime Minister in Bangladesh. Rita Johnson was appointed Premier in the Canadian State of British Columbia.

1992 Hanna Suchocka was the first woman at the head of government in Poland.

1994 The new electoral laws introduced the alternation of men and women in the proportional representation lists of candidates to the Chamber (L. 277/93). Besides, the ratio of men to women was two to one for the regional (L. 45/95) and administrative elections (L. 81/93): all these measures were abrogated later by a sentence of the Constitutional Court in 1995. The rate of female candidates elected in those political election has still been the highest: 13% (but 52% of female voters). Irene Pivetti was elected to the Presidency of the Chamber of Deputies. Emma Bonino was the first Italian woman elected to the European Committee. Letizia Moratti became President of Italian public service channel (RAI). Tina Lagostena Bassi was the new President of the National Committee for Equality.

1995 Susanna Agnelli was the first woman Minister for Foreign Affairs. The UN General Assembly in Peking ratified the priority to give to mainstreaming and empowerment processes for women all over the world, and passed an Action Program establishing the guidelines of the actions to perform for the gender equality among political institutions' members. Fernanda Contri was the first woman elected to Constitutional Court. Livia Turco was the President of the National Committee for Equality. Emma Marcecaglia was appointed President of Young Industrialists.

1996 The Prodi Government appointed three women Ministers and eight women undersecretaries. The Pair Opportunities Ministry was created and assigned to Anna Finocchiaro. Silvia Costa was appointed President of the National Committee for Equality. The Law n. 66 was passed classifying the sexual assault crime as crime against human beings, and not only against morals as the previous regulation declared.

1997 The 15 member countries of the European Union signed the Treaty of Amsterdam, forbidding explicitly every kind of gender discrimination and asserting the principle of equality between men and women. The Italian Government issued the Prodi-Finocchiaro directive: it promotes the attribution of power and responsibilities to women, it recognized and granted freedom of choice equally to men and women.

1998 The D’Alema government elected for the first time a woman, Rosa Russo Jervolino, to the Ministry of the Interior, and other five ministries were assigned to women.

1999 The reform on the public finance of parties introduced the following clause: every party must set aside a part of refunds, at least 5%, for initiatives increasing the active participation of women to politics. Grazia Francescato was appointed spokeswoman of the Green Party. In France, as Jospin led the government, an important constitutional reform passed establishing that “the French Law supported an equal admission of men and women to the electoral mandates and offices” (art. 3), and that “political parties must contribute to put the equality principles into action” (art. 4). At the moment two bills are discussed at the French Parliament, that support an equal admission of men and women to the electoral mandates and offices on a local, national and European level.

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2000 In February, the social democratic Tarja Halonen has been appointed President of Republic of Finland. In June an UN General Assembly's Special Session dedicated to women has taken place in New York.

2003 The Italian Parliament has passed the amendment to the first paragraph of the art. 51 of the Constitution: it adds a sentence that ratifies the duty for institutions to perform activities increasing the active participation of women to politics. In France a law is passed providing candidates' lists with a fixed alternation of men and women (only for elections with proportional representation) and wages' cut for parties that have lists with less than 50% candidates (for majority system elections). Shirin Ebadi, Iranian, 56 years old, wins the Nobel Peace Price. Not very well known abroad, Shirin Ebadi has become a symbol of peaceful resistance and the support to weak people in Iran. Judge until 1979, as the revolution led by Khomeini forbade women to be judges, defended a lot of political dissidents sustaining that Islam and human rights have real chances to live together.