Suffrage celebrants in New Zealand, please move over!

As New Zealand celebrates its 120th anniversary of women voting, the awareness of a contender is putting suffrage centennials on notice. Those in New Zealand’s government take the 120th anniversary seriously with special events and programming. However, the Pacific island of Pitcairn claims the position of the first country granting women the right to vote 175 years ago in 1838. So women’s suffrage fans, take note. It boils down to the definition of “country,” as to which nation holds the distinction of being the first. Pitcairn claims that being a territory of the UK still entitles it to be called a country. And on November 29th they held their suffrage celebration with the men of the island preparing a feast for the women while greetings and best wishes poured in from all over the world. Pitcairn has 19 women and 17 men of voting age. Most of the island’s inhabitants are descendants of sailors who staged a mutiny on a British ship in 1789.