New Zealand is cited as an early national precedent for women’s full political rights, with enfranchisement in 1893. In Simone de Beauvoir’s account, the country’s example underscores the uneven pace of women’s suffrage: New Zealand acted decades before French women acquired political power in 1945.

Place in the comparison

The reference occurs in a discussion of the long campaign for women’s political participation. While women in France continued to face arguments that voting would undermine domestic life or that they were unfit to vote, New Zealand is presented as having already granted women full rights in 1893. The contrast makes the delay in France concrete without suggesting that progress followed a uniform international timetable.

Historical significance

New Zealand’s enfranchisement functions as evidence that women’s exclusion from political rights was not inevitable. Set alongside the slower and contested campaigns in France, England, and the United States, it marks an early achievement and sharpens the contrast between a country that had extended full rights and societies where suffrage remained a disputed demand.