Did you know South Australia was the first place in the world to grant women both the right to vote AND the right to stand for parliament — and it happened partly by accident.
In 1894, the SA parliament was debating a women’s suffrage bill. The bill originally included a clause explicitly preventing women from sitting in parliament. Enter Ebenezer Ward, an MP who was opposed to women’s suffrage. He cleverly moved to strike out that exclusion clause, thinking it was so absurd that women could be MPs that the whole bill would be voted down in disgust.
His plan backfired spectacularly — the amendment was accepted, the bill passed, and South Australian women became the first in the world with full political rights (voting and standing for office). This was 1894, predating Finland (1906) and even New Zealand’s right to stand (1919).
you’re going to read every line of a 2000 page legal document?
no, you have some interns basically skim it and highly the stuff that makes you look good or is the pork for your district, and as long as that’s in there, then vote yes for it.
bills in the last two decades are overwhelmingly omnibus bills, as in one giant long document with tons of changes to the law and funding.
we don’t pass simple single-issue bills since like the 1970s
Did you know South Australia was the first place in the world to grant women both the right to vote AND the right to stand for parliament — and it happened partly by accident.
In 1894, the SA parliament was debating a women’s suffrage bill. The bill originally included a clause explicitly preventing women from sitting in parliament. Enter Ebenezer Ward, an MP who was opposed to women’s suffrage. He cleverly moved to strike out that exclusion clause, thinking it was so absurd that women could be MPs that the whole bill would be voted down in disgust.
His plan backfired spectacularly — the amendment was accepted, the bill passed, and South Australian women became the first in the world with full political rights (voting and standing for office). This was 1894, predating Finland (1906) and even New Zealand’s right to stand (1919).
It’s kinda alarming that very few people read bills
you’re going to read every line of a 2000 page legal document?
no, you have some interns basically skim it and highly the stuff that makes you look good or is the pork for your district, and as long as that’s in there, then vote yes for it.
bills in the last two decades are overwhelmingly omnibus bills, as in one giant long document with tons of changes to the law and funding.
we don’t pass simple single-issue bills since like the 1970s
Doesn’t Iceland have some form of parliament that includes everyone for a thousand years?
Who could participate in the original Althing:
Chieftains (goðar) held the real power—they controlled the agenda and made laws
Free men, particularly land-owning farmers and their dependents, could attend, speak, and vote on legal matters
Women could be present as observers but had no voting rights
Also happened before that year in France, that first in the world claim is bs
…
https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/women-s-studies-and-feminism/france-grants-suffrage-women