Page:History of Woman Suffrage Volume 6.djvu/795

 WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN MANY COUNTRIES 779 ICELAND. Iceland was a dependency of Denmark with its own Parliament, the Althing. In 1881 a bill was passed, presented by Skuli Thorvoddsen, a member and an editor, giving to widows and spinsters who were householders or maintained a family or were self-supporting, a vote for parish and town councils, district boards and vestries, at the age of 25, which became law in 1882. In 1895 the Woman's Alliance was formed and a petition of 3,000 women was collected and sent to the Althing asking it to consider suffrage for married women and increased property rights, which it ignored. In 1906 Mrs. Briet Asmundsson, the leader of the woman's movement, attended the congress of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance in Copenhagen, and, returning to Reykjavik, the capital, organized in January, 1907, the Association for Women's Rights. In four months 12,000 signatures had been obtained to a petition for full suffrage for ( >inen and eligibility to all offices. Mr. Thorvoddsen introduced the bill, which was not considered, but one was passed giving the Municipal franchise and eligibility to all women in the Reykjavik and one other district, which became law Jan. i, 1908. The asso- ciation carried on a vigorous campaign and four women were elected to the council of Reykjavik. Its president then made a two months' tour of the country and organized five branches. At all political meetings the women had resolutions presented for equal suffrage and eligibility, which were usually carried unani- mously. On April 15 a law was passed extending Municipal suffrage and eligibility to all women. In 1911 women were made eligible to all State offices, including those of the church, and a constitutional amendment was passed granting the complete franchise. It had to pass a second Althing and political questions arose which were all absorbing until 1914. Then the amendment passed but a compromise had to be made fixing the age for women at 40, to be lowered annually, under much protest, but Premier Eggers refused to submit it to the King of Denmark for his sanction. It had to wait until another took the office and finally nc<l June 19, i<)i 5, two weeks after the women of Denmark were fully enfranchised. In 1918 a