That sounds maybe unspectacular and obvious at first, but if you think about it a little bit longer, it´s something wonderful.
100 years ago, at the 19.01.1919, women in germany had the right to vote for the first time. 100 years, that seems short, especially when you think about the fact that men had the opportunity to vote around 1800.
The first country which had women´s suffrage was Australia in 1894, and the first european country was Finland in 1906. Even if these are the first states, 1894 and 1906 isn´t a long time ago. Women´s suffrage is something new, and the fight for it was long and exhausting. Interesting is also that Liechtenstein was the last european country in 1984, just 35 years ago.
Not to forget that there are also still a lot of countries which don´t have suffrage or democracy at all.
As you can see- it is a privileg that we- especially women- can vote. But even when there is this right, there are still a lot of persons, both, women and men who do not take the opportunity to take part at the politics of their country. We have to change that, because every vote counts, every person is important to ensure democracy and to make politic effective.
It is important that there are equal opportunities to vote, because every group of persons has special needs that the politic has to consider and everyone has to get noticed. Otherwise it is not a good working democracy in my eyes.An example for that is Germany 100 years ago, the first election with woman changed a lot in the distribution of the different parties, because the women had different needs.
So- Take your opportunity, go and vote when ever you have the chance to!
Lioba Einhoff