Timeline of women's suffrage liberty between 1718 and 1772. The Australian Commonwealth Franchise Act of 1902 enabled women to vote at federal elections and also permitted women to stand for election to the Australian Parliament, making the newly-federated country of Australia the first in the modern world to do so. In 1906, the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland, which became the republic of Finland, was the second country in the world to implement both the right to vote and the right to run for office. Finland was also the first country in Europe to give women the right to vote. The world's first female
Women in the military by country to allow women to serve on its submarines. Australia was the fourth country to permit female crew on submarines, doing so in June 1998 on board Collins class submarines. Australia's first deployment of female sailors in a combat zone was aboard HMAS "Westralia" in the Persian Gulf during the 1991 Gulf War. On 27 September 2011, Defence Minister Stephen Smith announced that women will be allowed to serve in frontline combat roles by 2016. In 1992, allegations of alleged sexual harassment on board HMAS "Swan" were investigated, and in 1998 similar allegations arose in the Australian Defence Force Academy. Bangladesh