In 1951-58, a suffrage campaign had been managed by the
Women's Suffrage Movement, and a first petition was presented to the
House of Assembly in 1952. In 1958, a second suffrage petition was presented to the House of Assembly of Barbados via Sir
Gerald Cash. In September 1958 the Bahamian women's groups of were united under the
umbrella organization National Women's Council, which was founded by
Doris Johnson with
Erma Grant Smith as President and the wife of Sir Dudley Russell as deputy chair, and took women's suffrage as their main issue. The same year, the suffrage reform was given support by the
Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), and on 19 January 1959 Dame Doris Johnson held a famous speech to the Assembly in favor of the suffrage reform. In 1960, the
United Bahamian Party (UBP) under the influential Conservative Sir
Stafford Sands finally supported the reform with 63 votes against 2. Thereby, the two biggest parties on Tha Bahamas had given their support to the reform, and the suffrage bill could be passed in 1961, given Bahamian women the vote.
Janet Bostwick became the first female MP in 1977. ==References==