February's decisive election victory of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s first woman leader, and her party is historic. That victory was a fitting prelude to March, which is Women’s History Month, featuring International Women’s Day on March 8. The past century — a period of extraordinarily costly global conflict and war — has also been a time of unprecedented human progress and positive development. The proliferation of women in business, government and other sectors of society has been a driver as well as a reflection of extraordinary human advancement. These developments deserve attention at any time, but especially at the present, a strangely uncertain time in history. Key to this progress has been the power of the vote, which in turn has led to other progress. You may be surprised to learn that the first self-governing nation to introduce universal suffrage was New Zealand, in 1893. Reform leader Kate Sheppard spearheaded the remarkably successful movement that secured passage of the Electoral Act shortly before national elections on Nov. 28 of that year. Significantly