Women's rights

The term Women’s rights refers to the freedoms inherently possessed by women and girls of all ages, which may be institutionalized, ignored or suppressed by law, custom, and behavior in a particular society. These liberties are grouped together and differentiated from broader notions of human rights because they often differ from the freedoms inherently possessed by or recognized for men and boys, and because activism surrounding this issue claims an inherent historical and traditional bias against the exercise of rights by women.

Issues commonly associated with notions of women's rights include, though are not limited to, the right: to bodily integrity and autonomy; to vote (universal suffrage); to hold public office; to work; to fair wages or equal pay; to own property; to education; to serve in the military; to enter into legal contracts; and to have marital, parental and religious rights. Women and their supporters have campaigned and in some places continue to campaigned for the same rights as modern men.

Historical background

This illustration, from a medieval translation of Euclid's Elements, (c.1310), is noteworthy in showing a woman teaching geometry to male students

Most early peoples considered women to be inferior to, or less than, men. Through laws and mythology (stories describing beliefs), the view that women were weak was passed on from one generation to the next. However, some ancient civilizations knew powerful women. For example, Queen Hatshepsut ruled Egypt as a mighty pharaoh in the 15th century BC.

As time progressed, most women still enjoyed few, if any, rights. Their futures tended to be tied to the fortunes of their husbands or other male relatives. Yet even in periods dominated by men, some women became extraordinary leaders. For example, Queen Elizabeth I ruled England for 45 years, beginning in 1558. She became so influential that the era was named for her; during the Elizabethan Age, England emerged as a world power. Similarly Catherine the Great ruled over 18th-century Russia.

During the late 1700s, in a time called the Enlightenment, or the Age of Reason, some free-thinking women began planting the seeds of change. For example, in 1792 English author Mary Wollstonecraft wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. She boldly proposed that women receive the same opportunities as men in education, work, and politics.

See also: Legal rights of women in history

Suffrage, the right to vote

Main article: Women's suffrage

The ideas that were planted in the late 1700s took root during the 1800s. Women knew that if they were going to change society they must win the right to vote. In this way they could participate in government and, in so doing, influence policies and laws.

United States

Main article: History of women's suffrage in the United States

American women advocated women's right to vote from the 1820s onward. These was achieved in the territories of Wyoming (1869) and Utah (1870), although Utah women were disenfranchised by the U.S. Congress in 1887. The push to grant Utah women's suffrage was at least partially fueled by outsiders' belief that, given the right to vote, Utah women would dispose of polygamy. It was only after Utah women exercised their suffrage rights in favor of polygamy that the U.S. Congress disenfranchised Utah women. Other territories and states granted women the right to vote in the late 19th and early 20th century, but national women's suffrage did not come until the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified in 1920.

Great Britain

In Great Britain, women reformers were divided into two groups — the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies and the Women's Social and Political Union. Leaders in the struggle were the radical Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughter Christabel. Their fight also proved slow and frustrating. In 1918 the British Parliament finally passed a bill allowing women over the age of 30 to vote. In 1928 the age limit was lowered to 21.

See also: Women in the Victorian Era

Other countries

In some nations women were granted full voting rights earlier than in the United States and Britain. Women won the right to vote in New Zealand in 1893, Australia in 1902, and Finland in 1906. But many other nations proved much slower to change. For example, women in France were not given voting rights until 1944. However, in some of these countries only women in the ruling population were able to vote at first. For example, Aboriginal women in Australia were not allowed to vote until they became citizens in 1967. Today women in some conservative Arab countries still do not have the right to vote.

See also: Third-world_feminism

The modern movement

See also: Reproductive rights

In the 1960s women's rights again became an important issue in the United States. Now the movement was called “feminism” or “women's liberation.” Reformers wanted the same pay as men, an equal rights amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and the freedom to plan their families or not have children at all. Their efforts were met with mixed results.

In 1966 the National Organization of Women (NOW) was created with the purpose of bringing about equality for all women. NOW was one important group that fought for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). This amendment stated that “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of sex.” But there was disagreement on how the proposed amendment would be understood. Supporters believed it would guarantee women equal treatment. But critics feared it might deny women the right be financially supported by their husbands. The amendment died in 1982 because not enough states had ratified it. ERAs have been included in subsequent Congressses, but have still failed to be ratified.

In the last three decades of the 20th century, American women knew a new freedom: medical advances helped them control if and when they would have children. Called birth control, this enabled women to plan their adult lives, often making way for both career and family. The movement had been started in the 1910s by pioneering social reformer Margaret Sanger.

Over the course of the 20th century women took on a greater role in society. For example, many women served in the U.S. government — some as senators and others as members of the President's Cabinet. Many women took advantage of opportunities to become educated. In the United States at the beginning of the 20th century less than 20 percent of all college degrees were earned by women. By the end of the century this figure had risen to about 50 percent.

Opportunities also expanded in the workplace. Fields such as medicine, law, and science opened to include more women. At the beginning of the 20th century about 5 percent of the doctors in the United States were women. As of 1998, 23 percent of all doctors were women, and today, women make up more than 50 percent of the medical student population. While the numbers of women in these fields increased, many women still continued to hold clerical, factory, retail, or service jobs. For example, they worked as office assistants, on assembly lines, or as cooks.

The United Nations and Women's rights

In 1946 the United Nations established a Commission on the Status of Women. Originally as the Section on the Status of Women, Human Rights Division, Department of Social Affairs, and now part of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). In 1948 the UN issued its Universal Declaration of Human Rights which protects "the equal rights of men and women", and addressed both the equality and equity issues. Since 1975 the UN has held a series of world conferences on women's issues, starting with the World Conference of the International Women's Year in Mexico City. These conferences created an international forum for women's rights, but also illustrated divisions between women of different cultures and the difficulties of attempting to apply principles universally Emerging from the 1985 Nairobi conference was a realization that feminism is not monolithic but "constitutes the political expression of the concerns and interests of women from different regions, classes, nationalities, and ethnic backgrounds. There is and must be a diversity of feminisms, responsive to the different needs and concerns of women, and defined by them for themselves. This diversity builds on a common opposition to gender oppression and hierarchy which, however, is only the first step in articulating and acting upon a political agenda." At the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, The Platform for Action was signed. This included a commitment to achieve "gender equality and the empowerment of women".

Notable women’s rights activists

See: List of women's rights activists; List of suffragists and suffragettes

See also

• Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
• National American Woman Suffrage Association
• League of Women Voters
• Canadian Women's Suffrage Association
• National Woman's Suffrage Association
• Pregnant patients' rights

External links

• UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
• Human Rights Watch: Women's Rights
• World Organization Against Torture: No Violence Against Women