History of women rights

History of women's rights in all over the world

Ancient cultures

While in many ancient cultures males seem to have dominated, there are some exceptions. For instance in the Nigerian, Aka culture women may hunt, even on their own, and often control distribution of resources. Ancient Egypt had female rulers, such as clopath.

China:

The status of women in China was low, largely due to the custom of foot binding . About 45% of Chinese women had bound feet in the 19th century. For the upper classes, it was almost 100%. In 1912, the Chinese government ordered the cessation of foot-binding. Foot-binding involved alteration of the bone structure so that the feet were only about 4 inches long. The bound feet caused difficulty of movement, thus greatly limiting the activities of women rights.
Due to the social custom that men and women should not be near to one another, the women of China were reluctant to be treated by male doctors of Western Medicine. This resulted in a tremendous need for female doctors of Western Medicine in China. Thus, female medical missionary Dr. Mary H. Fulton ( was sent by the Foreign Missions Board of the Presbyterian Church (USA) to found the first medical college for women in China. Known as the Hackett Medical College for Women this College was located in Guangzhou, China, and was enabled by a large donation from Mr. Edward A.K. Hackett (1851-1916) of Indiana, USA. The College was aimed at the spreading of Christianity and modern medicine and the elevation of Chinese women's social status.

Greece:

The status of women in ancient Greece varied form city state to city state. Records exist of women in ancient delphi, Gortyn, Thessaly, megara and sparta a owning land, the most prestigious form of privat propety at the time.
In ancitent athencwomen had no legal personhood and were assumed to be part of the oikos headed by the male kyiros. Until marriage, women were under the guardianship of their father or other male relative, once married the husband became a woman’s kyrios. As women were barred from conducting legal proceedings, the kyrios would do so on their behalf. Athenian women had limited rights to property and therefore were not considered full citizens, as citizenship and the entitlement to civil and political rights was defined in relation to property and the means to life.However, women could acquire rights over property through gifts, dowry and inheritance, though her kyrios had the right to dispose of a woman’s property. Athenian women could enter into a contract worth less than the value of a “mediomns of barley” (a measure of grain), allowing women to engage in petty trading. Slaves, like women, were not eligible for full citizenship in ancient Athens, though in rare circumstances they could become citizens if freed. The only permanent barrier to citizenship, and hence full political and civil rights, in ancient Athens was gender. No women ever acquired citizenship in ancient Athens, and therefore women were excluded in principle and practice from ancient Athenian democracy.
By contrast, Spartan women enjoyed a status, power, and respect that was unknown in the rest of the classical world. Although Spartan women were formally excluded from military and political life they enjoyed considerable status as mothers of Spartan warriors. As men engaged in military activity, women took responsibility for running estates. Following protracted warfare in the 4th century BC Spartan women owned approximately between 35% and 40% of all Spartan land and property. By the Hellenistic Period, some of the wealthiest Spartans were women.They controlled their own properties, as well as the properties of male relatives who were away with the army. Spartan women rarely married before the age of 20, and unlike Athenian women who wore heavy, concealing clothes and were rarely seen outside the house, Spartan women wore short dresses and went where they pleased. Girls as well as boys received an education, and young women as well as young men may have participated in the  ("Festival of Nude Youths").
Plato acknowledged that extending civil and political rights to women would substantively alter the nature of the household and the state. Aristole, who had been taught by Plato, denied that women were slaves or subject to property, arguing that "nature has distinguished between the female and the slave", but he considered wives to be "bought". He argued that women's main economic activity is that of safeguarding the household property created by men. According to Aristotle the labour of women added no value because "the art of household management is not identical with the art of getting wealth, for the one uses the material which the other provides".
Contrary to these views, the stoic pihlophers argued for equality of the sexes, sexual inequality being in their view contrary to the laws of nature. In doing so, they followed the cynice, who argued that men and women should wear the same clothing and receive the same kind of education. They also saw marriage as a moral companionship between equals rather than a biological or social necessity, and practiced these views in their lives as well as their teachings. The Stoics adopted the views of the Cynics and added them to their own theories of human nature, thus putting their sexual egalitarianism on a strong philosophical basis.

Ancient Rome:



fulvia, the wife of Mark antony, commanded troops during the Roman civia and was the first woman whose likeness appeared on Roman coins.
Freeborn women of ancient rome were citizen who enjoyed legal privileges and protections that did not extend to non citizwn, slaves .Roman society however, was patrihacill, and women could not vote, hover public office, or serve in the military. Women of the upper classes exercised political influence through marriage and motherhood. During the roman public, the  mother of the gratuars brothers and julius causar were noted as exemplary women who advanced the career of their sons. During the imperial period, women of the emperor's family could acquire considerable political power, and were regularly depicted in official art and on coinage. Plotianexercised influence on both her husband, the emperor Trajan, and his successor hardian. Her letters and petitions on official matters were made available to the public —an indication that her views were considered important to popular opinion.
A child's citizen status was determined by that of its mother. Both daughters and sons were subject to  patria potesta, the power wielded by their father as head of household . At the height of the Empire (1st–2nd centuries), the legal standing of daughters differs little if at all from that of sons. Girls had equal inheritance rights with boys if their father died without leaving a will


Couple clasping hands in marriage, idealized by Romans as the building block of society and as a partnership of companions who work together to produce and rear children, manage everyday affairs, lead exemplary lives, and enjoy affection
In the earliest period of the Roman re public, a bride passed from her father's control into the "hand" (manus) of her husband. She then became subject to her husband's potestas, though to a lesser degree than their children. This archaic form of manus marriage was largely abandoned by the time of julsis cysar , when a woman remained under her father's authority by law even when she moved into her husband's home. This arrangement was one of the factors in the independence Roman women enjoyed relative to those of many other ancient cultures and up to the modern period: although she had to answer to her father in legal matters, she was free of his direct scrutiny in her daily life, and her husband had no legal power over her.When her father died, she became legally emancipated  A married woman retained ownership of any property she brought into the marriage. Although it was a point of pride to be a "one-man woman" (univira) who had married only once, there was little stigma attached to , nor to speedy remarriage after the loss of a husband through death or divorce] Under classical roman law, a husband had no right to abuse his wife physically or compel her to have sex. Wife beating was sufficient grounds for divorce or other legal action against the husband.
Because she remained legally a part of her birth family, a Roman woman kept her own family name for life. Children most often took the father's name, but in the Imperial period sometimes made their mother's name part of theirs, or even used it instead. A Roman mother's right to own property and to dispose of it as she saw fit, including setting the terms of her own will, enhanced her influence over her sons even when they were adults.Because of their legal status as citizens and the degree to which they could become emancipated, women could own property, enter contracts, and engage in business. Some acquired and disposed of sizable fortunes, and are recorded in inscriptions as benefactors in funding major public works.
Roman women could appear in court and argue cases, though it was customary for them to be represented by a man. They were simultaneously disparaged as too ignorant and weak-minded to practice law, and as too active and influential in legal matters—resulting in an edict that limited women to conducting cases on their own behalf instead of others'. Even after this restriction was put in place, there are numerous examples of women taking informed actions in legal matters, including dictating legal strategy to their male advocates.


Bronze statuette of a young woman reading (latter 1st century)
The firstr roman empover,, framed his ascent to sole power as a return to traditonaly morality, and attempted to regulate the conduct of women through moral re lesgation. , which had been a private family matter under the Republic, was criminalized,and defined broadly as an illicit sex act that occurred between a male citizen and a married woman, or between a married woman and any man other than her husband. That is, a doule standard was in place: a married woman could have sex only with her husband, but a married man did not commit adultery when he had sex with a peosiatute, slave, or person of marginalized status . Childbearing was encouraged by the state: the ("legal right of three children") granted symbolic honors and legal privileges to a woman who had given birth to three children, and freed her from any male guardiansh influenced the development of Roman law. Stoics of the Imperial era such as  developed theories of just relationship. While not advocating equality in society or under the law, they held that nature gives men and women equal capacity for virtue and equal obligations to act virtuously, and that therefore men and women had an equal need for philosophical education. These philosophical trends among the ruling elite are thought to have helped improve the status of women under the Empire.
Rome had no system of state-supported schooling, and education was available only to those who could pay for it. The daughters of  seem to have regularly received a primary education (for ages 7 to 12). Regardless of gender, few people were educated beyond that level. Girls from a modest background might be schooled in order to help with the family business or to acquire literacy skills that enabled them to work as scribes and secretaries. The woman who achieved the greatest prominence in the ancient world for her learning was , who taught advanced courses to young men and advised the Roman perfect of egypat on politics. Her influence put her into conflict with the , who may have been implicated in her violent death in the year 415 at the hands of a Christian mob.
Roman law recognized rape as a crime in which the victim bore no guilt. Rape was a capital crime. The right to physical integrity was fundamental to the Roman concept of citizenship, as indicated in romen lagend by the rape of  by the king's son. After speaking out against the tyranny of the royal family, Lucretia killed herself as a political and moral protest. Roman authors saw her self-sacrifice as the catalyst for overthrowing the monarchy and establishing the republic. As a matter of law, rape could be committed only against a citizen in good standing. The rape of a slave could be prosecuted only as damage to her owner's property. Most were slaves, though some slaves were protected from forced prostitution by a clause in their sales contract. A free woman who worked as a prostitute or entertainer lost her social standing and became , "disreputable"; by making her body publicly available, she had in effect surrendered her right to be protected from sexual abuse or physical violence. Attitudes toward rape changed as the empire came under Christian rule. interpreted Lucretia's suicide as perhaps an admission that she had encouraged the rapist and experienced pleasure. Und, the first Christian emperor, if a father accused a man of abducting his daughter, but the daughter had given her consent to an elopement, the couple were both subject to being burnt alive. If she had been raped or abducted against her will, she was still subject to lesser penalties as an accomplice, "on the grounds that she could have saved herself by screaming for help."

Religious scriptures

Bible

"And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living."
"Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, she judged Israel at that time."  God chose a woman, Deborah, to guide Israel.
"Mary Magdalene went and said to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her."  The first person to see Jesus after his crucifixion was a woman, Mary.

Qur'an

The quran, revealed to Muhammad over the course of 23 years, provide guidance to the islamic community and modified existing customs in Arab society. From 610 and 661, known as the , the Qur'an introduced fundamental reforms to customary law and introduced rights for women in marriage, divorce and . By providing that the wife, not her family, would receive a dowry from the husband, which she could administer as her personal property, the Qur'an made women a legal party to the marriage contract.

While in customary law inheritance was limited to male descendents, the Qur'an introduced rules on inheritance with certain fixed shares being distributed to designated heirs, first to the nearest female relatives and then the nearest male relatives. According  "compared to the pre-Islamic position of women,  meant an enormous progress; the woman has the right, at least according to the , to administer the wealth she has brought into the family or has earned by her own work."
The general improvement of the status of arabic women included prohibition  and recognizing women's full personhood. Women were generally given greater rights than women  and  Women were not accorded with such legal status in other cultures until centuries later. According to Professor , when seen in such historical context, Muhmmad "can be seen as a figure who testified on behalf of women’s rights."

The Middle Ages

According to, which developed from the 12th century onward, all property which a wife held at the time of a marriage became a possession of her husband. Eventually English courts forbade a husband's transferring property without the consent of his wife, but he still retained the right to manage it and to receive the money which it produced. French married women suffered from restrictions on their legal capacity which were removed only in 1965 In the 16th century, the  in Europe allowed more women to add their voices, including the English writers , , and the prophetess. English and Americ believed that men and women were equal. Many Quaker women were preachers.Despite relatively greater freedom for, until the mid-19th century, writers largely assumed that a  was a natural order that had always existed. This perception was not seriously challenged until the 18th century  missionaries found  in native North American peoples.

18th and 19th century Europe



The Debutante (1807)  The woman, victim of male social conventions, is tied to the wall, made to sew and guarded by governesses. The picture reflect.s  published in 1792.
Starting in the late 18th century, and throughout the 19th century, rights, as a concept and claim, gained increasing political, social and philosophical importance in Europe. Movements emerged which demand, the abolition o, rights for women, rights for those who did not own property and . In the late 18th century the question of women's rights became central to political debates in both France and Britain. At the time some of the greatest thinkers of the, who defended democratic principles of  and challenged notions that a privileged few should rule over the vast majority of the population, believed that these principles should be applied only to their own gender and their own race. The philosopher  for example thought that it was the order of nature for woman to obey men. He wrote "Women do wrong to complain of the inequality of man-made laws" and claimed that "when she tries to usurp our rights, she is our inferior".

The Declaration is ironic in formulation and exposes the failure of the French revlntion, which had been devoted to equality
. It states that: “This revolution will only take effect when all women become fully aware of their deplorable condition, and of the rights they have lost in society”. point for point and has been described by Camille Naish as “almost a parody...of the original document”. The first article of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen proclaims that “Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be based only on common utility.” The first article of Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen replied: “Woman is born free and remains equal to man in rights. Social distinctions may only be based on common utility”. De Gouges expands the sixth article of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which declared the rights of citizens to take part in the formation of law, to:

Australian women's rights were lampooned in this 1887Melbourne Punch cartoon: A hypothetical female member foists her baby's care on the House Speaker
“All citizens including women are equally admissible to all public dignities, offices and employments, according to their capacity, and with no other distinction than that of their virtues and talents”.
De Gouges also draws attention to the fact that under French law women were fully punishable, yet denied equal rights.
, a British writer and philosopher, published in 1792, arguing that it was the education and upbringing of women that created limited expectations Wollstonecraft attacked gender oppression, pressing for equal educational opportunities, and demanded "justice!" and "rights to humanity" for all. Wollstonecraft, along with her British contemporaries started to use the language of rights in relation to women, arguing that women should have greater opportunity because like men, they were moral and rational beings.

A Punch cartoon from 1867 mock's attempt to replace the term 'man' with 'person', i.e. give women the right to vote. Caption: Mill's Logic: Or, Franchise for Females. "Pray clear the way, there, for these – a – persons.
In his 1869 essay the English philosopher and political theorist described the situation for women in Britain as follows:
"We are continually told that civilization and Christianity have restored to the woman her just rights. Meanwhile the wife is the actual bondservant of her husband; no less so, as far as the legal obligation goes, than slaves commonly so called."
Then a member of parliament, Mill argued that women should be given the though his proposal to replace the term "man" with "person" in the second  was greeted with laughter in theand defeated by 76 to 196 votes. His arguments won little support amongst contemporaries but his attempt to amend the reform bill generated greater attention for the issue of women's suffrage in Britain.Initially only one of several women’s rights campaigns, suffrage became the primary cause of the British women’s movement at the beginning of the 20th century. At the time the ability to vote was restricted to wealthy  British jurisdictions. This arrangement implicitly excluded women as gave men ownership rights at marriage or inheritance until the 19th century. Although male suffrage broadened during the century, women were explicitly prohibited from voting  led the public campaign on women's suffrage and in 1918 a bill was passed allowing women over the age of 30 to vote.

Equal employment rights for women and men

The rights of women and men to have equal pay and equal benefits for equal work were openly denied by th Government up to the early 1970s. Leslie Wah-Leung Chung, 1917-2009), President of the Hong Kong Chinese Civil Servants’ Associat (1965–68), contributed to the establishment of equal pay for men and women, including the right for married women to be permanent employees. Before this, the job status of a woman changed from permanent employee to temporary employee once she was married, thus losing the pension benefit. Some of them even lost their jobs. Since nurses were mostly women, this improvement of the rights of married women meant much to the Nursing profession

Suffrage, the right to vote



Women standing in line to vote in Bangladesh.


1919 election poster, German social democrats. "Frauen! Gleiche Rechte, Gleiche Pflichten" ("Women! The same rights, the same duties")

Author and Scholar Helen Kendrick Johnson opposed women's suffrage.
During the 19th century some women began to agitate for the right to vote and participate in government and law making.Other women opposed suffrage like Helen Kendrick
Johnson, whose prescient 1897 work Woman and the Republic contains perhaps the best arguments against women's suffrage of the time The ideals o developed alongsid and today women's suffrage is considered a right (under the. During the 19th century the right to vote was gradually extended in many countries and women started to campaign for their right to vote. In 1893 New Zealand became the first country to give women the right to vote on a national level. Australia gave women the right to vote in 1902. A number of  gave women the right to vote in the early 20th century – Finland (1906), Norway (1913), Denmark and Iceland (1915). With the end of the First World War many other countries followed 

Property rights

During the 19th century some women in the United States and Britain began to challenge laws that denied them the  once they married. Under the common law doctrine  husbands gained control of their wives' real estate and wages. Beginning in the 1840s, state legislatures in the United Stateand the British Parliame began passing statutes that protected women's property from their husbands and their husbands' creditors. These laws were known as the Married Women's Property Acts. Courts in the 19th-century United States also continued to require privy examinations of married women who sold their property. A  was a practice in which a married woman who wished to sell her property had to be separately examined by a judge or justice of the peace outside of the presence of her husband and asked if her husband was pressuring her into signing the document.

Modern movements


Iraqi-American writer and activist , the founder of .
In the subsequent decades women's rights again became an important issue in the English speaking world. By the 1960s the movement was called "feminism" or "women's liberation." Reformers wanted the same pay as men, equal rights in law, and the freedom to plan their families or not have children at all. Their efforts were met with mixed results.
In the UK, a public groundswell of opinion in favour of legal equality had gained pace, partly through the extensive employment of women in what were traditional male roles during both world wars. By the 1960s the legislative process was being readied, tracing through MP report, his equal pay for equal work bill, the creation of a Sex Discrimination Boards draft sex anti-discrimination bill, a governme of 1973, until 1975 when the first British Sex Discrimination Act, an Equal Pay Act, and a came into  With encouragement from the UK government, the other countries of the soon followed suit with an agreement to ensure that discrimination laws would be phased out across the European Community.
In the USA, the  (NOW) was created in 1966 with the purpose of bringing about equality for all women. NOW was one important group that fought for the (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  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 Congresses, but have still failed to be ratified.
was founded in 2008. The organisation is internationally known for its topless protests against sex tourists, international marriage agencies, sexism and other social, national and international social illnesses. FEMEN has sympathisers groups in many European countries through social media.

Birth control and reproductive rights


"And the villain still pursues her." Satirical Victorian era postcard.
In the 1870s feminists advanced the concept of voluntary motherhood as a political critique of involuntary motherhood and expressing a desire for women's emancipation. Advocates for voluntary motherhood disapproved of, arguing that women should only engage in sex for the purpose of  and advocated for periodic or permanent

Cover of the 1919 Birth Control Review, published by In relation to "How shall we change the law?" Sanger wrote "...women appeal in vain for instruction concerning contraceptives. Physicians are willing to perform abortions where they are pronounced necessary, but they refuse to direct the use of preventives which would make the abortions unnecessary... "I can't do it – the law does not permit it
In the early 20th centuryl was advanced as alternative to the then fashionable terms family limitation and voluntary motherhood.The phrase "birth control" entered the English language in 1914 and was popularised by who was mainly active in the US but had gained an international reputation by the 1930s. The British birth control campaigner acceptable in Britain during the 1920 by framing it in scientific terms. Stopes assisted emerging birth control movements in a number  The birth control movement advocated for contraception so as to permit sexual intercourse as desired without the risk of pregnancy. By emphasizing control the birth control movement argued that women should have control over their reproduction, and the movement came to have close ties to the feminist movement. Slogans such as "control over our own bodies" criticised male domination and demanded women's liberation, a connotation that is absent from theIn the 1960s and 1970s the birth control movement advocated for the legalisation of abortion and large scale education campaigns about contraception by governments.In the 1980s birth control and population control organisations co-operated in demanding rights to contraception and abortion, with an increasing emphasis on "choice".
Birth control has become a major theme in United States politics. Reproductive issues are cited as examples of women's powerlessness to exercise their rights. The societal acceptance of birth control required the separation of sex from procreation, making birth control a highly controversial subject in the 20th century. In the United States birth control has become an arena for conflict between liberal and conservative values, raising questions about family, personal freedom, state intervention, religion in politics, sexual morality and social welfaretch, "the denial of a pregnant woman's right to make an independent decision regarding abortion violates or poses a threat to a wide range of human rights. Other groups however, such as the Catholic Church, th, regard abortion not as a right but as a 'moral evil'.

United Nations and World Conferences on Women

In 1946 the United Nations established Originally as the Section on the Status of Women, Human Rights Division, Department of Social Affairs, and now part of th (ECOSOC). 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. Four World Conferences have been held, the first i
17th century philosophers in Britain and America, such as , developed the theory of in reference to ancient philosophers such as and the Christian theologist. Like the ancient philosophers, 17th century natural law philosophers defended  and an inferior status of women in law Relying on ancient Greek philosophers, natural law philosophers argued that  were not derived from god, but were "universal, self-evident, and intuitive", a law that could be found in nature. They believed that natural rights were self-evident to "civilised man" who lives "in the highest form of society". Natural rights derived from, a concept first established by the ancient Greek philosopher  in Concerning Human Nature. Zenon argued that each rational and civilized male Greek citizen had a "divine spark" or "soul" within him that existed independent of the body. Zeno founded the  and the idea of a human nature was adopted by other Greek philosophers, and later  philosophers and western Aristotle developed the widely adopted idea of, arguing that man was a "rational animal" and as such a natural power of reason. Concepts of human nature in ancient Greece depended on gender, ethnic, and other qualifications and 17th century natural law philosophers came to regard women along with children, slaves and non-whites, as neither "rational" nor "civilised".Natural law philosophers claimed the inferior status of women was "common sense" and a matter of "nature". They believed that women could not be treated as equal due to their "inner nature" The views of 17th century natural law philosophers were opposed in the 18th and 19th century by  philosophers such as , who argued for the abolition of slavery and advocated for women to have rights equal to that of men. Modern natural law theorist, and advocates of natural rights, claim that all people have a human nature, regardless of gender, ethnicity or other qualifications, therefore all people have natural rights.

The Convention defines discrimination against women in the following terms:
Any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field.
It also establishes an agenda of action for putting an end to sex-based discrimination for which states ratifying the Convention are required to enshrine  into their domestic legislation, repeal all discriminatory provisions in their laws, and enact new provisions to guard against discrimination against women. They must also establish tribunals and public institutions to guarantee women effective protection against discrimination, and take steps to eliminate all forms of discrimination practiced against women by individuals, organizations, and enterprises.[134]

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325

On 31 October 2000, the .

Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks out for women's rights


Hillary Rodham Clinton (2009).
During the eight years that Ms. Clinton was First Lady of the United States (1993-2001), she traveled to 79 countries around the world. A March 1995 five-nation , on behest of theand without her husband, sought to improve relations with pakistan. Clinton was troubled by the plight of women she encountered, but found a warm response from the people of the countries she visited and a gained better relationship with the American press corps. The trip was a transformative experience for her and presaged her eventual car Clinton argued very forcefully against practices that abused women around the world and in the declaring "that it is no longer acceptable to discuss women's rights as separate from human rights Delegates from over 180 countries heard her say: "If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are women's rights and women's rights are human rights, once and for all." In doing so, she resisted both internal administration and Chinese pressure to soften her remarks She was one of the most prominent international figures during the late 1990s to speak out against She helped crea an international initiative sponsored by the United States to promote the participation of women in the political processes of their countries.

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