Women's rights are the rights and entitlements
claimed for women and girls worldwide, and
formed the basis for the women's rights movement
in the nineteenth century and feminist movement
during the 20th century.
In some countries, these rights are institutionalized
or supported by law, local custom, and behavior,
whereas in others they are ignored and suppressed.
They differ from broader notions of human
rights through claims of an inherent historical
and traditional bias against the exercise
of rights by women and girls, in favor of
men and boys.Issues commonly associated with
notions of women's rights include the right:
to bodily integrity and autonomy; to be free
from sexual violence; to vote; to hold public
office; to enter into legal contracts; to
have equal rights in family law; to work;
to fair wages or equal pay; to have reproductive
rights; to own property; to education.
== History ==
=== 
Ancient history ===
==== Mesopotamia ====
Women in ancient Sumer could buy, own, sell,
and inherit property.
They could engage in commerce, and testify
in court as witnesses.
Nonetheless, their husbands could divorce
them for mild infractions, and a divorced
husband could easily remarry another woman,
provided that his first wife had borne him
no offspring.
Female deities, such as Inanna, were widely
worshipped.
The Akkadian poetess Enheduanna, the priestess
of Inanna and daughter of Sargon, is the earliest
known poet whose name has been recorded.
Old Babylonian law codes permitted a husband
to divorce his wife under any circumstances,
but doing so required him to return all of
her property and sometimes pay her a fine.
Most law codes forbade a woman to request
her husband for a divorce and enforced the
same penalties on a woman asking for divorce
as on a woman caught in the act of adultery;
some Babylonian and Assyrian laws, however,
afforded women the same right to divorce as
men, requiring them to pay exactly the same
fine.
The majority of East Semitic deities were
male.
==== Egypt ====
In ancient Egypt women enjoyed the same rights
under the law as a men, however rightful entitlements
depended upon social class.
Landed property descended in the female line
from mother to daughter, and women were entitled
to administer their own property.
Women in ancient Egypt could buy, sell, be
a partner in legal contracts, be executor
in wills and witness to legal documents, bring
court action, and adopt children.
==== India ====
Women during the early Vedic period enjoyed
equal status with men in all aspects of life.
Works by ancient Indian grammarians such as
Patanjali and Katyayana suggest that women
were educated in the early Vedic period.
Rigvedic verses suggest that women married
at a mature age and were probably free to
select their own husbands in a practice called
swayamvar or live-in relationship called Gandharva
marriage.
==== Greece ====
Although most women lacked political and equal
rights in the city states of ancient Greece,
they enjoyed a certain freedom of movement
until the Archaic age.
Records also exist of women in ancient Delphi,
Gortyn, Thessaly, Megara and Sparta owning
land, the most prestigious form of private
property at the time.
However, after the Archaic age, legislators
began to enact laws enforcing gender segregation,
resulting in decreased rights for women.Women
in Classical Athens had no legal personhood
and were assumed to be part of the oikos headed
by the male kyrios.
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 could only 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 only enter into a contract
worth less than the value of a "medimnos of
barley" (a measure of grain), allowing women
to engage in petty trading.
Women were excluded from ancient Athenian
democracy, both in principle and in practice.
Slaves could become Athenian citizens after
being freed, but no woman ever acquired citizenship
in ancient Athens.
In classical Athens women were also barred
from becoming poets, scholars, politicians,
or artists.
During the Hellenistic period in Athens, the
philosopher Aristotle thought that women would
bring disorder and evil, therefore it was
best to keep women separate from the rest
of the society.
This separation would entail living in a room
called a gynaikeion, while looking after the
duties in the home and having very little
exposure with the male world.
This was also to ensure that wives only had
legitimate children from their husbands.
Athenian women received little education,
except home tutorship for basic skills such
as spin, weave, cook and some knowledge of
money.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.
Spartan women controlled their own properties,
as well as the properties of male relatives
who were away with the army.
Girls as well as boys received an education.
But despite relatively greater freedom of
movement for Spartan women, their role in
politics was just as the same as Athenian
women.Plato acknowledged that extending civil
and political rights to women would substantively
alter the nature of the household and the
state.
Aristotle, 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 philosophers
argued for equality of the sexes, sexual inequality
being in their view contrary to the laws of
nature.
In doing so, they followed the Cynics, 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.
==== Rome ====
Roman law, similar to Athenian law, was created
by men in favor of men.
Women had no public voice, and no public role
which only improved after the 1st century
to the 6th century BCE.
Freeborn women of ancient Rome were citizens
who enjoyed legal privileges and protections
that did not extend to non-citizens or slaves.
Roman society, however, was patriarchal, and
women could not vote, hold public office,
or serve in the military.
Women of the upper classes exercised political
influence through marriage and motherhood.
During the Roman Republic, the mother of the
Gracchus brothers and of Julius Caesar 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.The central core of the
Roman society was the pater familias or the
male head of the household who exercised his
authority over all his children, servants,
and wife.
Girls had equal inheritance rights with boys
if their father died without leaving a will.
Similar to Athenian women, Roman women had
a guardian or as it was called "tutor" who
managed and oversaw all her activity.
This tutelage had limited female activity
but by first century to sixth century BCE,
tutelage became very relaxed and women were
accepted to participate in more public roles
such as owning or managing property and or
acting as municipal patrons for gladiator
games and other entertainment activities Childbearing
was encouraged by the state.
By 27–14 BCE the ius trium liberorum ("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 guardianship.In the earliest
period of the Roman Republic, 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 Julius Caesar, 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.
Although women had to answer to their father
in legal matters, they were 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
(sui iuris).
A married woman retained ownership of any
property she brought into the marriage.
Girls had equal inheritance rights with boys
if their father died without leaving a will.
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
of their legal status as citizens and the
degree to which they could become emancipated,
women in ancient Rome 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'.
But 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.Roman law recognized rape as
a crime in which the victim bore no guilt
and a capital crime.
The rape of a woman was considered an attack
on her family and father's honour, and rape
victims were shamed for allowing the bad name
in her father's honour.
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.
The first Roman emperor, Augustus, framed
his ascent to sole power as a return to traditional
morality, and attempted to regulate the conduct
of women through moral legislation.
Adultery, which had been a private family
matter under the Republic, was criminalized,
and defined broadly as an illicit sex act
(stuprum) that occurred between a male citizen
and a married woman, or between a married
woman and any man other than her husband.
Therefore, a married woman could have sex
only with her husband, but a married man did
not commit adultery when he had sex with a
prostitute, slave, or person of marginalized
status (infamis).
Most prostitutes in ancient Rome 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
infamis, "disreputable"; by making her body
publicly available, she had in effect surrendered
her right to be protected from sexual abuse
or physical violence.Stoic philosophies influenced
the development of Roman law.
Stoics of the Imperial era such as Seneca
and Musonius Rufus developed theories of just
relationships.
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 senators and knights 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
Hypatia of Alexandria, who taught advanced
courses to young men and advised the Roman
prefect of Egypt on politics.
Her influence put her into conflict with the
bishop of Alexandria, Cyril, who may have
been implicated in her violent death in the
year 415 at the hands of a Christian mob.
==== Byzantine Empire ====
Since Byzantine law was essentially based
on Roman law, the legal status of women did
not change significantly from the practices
of the 6th century.
But the traditional restriction of women in
the public life as well as the hostility against
independent women still continued.
Greater influence of Greek culture contributed
to strict attitudes about women'roles being
domestic instead of being public.
There was also a growing trend of women who
were not prostitutes, slaves or entertainers
to be entirely veiled.
Like previous Roman law, women could not be
legal witnesses, hold administrations or run
banking but they could still inherit properties
and own land.As a rule the influence of the
church was exercised in favor of the abolition
of the disabilities imposed by the older law
upon celibacy and childlessness, of increased
facilities for entering a professed religious
life, and of due provision for the wife.
The church also supported the political power
of those who were friendly toward the clergy.
The appointment of mothers and grandmothers
as tutors was sanctioned by Justinian.
The restrictions on the marriage of senators
and other men of high rank with women of low
rank were extended by Constantine, but it
was almost entirely removed by Justinian.
Second marriages were discouraged, especially
by making it legal to impose a condition that
a widow's right to property should cease on
remarriage, and the Leonine Constitutions
at the end of the 9th century made third marriages
punishable.
The same constitutions made the benediction
of a priest a necessary part of the ceremony
of marriage.
==== China ====
Women throughout historical and ancient China
were considered inferior and had subordinate
legal status based on the Confucian law.
In Imperial China, the "Three Obediences"
promoted daughters to obey their fathers,
wives to obey their husbands, and widows to
obey their sons.
Women could not inherit businesses or wealth
and men had to adopt a son for such financial
purposes.
Late imperial law also featured seven different
types of divorces.
A wife could be ousted if she failed to birth
a son, committed adultery, disobeyed her parents-in-law,
spoke excessively, stole, was given to bouts
of jealousy, or suffered from an incurable
or loathsome disease or disorder.
But there were also limits for the husband
– for example, he could not divorce if she
observed her parent's in-law's mourning sites,
if she had no family to return to, or if the
husband's family used to be poor and since
then had become richer.The status of women
in China was also 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.
Due to the social custom that men and women
should not be near each other, 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 (1854–1927) 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
(夏葛女子醫學院), 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.During the
Republic of China (1912–49) and earlier
Chinese governments, women were legally bought
and sold into slavery under the guise of domestic
servants.
These women were known as Mui Tsai.
The lives of Mui Tsai were recorded by American
feminist Agnes Smedley in her book Portraits
of Chinese Women in Revolution.However, in
1949 the Republic of China had been overthrown
by communist guerillas led by Mao Zedong,
and the People's Republic of China was founded
in the same year.
In May 1950 the People's Republic of China
enacted the New Marriage Law to tackle the
sale of women into slavery.
This outlawed marriage by proxy and made marriage
legal so long as both partners consent.
The New Marriage Law raised the legal age
of marriage to 20 for men and 18 for women.
This was an essential part of countryside
land reform as women could no longer legally
be sold to landlords.
The official slogan was "Men and women are
equal; everyone is worth his (or her) salt".
=== Post-classical history ===
==== 
Religious scriptures ====
===== 
Bible =====
Both before and during biblical times, the
roles of women in society were severely restricted.
Nonetheless, in the Bible, women are depicted
as having the right to represent themselves
in court, the ability to make contracts, and
the rights to purchase, own, sell, and inherit
property.
The Bible guarantees women the right to sex
with their husbands, and orders husbands to
feed and clothe their wives.
Breach of these Old Testament rights by a
polygamous man gave the woman grounds for
divorce: "If he marries another woman, he
must not deprive the first one of her food,
clothing and marital rights.
If he does not provide her with these three
things, she is to go free, without any payment
of money" (Exodus 21:10-11).
===== Qur'an =====
The Qur'an, revealed to Muhammad over the
course of 23 years, provided guidance to the
Islamic community and modified existing customs
in Arab society.
From 610 and 661, known as the early reforms
under Islam, the Qur'an introduced fundamental
reforms to customary law and introduced rights
for women in marriage, divorce, and inheritance.
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 descendants,
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 to Annemarie Schimmel "compared
to the pre-Islamic position of women, Islamic
legislation meant an enormous progress; the
woman has the right, at least according to
the letter of the law, to administer the wealth
she has brought into the family or has earned
by her own work."The general improvement of
the status of Arab women included prohibition
of female infanticide and recognizing women's
full personhood.
Women generally gained greater rights than
women in pre-Islamic Arabia and medieval Europe.
Women were not accorded with such legal status
in other cultures until centuries later.
According to Professor William Montgomery
Watt, when seen in such historical context,
Muhammad "can be seen as a figure who testified
on behalf of women's rights."
==== Western Europe ====
Women's rights were protected already by early
Medieval Christian Church: one of the first
formal legal provision for the right of wives
was promulgated by council of Adge in 506,
which in Canon XVI stipulated that if a young
married man wished to be ordained, he required
the consent of his wife.The English Church
and culture in the Middle Ages regarded women
as weak, irrational and vulnerable to temptation
who was constantly needed to be kept in check.
This was reflected on the Christian culture
in England through the story of Adam and Eve
where Eve fell to Satan's temptations and
led Adam to eat the apple.
It was belief based on St.Paul, that the pain
of childbirth was a punishment for this deed
that led mankind to be banished from the Garden
of Eden.
Women's inferiority also appears in many medieval
writing for example the 1200 AD theologian
Jacques de Vitry (who was rather sympathetic
to women over others) emphasized for female
obedience towards their men and expressed
women as being slippery, weak, untrustworthy,
devious, deceitful and stubborn.
The church also promoted the Virgin Mary as
a role model for women to emulate by being
innocent in her sexuality, being married to
a husband and eventually becoming a mother.
That was the core purpose set out both culturally
and religiously across Medieval Europe.
Rape was also seen in medieval England as
a crime against the father or husband and
violation of their protection and guardianship
of the women whom they look after in the household.
Women's identity in the Middle Ages was also
referred through her relations with men she
was associated with for example "His daughter"
or "So and so's wife".
Despite all this, the Church still emphasized
on the importance of love and mutual counselling
within a marriage and prohibited any form
of divorce so the wife would have someone
to look after her.
In overall Europe during the Middle Ages,
women were inferior to that of a man in legal
status.
Throughout medieval Europe, women were pressured
to not attend courts and leave all legal business
affairs to their husbands.
In the legal system, women were regarded as
the properties of men so any threat or injury
to them was in the duty of their male guardians.In
Irish law, women were forbidden to act as
witnesses in courts.
In Welsh law, women's testimony can be accepted
towards other women but not against another
man.
In France, women's testimony must corroborate
with other accounts or would not be accepted.
Although women were expected to not attend
courts, this however was not always true.
Sometimes regardless of expectation, women
did participate and attend court cases and
court meetings.
But women could not act as justices in courts,
be attorneys, they could not be members of
a jury and they could not accuse another person
of a felony unless it's the murder of her
husband.
For most part, the best thing a woman could
do in medieval courts is observe the legal
proceedings taking place.
The Swedish law protected women from the authority
of their husbands by transferring the authority
to their male relatives.
A wife's property and land also could not
be taken by the husband without her family's
consent but neither could the wife.
This mean a woman could not transfer her property
to her husband without her family or kinsman's
consent either.
In Swedish law, women would also only get
half that of her brother in inheritance.
Despite these legal issues, Sweden was largely
ahead and much superior in their treatment
towards women than most European countries.
Medieval marriages among the elites were arranged
in a way that would meet the interests of
the family as a whole.
Theoretically a woman needed to consent before
a marriage took place and the Church encouraged
this consent to be expressed in present tense
and not future.
Marriage could also take place anywhere and
minimum age for girls would have to be 12
while 14 for boys.
==== Northern Europe ====
The rate of Wergild suggested that women in
these societies were valued mostly for their
breeding purposes.
The Wergild of woman was double that of a
man with same status in the Aleman and Bavarian
legal codes.
The Wergild of a woman meanwhile was triple
that of a man with same status in Salic and
Repuarian legal codes for women of child-bearing
age, which constituted from 12–40 years
old.
One of the most Germanic codes from the Lombard
tradition, legislated that women be under
the control of a male mundoald which constituted
her father, husband, older son or eventually
the king as a last resort if she had no male
relatives.
A woman needed her mundold's permission to
manage property but still could own her own
lands and goods.
Certain areas with Visgothic inheritance laws
until the 7th century were favorable to women
while all the other laws were not.
Before Christianization of Europe, there was
little space for women's consent for marriage
and marriage through purchase (or Kaufehe)
was actually the civil norm as opposed to
the alternative marriage through capture (or
Raubehe).
However Christianity was slow to reach other
Baltic and Scandinavian areas with it only
reaching King Harald Bluetooth of Denmark
in the year 950 AD.
Those living under Norwegian and Icelandic
laws used marriages to forge alliances or
create peace usually without the women's say
or consent.
However divorce rights were permitted to women
who suffered physical abuse but protections
from harm were not given to those termed "wretched"
women such as beggars, servants and slave
women.
Having sex with them through force or without
consent usually had zero legal consequence
or punishment.During the Viking Age, women
had a relatively free status in the Nordic
countries of Sweden, Denmark and Norway, illustrated
in the Icelandic Grágás and the Norwegian
Frostating laws and Gulating laws.
The paternal aunt, paternal niece and paternal
granddaughter, referred to as odalkvinna,
all had the right to inherit property from
a deceased man.
In the absence of male relatives, an unmarried
woman with no son could, further more, inherit
not only property, but also the position as
head of the family from a deceased father
or brother: a woman with such status was referred
to as ringkvinna, and she exercised all the
rights afforded to the head of a family clan,
such as for example the right to demand and
receive fines for the slaughter of a family
member, unless she married, by which her rights
were transferred to her husband.
After the age of 20, an unmarried woman, referred
to as maer and mey, reached legal majority
and had the right to decide of her place of
residence and was regarded as her own person
before the law.
An exception to her independence was the right
to choose a marriage partner, as marriages
was normally arranged by the clan.
Widows enjoyed the same independent status
as unmarried women.
Women had religious authority and were active
as priestesses (gydja) and oracles (sejdkvinna);
they were active within art as poets (skalder)
and rune masters, and as merchants and medicine
women.
They may also have been active within military
office: the stories about shieldmaidens is
unconfirmed, but some archaeological finds
such as the Birka female Viking warrior may
indicate that at least some women in military
authority existed.
A married woman could divorce her husband
and remarry.
It was also socially acceptable for a free
woman to cohabit with a man and have children
with him without marrying him, even if that
man was married: a woman in such a position
was called frilla.
There was no distinction made between children
born inside or outside of marriage: both had
the right to inherit property after their
parents, and there was no "legitimate" or
"illegitimate" children.
These liberties gradually disappeared from
the changed after the introductions of Christianity,
and from the late 13th-century, they are no
longer mentioned.
During the Christian Middle Ages, the Medieval
Scandinavian law applied different laws depending
of the local county law, signifying that the
status of women could vary depending of which
county she was living in.
=== Modern History ===
==== Europe ====
===== 16th and 17th century Europe =====
The 16th and 17th century saw numerous witch
trials, which resulted in thousands of people
across Europe being executed, of whom 75-95%
were women (depending on time and place).
The executions mostly took place in German-speaking
lands, and during the 15th century the terminology
"witchcraft" was definitely viewed as something
feminine as opposed to prior years.
Famous witchcraft manuals such as the Malleus
Maleficarum and Summis Desiderantes depicted
witches as diabolical conspirators who worshipped
Satan and were primarily women.
Culture and art at the time depicted these
witches as seductive and evil, further fuelling
moral panic in fusion with rhetoric from the
Church.The origin of the female "witch" myth
traces back to Roman mythical night creatures
known as Strix, who were thought to appear
and disappear mysteriously in the night.
They were also believed by many to be of transformed
women by their own supernatural powers.
This Roman myth itself is believed to originate
from the Jewish Sabbath which described non-supernatural
women who would suspiciously leave and return
home swiftly during the night.
Authors of the Malleus Maleficarum strongly
established the link between witchcraft and
women by proclaiming greater likelihood for
women to be addicted to "evil".
The authors and inquisitors Heinrich Kramer
and Jacob Sprengerh justified these beliefs
by claiming women had greater credulity, impressionability,
feeble minds, feeble bodies, impulsivity and
carnal natures which were flaws susceptible
to "evil" behavior and witchcraft.
These sort of beliefs at the time could send
female hermits or beggars to trials just for
offering remedies or herbal medicine.
These set of developed myths eventually lead
to the 16-17th century witch trials which
found thousands of women burned at stake.By
1500, Europe was divided into two types of
secular law.
One was customary law which was predominant
in northern France, England and Scandinavia,
and the other was Roman based written laws
which was predominant in southern France,
Italy, Spain and Portugal.Customary laws favoured
men more than women.
For example, inheritance among the elites
in Italy, England, Scandinavia and France
was passed on to the eldest male heir.
In all of the regions, the laws also gave
men substantial powers over lives, property
and bodies of their wives.
However, there were some improvements for
women as opposed to ancient custom for example
they could inherit in the absence of their
brothers, do certain trades without their
husbands and widows to receive dower.In areas
governed by Roman-based written laws women
were under male guardianship in matters involving
property and law, fathers overseeing daughters,
husbands overseeing wives and uncles or male
relatives overseeing widows.Throughout Europe,
women's legal status centered around her marital
status while marriage itself was the biggest
factor in restricting women's autonomy.
Custom, statue and practice not only reduced
women's rights and freedoms but prevented
single or widowed women from holding public
office on the justification that they might
one day marry.According to English Common
Law, which developed from the 12th century
onward, all property which a wife held at
the time of 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 Reformation in Europe
allowed more women to add their voices, including
the English writers Jane Anger, Aemilia Lanyer,
and the prophetess Anna Trapnell.
English and American Quakers believed that
men and women were equal.
Many Quaker women were preachers.
Despite relatively greater freedom for Anglo-Saxon
women, until the mid-19th century, writers
largely assumed that a patriarchal order was
a natural order that had always existed.
This perception was not seriously challenged
until the 18th century when Jesuit missionaries
found matrilineality in native North American
peoples.The philosopher John Locke opposed
marital inequality and the mistreatment of
women during this time.
He was well known for advocating for marital
equality among the sexes in his work during
the 17th century.
According to a study published in the American
Journal of Social Issues & Humanities, the
condition for women during Locke's time were
as quote:
English women had fewer grounds for divorce
than men until 1923
Husbands controlled most of their wives' personal
property until the Married Women's Property
Act 1870 and Married Women's Property Act
1882
Children were the husband's property
Rape was legally impossible within a marriage
Wives lacked crucial features of legal personhood,
since the husband was taken as the representative
of the family (thereby eliminating the need
for women's suffrage).
These legal features of marriage suggest that
the idea of a marriage between equals appeared
unlikely to most Victorians.
(Quoted from Gender and Good Governance in
John Locke, American Journal of Social Issues
& Humanities Vol 2)Other philosophers have
also made the statements regarding women's
rights during this time.
For example, Thomas Paine wrote in An Occasional
Letter on the Female Sex 1775 where he states
(as quote) :"If we take a survey of ages and
of countries, we shall find the women, almost
without exception... adored and oppressed...
they are ... robbed of freedom of will by
the laws...Yet such, I am sorry to say, is
the lot of women over the whole earth.
Man with regard to them, has been either an
insensible husband or an oppressor."A paternal
society can find prefer to make women's rights
a man's duty, for instance under English common
law husbands had to maintain their wives.
This duty was abolished in 2010.
===== 18th and 19th century Europe =====
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 demanded freedom of
religion, the abolition of slavery, rights
for women, rights for those who did not own
property, and universal suffrage.
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 Enlightenment, who defended democratic
principles of equality 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 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 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".in 1754, Dorothea Erxleben became
the first German woman receiving a M.D. (University
of Halle)
In 1791 the French playwright and political
activist Olympe de Gouges published the Declaration
of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen,
modelled on the Declaration of the Rights
of Man and of the Citizen of 1789.
The Declaration is ironic in formulation and
exposes the failure of the French Revolution,
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".
The Declaration of the Rights of Woman and
the Female Citizen follows the seventeen articles
of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and
of the Citizen 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:
"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.Mary Wollstonecraft,
a British writer and philosopher, published
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman 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
Damaris Cudworth and Catharine Macaulay 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.
In his 1869 essay "The Subjection of Women"
the English philosopher and political theorist
John Stuart Mill 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 deserve the right to vote, though his
proposal to replace the term "man" with "person"
in the second Reform Bill of 1867 was greeted
with laughter in the House of Commons and
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 property owners within British
jurisdictions.
This arrangement implicitly excluded women
as property law and marriage law 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 nationally and locally in the
1830s by the Reform Act 1832 and the Municipal
Corporations Act 1835.
Millicent Fawcett and Emmeline Pankhurst led
the public campaign on women's suffrage and
in 1918 a bill was passed allowing women over
the age of 30 to vote.By the 1860s, the economic
sexual politics of middle class women in Britain
and its neighboring Western European countries
was guided by factors such as the evolution
of 19th century consumer culture, including
the emergence of the department store, and
Separate spheres.
In Come Buy, Come Buy: Shopping and the Culture
of Consumption in Victorian Women's Writing,
Krista Lysack's literary analysis of 19th
century contemporary literature claims through
her resources' reflection of common contemporary
norms, "Victorian femininity as characterized
by self-renunciation and the regulation of
appetite."
And while women, particularly those in the
middle class, obtained modest control of daily
household expenses and had the ability to
leave the house, attend social events, and
shop for personal and household items in the
various department stores developing in late
19th century Europe, Europe's socioeconomic
climate pervaded the ideology that women were
not in complete control over their urges to
spend (assuming) their husband or father's
wages.
As a result, many advertisements for socially
'feminine' goods revolved around upward social
progression, exoticisms from the Orient, and
added efficiency for household roles women
were deemed responsible for, such as cleaning,
childcare, and cooking.
===== Russia =====
By law and custom, Muscovite Russia was a
patriarchal society that subordinated women
to men, and the young to their elders.
Peter the Great relaxed the second custom,
but not the subordination of women.
A decree of 1722 explicitly forbade any forced
marriages by requiring both bride and groom
to consent, while parental permission still
remained a requirement.
But during Peter's reign, only the man could
get rid of his wife by putting her in a nunnery.In
terms of laws, there were double standards
to women.
Adulterous wives were sentenced to forced
labor, while men who murdered their wives
were merely flogged.
After the death Peter the Great, laws and
customs pertaining to men's marital authority
over their wives increased.
In 1782, civil law reinforced women's responsibility
to obey her husband.
By 1832, the Digest of laws changed this obligation
into "unlimited obedience".In the 18th century,
Russian orthodox church further got its authority
over marriage and banned priests from granting
divorce, even for severely abused wives.
By 1818, Russian senate had also forbade separation
of married couples.During World War I, caring
for children was increasingly difficult for
women, many of whom could not support themselves,
and whose husbands had died or were fighting
in the war.
Many women had to give up their children to
children's homes infamous for abuse and neglect.
These children's homes were unofficially dubbed
as "angel factories".
After the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks
shut down an infamous angel factory known
as the 'Nikolaev Institute' situated near
the Moika Canal.
The Bolsheviks then replaced the Nikolaev
Institute with a modern maternity home called
the 'Palace for Mothers and Babies'.
This maternity home was used by the Bolsheviks
as a model for future maternity hospitals.
The countess who ran the old Institute was
moved to a side wing, however she spread rumours
that the Bolsheviks had removed sacred pictures,
and that the nurses were promiscuous with
sailors.
The maternity hospital was burnt down hours
before it was scheduled to open, and the countess
was suspected of being responsible.Russian
women had restrictions in owning property
until the mid 18th century.
Women's rights had improved after the rise
of the Soviet Union under the Bolsheviks.Under
the Bolsheviks, Russia became the first country
in human history to provide free abortions
to women in state run hospitals.
==== North America ====
===== 
Canada =====
Women's rights activism in Canada during the
19th and early 20th centuries focused on increasing
women's role in public life, with goals including
women's suffrage, increased property rights,
increased access to education, and recognition
of women as "persons" under the law.
The Famous Five were five Canadian women – Emily
Murphy, Irene Marryat Parlby, Nellie Mooney
McClung, Louise Crummy McKinney and Henrietta
Muir Edwards – who, in 1927, asked the Supreme
Court of Canada to answer the question, "Does
the word 'Persons' in Section 24 of the British
North America Act, 1867, include female persons?"
in the case Edwards v. Canada (Attorney General).
After Canada's Supreme Court summarized its
unanimous decision that women are not such
"persons", the judgment was appealed and overturned
in 1929 by the British Judicial Committee
of the Imperial Privy Council, at that time
the court of last resort for Canada within
the British Empire and Commonwealth.
===== United States =====
The Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU)
was established in 1873 and championed women's
rights, including advocating for prostitutes
and for women's suffrage.
Under the leadership of Frances Willard, "the
WCTU became the largest women's organization
of its day and is now the oldest continuing
women's organization in the United States."
==== Asia ====
===== East Asia =====
====== Japan ======
The extent to which women could participate
in Japanese society has varied over time and
social classes.
In the 8th century, Japan had women emperors,
and in the 12th century (Heian period) women
in Japan occupied a relatively high status,
although still subordinated to men.
From the late Edo period, the status of women
declined.
In the 17th century, the "Onna Daigaku", or
"Learning for Women", by Confucianist author
Kaibara Ekken, spelled out expectations for
Japanese women, lowering significantly their
status.
During the Meiji period, industrialization
and urbanization reduced the authority of
fathers and husbands, but at the same time
the Meiji Civil Code of 1898 denied women
legal rights and subjugated them to the will
of household heads.From the mid 20th century
the status of women improved greatly.
Although Japan is often considered a very
conservative country, it was in fact earlier
than many European countries on giving women
legal rights in the 20th century, as the 1947
Constitution of Japan provided a legal framework
favorable to the advancement of women's equality
in Japan.
Japan for instance enacted women's suffrage
in 1946, earlier than several European countries
such as Switzerland (1971 at federal level;
1990 on local issues in the canton of Appenzell
Innerrhoden), Portugal (1976 on equal terms
with men, with restrictions since 1931), San
Marino in 1959, Monaco in 1962, Andorra in
1970, and Liechtenstein in 1984.
===== Central Asia =====
Central Asian cultures largely remain patriarchal,
however, since the fall of the former Soviet
Union, the secular societies of the region
have become more progressive to women's roles
outside the traditional construct of being
wholly subservient to men.
In Mongolia, more women than men complete
school and are higher earners as result.
The UN Development Programme notes "significant
progress" in gender equality in Kazakhstan
but discrimination persists.
Marriage by abduction remains a serious problem
in this region; the practice of bride kidnapping
is prevalent in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan,
and Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region of
Uzbekistan.
==== Oceania ====
===== Australia =====
The history of women's rights in Australia
is a contradictory one: while Australia led
the world in women's suffrage rights in the
19th century, it has been very slow in recognizing
women's professional rights - it was not until
1966 that its marriage bar was removed.
On the other hand, reforms which allowed women
both to vote and stand for office in South
Australia in the late 19th century were a
cornerstone for women's political rights in
other parts of the world.
In this regard, Australia differs from other
cultures, in that women's suffrage in Australia
was one of the earliest objectives of the
feminist movement there (beginning with South
Australia and Western Australia) unlike other
cultures, such as Eastern European cultures,
where at the turn of the 20th century the
feminist movement focused on labour rights,
access to professions and education, rather
than political rights.
To this day, Australia has a quite low percentage
of women in business executive roles compared
to other countries with equivalent corporate
structures.
== Core concepts ==
=== 
Natural rights ===
17th century natural law philosophers in Britain
and America, such as Thomas Hobbes, Jean-Jacques
Rousseau and John Locke, developed the theory
of natural rights in reference to ancient
philosophers such as Aristotle and the Christian
theologist Aquinas.
Like the ancient philosophers, 17th century
natural law philosophers defended slavery
and an inferior status of women in law.
Relying on ancient Greek philosophers, natural
law philosophers argued that natural rights
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 human nature,
a concept first established by the ancient
Greek philosopher Zeno of Citium 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 Stoic philosophy and the
idea of a human nature was adopted by other
Greek philosophers, and later natural law
philosophers and western humanists.
Aristotle developed the widely adopted idea
of rationality, 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 evangelical natural theology philosophers
such as William Wilberforce and Charles Spurgeon,
who argued for the abolition of slavery and
advocated for women to have rights equal to
that of men.
Modern natural law theorists, 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.
=== Equal employment ===
Employment rights for women include non-discriminatory
access of women to jobs and equal pay.
The rights of women and men to have equal
pay and equal benefits for equal work were
openly denied by the British Hong Kong Government
up to the early 1970s.
Leslie Wah-Leung Chung (鍾華亮, 1917–2009),
President of the Hong Kong Chinese Civil Servants'
Association 香港政府華員會 (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.
In some European countries, married women
could not work without the consent of their
husbands until a few decades ago, for example
in France until 1965 and in Spain until 1975.
In addition, marriage bars, a practice adopted
from the late 19th century to the 1970s across
many countries, including Austria, Australia,
Ireland, Canada, and Switzerland, restricted
married women from employment in many professions.A
key issue towards insuring gender equality
in the workplace is the respecting of maternity
rights and reproductive rights of women.
Maternity leave (and paternity leave in some
countries) and parental leave are temporary
periods of absence from employment granted
immediately before and after childbirth in
order to support the mother's full recovery
and grant time to care for the baby.
Different countries have different rules regarding
maternity leave, paternity leave and parental
leave.
In the European Union (EU) the policies vary
significantly by country, but the EU members
must abide by the minimum standards of the
Pregnant Workers Directive and Parental Leave
Directive.
=== Right to vote ===
During the 19th century some women began to
ask for, demand, and then agitate and demonstrate
for the right to vote – the right to participate
in their government and its law making.
Other women opposed suffrage, like Helen Kendrick
Johnson, who argued in the 1897 pamphlet Woman
and the Republic that women could achieve
legal and economic equality without having
the vote.
The ideals of women's suffrage developed alongside
that of universal suffrage and today women's
suffrage is considered a right (under the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms
of Discrimination Against Women).
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 Nordic countries 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 – the Netherlands (1917),
Austria, Azerbaijan, Canada, Czechoslovakia,
Georgia, Poland and Sweden (1918), Germany
and Luxembourg (1919), Turkey (1934), and
the United States (1920).
Late adopters in Europe were Greece in 1952,
Switzerland (1971 at federal level; 1959–1991
on local issues at canton level), Portugal
(1976 on equal terms with men, with restrictions
since 1931) as well as the microstates of
San Marino in 1959, Monaco in 1962, Andorra
in 1970, and Liechtenstein in 1984.In Canada,
most provinces enacted women's suffrage between
1917–1919, late adopters being Prince Edward
Island in 1922, Newfoundland in 1925 and Quebec
in 1940.In Latin America some countries gave
women the right to vote in the first half
of the 20th century – Ecuador (1929), Brazil
(1932), El Salvador (1939), Dominican Republic
(1942), Guatemala (1956) and Argentina (1946).
In India, under colonial rule, universal suffrage
was granted in 1935.
Other Asian countries gave women the right
to vote in the mid 20th century – Japan
(1945), China (1947) and Indonesia (1955).
In Africa, women generally got the right to
vote along with men through universal suffrage
– Liberia (1947), Uganda (1958) and Nigeria
(1960).
In many countries in the Middle East universal
suffrage was acquired after World War II,
although in others, such as Kuwait, suffrage
is very limited.
On 16 May 2005, the Parliament of Kuwait extended
suffrage to women by a 35–23 vote.
=== Property rights ===
During the 19th century some women, such as
Ernestine Rose, Paulina Wright Davis, Elizabeth
Cady Stanton, Harriet Beecher Stowe, in the
United States and Britain began to challenge
laws that denied them the right to their property
once they married.
Under the common law doctrine of coverture
husbands gained control of their wives' real
estate and wages.
Beginning in the 1840s, state legislatures
in the United States and the British Parliament
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 privy examination 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.
Property rights for women continued to be
restricted in many European countries until
legal reforms of the 1960-70s.
For example, in West Germany, the law pertaining
to rural farm succession favored male heirs
until 1963.
In the US, Head and master laws, which gave
sole control of marital property to the husband,
were common until a few decades ago.
The Supreme Court, in Kirchberg v. Feenstra
(1981), declared such laws unconstitutional.
=== Freedom of movement ===
Freedom of movement is an essential right,
recognized by international instruments, including
Article 15 (4) of CEDAW.
Nevertheless, in many regions of the world,
women have this right severely restricted,
in law or in practice.
For instance, in some countries women may
not leave the home without a male guardian,
or without the consent of the husband – for
example the personal law of Yemen states that
a wife must obey her husband and must not
get out of the home without his consent.
Even in countries which do not have legal
restrictions, women's movement may be prevented
in practice by social and religious norms
such as purdah.
Laws restricting women from travelling existed
until relatively recently in some Western
countries: until 1983, in Australia the passport
application of a married woman had to be authorized
by her husband.Various practices have been
used historically to restrict women's freedom
of movement, such as foot binding, the custom
of applying painfully tight binding to the
feet of young Chinese girls, which was common
between the 10th and 20th century.
Women's freedom of movement may be restricted
by laws, but it may also be restricted by
attitudes towards women in public spaces.
In areas where it is not socially accepted
for women to leave the home, women who are
outside may face abuse such as insults, sexual
harassment and violence.
Many of the restrictions on women's freedom
of movement are framed as measures to "protect"
women.
For example, in the summer of 2017, an India
women named Varnika Kundu shared a story on
Facebook about being stalked by two men late
at night.
Kundu was coming home after a night out with
friends when two men began following her.
Kundu made it home unharmed, but was understandably
shaken after the incident.
She posted her story on Facebook, hoping to
bring awareness and warn other women, but
was instead met with a backlash of trolls
telling her she shouldn't have been out that
late and that it was her fault for being in
that situation.
This incident spawned the #AintNoCinderella
movement, where women all over the world shared
pictures of them being out past midnight with
the hashtag in order to combat gender stereotypes
and bias.
=== Informing women about their legal rights
===
The lack of legal knowledge among many women,
especially in developing countries, is a major
obstacle in the improvement of women's situation.
International bodies, such as the United Nations,
have stated that the obligation of states
does not only consist in passing relevant
laws, but also in informing women about the
existence of such laws, in order to enable
them to seek justice and realize in practice
their rights.
Therefore, states must popularize the laws,
and explain them clearly to the public, in
order to prevent ignorance, or misconceptions
originating in popular myths, about the laws.
The United Nations Development Programme states
that, in order to advance gender justice,
"Women must know their rights and be able
to access legal systems", and the 1993 UN
Declaration on the Elimination of Violence
Against Women states at Art.
4 (d) [...] "States should also inform women
of their rights in seeking redress through
such mechanisms".
=== Discrimination ===
Women's rights movements focus on ending discrimination
of women.
In this regard, the definition of discrimination
itself is important.
According to the jurisprudence of the ECHR,
the right to freedom from discrimination includes
not only the obligation of states to treat
in the same way persons who are in analogous
situations, but also the obligation to treat
in a different way persons who are in different
situations.
In this regard equity, not just "equality"
is important.
Therefore, states must sometimes differentiate
between women and men – through for example
offering maternity leave or other legal protections
surrounding pregnancy and childbirth (to take
into account the biological realities of reproduction),
or through acknowledging a specific historical
context.
For example, acts of violence committed by
men against women do not happen in a vacuum,
but are part of a social context: in Opuz
v Turkey, the ECHR defined violence against
women as a form of discrimination against
women; this is also the position of the Istanbul
Convention which at Article 3 states that
"violence against women" is understood as
a violation of human rights and a form of
discrimination against women [...]".There
are different views on where it is appropriate
to differentiate between women and men, and
one view is that the act of sexual intercourse
is an act where this difference must be acknowledged,
both due to the increased physical risks for
the woman, and due to the historical context
of women being systematically subjected to
forced sexual intercourse while in a socially
subordinated position (particularly within
marriage and during war).
States must also differentiate with regard
to healthcare by ensuring that women's health
- particularly with regard to reproductive
health such as pregnancy and childbirth - is
not neglected.
According to the World Health Organization
"Discrimination in health care settings takes
many forms and is often manifested when an
individual or group is denied access to health
care services that are otherwise available
to others.
It can also occur through denial of services
that are only needed by certain groups, such
as women."
The refusal of states to acknowledge the specific
needs of women, such as the necessity of specific
policies like the strong investment of states
in reducing maternal mortality can be a form
of discrimination.
In this regard treating women and men similarly
does not work because certain biological aspects
such as menstruation, pregnancy, labor, childbirth,
breastfeeding, as well as certain medical
conditions, only affect women.
The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination
against Women stipulates in its General recommendation
No. 35 on gender based violence against women,
updating general recommendation No. 19 that
states should "Examine gender neutral laws
and policies to ensure that they do not create
or
perpetuate existing inequalities and repeal
or modify them if they do so".
(paragraph 32).
Another example of gender neutral policy which
harms women is that where medication tested
in medical trials only on men is also used
on women assuming that there are no biological
differences.
=== Right to health ===
Health is defined by the World Health Organization
as "a state of complete physical, mental and
social well-being and not merely the absence
of disease or infirmity".
Women's health refers to the health of women,
which differs from that of men in many unique
ways.
Women's health is severely impaired in some
parts of the world, due to factors such as
inequality, confinement of women to the home,
indifference of medical workers, lack of autonomy
of women, lack of financial resources of women.
Discrimination against women occurs also through
denial of medical services that are only needed
by women.
Violations of women's right to health may
result in maternal death, accounting for more
than 300.000 deaths per year, most of them
in developing countries.
Certain traditional practices, such as female
genital mutilation, also affect women's health.
Worldwide, young women and adolescent girls
are the population most affected by HIV/AIDS.
=== Right to education ===
The right to education is a universal entitlement
to education.
The Convention against Discrimination in Education
prohibits discrimination in education, with
discrimination being defined as "any distinction,
exclusion, limitation or preference which,
being based on race, colour, sex, language,
religion, political or other opinion, national
or social origin, economic condition or birth,
has the purpose or effect of nullifying or
impairing equality of treatment in education".
The International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights states at Article 3 that
"The States Parties to the present Covenant
undertake to ensure the equal right of men
and women to the enjoyment of all economic,
social and cultural rights set forth in the
present Covenant", with Article 13 recognizing
"the right of everyone to education".
While women's right to access to academic
education is recognized as very important,
it is increasingly recognized that academic
education must be supplemented with education
on human rights, non-discrimination, ethics
and gender equality, in order for social advancement
to be possible.
This was pointed out by Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein,
the current United Nations High Commissioner
for Human Rights, who stressed the importance
of human rights education for all children:
"What good was it to humanity that Josef Mengele
had advanced degrees in medicine and anthropology,
given that he was capable of committing the
most inhuman crimes?
Eight of the 15 people who planned the Holocaust
at Wannsee in 1942 held PhDs.
They shone academically, and yet they were
profoundly toxic to the world.
Radovan Karadžić was a trained psychiatrist.
Pol Pot studied radio electronics in Paris.
Does this matter, when neither of them showed
the smallest shred of ethics and understanding?"
There has been increased attention given in
recent decades to the raising of student awareness
to the importance of gender equality.
=== Reproductive rights ===
==== 
Legal rights ====
Reproductive rights are legal rights and freedoms
relating to reproduction and reproductive
health.
Reproductive rights were endorsed by the twenty-year
Cairo Programme of Action which was adopted
in 1994 at the International Conference on
Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo,
and by the Beijing Declaration and Beijing
Platform for Action in 1995.
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 contraception, arguing that women should
only engage in sex for the purpose of procreation
and advocated for periodic or permanent abstinence.Reproductive
rights represents a broad concept, that may
include some or all of the following rights:
the right to legal or safe abortion, the right
to control one's reproductive functions, the
right to access quality reproductive healthcare,
and the right to education and access in order
to make reproductive choices free from coercion,
discrimination, and violence.
Reproductive rights may also be understood
to include education about contraception and
sexually transmitted infections.
Reproductive rights are often defined to include
freedom from female genital mutilation (FGM),
and forced abortion and forced sterilization.
The Istanbul Convention recognizes these two
rights at Article 38 – Female genital mutilation
and Article 39 – Forced abortion and forced
sterilisation.Reproductive rights are understood
as rights of both men and women, but are most
frequently advanced as women's rights.In the
1960s, reproductive rights activists promoted
women's right to bodily autonomy, with these
social movements leading to the gain of legal
access to contraception and abortion during
the next decades in many countries.
==== Birth control ====
In the early 20th century birth control 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 Margaret
Sanger, who was mainly active in the US but
had gained an international reputation by
the 1930s.
The British birth control campaigner Marie
Stopes made contraception acceptable in Britain
during the 1920s by framing it in scientific
terms.
Stopes assisted emerging birth control movements
in a number of British colonies.
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, an idea that aligned
closely to the theme of 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
the family planning, population control and
eugenics movements.
In 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.
Birth control in the United States 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 welfare.
Reproductive rights, that is rights relating
to sexual reproduction and reproductive health,
were first discussed as a subset of human
rights at the United Nation's 1968 International
Conference on Human Rights.
==== Abortion ====
Women's reproductive rights may be understood
as including the right to easy access to a
safe and legal abortion.
Abortion laws vary from a full prohibition
(the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Malta,
Nicaragua, the Vatican) to countries such
as Canada, where there are no legal restrictions.
In many countries where abortion is permitted
by law, women may only have limited access
to safe abortion services.
In some countries abortion is permitted only
to save the pregnant woman's life, or if the
pregnancy resulted from rape or incest.
There are also countries where the law is
liberal, but in practice it is very difficult
to have an abortion, due to most doctors being
conscientious objectors.
The fact that is some countries where abortion
is legal it is de facto very difficult to
have access to one is controversial; the UN
in its 2017 resolution on Intensification
of efforts to prevent and eliminate all forms
of violence against women and girls: domestic
violence urged states to guarantee access
to "safe abortion where such services are
permitted by national law".The Committee on
the Elimination of Discrimination against
Women considers the criminalization of abortion
a "violations of women’s sexual and reproductive
health and rights" and a form of "gender based
violence"; paragraph 18 of its General recommendation
No. 35 on gender based violence against women,
updating general recommendation No. 19 states
that: "Violations of women’s sexual and
reproductive health and rights, such as forced
sterilizations, forced abortion, forced pregnancy,
criminalisation of abortion, denial or delay
of safe abortion and post abortion care, forced
continuation of pregnancy, abuse and mistreatment
of women and girls seeking sexual and reproductive
health information, goods and services, are
forms of gender based violence that, depending
on the circumstances, may amount to torture
or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment."
The same General Recommendation also urges
countries at paragraph 31 to [...] In particular,
repeal:
a) Provisions that allow, tolerate or condone
forms of gender based violence against women,
including [...] legislation that criminalises
abortion".According to Human Rights Watch,
"Abortion is a highly emotional subject and
one that excites deeply held opinions.
However, equitable access to safe abortion
services is first and foremost a human right.
Where abortion is safe and legal, no one is
forced to have one.
Where abortion is illegal and unsafe, women
are forced to carry unwanted pregnancies to
term or suffer serious health consequences
and even death.
Approximately 13% of maternal deaths worldwide
are attributable to unsafe abortion—between
68,000 and 78,000 deaths annually."
According to Human Rights Watch, "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."
One can argue that even though women die from
unsafe abortion, the legalization of abortion
is considered a human right violation since
it supports a cause that deprives the unborn
of their humanity, which must be respected,
and therefore another solution is needed in
order to avoid maternal deaths (e.g., psychological
and physiological support during and after
pregnancy) whilst also avoiding abortion.
According to World Health Organization, 56
million abortions on average occurred worldwide
each year in 2010-2014.
African American women are 5 times likely
to have an abortion rather than a white woman.The
Catholic Church and many other Christian faiths,
particularly those considered the Christian
right, and most Orthodox Jews regard abortion
not as a right, but as a moral evil and a
Mortal sin.Russia was the first country to
legalise abortions and offer free medical
care in state hospitals to do so.
After the October Revolution, the Women's
wing of the Bolshevik Party (the Zhenotdel)
persuaded the Bolsheviks to legalise abortion
(as a 'temporary measure').
The Bolsheviks legalised abortion in November
1920.
This was the first time in world history that
women had won the right to free abortions
in state hospitals.
==== Abuse during childbirth ====
The abuse of women during childbirth is a
recently identified global problem and a basic
violation of a woman's rights.
Abuse during childbirth is the neglect, physical
abuse and lack of respect during childbirth.
This treatment is regarded as a violation
of the woman's rights.
It also has the effect of preventing women
from seeking pre-natal care and using other
health care services.
==== Child marriage ====
Child marriage is a practice which is widespread
across the world, and is often connected to
poverty and gender inequality.
Child marriage endangers the reproductive
health of young girls, leading to an increased
risk of complications in pregnancy or childbirth.
Such complications are a leading cause of
death among girls in developing countries.
==== Forced pregnancy ====
Forced pregnancy is the practice of forcing
a woman or girl to become pregnant, often
as part of a forced marriage, including by
means of bride kidnapping, through rape (including
marital rape, war rape and genocidal rape)
or as part of a program of breeding slaves
(see Slave breeding in the United States).
It is a form of reproductive coercion, was
common historically, and still occurs in parts
of the world.
In the 20th century, state mandated forced
marriage with the aim of increasing the population
was practiced by some authoritarian governments,
notably during the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia,
which systematically forced people into marriages
ordering them to have children, in order to
increase the population and continue the revolution.
Forced pregnancy is strongly connected to
the custom of bride price.
=== Freedom from violence ===
Violence against women is, collectively, violent
acts that are primarily or exclusively committed
against women.
The UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence
Against Women states, "violence against women
is a manifestation of historically unequal
power relations between men and women" and
"violence against women is one of the crucial
social mechanisms by which women are forced
into a subordinate position compared with
men."
The Council of Europe Convention on preventing
and combating violence against women and domestic
violence, also known as the Istanbul Convention,
provides the following definition of violence
against women: "violence against women" is
understood as a violation of human rights
and a form of discrimination against women
and shall mean all acts of gender-based violence
that result in, or are likely to result in,
physical, sexual, psychological or economic
harm or suffering to women, including threats
of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation
of liberty, whether occurring in public or
in private life".
Violence against women may be perpetrated
by individuals, by groups, or by the State.
It may occur in private or in public.
Violence against women may be sexual violence,
physical violence, psychological violence,
socioeconomic violence.
Some forms of violence against women have
long cultural traditions: honor killings,
dowry violence, female genital mutilation.
Violence against women is considered by the
World Health Organization "a major public
health problem and a violation of women's
human rights."
=== Family law ===
Under male dominated family law, women had
few, if any, rights, being under the control
of the husband or male relatives.
Legal concepts that existed throughout the
centuries, such as coverture, marital power,
Head and Master laws, kept women under the
strict control of their husbands.
Restrictions from marriage laws also extended
to public life, such as marriage bars.
Practices such as dowry or bride price were,
and still are to this day in some parts of
the world, very common.
Some countries continue to require to this
day a male guardian for women, without whom
women cannot exercise civil rights.
Other harmful practices include marriage of
young girls, often to much older men.
== Modern movements ==
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.The
International Council of Women (ICW) was the
first women's organization to work across
national boundaries for the common cause of
advocating human rights for women.
In March and April 1888, women leaders came
together in Washington D.C. with 80 speakers
and 49 delegates representing 53 women's organizations
from 9 countries: Canada, the United States,
Ireland, India, England, Finland, Denmark,
France and Norway.
Women from professional organizations, trade
unions, arts groups and benevolent societies
participate.
National Councils are affiliated to the ICW
and thus make themselves heard at international
level.
In 1904, the ICW met in Berlin, Germany.
The ICW worked with the League of Nations
during the 1920s and the United Nations post-World
War II.
Today the ICW holds Consultative Status with
the United Nations Economic and Social Council,
the highest accreditation an NGO can achieve
at the United Nations.
Currently, it is composed of 70 countries
and has a headquarters in Lasaunne, Switzerland.
International meetings are held every three
years.
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 Willie Hamilton's
select committee report, his equal pay for
equal work bill, the creation of a Sex Discrimination
Board, Lady Sear's draft sex anti-discrimination
bill, a government Green Paper of 1973, until
1975 when the first British Sex Discrimination
Act, an Equal Pay Act, and an Equal Opportunities
Commission came into force.
With encouragement from the UK government,
the other countries of the EEC soon followed
suit with an agreement to ensure that discrimination
laws would be phased out across the European
Community.
In the US, the National Organization for Women
(NOW) was created in 1966 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 Congresses,
but have still failed to be ratified.Women
for Women International (WfWI) is a nonprofit
humanitarian organization that provides practical
and moral support to women survivors of war.
WfWI helps such women rebuild their lives
after war's devastation through a year-long
tiered program that begins with direct financial
aid and emotional counseling and includes
life skills (e.g., literacy, numeracy) training
if necessary, rights awareness education,
health education, job skills training and
small business development.
The organization was co-founded in 1993 by
Zainab Salbi, an Iraqi American who is herself
a survivor of the Iran–Iraq War and Salbi's
then-husband Amjad Atallah.
Since June 2012, WfWI has been led by Afshan
Khan, a long-time former executive with UNICEF
who became WfWI's first new CEO since founder
Zainab Salbi stepped down to devote more time
to her writing and lecturing.The National
Council of Women of Canada (Conseil national
des femmes du Canada), is a Canadian advocacy
organization based in Ottawa aimed at improving
conditions for women, families, and communities.
A federation of nationally organized societies
of men and women and local and provincial
councils of women, it is the Canadian member
of the International Council of Women (ICW).
The Council has concerned itself in areas
including women's suffrage, immigration, health
care, education, mass media, the environment,
and many others.
Formed on 27 October 1857 in Toronto, Ontario,
it is one of the oldest advocacy organizations
in the country.
The Association for the Protection and Defense
of Women's Rights in Saudi Arabia is a Saudi
Non-governmental organization founded to provide
activism for women's rights.
It was founded by Wajeha al-Huwaider and Fawzia
Al-Uyyouni, and grew out of a 2007 movement
to gain women the right to drive.
The association is not officially licensed
by the government of Saudi Arabia, and has
been warned not to mount demonstrations.
In a 2007 interview, al-Huwaider described
the goals: "The association will consist of
a number of leagues, with each league pursuing
a different issue or right... representation
for women in shari'a courts; setting a [minimum]
age for girls' marriages; allowing women to
take care of their own affairs in government
agencies and allowing them to enter government
buildings; protecting women from domestic
violence, such as physical or verbal violence,
or keeping her from studies, work, or marriage,
or forcing her to divorce..."In Ukraine, FEMEN
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.
=== United Nations and World Conferences ===
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).
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 in Mexico City (International Women's
Year, 1975), the second in Copenhagen (1980)
and the third in Nairobi (1985).
At the Fourth World Conference on Women in
Beijing (1995), The Platform for Action was
signed.
This included a commitment to achieve "gender
equality and the empowerment of women".
The same commitment was reaffirmed by all
U.N. member nations at the Millennium Summit
in 2000 and was reflected in the Millennium
Development Goals to be achieved by 2015.
In 2010, UN Women was founded by merging of
Division for the Advancement of Women, International
Research and Training Institute for the Advancement
of Women, Office of the Special Adviser or
Gender Issues Advancement of Women and United
Nations Development Fund for Women by General
Assembly Resolution 63/311.
=== World Bank ===
A 2019 report from the World Bank found that
women have full legal rights to men in only
six countries: Belgium, Denmark, France, Latvia,
Luxembourg and Sweden.
=== Field organisations ===
Regions where women's rights are less developed
have produced interesting local organisations,
such as:
IIDA Women's Development Organisation, a Somali
non-governmental organisation, created by
women in order to work for peacebuilding and
women's rights defence in Somalia, a country
deprived of state structures and security
since 1991,
the All Pakistan Women's Association, a civil
society organisation founded in 1949, which
develops a range of programmes in the field
of health, nutrition, education, birth control
and legal aid.
== Human rights ==
=== 
United Nations convention ===
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
adopted in 1948, enshrines "the equal rights
of men and women", and addressed both the
equality and equity issues.
In 1979, the United Nations General Assembly
adopted the Convention on the Elimination
of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
(CEDAW) for legal implementation of the Declaration
on the Elimination of Discrimination against
Women.
Described as an international bill of rights
for women, it came into force on 3 September
1981.
The UN member states that have not ratified
the convention are Iran, Palau, Somalia, Sudan,
Tonga, and the United States.
Niue and the Vatican City, which are non-member
states, have also not ratified it.
The latest state to become a party to the
convention is South Sudan, on 30 April 2015.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 gender equality 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.
=== Marriage, divorce, and family law ===
Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights enshrines the right of consenting
men and women to marry and found a family.
"(1) Men and women of full age, without any
limitation due to race, nationality or religion,
have the right to marry and to found a family.
They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage,
during marriage and at its dissolution.(2)
Marriage shall be entered into only with the
free and full consent of the intending spouses.
(3) The family is the natural and fundamental
group unit of society and is entitled to protection
by society and the State."
Article 16 of CEDAW stipulates that, "1.
States Parties shall take all appropriate
measures to eliminate discrimination against
women in all matters relating to marriage
and family relations [...]". Among the rights
included are a woman's right to freely and
consensually choose her spouse; to have parental
rights to her children irrespective of her
marital status; the right of a married woman
to choose a profession or an occupation, and
to have property rights within marriage.
In addition to these, "The betrothal and the
marriage of a child shall have no legal effect".Polygamous
marriage is a controversial practice, prevalent
in some parts of the world.
The General recommendations made by the Committee
on the Elimination of Discrimination against
Women, state at General Recommendation No.
21, Equality in marriage and family relations
"14.[...]
Polygamous marriage contravenes a woman's
right to equality with men, and can have such
serious emotional and financial consequences
for her and her dependents that such marriages
ought to be discouraged and prohibited."Cohabitation
of unmarried couples as well as single mothers
are common in some parts the world.
The Human Rights Committee has stated:
"27.
In giving effect to recognition of the family
in the context of article 23, it is important
to accept the concept of the various forms
of family, including unmarried couples and
their children and single parents and their
children and to ensure the equal treatment
of women in these contexts (General Comment
19 paragraph 2 last sentence).
Single parent families frequently consist
of a single woman caring for one or more children,
and States parties should describe what measures
of support are in place to enable her to discharge
her parental functions on the basis of equality
with a man in a similar position."
=== Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action
===
The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action,
also known as VDPA, is a human rights declaration
adopted by consensus at the World Conference
on Human Rights on 25 June 1993 in Vienna,
Austria.
This declaration recognizes women's rights
as being protected human rights.
Paragraph 18 reads:
"The human rights of women and of the girl-child
are an inalienable, integral and indivisible
part of universal human rights.
The full and equal participation of women
in political, civil, economic, social and
cultural life, at the national, regional and
international levels, and the eradication
of all forms of discrimination on grounds
of sex are priority objectives of the international
community".
=== United Nations Security Council Resolution
1325 ===
On 31 October 2000, the United Nations Security
Council unanimously adopted United Nations
Security Council Resolution 1325, the first
formal and legal document from the United
Nations Security Council that requires all
states to respect fully international humanitarian
law and international human rights law applicable
to the rights and protection of women and
girls during and after the armed conflicts.
=== Maputo Protocol ===
The Protocol to the African Charter on Human
and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women
in Africa, better known as the Maputo Protocol,
was adopted by the African Union on 11 July
2003 at its second summit in Maputo, Mozambique.
On 25 November 2005, having been ratified
by the required 15 member nations of the African
Union, the protocol entered into force.
The protocol guarantees comprehensive rights
to women including the right to take part
in the political process, to social and political
equality with men, and to control of their
reproductive health, and an end to female
genital mutilation.
== Violence against women ==
=== 
United Nations Declaration ===
The Declaration on the Elimination of Violence
Against Women was adopted by the United Nations
in 1993.
It defines violence against women as "any
act of gender-based violence that results
in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual
or psychological harm or suffering to women,
including threats of such acts, coercion or
arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether
occurring in public or in private life."
This resolution established that women have
a right to be free from violence.
As a consequence of the resolution, in 1999,
the General Assembly declared the day of 25
November to be the International Day for the
Elimination of Violence against Women.
Article 2 of The Declaration on the Elimination
of Violence Against Women outlines several
forms of violence against women:
Article Two:
Violence against women shall be understood
to encompass, but not be limited to, the following:
(a) Physical, sexual and psychological violence
occurring in the family, including battering,
sexual abuse of female children in the household,
dowry-related violence, marital rape, female
genital mutilation and other traditional practices
harmful to women, non-spousal violence and
violence related to exploitation;
(b) Physical, sexual and psychological violence
occurring within the general community, including
rape, sexual abuse, sexual harassment and
intimidation at work, in educational institutions
and elsewhere, trafficking in women and forced
prostitution;
(c) Physical, sexual and psychological violence
perpetrated or condoned by the State, wherever
it occurs.
=== Istanbul Convention ===
The Council of Europe Convention on preventing
and combating violence against women and domestic
violence, also known as the Istanbul Convention,
is the first legally binding instrument in
Europe in the field of domestic violence and
violence against women, and came into force
in 2014.
Countries which ratify it must ensure that
the forms of violence defined in its text
are outlawed.
In its Preamble, the Convention states that
"the realisation of de jure and de facto equality
between women and men is a key element in
the prevention of violence against women".
The Convention also provides a definition
of domestic violence as "all acts of physical,
sexual, psychological or economic violence
that occur within the family or domestic unit
or between former or current spouses or partners,
whether or not the perpetrator shares or has
shared the same residence with the victim".
Although it is a Convention of the Council
of Europe, it is open to accession by any
country.
=== Rape and sexual violence ===
Rape, sometimes called sexual assault, is
an assault by a person involving sexual intercourse
with or sexual penetration of another person
without that person's consent.
Rape is generally considered a serious sex
crime as well as a civil assault.
When part of a widespread and systematic practice,
rape and sexual slavery are now recognised
as a crime against humanity as well as a war
crime.
Rape is also now recognised as a form of genocide
when committed with the intent to destroy,
in whole or in part, a targeted group.
==== As genocide ====
In 1998, the International Criminal Tribunal
for Rwanda established by the United Nations
made landmark decisions that rape is a crime
of genocide under international law.
The trial of Jean-Paul Akayesu, the mayor
of Taba Commune in Rwanda, established precedents
that rape is an element of the crime of genocide.
The Akayesu judgement includes the first interpretation
and application by an international court
of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
The Trial Chamber held that rape, which it
defined as "a physical invasion of a sexual
nature committed on a person under circumstances
which are coercive", and sexual assault constitute
acts of genocide insofar as they were committed
with the intent to destroy, in whole or in
part, a targeted group.
It found that sexual assault formed an integral
part of the process of destroying the Tutsi
ethnic group and that the rape was systematic
and had been perpetrated against Tutsi women
only, manifesting the specific intent required
for those acts to constitute genocide.Judge
Navanethem Pillay said in a statement after
the verdict: "From time immemorial, rape has
been regarded as one of the spoils of war.
Now it will be considered a war crime.
We want to send out a strong message that
rape is no longer a trophy of war."
An estimated 500,000 women were raped during
the 1994 Rwandan Genocide.
==== As a crime against humanity ====
The Rome Statute Explanatory Memorandum, which
defines the jurisdiction of the International
Criminal Court, recognises rape, sexual slavery,
enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced
sterilization, "or any other form of sexual
violence of comparable gravity" as a crime
against humanity if the action is part of
a widespread or systematic practice.
The Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action
also condemn systematic rape as well as murder,
sexual slavery, and forced pregnancy, as the
"violations of the fundamental principles
of international human rights and humanitarian
law." and require a particularly effective
response.Rape was first recognised as a crime
against humanity when the International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia issued
arrest warrants based on the Geneva Conventions
and Violations of the Laws or Customs of War.
Specifically, it was recognised that Muslim
women in Foca (southeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina)
were subjected to systematic and widespread
gang rape, torture, and sexual enslavement
by Bosnian Serb soldiers, policemen, and members
of paramilitary groups after the takeover
of the city in April 1992.
The indictment was of major legal significance
and was the first time that sexual assaults
were investigated for the purpose of prosecution
under the rubric of torture and enslavement
as a crime against humanity.
The indictment was confirmed by a 2001 verdict
by the International Criminal Tribunal for
the former Yugoslavia that rape and sexual
enslavement are crimes against humanity.
This ruling challenged the widespread acceptance
of rape and sexual enslavement of women as
intrinsic part of war.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the
former Yugoslavia found three Bosnian Serb
men guilty of rape of Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim)
women and girls (some as young as 12 and 15
years of age), in Foca, eastern Bosnia and
Herzegovina.
Furthermore, two of the men were found guilty
of the crime against humanity of sexual enslavement
for holding women and girls captive in a number
of de facto detention centres.
Many of the women subsequently disappeared.
=== Forced marriage and slavery ===
The 1956 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition
of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions
and Practices Similar to Slavery defines "institutions
and practices similar to slavery" to include:c)
Any institution or practice whereby:
(i) A woman, without the right to refuse,
is promised or given in marriage on payment
of a consideration in money or in kind to
her parents, guardian, family or any other
person or group; or
(ii) The husband of a woman, his family, or
his clan, has the right to transfer her to
another person for value received or otherwise;
or
(iii) A woman on the death of her husband
is liable to be inherited by another person;The
Istanbul Convention requires countries which
ratify it to prohibit forced marriage (Article
37) and to ensure that forced marriages can
be easily voided without further victimization
(Article 32).
=== Trafficking Protocol ===
The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish
Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and
Children (also referred to as the Trafficking
Protocol or UN TIP Protocol) is a protocol
to the Convention against Transnational Organised
Crime.
It is one of the three Palermo protocols.
Its purpose is defined at Article 2.
Statement of purpose as: "(a) To prevent and
combat trafficking in persons, paying particular
attention to women and children; (b) To protect
and assist the victims of such trafficking,
with full respect for their human rights;
and (c) To promote cooperation among States
Parties in order to meet those objectives."
== 
See also ==
Female education
Gender apartheid
Gendercide
Misogyny
History of feminism
Index of feminism articles
Legal rights of women in history
List of civil rights leaders
List of feminists
List of suffragists and suffragettes
List of women's rights activists
List of women's organizations
Men's rights movement
Pregnant patients' rights
Simone de Beauvoir Prize
Sex workers' rights
Timeline of women's legal rights (other than
voting)
Timeline of women's suffrage
Women's Social and Political Union
Women's rights in 2014
