short essay about women's rights

Essay On Women Rights

500 words essay on women rights.

Women rights are basic human rights claimed for women and girls all over the world. It was enshrined by the United Nations around 70 years ago for every human on the earth. It includes many things which range from equal pay to the right to education. The essay on women rights will take us through this in detail for a better understanding.

Importance of Women Rights

Women rights are very important for everyone all over the world. It does not just benefit her but every member of society. When women get equal rights, the world can progress together with everyone playing an essential role.

If there weren’t any women rights, women wouldn’t have been allowed to do something as basic as a vote. Further, it is a game-changer for those women who suffer from gender discrimination .

Women rights are important as it gives women the opportunity to get an education and earn in life. It makes them independent which is essential for every woman on earth. Thus, we must all make sure women rights are implemented everywhere.

How to Fight for Women Rights

All of us can participate in the fight for women rights. Even though the world has evolved and women have more freedom than before, we still have a long way to go. In other words, the fight is far from over.

First of all, it is essential to raise our voices. We must make some noise about the issues that women face on a daily basis. Spark up conversations through your social media or make people aware if they are misinformed.

Don’t be a mute spectator to violence against women, take a stand. Further, a volunteer with women rights organisations to learn more about it. Moreover, it also allows you to contribute to change through it.

Similarly, indulge in research and event planning to make events a success. One can also start fundraisers to bring like-minded people together for a common cause. It is also important to attend marches and protests to show actual support.

History has been proof of the revolution which women’s marches have brought about. Thus, public demonstrations are essential for demanding action for change and impacting the world on a large level.

Further, if you can, make sure to donate to women’s movements and organisations. Many women of the world are deprived of basic funds, try donating to organizations that help in uplifting women and changing their future.

You can also shop smartly by making sure your money is going for a great cause. In other words, invest in companies which support women’s right or which give equal pay to them. It can make a big difference to women all over the world.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Conclusion of the Essay on Women Rights

To sum it up, only when women and girls get full access to their rights will they be able to enjoy a life of freedom . It includes everything from equal pay to land ownerships rights and more. Further, a country can only transform when its women get an equal say in everything and are treated equally.

FAQ of Essay on Women Rights

Question 1: Why are having equal rights important?

Answer 1: It is essential to have equal rights as it guarantees people the means necessary for satisfying their basic needs, such as food, housing, and education. This allows them to take full advantage of all opportunities. Lastly, when we guarantee life, liberty, equality, and security, it protects people against abuse by those who are more powerful.

Question 2: What is the purpose of women’s rights?

Answer 2: Women’s rights are the essential human rights that the United Nations enshrined for every human being on the earth nearly 70 years ago. These rights include a lot of rights including the rights to live free from violence, slavery, and discrimination. In addition to the right to education, own property; vote and to earn a fair and equal wage.

Customize your course in 30 seconds

Which class are you in.

Travelling Essay
Picnic Essay
Our Country Essay
My Parents Essay
Essay on Favourite Personality
Essay on Memorable Day of My Life
Essay on Knowledge is Power
Essay on Gurpurab
Essay on My Favourite Season
Essay on Types of Sports

Download the App

Essay on Women’s Rights

Students are often asked to write an essay on Women’s Rights in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Women’s Rights

Introduction.

Women’s rights are fundamental human rights that everyone should respect. They include the right to live free from violence, to be educated, to vote, and to earn a fair wage.

History of Women’s Rights

The fight for women’s rights began in the 1800s. Women protested for the right to vote, work, and receive equal pay. Their efforts led to significant changes.

Importance of Women’s Rights

Women’s rights are vital for equality. When women have the same rights as men, societies are fairer and more balanced.

There is still work to be done to ensure women’s rights worldwide. Everyone should strive to promote and protect these rights.

250 Words Essay on Women’s Rights

The historical context.

The fight for women’s rights has been a long-standing struggle. From the suffragettes of the early 20th century who fought for women’s right to vote, to the women’s liberation movement of the 1960s which sought economic and social equality, women’s rights have been a contentious issue throughout history.

Current Status

Despite significant progress, gender inequality persists in many parts of the world. Women are still underrepresented in political and corporate leadership, they are more likely to live in poverty, and they face higher levels of violence and discrimination.

Challenges and Solutions

The path to gender equality is fraught with obstacles, including deeply entrenched societal norms and institutions. However, change is possible. Education, legislation, and societal shifts in attitudes towards gender can play a significant role in promoting women’s rights.

The fight for women’s rights is a fight for human rights. As society evolves, it is crucial to continue advocating for gender equality, not just for the benefit of women, but for the betterment of society as a whole.

500 Words Essay on Women’s Rights

Women’s rights, a subject that has been at the forefront of social and political discussions for centuries, is a complex and multifaceted issue. It encompasses a wide range of topics, from the right to vote and work to reproductive rights and gender equality. This essay aims to delve into the evolution of women’s rights, the current state of these rights, and the challenges that remain.

The Evolution of Women’s Rights

Current state of women’s rights.

The progress made in the past century is undeniable. Women have achieved significant strides in political representation, educational attainment, and economic participation. However, the fight for equality is far from over. Globally, women still earn less than men, are underrepresented in positions of power, and are more likely to experience violence and discrimination.

Challenges and the Way Forward

The struggle for women’s rights faces numerous challenges. These include deeply entrenched patriarchal norms, religious and cultural beliefs, and structural inequalities that disadvantage women. To overcome these obstacles, it is essential to continue advocating for policy changes that promote gender equality, such as equal pay legislation, paid parental leave, and laws to prevent and punish gender-based violence.

In conclusion, while significant progress has been made in the fight for women’s rights, there is still much work to be done. The struggle for gender equality is not just a women’s issue; it is a human issue that affects us all. By continuing to advocate for policy changes and cultural shifts, we can create a world where all women have the opportunity to live free from discrimination and violence, and to realize their full potential.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

Happy studying!

138 Women’s Rights Research Questions and Essay Topics

🏆 best topics related to women’s rights, ⭐ simple & easy essay topics on women’s issues, 📌 most interesting research topics on women’s issues, 👍 good women’s rights research paper topics, ❓ research questions about women’s rights.

Women’s rights essays are an excellent way to learn about the situation of the female gender throughout the world and demonstrate your knowledge.

You can cover historical women’s rights essay topics, such as the evolution of girl child education in various countries and regions or the different waves of the feminism movement.

Alternatively, you can study more current topics, such as the status of women in Islam or the debate about whether women’s rights apply to transgender women.

In either case, there is a multitude of ideas that you can express and discuss in your paper to make it engaging and thought-provoking. However, you should not neglect the basic aspects of writing an essay, especially its structure and presentation.

The thesis statement is critical to your essay’s structure, as it has to be at the center of each point you make. It should state the overall message or question of your paper comprehensively but concisely at the same time.

Afterwards, every point you make should directly or indirectly support the claim or answer the question, and you should make the relationship explicit for better clarity.

It is good practice to make the thesis a single sentence that does not rely on context, being fully self-sufficient, but avoids being excessively long.

As such, writing a good thesis is a challenging task that requires care and practice. Do not be afraid to spend additional time writing the statement and refining it.

It is beneficial to have a framework of how you will arrange topics and formulate your points so that they flow into one another and support the central thesis before you begin writing.

The practice will help you arrange transitional words and make the essay more coherent and connected as opposed to being an assortment of loosely associated statements.

To that end, you should write an outline, which deserves a separate discussion. However, the basics are simple: write down all of the ideas you want to discuss, discard the worst or fold them into other, broader topics until you have a handful left, and organize those in a logical progression.

Here are some additional tips for your structuring process:

Frame the ideas in your outline using self-explanatory and concise women’s rights essay titles. You can then use them to separate different points in your essay with titles that correspond to outline elements. The outline itself will effectively become a table of contents, saving you time if one is necessary.
Try to keep the discussion of each topic self-contained, without much reference to other matters you discussed in the essay. If there is a significant relationship, you should devote a separate section to it.
Do not forget to include an introduction and a conclusion in your paper. The introduction familiarizes the reader with the topic and ends with your thesis statement, setting the tone and direction of the essay. The conclusion sums up what you have written and adds some concluding remarks to finish. The introduction should not contain facts and examples beyond what is common knowledge in the field. The conclusion may not introduce new information beyond what has been stated in the essay.

You can find excellent women’s rights essay examples, useful samples, and more helpful tips on writing your essay at IvyPanda, so visit whenever you are having trouble or would like advice!

What Causes Women’s Rights Violation? Most women have been abused in modern societies due to illiteracy and lack of exposure to their rights. Most developing nations are struggling to adopt democratic policies and forget that women deserve the right to […]
Women’s Rights in the 21st Century: Education and Politics The lack of equity in the specified areas affect women’s lives on range of levels, depriving them of the opportunities that they are supposed to be entitled to and posing a tangible threat to the […]
Women’s Rights and the Advancement of Democracy The degree of citizen involvement in the political process, including the participation of various social groups in political parties and decision-making bodies, determines the quality of democracy in addition to the structure of current political […]
Women’s Rights and Gender Inequality in Saudi Arabia Indeed, it is crucial to understand the importance of women’s rights, see the connections between the past, the present, the local, and the global, and realize how political and media discourse represents the social issue […]
Foot Binding in China in Terms of Women’s Rights The practice of foot binding in China can be traced back to the Sung Dynasty that prevailed between 960-1280 AD, supposedly as an imitation of an imperial concubine who was required to perform a dance […]
“Women’s Rights Are Human Rights” by Hillary Clinton Hillary Clinton’s speech about women’s rights effectively convinces her audience that women rights are an indispensable part of human rights through the use of logical argument, repetition, historical facts, and emotional stories.
Utilitarian Permissive Concept for Women’s Right to Choose Abortion Utilitarians believe that the right to choose abortion should be protected under the law as a matter of justice since a woman should have the right to make decisions concerning her own body and health.
Women’s Rights: Democratic Perceptions Therefore, it is proper to claim that women would not be able to exercise their rights and freedoms as frequently without the efforts of Democrats.
Abortion and Women’s Right to Control Their Bodies However, the decision to ban abortions can be viewed as illegal, unethical, and contradicting the values of the 21st century. In such a way, the prohibition of abortion is a serious health concern leading to […]
The Women’s Rights Movement and Indigenous People In this article, the author addresses the differences between the Euro-American and Native American societies and the role of women in them.
The Texas Abortion Law: A Signal of War on Women’s Rights and Bodies The purpose of this paper is to examine the structure and implications of the Texas Abortion Law in order to demonstrate its flaws.
Women’s Rights and Reform Impulses The reform impulses altered women’s place in society, making them equal to men in the ability to speak publicly, pursue their liberty, and attain their goals.
The Evolution of Women’s Rights Through American History From the property-owning women of the late 18th century to the proponents of the women’s liberation in the 1960s, women always succeeded in using the influential political theories of their time to eventually make feminist […]
Invisible Southern Black Women Leaders in the Civil Rights Movement Based on 36 personal interviews and multiple published and archived sources, the author demonstrates that black women in the South have played a prominent role in the struggle for their rights.
Injustices Women Faced in Quest for Equal Rights The source Alice Paul depicts the numerous contributions that she and her fellow suffragists made to the new rights of women.
Catharine Beecher and Women’s Rights Catharine Beecher’s “An Appeal to American Women” is a discussion kind of piece that considers the power of women in office and how the issue should be approached.
The Aftermath of the Progression of Women’s Rights Period At the end of the 1800s and the beginning of 1900s, women’s organizations and women struggled for social reforms, to gain the right to vote, and for diverse political and economic equality.
Lucy Parsons as a Women’s Rights Advocate and Her Beliefs She was a believer in anarchism and thought that it was the means to liberty and freedom. She wanted the constitution to be amended to say that men and women are equal in all aspects.
Women in Islam: Some Rights, No Equality Notwithstanding the principles of equality of men and women in Islamic tradition, women’s low status should be attributed not to the ideals set in the Quran but to the cultural norms of the patriarchal society.
Primary Source on Women’s Voting Rights The combination of statements that degrade the image of suffragettes and suffrage and quotes of leaders’ opinions is a way for the editor to influence the audience.
Syrian Conflict and Women Rights: Way to Equality or Another Discrimination The main reason for a low percentage of women in the workforce is Syrian social norms, which stereotypically reflect the role of women in homes serving their husbands and in the private sector.
Movement for Women’s Rights in Great Britain and the United States This essay analytically explores some of the conditions which helped bring about movement for women’s right in Great Britain and United States before the close of the last century. In addition, the most significant demand […]
Shirin Ebadi’s Perspective on Women’s Human Rights Activism and Islam It is worth noting that Shirin Ebadi’s self-identity as an Iranian woman and a Muslim empowers her experience and perspective in women’s rights activism.
Women in the Struggle for Civil Rights In other instants, women in the struggle for civil rights can also file a case in a court of law demanding the lawmakers to enact some policies of which they feel when passed will protect […]
The Success of Women’s Rights Movement They sought the equal treatment of women and men by law and fought for voting rights. The women’s rights movement was successful because they were united, had a strong ideological foundation, and organized campaigns on […]
Refugee Women and Their Human Rights According to the researches have been made by UNHCR, 1998, found that 80% of the refugees immigrating to the United States and other countries of second asylum are women or children.
Women’s Rights Movement in the 19th Century In this paper, the peculiarities of women’s suffrage, its political and social background, and further reactions will be discussed to clarify the worth and impact of the chosen event.
Women Rights: New Data and Movements For example, whereas the women’s health rights movement is a global affair, the fact that events related to the movement are mainly held in the US means that other countries do not feel the impact […]
Planned Parenthood and Women’s Rights It took decades for the government to acknowledge the necessity of the services offered in these clinics and even longer for the public to accept a woman’s right to reproductive health care, the establishment of […]
Understanding Women’s Right in Islamic World The role of women in the Islamic society during and soon after the death of Prophet Mohammed was similar to that of men.
Saudi Arabian Women’s Right to Drive: Pros and Cons The objective of this paper is to present the arguments from both sides of the discussion on the issue of whether women should be able to drive legally in Saudi Arabia.
Arab Spring’s Impact on Women’s Rights and Security The aim of the research is to define the effects that the Arab Spring has had on the perception of women in the Arab society.
Women’s Rights Since Pre-History to 1600 A.D In this regard, most women from the medieval times could determine their social and political destiny, but the responsibility to others mainly rested on the men.
Women’s Fight for Equal Human Rights According to the readings assigned, the term feminist could be used to refer to people who fought for the rights of women.
Women in New France: Rights, Freedoms and Responsibilities However, the development of New France was quite distinct due to peculiarities of the gender roles in the North America and France.
Women’s Family and Social Responsibilities and Rights The uniqueness of Addams and Sanger’s approach to discussing the rights of females is in the fact that these authors discuss any social responsibilities of women as the key to improving their roles in the […]
Women’s Rights in the Great Depression Period The pursuit of the workplace equality and the protection of women from unfair treatment by the employers were quite unsuccessful and slow due to the major division in the opinions.
Women’s Roles and Rights in the 18-19th Century America We can only do the simplest work; we cannot have a good job because that is the men’s domain, and they have the necessary training to do it.
Debate Over Women’s Rights At times, the problem is that there is bias and discrimination about the strength of the woman and no chance has ever been given to them to prove if the allegation is wrong.
The Women of the Veil: Gaining Rights and Freedoms The author chides the activities of the Western colonies in Afghanistan in restoring the rights of the women of the veil.
The Role of African American Women in the Civil Right Movement The role of women in the Civil Rights Movement started to change in the 1960s. Women in the Civil Rights Movement: Trailblazers and Torchbearers.
Hip-Hop Music and the Role of Women in It: Fight for Women’s Rights in Society While looking at the various roles of women in hip hop and rap, it is also important to note that the way women are presented has various effects on society.
Gender Studies: Women’s Rights in Saudi Arabia This paper will review the a issue of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia from the perspective of four different groups including the modern Saudi women, traditional Saudi women, Government officials, and international women’s rights organizations.
African-American Women and the Civil Rights Movement The key factors that left the Black women unrecognized or led to recognition of just a few of them as leaders are class, race and gender biases.
Temperance, Women’s Rights, Education, Antislavery and Prison Reform: New Objectives, New Concerns Among the most memorable reforms of that time, the innovations in the system of treating the convicts and the prisoners must be the reform that reflected the very essence of the XIX-century social ideas.
Women’s Rights – Contribution of E. Cady Stanton and S.B. Anthony The first significant and most important move was made by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, on the other hand, was born in a Quaker family and her father was also quite a successful […]
Oppression of Women’s Rights Affects the Economy of the Middle East For instance in Iceland, the high level of quality of life and health is one of the factors that lead to a GDP per capita of $54,291 On the contrary, there are situations where women […]
Reform-Women’s Rights and Slavery The colonizers felt that the movement was threatening their business and status in the society and began to ridicule and attack the families of the abolitionists.
Women’s Role in Contemporary Korea The effort of women to work in professional and high positions in different sectors, the government decided to boost their effort and maintain their morale.
Non Governmental Organization of Women’s Learning Partnership for Rights Development and Peace In most cases the rights of women which are mainly suppressed include the right to own property, the right to work or hold a public office, the right of receiving education, the right to vote […]
The Development of Women’s Rights However, she cannot agree to such distribution of the roles, and she calls upon all people to look again at the situation, connected to women’s rights, and provide all women with a chance to participate […]
Jane Cunningham Croly: Fighting for Women Rights The problem of women inequality with men had been considered in the society and Jane Cunningham Croly was one of those who wanted to contribute to the movement, and her journalistic activity was that measure.
Women’s Suffrage Discussion The entrenchment of equal rights of women and men and more noticeably the right of every American woman to vote came into being after the enactment of the nineteenth amendment.
Disclosing the Aspects of Female Authorship as Presented in Woolf’s Professions for Women and Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Right of Woman In their works called A Vindication of the Right of Woman and Professions of Women respectively, they express their vigorous desire to liberate women from the professional taboos to enter female authorship imposed by the […]
Power of Women’s Rights How the Anti-Slavery Movement Challenge Established Notions of Manhood and Womanhood Kathryn Kish Sklar’s general idea in the book is to enlighten people on the role of women in the society during the 19th century, […]
Women’s Rights in the Muslim World Ahmed first focuses on the gender pattern in the Middle East prior to the emergence of the Islam in order to gain ground to describe the Islamic doctrine on women that were practiced in the […]
Afghan Women and Violation of Their Rights It is for this reason that the Taliban have been the party mostly blamed for the mistreatment of women in the country. The U.S.has the necessary resources to ensure that this is achieved therefore guaranteeing […]
Did Flappers Have a Positive Effect on Women’s Rights in America in the 1920s?
Abigail Adams’ Inspiring Rebellion for Women’s Rights
The Power of the Internet and Women’s Rights in Guatemala
Pencils and Bullets Women’s Rights in Afghanistan
Women’s Rights in Supreme Court Decisions of the 1960’s and 1970’s
Women’s Rights: A Path into the Society to Achieve Social Liberation
The Taliban: Deprivers of Women’s Rights in Afghanistan
Henrik Ibsen’s Description of Women’s Rights as Depicted in His Play, A Doll’s House
Perceptions on The Islamic Practice of Veiling: Relevance to the Quest for Women’s Rights
The Effects of Christianity on Women’s Rights in China
Women’s Rights in the 1920’s and Examples in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby
Pornography and Feminist Fight for Women’s Rights
The Progression of Women’s Rights from the Early 20th Century
Islamic Head Scarf: Women’s Rights and Cultural Sensibilities
The Women’s Rights Movement in England: 18th Century and Beyond
Comparing Cultures: the Development of Women’s Rights in China and Saudi Arabia
Mary Wollstonecraft and the Early Women’s Rights Movement
The Progression of Women’s Rights in the Middle East
Elizabeth Stanton’s Impact on Women’s Rights Movement
Women’s Rights in Latin America and the Caribbean
Women’s Rights and Their Importance to the Development of True Democracy
Women’s Rights Within A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Every Woman Has Her Day: The Women’s Rights Movement in 19th Century
Evolution of Women’s Rights Since 19th Century
Integrating Equality – Globalization, Women’s Rights, Son Preference and Human Trafficking
Analysis of the View of Opinions of Authors Advocating for Women’s Rights
Abolition of Slavery is Conducive to Women’s Rights Movement
Women’s Rights Violations in Afghanistan
Feminism and Women’s Rights in Post Colonial Africa and France
Social Justice in America: Women’s Rights
Horace Walpole and Samuel Johnson, Champions of Women’s Rights
Muslims Women’s Rights to Practice Their Religion
Women’s Rights and Hills Like White Elephants
Rhetorical Analysis of Hillary Clinton’s Speech, Women’s Rights Are Human Rights
Euripides Support of Women’s Rights
Women’s Rights in Afghanistan 1996 to the Present
Women’s Rights & Their Impact on the Development of Iran
Women’s Rights Between 1750 and 1914
Exploring The Women’s Rights Movement With Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O´Conner
Progressive Era: The Era of Immigration, Race, and Women’s Rights
Women’s Rights in the United States in the 1700s
Which Countries Violate Women’s Rights?
What Was the Aim of the Women’s Movement?
How Did the Anti-Slavery Movement Contribute to the Women’s Rights Movement?
Who Were the 4 Main Leaders of the Women’s Rights Movement?
How Does Gender Inequality Affect Women’s Rights?
Who Fought for Women’s Right to Work?
What Was the Biggest Women’s Rights Movement?
What Are the Colors for Women’s Rights?
Why Women’s Rights Lost Ground at the End of World War Two?
What Is the Role of Lesbians in the Women’s Movement?
How Far Women’s Rights Have Come?
What Laws Help Women’s Rights?
How Were the Abolition and Women’s Rights Movements Similar?
What Are the Most Important Events in Women’s Rights History?
Who Is Responsible for Women’s Rights?
What Is the History of Women’s Rights?
What Were 3 Major Events in the Women’s Rights Movement?
How Margaret Fuller and Fanny Fern Used Writing as a Weapon for Women’s Rights?
How Did Race Impact African American Women’s Experiences During the Women’s Suffrage Movement?
What Was the Cause of the First Woman’s Rights Convention?
Why Is Education Important for Women’s Rights?
How Are Women’s Rights Linked to Economic Development?
When Did the Women’s Rights Movement Start and End?
Why Did the Women’s Rights Movement Emerge in the USA During the 1950S and 1960S?
What Are Women’s Cultural Rights?
Who Was the First Black Women’s Rights Activist?
When Was the First Female Vote?
What Was the Movement for Women’s Rights in the 1800S?
Who Was the Black Woman Who Fought for Women’s Rights?
Who Was the Biggest Women’s Rights Activist?
Civil Rights Movement Questions
Gender Inequality Research Topics
Women’s Suffrage Essay Ideas
Childbirth Titles
Gender Discrimination Research Topics
Motherhood Ideas
Personal Identity Paper Topics
Reproductive Health Essay Titles
Chicago (A-D)
Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2024, March 1). 138 Women’s Rights Research Questions and Essay Topics. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/womens-rights-essay-examples/

"138 Women’s Rights Research Questions and Essay Topics." IvyPanda , 1 Mar. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/topic/womens-rights-essay-examples/.

IvyPanda . (2024) '138 Women’s Rights Research Questions and Essay Topics'. 1 March.

IvyPanda . 2024. "138 Women’s Rights Research Questions and Essay Topics." March 1, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/womens-rights-essay-examples/.

1. IvyPanda . "138 Women’s Rights Research Questions and Essay Topics." March 1, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/womens-rights-essay-examples/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "138 Women’s Rights Research Questions and Essay Topics." March 1, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/womens-rights-essay-examples/.

Skip to main content
Skip to secondary menu
Skip to primary sidebar
Skip to footer

A Plus Topper

Improve your Grades

Women’s Rights Essay | Essay on Women’s Rights for Students and Children in English

February 13, 2024 by Prasanna

Women’s Rights Essay: Ever since time unknown, there have been differences between the two genders. The issue of women empowerment or women rights women’s Rights Essay | Essay on Women’s Rights for Students and Children in English e not something new and have been continuing from a very long time.

There are feminists worldwide who argue that men get more privileges than women. Today it is right to say that the gender roles have somewhat become equal than what it was in the past, yet there is still a long way to go.

You can also find more Essay Writing articles on events, persons, sports, technology and many more.

Long and Short Essays on Women’s Rights for Students and Kids in English

We are providing students with samples of essay on an extended piece of 500 words and short writing of 150 words on the topic “Women’s Rights Essay” for reference.

Long Essay on Women’s Rights 500 Words in English

Long Essay on Women’s Rights is usually given to classes 7, 8, 9, and 10.

Feminism is a movement that has always stood up for women’s rights. It recognises the idea that individuals are treated differently based on their biological identities, and they still exist a dominance of the male gender. No matter what the environment is, be it a school or work, women are treated in a subordinate manner.

Across time and culture, women rights movement have changed in form and perspective. Many argue for the notion that women’s rights are in the domain of workplace equality. Still, many say that even domestic equality is in the niche of women’s rights.

There are exceptional circumstances like in case of maternity leave that women require unique treatments. In the USA the concept of maternity leave came up long back, and nowadays the idea has reached to the developing countries. Women of many countries are subjected to social ills, but if there are special provisions for the safeguard of women, then there can be women equality ensured.

The history of women rights movements could be traced back to the 1700s and the 1800s. The first-ever convention to take place in favour of women’s rights was in Seneca Falls, situated in New York. Later, the marriage protest of 1855 by Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell advocated the rights of women. They protested against the laws that bound women in their husband’s control and supported that women should have their own identity and should exist outside the control of their husbands.

The National Organization for Women or more commonly known as NOW was another step forward in women rights movements. It took place in 1966 and were entirely based on the idea of equality. This organisation wanted to provide equal opportunity to women so that as humans, their full potentials could develop.

In 1979, a United Nations Convention took place for discussing women’s rights. The main focus of this convention was to take suitable measures for removing all discrimination against women, which was a significant step forward in the women’s right movement. This convention made it clear that gender equality should exist in all sphere, no matter if it is economical, political, civil, social, or cultural. This convention looked forward to reducing all the prejudices against women, the abolition of sex trafficking or child marriages.

Europe saw the first-ever proto-feminist movements in the 19th century. This movement propounded the ideals of feminism, and such a concept inspired many women. The most well-known effect of this proto-feminist movement is the Female Moral Reform Society which gave the women a significant representation.

Ever since the historical times, women have actively participated in building the society. Several women took place in the first and the second world wars, and their works received not much recognition. The several waves of feminism that took place throughout the timeline reflected the contribution of women, and therefore we must realise their importance. We should build a society of equality and harmony where women are not in the suffering end.

Short Essay on Women’s Rights 150 Words in English

Short Essay on Women’s Rights is usually given to classes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.

The issue of women rights is not something new and have been a source of constant struggle since time immemorial. The concepts of feminism, gender equality and women’s rights are intertwined, and one cannot address either topic disregarding another.

The first wave of feminism took place as early as the 1800s and raised numerous challenges that later contributed to the women rights movement. The first and second waves raised questions on racial discrimination and inequality in society. Other than the feminist movements, there have been numerous conventions and organisations that have taken up this issue on their hands. There are multiple well-known feminists, like Alice Walker, who have stated that social activism is a step forward in promoting women equality and feminist ideals.

Numerous pieces of evidence can prove in favour of the argument that women are the essential contributors in historical development. It is time to acknowledge such a contribution and change our goals to make a better society.

10 Lines on Women’s Rights Essay in English

1. The women rights’ struggle is going on for a long time. 2. The progression of Egyptian women have been the greatest. 3. People must address women rights’ issue 4. proto-feminist movements started in Europe. 5. There are many historical events in favour of women rights. 6. Women took essential roles during the first world war. 7. The first feminist wave came in the late 1800s. 8. The 1960s saw the second feminist wave. 9. Women right movements led to social reconstruction. 10. Women rights issue can create chaos worldwide.

FAQ’s on Women’s Rights Essay

Question 1. How can women achieve their rights?

Answer: There are numerous ways to achieve this, the first and the essential being raising one’s voice against injustice. By sharing the workload, and by supporting each other, we can reach women rights too.

Question 2. When did movements start for women rights?

Answer: These movements started in the 1800s, specifically between 1848 and 1920.

Question 3. What is the need for gender equality?

Answer: We can achieve a peaceful and better society with gender equality, as well as full human potential and overall development.

Question 4. Who are some eminent leaders of women rights?

Answer: There is Thelma Bate, Eva Cox in Australia, Cai Chang in China, B. R. Ambedkar, Manasi Pradhan in India, Jane Addams, Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Lucy Stone in the USA. These are only a few names from the long list of eminent leaders.

Picture Dictionary
English Speech
English Slogans
English Letter Writing
English Essay Writing
English Textbook Answers
Types of Certificates
ICSE Solutions
Selina ICSE Solutions
ML Aggarwal Solutions
HSSLive Plus One
HSSLive Plus Two
Kerala SSLC
Distance Education

📕 Studying HQ

Comprehensive Argumentative essay example on the Rights of Women

Rachel r.n..

February 20, 2024
Essay Topics and Ideas

What You'll Learn

Women’s rights have been a significant focal point in the ongoing discourse on social justice and equality. The struggle for women’s rights is deeply rooted in history, marked by milestones and setbacks. While progress has undeniably been made, there remain persistent challenges that necessitate continued advocacy and action. This essay argues that the advancement of women’s rights is not only a matter of justice and equality but also a fundamental imperative for societal progress.(Comprehensive Argumentative essay example on the Rights of Women)

The historical context of women’s rights is marked by a legacy of systemic discrimination, limited opportunities, and societal norms that perpetuated gender inequality. From the suffragette movement to the fight for reproductive rights, women have consistently challenged oppressive structures. The recognition of women’s rights as human rights, as articulated in international conventions, underscores the global commitment to address historical injustices and promote gender equality.(Comprehensive Argumentative essay example on the Rights of Women)

One crucial aspect of women’s rights is economic empowerment . The gender pay gap and limited access to economic resources have persisted despite advancements in the workplace. Empowering women economically not only contributes to their individual well-being but also enhances overall societal prosperity. Research consistently demonstrates that economies thrive when women actively participate in the workforce and have equal opportunities for career advancement.(Comprehensive Argumentative essay example on the Rights of Women)

Education is a powerful catalyst for social change, and ensuring equal access to education for girls and women is integral to advancing women’s rights. When women are educated, they become catalysts for positive change within their communities. Educated women are more likely to make informed decisions about their lives, contribute meaningfully to society, and break the cycle of poverty.

Rights Securing women’s rights includes safeguarding their reproductive health and rights. Access to comprehensive healthcare, including reproductive services, is essential for women to have control over their bodies and make autonomous choices about family planning. Policies that prioritize women’s health contribute to a healthier and more equitable society.(Comprehensive Argumentative essay example on the Rights of Women)

Violence Against Women Addressing and preventing violence against women is a critical component of the women’s rights agenda. Gender-based violence not only inflicts harm on individual women but also perpetuates a culture of fear and inequality. Legal frameworks, awareness campaigns, and support services are essential tools in combating violence against women and ensuring their safety and well-being.(Comprehensive Argumentative essay example on the Rights of Women)

In conclusion, the advancement of women’s rights is not only a moral imperative but also a crucial factor in fostering societal progress. A comprehensive approach that addresses historical injustices, economic disparities, educational opportunities, reproductive rights, and violence against women is essential. As we strive for a more equitable future, it is imperative that individuals, communities, and governments actively support and promote women’s rights, recognizing that the empowerment of women is synonymous with the advancement of society as a whole.(Comprehensive Argumentative essay example on the Rights of Women)

80 Topic Ideas for Your Argumentative Essay

Universal Basic Income
Climate Change and Environmental Policies
Gun Control Laws
Legalization of Marijuana
Capital Punishment
Immigration Policies
Healthcare Reform
Artificial Intelligence Ethics
Cybersecurity and Privacy
Online Education vs. Traditional Education
Animal Testing
Nuclear Energy
Social Media Impact on Society
Gender Pay Gap
Affirmative Action
Censorship in the Media
Genetic Engineering and Designer Babies
Mandatory Vaccinations
Electoral College vs. Popular Vote
Police Brutality and Reform
School Uniforms
Space Exploration Funding
Internet Neutrality
Autonomous Vehicles and Ethics
Nuclear Weapons Proliferation
Racial Profiling
Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide
Cultural Appropriation
Socialism vs. Capitalism
Mental Health Stigma
Income Inequality
Renewable Energy Sources
Legalization of Prostitution
Affirmative Consent Laws
Education Funding
Prescription Drug Prices
Parental Leave Policies
Ageism in the Workplace
Single-payer Healthcare System
Bullying Prevention in Schools
Government Surveillance
LGBTQ+ Rights
Nuclear Disarmament
GMO Labeling
Workplace Diversity
Obesity and Public Health
Immigration and Border Security
Free Speech on College Campuses
Alternative Medicine vs. Conventional Medicine
Childhood Vaccination Requirements
Mass Surveillance
Renewable Energy Subsidies
Cultural Diversity in Education
Youth and Political Engagement
School Vouchers
Social Justice Warriors
Internet Addiction
Human Cloning
Artistic Freedom vs. Cultural Sensitivity
College Admissions Policies
Cyberbullying
Privacy in the Digital Age
Nuclear Power Plants Safety
Cultural Impact of Video Games
Aging Population and Healthcare
Animal Rights
Obesity and Personal Responsibility
Reproductive Rights
Charter Schools
Military Spending
Immigration and Economic Impact
Mandatory Military Service
Workplace Harassment Policies
Cultural Globalization
Criminal Justice Reform
Immigration Detention Centers
Antibiotic Resistance
Internet Censorship
Discrimination in the Workplace
Space Colonization

Brownlee, K. (2020). Being sure of each other: an essay on social rights and freedoms. Oxford University Press, USA. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=kTjpDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Argumentative+essay+example+on+the+Rights+of+Women&ots=oysLrPE6ux&sig=ANTnu_5AH4_3PMfGG0XdMzxBpLA

Start by filling this short order form order.studyinghq.com

And then follow the progressive flow.

Having an issue, chat with us here

Cathy, CS.

New Concept ? Let a subject expert write your paper for You

Have a subject expert write for you now, have a subject expert finish your paper for you, edit my paper for me, have an expert write your dissertation's chapter.

Typically replies within minutes

Hey! 👋 Need help with an assignment?

🟢 Online | Privacy policy

WhatsApp us

For full functionality of this site it is necessary to enable JavaScript. Click here for instructions on how to enable JavaScript in your web browser.

Women's Rights

CommonLit is a nonprofit that has everything teachers and schools need for top-notch literacy instruction: a full-year ELA curriculum, benchmark assessments, and formative data. Browse Content Who We Are About

History of the Women’s Rights Movement

Living the Legacy: The Women’s Rights Movement (1848-1998)

“ Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has. ” That was Margaret Mead’s conclusion after a lifetime of observing very diverse cultures around the world. Her insight has been borne out time and again throughout the development of this country of ours. Being allowed to live life in an atmosphere of religious freedom, having a voice in the government you support with your taxes, living free of lifelong enslavement by another person. These beliefs about how life should and must be lived were once considered outlandish by many. But these beliefs were fervently held by visionaries whose steadfast work brought about changed minds and attitudes. Now these beliefs are commonly shared across U.S. society.

Another initially outlandish idea that has come to pass: United States citizenship for women. 1998 marked the 150th Anniversary of a movement by women to achieve full civil rights in this country. Over the past seven generations, dramatic social and legal changes have been accomplished that are now so accepted that they go unnoticed by people whose lives they have utterly changed. Many people who have lived through the recent decades of this process have come to accept blithely what has transpired. And younger people, for the most part, can hardly believe life was ever otherwise. They take the changes completely in stride, as how life has always been.

The staggering changes for women that have come about over those seven generations in family life, in religion, in government, in employment, in education – these changes did not just happen spontaneously. Women themselves made these changes happen, very deliberately. Women have not been the passive recipients of miraculous changes in laws and human nature. Seven generations of women have come together to affect these changes in the most democratic ways: through meetings, petition drives, lobbying, public speaking, and nonviolent resistance. They have worked very deliberately to create a better world, and they have succeeded hugely.

Throughout 1998, the 150th anniversary of the Women’s Rights Movement is being celebrated across the nation with programs and events taking every form imaginable. Like many amazing stories, the history of the Women’s Rights Movement began with a small group of people questioning why human lives were being unfairly constricted.

A Tea Launches a Revolution The Women’s Rights Movement marks July 13, 1848 as its beginning. On that sweltering summer day in upstate New York, a young housewife and mother, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, was invited to tea with four women friends. When the course of their conversation turned to the situation of women, Stanton poured out her discontent with the limitations placed on her own situation under America’s new democracy. Hadn’t the American Revolution had been fought just 70 years earlier to win the patriots freedom from tyranny? But women had not gained freedom even though they’d taken equally tremendous risks through those dangerous years. Surely the new republic would benefit from having its women play more active roles throughout society. Stanton’s friends agreed with her, passionately. This was definitely not the first small group of women to have such a conversation, but it was the first to plan and carry out a specific, large-scale program.

Today we are living the legacy of this afternoon conversation among women friends. Throughout 1998, events celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the Women’s Rights Movement are looking at the massive changes these women set in motion when they daringly agreed to convene the world’s first Women’s Rights Convention.

Within two days of their afternoon tea together, this small group had picked a date for their convention, found a suitable location, and placed a small announcement in the Seneca County Courier. They called “A convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of woman.” The gathering would take place at the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls on July 19 and 20, 1848.

In the history of western civilization, no similar public meeting had ever been called.

A “Declaration of Sentiments” is Drafted These were patriotic women, sharing the ideal of improving the new republic. They saw their mission as helping the republic keep its promise of better, more egalitarian lives for its citizens. As the women set about preparing for the event, Elizabeth Cady Stanton used the Declaration of Independence as the framework for writing what she titled a “Declaration of Sentiments.” In what proved to be a brilliant move, Stanton connected the nascent campaign for women’s rights directly to that powerful American symbol of liberty. The same familiar words framed their arguments: “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

In this Declaration of Sentiments, Stanton carefully enumerated areas of life where women were treated unjustly. Eighteen was precisely the number of grievances America’s revolutionary forefathers had listed in their Declaration of Independence from England.

Stanton’s version read, “The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.” Then it went into specifics:

Married women were legally dead in the eyes of the law
Women were not allowed to vote
Women had to submit to laws when they had no voice in their formation
Married women had no property rights
Husbands had legal power over and responsibility for their wives to the extent that they could imprison or beat them with impunity
Divorce and child custody laws favored men, giving no rights to women
Women had to pay property taxes although they had no representation in the levying of these taxes
Most occupations were closed to women and when women did work they were paid only a fraction of what men earned
Women were not allowed to enter professions such as medicine or law
Women had no means to gain an education since no college or university would accept women students
With only a few exceptions, women were not allowed to participate in the affairs of the church
Women were robbed of their self-confidence and self-respect, and were made totally dependent on men

Strong words… Large grievances… And remember: This was just seventy years after the Revolutionary War. Doesn’t it seem surprising to you that this unfair treatment of women was the norm in this new, very idealistic democracy? But this Declaration of Sentiments spelled out what was the status quo for European-American women in 1848 America, while it was even worse for enslaved Black women.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s draft continued: “Now, in view of this entire disenfranchisement of one-half the people of this country, their social and religious degradation, — in view of the unjust laws above mentioned, and because women do feel themselves aggrieved, oppressed, and fraudulently deprived of their most sacred rights, we insist that they have immediate admission to all the rights and privileges which belong to them as citizens of these United States.”

That summer, change was in the air and Elizabeth Cady Stanton was full of hope that the future could and would be brighter for women.

The First Women’s Rights Convention The convention was convened as planned, and over the two-days of discussion, the Declaration of Sentiments and 12 resolutions received unanimous endorsement, one by one, with a few amendments. The only resolution that did not pass unanimously was the call for women’s enfranchisement. That women should be allowed to vote in elections was almost inconceivable to many. Lucretia Mott, Stanton’s longtime friend, had been shocked when Stanton had first suggested such an idea. And at the convention, heated debate over the woman’s vote filled the air.

Today, it’s hard for us to imagine this, isn’t it? Even the heartfelt pleas of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a refined and educated woman of the time, did not move the assembly. Not until Frederick Douglass, the noted Black abolitionist and rich orator, started to speak, did the uproar subside. Woman, like the slave, he argued, had the right to liberty. “Suffrage,” he asserted, “is the power to choose rulers and make laws, and the right by which all others are secured.” In the end, the resolution won enough votes to carry, but by a bare majority.

The Declaration of Sentiments ended on a note of complete realism: “In entering upon the great work before us, we anticipate no small amount of misconception, misrepresentation, and ridicule; but we shall use every instrumentality within our power to effect our object. We shall employ agents, circulate tracts, petition the State and national Legislatures, and endeavor to enlist the pulpit and the press in our behalf. We hope this Convention will be followed by a series of Conventions, embracing every part of the country.”

The Backlash Begins Stanton was certainly on the mark when she anticipated “misconception, misrepresentation, and ridicule.” Newspaper editors were so scandalized by the shameless audacity of the Declaration of Sentiments, and particularly of the ninth resolution — women demanding the vote!– that they attacked the women with all the vitriol they could muster. The women’s rights movement was only one day old and the backlash had already begun!

In ridicule, the entire text of the Declaration of Sentiments was often published, with the names of the signers frequently included. Just as ridicule today often has a squelching effect on new ideas, this attack in the press caused many people from the Convention to rethink their positions. Many of the women who had attended the convention were so embarrassed by the publicity that they actually withdrew their signatures from the Declaration. But most stood firm. And something the editors had not anticipated happened: Their negative articles about the women’s call for expanded rights were so livid and widespread that they actually had a positive impact far beyond anything the organizers could have hoped for. People in cities and isolated towns alike were now alerted to the issues, and joined this heated discussion of women’s rights in great numbers!

The Movement Expands The Seneca Falls women had optimistically hoped for “a series of conventions embracing every part of the country.” And that’s just what did happen. Women’s Rights Conventions were held regularly from 1850 until the start of the Civil War. Some drew such large crowds that people actually had to be turned away for lack of sufficient meeting space!

The women’s rights movement of the late 19th century went on to address the wide range of issues spelled out at the Seneca Falls Convention. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and women like Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, and Sojourner Truth traveled the country lecturing and organizing for the next forty years. Eventually, winning the right to vote emerged as the central issue, since the vote would provide the means to achieve the other reforms. All told, the campaign for woman suffrage met such staunch opposition that it took 72 years for the women and their male supporters to be successful.

As you might imagine, any 72-year campaign includes thousands of political strategists, capable organizers, administrators, activists and lobbyists. The story of diligent women’s rights activism is a litany of achievements against tremendous odds, of ingenious strategies and outrageous tactics used to outwit opponents and make the most of limited resources. It’s a dramatic tale, filled with remarkable women facing down incredible obstacles to win that most basic American civil right – the vote.

Among these women are several activists whose names and and accomplishments should become as familiar to Americans as those of Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, of course. And Susan B. Anthony. Matilda Joslyn Gage. Lucy Stone. They were pioneer theoreticians of the 19th-century women’s rights movement.
Esther Morris, the first woman to hold a judicial position, who led the first successful state campaign for woman suffrage, in Wyoming in 1869. Abigail Scott Duniway, the leader of the successful fight in Oregon and Washington in the early 1900s.
Ida B. Wells-Barnett and Mary Church Terrell, organizers of thousands of African-American women who worked for suffrage for all women.
Harriot Stanton Blatch, daughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Alice Stone Blackwell, Lucy Stone’s daughter, who carried on their mothers’ legacy through the next generation.
Anna Howard Shaw and Carrie Chapman Catt, leaders of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in the early years of the 20th century, who brought the campaign to its final success.
Alice Paul, founder and leader of the National Woman’s Party, considered the radical wing of the movement.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, now a Supreme Court Justice, learned the story of the Women’s Rights Movement. Today she says, “I think about how much we owe to the women who went before us – legions of women, some known but many more unknown. I applaud the bravery and resilience of those who helped all of us – you and me – to be here today.”

After the Vote was Won After the vote was finally won in 1920, the organized Women’s Rights Movement continued on in several directions. While the majority of women who had marched, petitioned and lobbied for woman suffrage looked no further, a minority – like Alice Paul – understood that the quest for women’s rights would be an ongoing struggle that was only advanced, not satisfied, by the vote.

In 1919, as the suffrage victory drew near, the National American Woman Suffrage Association reconfigured itself into the League of Women Voters to ensure that women would take their hard-won vote seriously and use it wisely.

In 1920, the Women’s Bureau of the Department of Labor was established to gather information about the situation of women at work, and to advocate for changes it found were needed. Many suffragists became actively involved with lobbying for legislation to protect women workers from abuse and unsafe conditions.

In 1923, Alice Paul, the leader of the National Woman’s Party, took the next obvious step. She drafted an Equal Rights Amendment for the United States Constitution. Such a federal law, it was argued, would ensure that “Men and women have equal rights throughout the United States.” A constitutional amendment would apply uniformly, regardless of where a person lived.

The second wing of the post-suffrage movement was one that had not been explicitly anticipated in the Seneca Falls “Declaration of Sentiments.” It was the birth control movement, initiated by a public health nurse, Margaret Sanger, just as the suffrage drive was nearing its victory. The idea of woman’s right to control her own body, and especially to control her own reproduction and sexuality, added a visionary new dimension to the ideas of women’s emancipation. This movement not only endorsed educating women about existing birth control methods. It also spread the conviction that meaningful freedom for modern women meant they must be able to decide for themselves whether they would become mothers, and when. For decades, Margaret Sanger and her supporters faced down at every turn the zealously enforced laws denying women this right. In 1936, a Supreme Court decision declassified birth control information as obscene. Still, it was not until 1965 that married couples in all states could obtain contraceptives legally.

The Second Wave So it’s clear that, contrary to common misconception, the Women’s Rights Movement did not begin in the 1960s. What occurred in the 1960s was actually a second wave of activism that washed into the public consciousness, fueled by several seemingly independent events of that turbulent decade. Each of these events brought a different segment of the population into the movement.

First: Esther Peterson was the director of the Women’s Bureau of the Dept. of Labor in 1961. She considered it to be the government’s responsibility to take an active role in addressing discrimination against women. With her encouragement, President Kennedy convened a Commission on the Status of Women, naming Eleanor Roosevelt as its chair. The report issued by that commission in 1963 documented discrimination against women in virtually every area of American life. State and local governments quickly followed suit and established their own commissions for women, to research conditions and recommend changes that could be initiated.

Then: In 1963, Betty Friedan published a landmark book, The Feminine Mystique. The Feminine Mystique evolved out of a survey she had conducted for her 20-year college reunion. In it she documented the emotional and intellectual oppression that middle-class educated women were experiencing because of limited life options. The book became an immediate bestseller, and inspired thousands of women to look for fulfillment beyond the role of homemaker.

Next: Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act was passed, prohibiting employment discrimination on the basis of sex as well as race, religion, and national origin. The category “sex” was included as a last-ditch effort to kill the bill. But it passed, nevertheless. With its passage, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was established to investigate discrimination complaints. Within the commission’s first five years, it received 50,000 sex discrimination complaints. But it was quickly obvious that the commission was not very interested in pursuing these complaints. Betty Friedan, the chairs of the various state Commissions on the Status of Women, and other feminists agreed to form a civil rights organization for women similar to the NAACP. In 1966, the National Organization for Women was organized, soon to be followed by an array of other mass-membership organizations addressing the needs of specific groups of women, including Blacks, Latinas, Asians-Americans, lesbians, welfare recipients, business owners, aspiring politicians, and tradeswomen and professional women of every sort.

During this same time, thousands of young women on college campuses were playing active roles within the anti-war and civil rights movement. At least,that was their intention. Many were finding their efforts blocked by men who felt leadership of these movements was their own province, and that women’s roles should be limited to fixing food and running mimeograph machines. It wasn’t long before these young women began forming their own “women’s liberation” organizations to address their role and status within these progressive movements and within society at large.

New Issues Come to the Fore These various elements of the re-emerging Women’s Rights Movement worked together and separately on a wide range of issues. Small groups of women in hundreds of communities worked on grassroots projects like establishing women’s newspapers, bookstores and cafes. They created battered women’s shelters and rape crisis hotlines to care for victims of sexual abuse and domestic violence. They came together to form child care centers so women could work outside their homes for pay. Women health care professionals opened women’s clinics to provide birth control and family planning counseling — and to offer abortion services — for low-income women. These clinics provided a safe place to discuss a wide range of health concerns and experiment with alternative forms of treatment.

With the inclusion of Title IX in the Education Codes of 1972, equal access to higher education and to professional schools became the law. The long-range effect of that one straightforward legal passage beginning “Equal access to education programs…,” has been simply phenomenal. The number of women doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects and other professionals has doubled and doubled again as quotas actually limiting women’s enrollment in graduate schools were outlawed. Athletics has probably been the most hotly contested area of Title IX, and it’s been one of the hottest areas of improvement, too. The rise in girls’ and women’s participation in athletics tells the story: One in twenty-seven high school girls played sports 25 years ago; one in three do today. The whole world saw how much American women athletes could achieve during the last few Olympic Games, measured in their astonishing numbers of gold, silver, and bronze medals. This was another very visible result of Title IX.

In society at large, the Women’s Rights Movement has brought about measurable changes, too. In 1972, 26% of men and women said they would not vote for a woman for president. In 1996, that sentiment had plummeted to just over 5% for women and to 8% for men. The average age of women when they first marry has moved from twenty to twenty-four during that same period.

But perhaps the most dramatic impact of the women’s rights movement of the past few decades has been women’s financial liberation. Do you realize that just 25 years ago married women were not issued credit cards in their own name? That most women could not get a bank loan without a male co-signer? That women working full time earned fifty-nine cents to every dollar earned by men?

Help-wanted ads in newspapers were segregated into “Help wanted – women” and “Help wanted- men.” Pages and pages of jobs were announced for which women could not even apply. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled this illegal in 1968, but since the EEOC had little enforcement power, most newspapers ignored the requirement for years. The National Organization for Women (NOW), had to argue the issue all the way to the Supreme Court to make it possible for a woman today to hold any job for which she is qualified. And so now we see women in literally thousands of occupations which would have been almost unthinkable just one generation ago: dentist, bus driver, veterinarian, airline pilot, and phone installer, just to name a few.

Many of these changes came about because of legislation and court cases pushed by women’s organizations. But many of the advances women achieved in the 1960s and ’70s were personal: getting husbands to help with the housework or regularly take responsibility for family meals; getting a long-deserved promotion at work; gaining the financial and emotional strength to leave an abusive partner.

The Equal Rights Amendment Is Re-Introduced Then, in 1972, the Equal Rights Amendment, which had languished in Congress for almost fifty years, was finally passed and sent to the states for ratification. The wording of the ERA was simple: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.” To many women’s rights activists, its ratification by the required thirty-eight states seemed almost a shoo-in.

The campaign for state ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment provided the opportunity for millions of women across the nation to become actively involved in the Women’s Rights Movement in their own communities. Unlike so many other issues which were battled-out in Congress or through the courts, this issue came to each state to decide individually. Women’s organizations of every stripe organized their members to help raise money and generate public support for the ERA. Marches were staged in key states that brought out hundreds of thousands of supporters. House meetings, walk-a-thons, door-to-door canvassing, and events of every imaginable kind were held by ordinary women, many of whom had never done anything political in their lives before. Generous checks and single dollar bills poured into the campaign headquarters, and the ranks of NOW and other women’s rights organizations swelled to historic sizes. Every women’s magazine and most general interest publications had stories on the implications of the ERA, and the progress of the ratification campaign.

But Elizabeth Cady Stanton proved prophetic once again. Remember her prediction that the movement should “anticipate no small amount of misconception, misrepresentation, and ridicule”? Opponents of the Equal Rights Amendment, organized by Phyllis Schlafly, feared that a statement like the ERA in the Constitution would give the government too much control over our personal lives. They charged that passage of the ERA would lead to men abandoning their families, unisex toilets, gay marriages, and women being drafted. And the media, purportedly in the interest of balanced reporting, gave equal weight to these deceptive arguments just as they had when the possibility of women winning voting rights was being debated. And, just like had happened with woman suffrage, there were still very few women in state legislatures to vote their support, so male legislators once again had it in their power to decide if women should have equal rights. When the deadline for ratification came in 1982, the ERA was just three states short of the 38 needed to write it into the U.S. constitution. Seventy-five percent of the women legislators in those three pivotal states supported the ERA, but only 46% of the men voted to ratify.

Despite polls consistently showing a large majority of the population supporting the ERA, it was considered by many politicians to be just too controversial. Historically speaking, most if not all the issues of the women’s rights movement have been highly controversial when they were first voiced. Allowing women to go to college? That would shrink their reproductive organs! Employ women in jobs for pay outside their homes? That would destroy families! Cast votes in national elections? Why should they bother themselves with such matters? Participate in sports? No lady would ever want to perspire! These and other issues that were once considered scandalous and unthinkable are now almost universally accepted in this country.

More Complex Issues Surface Significant progress has been made regarding the topics discussed at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848. The people attending that landmark discussion would not even have imagined the issues of the Women’s Rights Movement in the 1990s. Much of the discussion has moved beyond the issue of equal rights and into territory that is controversial, even among feminists. To name a few:

Women’s reproductive rights. Whether or not women can terminate pregnancies is still controversial twenty-five years after the Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade affirmed women’s choice during the first two trimesters.
Women’s enrollment in military academies and service in active combat. Are these desirable?
Women in leadership roles in religious worship. Controversial for some, natural for others.
Affirmative action. Is help in making up for past discrimination appropriate? Do qualified women now face a level playing field?
The mommy track. Should businesses accommodate women’s family responsibilities, or should women compete evenly for advancement with men, most of whom still assume fewer family obligations?
Pornography. Is it degrading, even dangerous, to women, or is it simply a free speech issue?
Sexual harassment. Just where does flirting leave off and harassment begin?
Surrogate motherhood. Is it simply the free right of a woman to hire out her womb for this service?
Social Security benefits allocated equally for homemakers and their working spouses, to keep surviving wives from poverty as widows.

Today, young women proudly calling themselves “the third wave” are confronting these and other thorny issues. While many women may still be hesitant to call themselves “feminist” because of the ever-present backlash, few would give up the legacy of personal freedoms and expanded opportunities women have won over the last 150 years. Whatever choices we make for our own lives, most of us envision a world for our daughters, nieces and granddaughters where all girls and women will have the opportunity to develop their unique skills and talents and pursue their dreams.

1998: Living the Legacy In the 150 years since that first, landmark Women’s Rights Convention, women have made clear progress in the areas addressed by Elizabeth Cady Stanton in her revolutionary Declaration of Sentiments. Not only have women won the right to vote; we are being elected to public office at all levels of government. Jeannette Rankin was the first woman elected to Congress, in 1916. By 1971, three generations later, women were still less than three percent of our congressional representatives. Today women hold only 11% of the seats in Congress, and 21% of the state legislative seats. Yet, in the face of such small numbers, women have successfully changed thousands of local, state, and federal laws that had limited women’s legal status and social roles.

In the world of work, large numbers of women have entered the professions, the trades, and businesses of every kind. We have opened the ranks of the clergy, the military, the newsroom. More than three million women now work in occupations considered “nontraditional” until very recently.

We’ve accomplished so much, yet a lot still remains to be done. Substantial barriers to the full equality of America’s women still remain before our freedom as a Nation can be called complete. But the Women’s Rights Movement has clearly been successful in irrevocably changing the circumstances and hopes of women. The remaining injustices are being tackled daily in the courts and conference rooms, the homes and organizations, workplaces and playing fields of America.

Women and girls today are living the legacy of women’s rights that seven generations of women before us have given their best to achieve. Alice Paul, that intrepid organizer who first wrote out the Equal Rights Amendment in 1923, said, “I always feel the movement is sort of a mosaic. Each of us puts in one little stone, and then you get a great mosaic at the end.” Women, acting together, adding their small stones to the grand mosaic, have increased their rights against all odds, nonviolently, from an initial position of powerlessness. We have a lot to be proud of in this heroic legacy, and a great deal to celebrate on the occasion of the 150th Anniversary of the founding of the Women’s Rights Movement.

Home — Essay Samples — Social Issues — Women's Rights — Equal Rights for Women: The Ongoing Struggle for Gender Equality

Equal Rights for Women: The Ongoing Struggle for Gender Equality

Categories: Women's Rights

About this sample

Words: 613 |

Published: Mar 6, 2024

Words: 613 | Page: 1 | 4 min read

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Dr. Karlyna PhD

Verified writer

Expert in: Social Issues

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

4 pages / 1910 words

3 pages / 1232 words

4 pages / 1984 words

2 pages / 901 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on Women's Rights

In Beyoncé's song Pretty Hurts, she addresses the issue of societal pressures on women to fit into unrealistic beauty standards. The song reflects the broader societal issue of gender inequality, and calls for women empowerment [...]

Feminism is a social, political, and cultural movement that advocates for the equality of the sexes. It emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and has since evolved into various waves and forms. While significant [...]

Flexner, Eleanor. Century of Struggle: The Woman's Rights Movement in the United States. Harvard University Press, 1996. Stanton, Elizabeth Cady. Address on Women's Rights. Seneca Falls Convention, 1848. DuBois, [...]

Women have made significant strides in various aspects of society, including education, politics, and the workforce. However, despite these advancements, women continue to face numerous challenges in the modern world. It is [...]

Historically, men and women’s roles in the society were never dictated nor were their lives ever noticeably disconnected until the 18th and 19th centuries with the emergence of social stratification and industrial [...]

In June Spence's novel "Missing Women," the author delves into the harrowing and complex issue of women who have disappeared without a trace. Through the lens of fiction, Spence sheds light on the societal implications of these [...]

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

Instructions Followed To The Letter
Deadlines Met At Every Stage
Unique And Plagiarism Free

WOMEN’S RIGHTS

Women’s rights are human rights.

We are all entitled to human rights. These include the right to live free from violence and discrimination; to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health; to be educated; to own property; to vote; and to earn an equal wage.

But across the globe many women and girls still face discrimination on the basis of sex and gender. Gender inequality underpins many problems which disproportionately affect women and girls, such as domestic and sexual violence, lower pay, lack of access to education, and inadequate healthcare.

For many years women’s rights movements have fought hard to address this inequality, campaigning to change laws or taking to the streets to demand their rights are respected. And new movements have flourished in the digital age, such as the #MeToo campaign which highlights the prevalence of gender-based violence and sexual harassment.

Through research, advocacy and campaigning, Amnesty International pressures the people in power to respect women’s rights.

On this page we look at the history of women’s rights, what women’s rights actually are, and what Amnesty is doing.

WHAT ARE WE FIGHTING FOR?

three activists are at the forefront of an image of a large protest in Karachi. They appear to be celebrating with their arms waving joyously.

What do we mean when we talk about women’s rights? What are we fighting for? Here are just some examples of the rights which activists throughout the centuries and today have been fighting for:

Women’s Suffrage

During the 19th and early 20 th centuries people began to agitate for the right of women to vote . In 1893 New Zealand became the first country to give women the right to vote on a national level. This movement grew to spread all around the world, and thanks to the efforts of everyone involved in this struggle, today women’s suffrage is a right under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979).

However, despite these developments there are still many places around the world where it is very difficult for women to exercise this right. Take Syria for example, where women have been effectively cut off from political engagement, including the ongoing peace process.

In Pakistan, although voting is a constitutional right, in some areas women have been effectively prohibited from voting due to powerful figures in their communities using patriarchal local customs to bar them from going to the polls.

And in Afghanistan, authorities recently decided to introduce mandatory photo screening at polling stations, making voting problematic for women in conservative areas, where most women cover their faces in public.

Amnesty International campaigns for all women to be able to effectively participate in the political process.

Sexual and Reproductive Rights

Everyone should be able to make decisions about their own body.

Every woman and girl has sexual and reproductive rights . This means they are entitled to equal access to health services like contraception and safe abortions, to choose if, when, and who they marry, and to decide if they want to have children and if so how many, when and with who.

Women should be able to live without fear of gender-based violence, including rape and other sexual violence, female genital mutilation (FGM), forced marriage, forced pregnancy, forced abortion, or forced sterilization.

But there’s a long way to go until all women can enjoy these rights.

For example, many women and girls around the world are still unable to access safe and legal abortions. In several countries, people who want or need to end pregnancies are often forced to make an impossible choice: put their lives at risk or go to jail.

In Argentina , Amnesty International has campaigned alongside grassroots human rights defenders to change the country’s strict abortion laws. There have been some major steps forward, but women and girls are still being harmed by laws which mean they cannot make choices about their own bodies.

We have also campaigned successfully in Ireland and Northern Ireland , where abortion was recently decriminalized after many decades of lobbying by Amnesty and other rights groups.

In Poland along with more than 200 human and women’s rights organisations from across the globe, Amnesty has co-signed a joint statement protesting the ‘Stop Abortion’ bill.

South Korea has recently seen major advances in sexual and reproductive rights after many years of campaigning by Amnesty and other groups, culminating in a ruling by South Korea’s Constitutional Court that orders the government to decriminalize abortion in the country and reform the country’s highly restrictive abortion laws by the end of 2020.

In Burkina Faso, Amnesty International has supported women and girls in their fight against forced marriage , which affects a huge number of girls especially in rural areas.

And in Sierra Leone, Amnesty International has been working with local communities as part of our Human Rights Education Programme, which focuses on a number of human rights issues, including female genital mutilation .

In Zimbabwe, we found that women and girls were left vulnerable to unwanted pregnancies and a higher risk of HIV infection because of widespread confusion around sexual consent and access to sexual health services. This meant that girls would face discrimination, the risk of child marriage, economic hardship and barriers to education.

In Jordan Amnesty International has urged authorities to stop colluding with an abusive male “guardianship” system which controls women’s lives and limits their personal freedoms, including detaining women accused of leaving home without permission or having sex outside marriage and subjecting them to humiliating “virginity tests”.

Freedom of Movement

Freedom of movement is the right to move around freely as we please – not just within the country we live in, but also to visit others. But many women face real challenges when it comes to this. They may not be allowed to have their own passports, or they might have to seek permission from a male guardian in order to travel.

For example, recently in Saudi Arabia there has been a successful campaign to allow women to drive, which had previously been banned for many decades. But despite this landmark gain, the authorities continue to persecute and detain many women’s rights activists, simply for peacefully advocating for their rights.

FEMINISM AND WOMEN’S RIGHTS

When looking at women’s rights it’s helpful to have an understanding of feminism. At its core, feminism is the belief that women are entitled to political, economic, and social equality. Feminism is committed to ensuring women can fully enjoy their rights on an equal footing with men.

Intersectional Feminism

Intersectional feminism is the idea that all of the reasons someone might be discriminated against, including race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, economic class, and disability, among others, overlap and intersect with each other. One way of understanding this would be to look at how this might apply in a real world setting, such as Dominica , where our research has shown that women sex workers, who are often people of colour, or transgender, or both, suffer torture and persecution by the police.

HOW ARE WOMEN’S RIGHTS BEING VIOLATED?

Gender inequality.

Gender inequality could include:

Gender-Based Violence

Gender-based violence is when violent acts are committed against women and LGBTI people on the basis of their orientation, gender identity, or sex characteristics. Gender based violence happens to women and girls in disproportionate numbers.

Women and girls in conflict are especially at risk from violence, and throughout history sexual violence has been used as a weapon of war. For example, we have documented how many women who fled attacks from Boko Haram in Nigeria have been subjected to sexual violence and rape by the Nigerian military .

Globally, on average 30% of all women who have been in a relationship have experienced physical and/or sexual violence committed against them by their partner. Women are more likely to be victims of sexual assault including rape, and are more likely to be the victims of so-called “honour crimes”.

Violence against women is a major human rights violation. It is the responsibility of a state to protect women from gender-based violence – even domestic abuse behind closed doors.

Sexual Violence and Harassment

Sexual harassment means any unwelcome sexual behaviour. This could be physical conduct and advances, demanding or requesting sexual favours or using inappropriate sexual language.

Sexual violence is when someone is physically sexually assaulted. Although men and boys can also be victims of sexual violence, it is women and girls who are overwhelmingly affected.

Workplace Discrimination

Often, women are the subject of gender based discrimination in the workplace. One way of illustrating this is to look at the gender pay gap . Equal pay for the same work is a human right, but time and again women are denied access to a fair and equal wage. Recent figures show that women currently earn roughly 77% of what men earn for the same work. This leads to a lifetime of financial disparity for women, prevents them from fully exercising independence, and means an increased risk of poverty in later life.

Discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity

In many countries around the world, women are denied their rights on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or sex characteristics . Lesbian, bisexual, trans and intersex women and gender non-confirming people face violence, exclusion, harassment, and discrimination Many are also subjected to extreme violence , including sexual violence or so called “corrective rape” and “honour killings.”

WOMEN’S RIGHTS AND INTERNATIONAL LAW

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) (1979) is a key international treaty addressing gender-based discrimination and providing specific protections for women’s rights.

The convention sets out an international bill of rights for women and girls, and defines what obligations states have make sure women can enjoy those rights.

Over 180 states have ratified the convention.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO STAND UP FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS?

Women’s rights are human rights.

It might seem like an obvious point, but we cannot have a free and equal society until everyone is free and equal. Until women enjoy the same rights as men, this inequality is everyone’s problem.

Protecting women’s rights makes the world a better place

According to the UN, “gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls is not just a goal in itself, but a key to sustainable development, economic growth, and peace and security”. Research has shown this to be the case – society gets better for everyone when women’s rights are upheld and taken seriously.

We’re stronger when we work together

Although grassroots movements have done so much to effect change, when everyone comes together to support women’s rights we can be so much stronger. By working alongside individual activists and campaigners on the ground as well as running our own targeted campaigns, movements such as Amnesty International can form a formidable vanguard in the fight for women’s rights.

two women are in the focus of a photo taken at a protest. The one on the left has a purple Venus symbol painted on her cheek and has one of her hands in the air in a fist.

Collection Civil Rights History Project

Women in the civil rights movement.

Many women played important roles in the Civil Rights Movement, from leading local civil rights organizations to serving as lawyers on school segregation lawsuits. Their efforts to lead the movement were often overshadowed by men, who still get more attention and credit for its successes in popular historical narratives and commemorations. Many women experienced gender discrimination and sexual harassment within the movement and later turned towards the feminist movement in the 1970s. The Civil Rights History Project interviews with participants in the struggle include both expressions of pride in women’s achievements and also candid assessments about the difficulties they faced within the movement.

Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons was a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and one of three women chosen to be a field director for the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project. She discusses the difficulties she faced in this position and notes that gender equality was not a given, but had to be fought for: “I often had to struggle around issues related to a woman being a project director. We had to fight for the resources, you know. We had to fight to get a good car because the guys would get first dibs on everything, and that wasn’t fair…it was a struggle to be taken seriously by the leadership, as well as by your male colleagues.” She continues, “One of the things that we often don’t talk about, but there was sexual harassment that often happened toward the women. And so, that was one of the things that, you know, I took a stand on, that ‘This was not – we’re not going to get a consensus on this. There is not going to be sexual harassment of any of the women on this project or any of the women in this community. And you will be put out if you do it.’”

Lonnie King was an activist with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Atlanta. He remembers meeting other students from the Nashville movement when SNCC became a nationwide organization in 1960. He recalls his surprise that Diane Nash was not elected to be the representative from Nashville, and echoes Simmons’ criticisms about male privilege and domination: “Diane Nash, in my view, was the Nashville movement and by that I mean this: Others were there, but they weren’t Diane Nash. Diane was articulate; she was a beautiful woman, very photogenic, very committed. And very intelligent and had a following. I never did understand how, except maybe for sexism, I never understood how [James] Bevel, Marion [Barry], and for that matter, John Lewis, kind of leapfrogged over her. I never understood that because she was in fact the leader in Nashville. It was Diane. The others were followers of her… I so never understood that to be honest with you. She’s an unsung... a real unsung hero of the movement in Nashville, in my opinion.”

Ekwueme Michael Thewell was a student at Howard University and a leader of the Nonviolent Action Group, an organization that eventually joined with SNCC. He reflects on the sacrifices that women college students at Howard made in joining the struggle, and remarks on the constraints they faced after doing so: “It is only in retrospect that I recognize the extraordinary price that our sisters paid for being as devoted to the struggle as they were. It meant that they weren’t into homecoming queen kind of activities. That they weren’t into the accepted behavior of a Howard lady. That they weren't into the trivia of fashion and dressing up. Though they were attractive women and they took care of themselves, but they weren’t the kind of trophy wives for the med school students and they weren’t—some of them might have been members of the Greek letter organizations, but most of them I suspect weren’t. So that they occupied a place outside the conventional social norms of the whole university student body. So did the men. But with men, I think, we can just say, ‘Kiss my black ass’ and go on about our business. It wasn’t so clear to me that a woman could do the same thing.”

Older interviewees emphasize the opportunities that were available to an earlier generation of women. Mildred Bond Roxborough , a long-time secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, discusses the importance of women leaders in local branches: “Well, actually when you think about women's contributions to the NAACP, without the women we wouldn't have an NAACP. The person who was responsible for generating the organizing meeting was a woman. Of course, ever since then we've had women in key roles--not in the majority, but in the very key roles which were responsible for the evolution of the NAACP. I think in terms of people like Daisy Lampkin, who was a member of our national board from Pittsburgh; she traveled around the country garnering memberships and helping to organize branches. That was back in the '30s and '40s before it became fashionable or popular for women to travel. You have women who subsequently held positions in the NAACP nationally as program directors and as leaders of various divisions.” She goes on to discuss the contributions of many women to the success of the NAACP.

Doris Adelaide Derby , another SNCC activist, remembers that the challenge and urgency of the freedom struggle was a formative experience for young activist women, who had to learn resourcefulness on the job: “I always did what I wanted to do. I had my own inner drive. And I found that when I came up with ideas and I was ready to work to see it through, and I think that happened with a lot of women in SNCC. We needed all hands on deck, and so, when we found ourselves in situations, we had to rely on whoever was around. And if somebody had XYZ skills, and somebody only had ABC, we had to come together. We used to joke about that, but in reality, the women, you know, were strong. In the struggle, the women were strong.”

Ruby Nell Sales , who later overcame psychological traumas from the racial violence she witnessed in the movement, encourages us to look beyond the simplistic story of Rosa Parks refusing to move to the back of the bus in Montgomery. As she explains, Parks was a long-time activist who had sought justice for African American women who were frequently assaulted—both verbally and physically-- in their daily lives: “…When we look at Rosa Parks, people often think that she was – she did that because of her civil rights and wanting to sit down on the bus. But she also did that – it was a rebellion of maids, a rebellion of working class women, who were tired of boarding the buses in Montgomery, the public space, and being assaulted and called out-of-there names and abused by white bus drivers. And that’s why that Movement could hold so long. If it had just been merely a protest about riding the bus, it might have shattered. But it went to the very heart of black womanhood, and black women played a major role in sustaining that movement.”

The Civil Rights History Project includes interviews with over 50 women who came from a wide range of backgrounds and were involved in the movement in a myriad of ways. Their stories deepen our understanding of the movement as a whole, and provide us with concrete examples of how vital they were to the gains of the Civil Rights Movement.

A girl holding up a sign during a protest

A demonstrator raises a sign that says, "Human rights are women's rights" at the Women's March in Los Angeles in 2018. Though the concept had long been controversial, the United Nations declared that women's rights are human rights in 1995 at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing.

HISTORY & CULTURE

'Women's Rights are Human Rights,' 25 years on

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s speech at a UN conference propelled this idea into the mainstream after centuries of society sidelining gender equality as “women’s issues.”

When Hillary Rodham Clinton approached the podium at a United Nations conference on women in September 1995 in Beijing, she faced an uncertain audience. Only a few people had read the speech, which was a well-guarded secret even to high-ranking members of the president’s cabinet. “Nobody knew what to expect,” recalls Melanne Verveer , the then first lady’s chief of staff, who later served as the first U.S. Ambassador for Global Women’s Issues when Clinton became secretary of state.

Twenty-five years later, a single phrase from Clinton’s speech has entered mainstream parlance: “Women’s rights are human rights.” The concept wasn’t new. But the excitement and energy that Clinton’s speech generated at the Fourth World Conference on Women helped elevate the idea to one that fuels modern feminism and international efforts to achieve gender parity.

Women’s rights advocates have long argued that gender equality should be a human right—but were thwarted for years by those who claimed their rights were subordinate to those of men. During the infancy of the American feminist movement of the 1830s, abolitionists and women’s rights advocates tussled over whether it was more important to seek freedom for enslaved people or equality for women. As women pushed for their rights to vote, access educational opportunities, and own property, male abolitionists like Theodore Weld urged them to wait, arguing that they should first fight for the abolition of slavery as a matter of human rights.

Some women, such as educator Catharine Beecher , argued that women deserved rights because of their morality—as they were uniquely positioned to edify and enlighten men—not their humanity. She cautioned that their roles in public life should not extend into equality in the home. In response, abolitionist and women’s rights advocate Angelina Grimké wrote , “I recognize no rights but human rights,” noting that a society that didn’t give women power or a political voice violated their innate human rights. She was just one of a group of women who invoked the idea throughout the 19 th century. (Grimké later went on to marry Weld, who was her mentor.)

In the 1970s, the idea resurfaced as so-called second-wave feminists, who believed women should have access to full societal and legal rights, attempted to put women’s rights on the international agenda. In many countries, there was no consensus that women had a right to equal partnership in marriage, power over their finances, an equal education, or a life free of sexual assault or harassment. Between 1975 and 1995, the United Nations convened four landmark Conferences on Women that made gender parity a global priority. ( Here are the best and worst countries to be a woman. )

The first conference, held in Mexico City in 1975, recognized women’s equality. Eighty-nine of the 133 nations that participated adopted a framework to help women gain equal access to all facets of society; several western nations abstained , and the United States opposed the framework. In 1980, a follow-up conference in Copenhagen called for stronger protections for women, with an emphasis on property ownership, child custody, and a restructuring of inheritance laws. A third in Nairobi in 1985 called attention to violence against women. But though these conferences brought women’s issues to the international stage, each one fell short because of a lack of consensus and failure to implement the adopted platforms. By 1995, global women’s leaders had agreed it was time to create an action plan to guarantee equality for women.

Slated for Beijing in September 1995, the Fourth World Conference on Women took place in an atmosphere of intense international condemnation of the host nation’s treatment of its own citizens. Human rights groups and governments criticized China’s history of political imprisonment, torture, detention, and denial of religious freedom. The nation’s one-child policy , which put family planning decisions under state control, came under particular fire.

Women sit on the floor while watching a large screen

Women watch Hillary Rodham Clinton speak to the abuse against women at the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. Her call for women's rights to be considered human rights has since become mainstream.

News that Clinton would attend and speak at the meeting prompted an American outcry. “There were serious efforts not to make [the speech] happen,” Verveer recalls. “You had a cacophony of voices that were trying to keep this from being meaningful or successful.” The first lady faced outrage from human rights advocates who objected to the China visit on principle, conservative politicians who disapproved of her outspoken feminism, and people who worried the speech could threaten the bilateral relationship between the U.S. and China.

Meet the 5 iconic women being honored on new quarters in 2024

Women won the vote with the 19th Amendment, but hurdles remain

A century after women’s suffrage, the fight for equality isn’t over

“I wanted to push the envelope as far as I could for girls and women,” Clinton said in a virtual public event hosted on September 10 by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security , of which Verveer is the executive director. ( A century after women’s suffrage in the U.S., the fight for equality isn’t over. )

On September 5, 1995, the second day of the conference, Clinton took the podium in front of representatives from all over the world. As Clinton spoke, Verveer watched the delegates’ faces closely. The speech cited a “litany of violations against women,” including rape, female genital mutilation, dowry burnings, and domestic violence—which Clinton labeled as human rights violations. She excoriated those who forcibly sterilized women and condemned those who restricted civil liberties, a jab at China, which restricted news coverage of the event.

The room was “filled with women who were in the trenches of those issues,” says Verveer. “The audience was completely pulled into their struggle.” The mostly female delegation applauded and cheered during the 20-minute speech, sometimes even pounding their fists on the tables to underscore their approval.

“The reaction was extraordinary,” Verveer says. On September 15, the phrase “women’s rights are human rights” was unanimously adopted as part of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action , which defined 12 areas—including education, health, economic participation, and the environment—in need of urgent international action. The document still governs the global agenda for women’s issues and is credited with helping narrow the education gap, improve maternal health, and reduce violence against women. ( Around the world, women are taking charge of their futures. )

Fourth World Conference on Women participants (from left) Benedita Da Silva of Brazil, Vuyiswa Bongile Keyi of Canada, and Silvia Salley of the United States cheer at the conclusion of the "Women of Color" press briefing where they stated that racism was not adequately addressed in the declaration.

Today, the idea that human rights and women’s rights are synonymous is considered mainstream. “I have rarely seen a single message carry such [an] important meaning and have such a durable life,” former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said at the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security event commemorating the anniversary.

But the work of gender equality is not yet done—and 25 years after Beijing, women still face systemic inequities and gaps in terms of safety, economic and political mobility, and more. “Girls need to know that they stand on the shoulders of other people who struggled to gain the rights they enjoy today,” says Verveer. “They need to play a role in ensuring the work goes on. There has been progress, but there is a long journey ahead.”

Title IX at 50: How the U.S. law transformed education for women

MLK and Malcolm X only met once. Here’s the story behind an iconic image.

The surprisingly subversive history of mini golf

These Black transgender activists are fighting to ‘simply be’

Harriet Tubman, the spy: uncovering her secret Civil War missions

Best of the World
Environment
Paid Content

History & Culture

History & Culture
Out of Eden Walk
Mind, Body, Wonder
Terms of Use
Privacy Policy
Your US State Privacy Rights
Children's Online Privacy Policy
Interest-Based Ads
About Nielsen Measurement
Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
Nat Geo Home
Attend a Live Event
Book a Trip
Inspire Your Kids
Shop Nat Geo
Visit the D.C. Museum
Learn About Our Impact
Support Our Mission
Advertise With Us
Customer Service
Renew Subscription
Manage Your Subscription
Work at Nat Geo
Sign Up for Our Newsletters
Contribute to Protect the Planet

History & Society
Science & Tech
Biographies
Animals & Nature
Geography & Travel
Arts & Culture
Games & Quizzes
On This Day
One Good Fact
New Articles
Lifestyles & Social Issues
Philosophy & Religion
Politics, Law & Government
World History
Health & Medicine
Browse Biographies
Birds, Reptiles & Other Vertebrates
Bugs, Mollusks & Other Invertebrates
Environment
Fossils & Geologic Time
Entertainment & Pop Culture
Sports & Recreation
Visual Arts
Demystified
Image Galleries
Infographics
Top Questions
Britannica Kids
Saving Earth
Space Next 50
Student Center
Introduction

Prologue to a social movement

Reformers and revolutionaries.

Successes and failures

Where was Simone de Beauvoir educated?
What did Simone de Beauvoir write?

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her daughter, Harriot--from a daguerreotype 1856

women’s rights movement

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

Council of Europe - Feminism and Women’s Rights Movements
64 Parishes - Women's Rights Movement
National Archives - Woman Suffrage and the 19th Amendment
The New York Times - The Complex History of the Women’s Suffrage Movement
The Canadian Encyclopedia - Women's Movements in Canada
Brookings - Leaving all to younger hands: Why the history of the women's suffragist movement matters
National Women's History Alliance - History of the Women's Rights Movement
U.S. House of Representatives - Exhibitions & Publications - The Women's Rights Movement, 1848–1920
Library of Congress - Women in the Civil Rights Movement
NCpedia - ANCHOR - The Women's Movement
women’s movement - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)
Table Of Contents

women’s rights movement , diverse social movement , largely based in the United States , that in the 1960s and ’70s sought equal rights and opportunities and greater personal freedom for women . It coincided with and is recognized as part of the “second wave” of feminism . While the first-wave feminism of the 19th and early 20th centuries focused on women’s legal rights, especially the right to vote ( see women’s suffrage ), the second-wave feminism of the women’s rights movement touched on every area of women’s experience—including politics, work, the family , and sexuality . Organized activism by and on behalf of women continued through the third and fourth waves of feminism from the mid-1990s and the early 2010s, respectively. For more discussion of historical and contemporary feminists and the women’s movements they inspired, see feminism .

In the aftermath of World War II , the lives of women in developed countries changed dramatically. Household technology eased the burdens of homemaking, life expectancies increased dramatically, and the growth of the service sector opened up thousands of jobs not dependent on physical strength. Despite these socioeconomic transformations, cultural attitudes (especially concerning women’s work) and legal precedents still reinforced sexual inequalities. An articulate account of the oppressive effects of prevailing notions of femininity appeared in Le Deuxième Sexe (1949; The Second Sex ), by the French writer and philosopher Simone de Beauvoir . It became a worldwide best seller and raised feminist consciousness by stressing that liberation for women was liberation for men too.

The first public indication that change was imminent came with women’s reaction to the 1963 publication of Betty Friedan ’s The Feminine Mystique . Friedan spoke of the problem that “lay buried, unspoken” in the mind of the suburban housewife: utter boredom and lack of fulfillment. Women who had been told that they had it all—nice houses, lovely children, responsible husbands—were deadened by domesticity, she said, and they were too socially conditioned to recognize their own desperation. The Feminine Mystique was an immediate best seller. Friedan had struck a chord.

Initially, women energized by Friedan’s book joined with government leaders and union representatives who had been lobbying the federal government for equal pay and for protection against employment discrimination . By June 1966 they had concluded that polite requests were insufficient. They would need their own national pressure group—a women’s equivalent of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). With this, the National Organization for Women (NOW) was born.

The organization was not an instant success. By the end of its second year, NOW had just 1,035 members and was racked by ideological divisions. When the group tried to write a Bill of Rights for Women, it found consensus on six measures essential to ensuring women’s equality: enforcement of laws banning employment discrimination; maternity leave rights; child-care centres that could enable mothers to work; tax deductions for child-care expenses; equal and unsegregated education; and equal job-training opportunities for poor women.

Two other measures stirred enormous controversy: one demanded immediate passage of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the U.S. Constitution (to ensure equality of rights, regardless of sex), and the other demanded greater access to contraception and abortion . When NOW threw its support behind passage of the ERA, the United Auto Workers union—which had been providing NOW with office space—withdrew its support, because the ERA would effectively prohibit protective labour legislation for women. When some NOW members called for repeal of all abortion laws, other members left the fledgling organization, convinced that this latest action would undermine their struggles against economic and legal discrimination.

NOW’s membership was also siphoned off from the left. Impatient with a top-heavy traditional organization, activists in New York City, where half of NOW’s membership was located, walked out. Over the next two years, as NOW struggled to establish itself as a national organization, more radical women’s groups were formed by female antiwar, civil rights , and leftist activists who had grown disgusted by the New Left ’s refusal to address women’s concerns. Ironically, sexist attitudes had pervaded 1960s radical politics, with some women being exploited or treated unequally within those movements. In 1964, for example, when a woman’s resolution was brought up at a Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee (SNCC) conference, Stokely Carmichael flippantly cut off all debate: “The only position for women in SNCC is prone.”

While NOW focused on issues of women’s rights, the more radical groups pursued the broader themes of women’s liberation. Although they lacked the kind of coherent national structure NOW had formed, liberation groups sprang up in Chicago, Toronto, Seattle, Detroit, and elsewhere. Suddenly, the women’s liberation movement was everywhere—and nowhere. It had no officers, no mailing address, no printed agenda. What it did have was attitude. In September 1968 activists converged on Atlantic City , New Jersey , to protest the image of womanhood conveyed by the Miss America Pageant . In February 1969 one of the most radical liberation groups, the Redstockings, published its principles as “The Bitch Manifesto.” Based in New York City , the Redstockings penned the movement’s first analysis of the politics of housework, held the first public speak-out on abortion, and helped to develop the concept of “consciousness-raising” groups—rap sessions to unravel how sexism might have coloured their lives. The Redstockings also held speak-outs on rape to focus national attention on the problem of violence against women, including domestic violence .

Responding to these diverse interests, NOW called the Congress to Unite Women, which drew more than 500 feminists to New York City in November 1969. The meeting was meant to establish common ground between the radical and moderate wings of the women’s rights movement, but it was an impossible task. Well-dressed professionals convinced that women needed to reason with men could not unite with wild-haired radicals whose New Left experience had soured them on polite discourse with “the enemy.” NOW’s leadership seemed more comfortable lobbying politicians in Washington or corresponding with NASA about the exclusion of women from the astronaut program, while the young upstarts preferred disrupting legislative committee hearings. NOW leaders were looking for reform. The more radical women were plotting a revolution.

Women’s rights essay

The issue regarding women’s rights is not a new one. In the past, there were distinctive differences between men and women, between their roles in society and their models of behavior. However, considerable changes have been found since those times. Today gender roles have been shifted, making strong impact on society. Women in the Western culture are now no more satisfied with the role of a homemaker; they prefer to make their own careers and share the same rights with men (Howie, 2010). This fact means women’s rights are based on freedom that can be viewed as a virtue, but not as a burden. Women continue to fight for their rights. The emergence of feminist movements and ideologies united under the title of feminism (Gillis & Hollows, 2008). Today, there is a continuous discourse on the behalf of both opponents and proponents of feminism, but the main thing is to understand the very roots and reasons of the phenomenon (Gillis et al., 2007). Therefore, the major goal of this study is to find out the objective state of the problem and conclude whether women do win by acquiring the equal status with men in human society. For that end, the existing literature covering different perspectives will be analyzed. In particular, the study will be focused on proto-feminist movements in Europe of the 19-the century; passing the Representation of the People Act in 1918; demonstrations on women’s suffrage; women’s efforts during the First World War and the Second World War; the first wave, the second wave and the third wave feminism on the whole. The research is expected to prove that although social reconstruction of sex and gender is not always beneficial neither for women nor for men, the struggle for equal opportunities has become a historically determined stage of social development. These events reflect the changes in feminist movements and help to better understand the successes and failures of women in fighting for their rights. The impact of each event or development that will be discussed in this paper is connected with the changing role of women and with their changing opportunities in achievement of the established goals. Thesis statement: Women’s role in the struggle for equal opportunities highlights the positive effects of feminism on the social reconstruction of sex and gender that was caused by a number of important historical events and developments, such as the development of proto-feminist movements in Europe of the 19-the century; passing the Representation of the People Act in 1918; demonstrations on women’s suffrage; women’s efforts during the First World War and the Second World War; the development of the first wave, the second wave and the third wave feminism.

The major goal of this paper is to review the historical events and developments which involve women from 1865 to the present. This paper will explore six specific events or developments that span the years covered by this course, based on their impact on the topic “women’s role in history”. The research is focused on the analysis of both European Women’s rights and the women’s rights movements launched in the U.S, defined as the first wave, the second wave and the third wave feminism.

Proto-feminist movements in Europe of the 19-the century

The development of proto-feminist movements in Europe of the 19-the century played an important role in the promotion of the philosophy of feminism. Women were inspired by proto-feminist concerns that women should be equal to men. Proto-feminist movements contributed to women’s achievements in different spheres of human activity. Actually, in the 19-th century, women’s condition under the law differed from that of men. In economics and politics, women had no power. However, women’s consciousness was more progressive compared with that of women who lived earlier than the 19-tyh century (Worell, 2000). In other words, the development of proto-feminist movements is connected with the development of feminist consciousness focused on the expansion of women’s rights and development of women’s rights movements. The Female Moral Reform Society is an example of effective proto-feminist movement aimed at representation women in a powerful position, placing emphasis on the public advocacy of personal ethics (Gillis & Hollows, 2008; Worell, 2000).

Passing the Representation of the People Act in 1918

The Representation of the People Act (1918) criticized the limited rights of women and continued to call for equal rights. This act provided an opportunity to establish fair relationships between men and women, promoting the idea of equal pay for equal work. New reforms of the 1900s contributed to the growth of feminism. According to the Representation of the People Act of 1918, all women included in the local governmental register, aged 30 and over, were enfranchised (Gillis & Hollows, 2008; Worell, 2000). The right to vote was granted to women who were householders, the householders’ wives, and who occupied the property with an annual rent of L5 and more, and who were the graduates of British universities (Gillis & Hollows, 2008).

Moreover, the debate regarding the passage of the Representation of the People Act raised the issues about the effects of the law, but it failed to change the established culture of parliamentary politics. Many women politicians did not criticize male-dominated political parties, remaining loyal to men’s power (Early video on the emancipation of women, 1930). In the 1900s, men remained in the positions of power, although the political movement regarding women’s suffrage in the U.K. began before the WWI (Worell, 2000).

Demonstrations on women’s suffrage

Many demonstrations were organized to address women’s suffrage rights. The first demonstration was the parade organized by Blatch in New York in 1910. Harriot Stanton Blatch was one of activists who promoted the idea of bringing a new suffrage bill, which could become the first step to women’s voting rights. In 1907, she established the Equality League of Self-Supporting Women. In 1913, the suffrage match was held in Washington D.C. More than 5000 women activist took part in this match, hoping to win public support for suffrage. In 1916, the Women’s Political Union organized many demonstrations on women’s suffrage. In the U.S., President Wilson agreed to support the idea of women’s suffrage in 1918 after numerous protests organized by feminists. As a result, women’s rights activists were aimed at equality in all spheres of human activity based on women’s suffrage. In 1919, the Nineteenth Amendment was passed by the U.S. Congress (Howie, 2010; Worell, 2000).

Women’s efforts during the First World War

Women’s role during the First World War reflected their social and economic position. Feminists were not satisfied with the idea that women’s work was classified as less important than men’s work. Besides, the working class women who were the representatives of the first wave feminism promoted the ideas of feminism at work and in homes, in stores, halls and local newspapers. They believed in their rights and were focused on the promotion of collective actions aimed at realization of their agenda. However, men opposed women’s involvement into male jobs during the First World War. Male trade unions defended the division of labor based on gender (Gillis & Hollows, 2008).

Finally, women’s activism in the era of the First World War, the considerable increases in the cost of living in that period, as well as the recognition of the established trade unions and the passage of the constitutional amendment to support women’s suffrage contributed to women’s mobilization during the war. According to Howie (2010), patriotic women highlighted the importance of the ideas of feminism. Due to the diversity of experiences during that period, women could become more independent in their choices. Although many women realized that their rights were limited, they supported feminism and motivated others to join wartime mobilization (Howie, 2010).

Women’s efforts during the Second World War

Women’s efforts during the Second World War were focused on more radical changes. Unlike in the First World War, during the Second World War women’s position was more stable. The governments allowed women to join the armed forces and be involved in the war-related production. All women aged under 40 years old were divided into two categories: mobile and immobile. Mobile women were allowed to join army and carry out war work duties. Immobile women were responsible for caring children and elderly people. Many of them were involved in voluntary work, either in industry or in voluntary organizations (Howie, 2010). Women were allowed to work 16 hours a day and perform men’s duties. However, women were paid less than men. Besides, they were discriminated in the workplace. Thus, women played an important role in the war effort, although their position in society was still less valuable, comparing with men’s position (Howie, 2010; Gillis & Hollows, 2008).

The first wave, the second wave and the third wave feminism

As the American women’s movement is characterizes as “waves”, there is a necessity to refer to three waves of feminism and identify certain differences between them. Actually, the development of the first wave, the second wave and the third wave feminism highlight the importance of women’s involvement in social reconstruction of sex and gender (Howie, 2010). Although these waves are closely connected with one another, there are some differences in their philosophies. It has been found that each wave of feminism is based on the successes and failures of previous generations of women. For example, the first wave feminism is reflected by the following successes: suffrage and voting rights. These developments occurred in the late 1800s- the early 1900s, influencing further changes in women’s representation (MacKinnon, 1995).

In addition, the second wave feminism, which was launched in the 1960s, placed emphasis on the role of personal politics in human society. The banner of the second wave feminism was “the personal is political”. Actually, it was based on women’s rights, such as abortion rights, child care rights, as well as other issues, including women’s recognition of unpaid labor, access to health care services and equal pay for equal work. Catharine MacKinnon, the Professor of Law at the University of Michigan and the author of the book Toward a Feminist Theory of the State, argues that women’s rights are still limited and there is a necessity for broader horizons for women. A variety of issues of concern remain unsolved. Women continue to fight for their rights (MacKinnon, 1995). According to Hollows, and Moseley (2006), there is a close relationship between the second wave feminism and popular culture, but feminism cannot be viewed as a “monolithic and homogeneous movement” (p. 3).

Moreover, the first wave and the second wave feminism created certain challenges, such as the concerns about racism and discrimination, tensions between generations, etc. These concerns can be found in the next wave of feminism – the third wave feminism, which was launched in the 1990s (MacKinnon, 1995). The third wave feminism is based on criticism of collective past of women’s movement and building more diverse and dynamic movement. In other word it is characterized by the increased role of multiculturalism (MacKinnon, 1995). Alice Walker (1983) helps to assess the role of virtues, beliefs and values in the creation of a womanist virtue ethic, which forms the basis of third wave feminism. She states that social activism helps in promotion of feminist ideas and addresses the challenges caused by diverse society.

Thus, it is necessary to conclude that women have always played an important role in the development of history. This paper is based on providing evidence regarding the effects of social reconstruction of sex and gender on women and their participation in the struggle for equal opportunities, which has become a historically determined stage of social development. The history that involves women has been developed over centuries, constantly changing its goals and forms, increasing the popularity of women’s movement, mainly in the 20-th century, when suffrage and voting rights were popularized. The role of women in the 19-th century differed from their roles in the 20-th century. The events that occurred in the 1900s contributed to the developments in the later decades. For example, proto-feminist movements in Europe of the 19-the century contributed to the development of more independent views on women’s rights and duties. The third wave feminism completely changes women’s views on their role in social development through the relationship between feminist movement and popular culture. Generally speaking, women’s role in the struggle for equal opportunities throughput the history emphasizes the positive effects of feminist ideas on the social reconstruction of sex and gender that was caused by a number of important historical developments, including the development of proto-feminist movements in Europe of the 19-the century; passing the Representation of the People Act in 1918; demonstrations on women’s suffrage; women’s efforts during the First World War and the Second World War; the development of the first wave, the second wave and the third wave feminism.

Do you like this essay?

Our writers can write a paper like this for you!

Order your paper here .

Women's Rights

The rights and roles of women in society continue to evolve and vary considerably across the globe. Read the overview below to gain a balanced understanding of the issue and explore the previews of opinion articles that highlight many perspectives on feminism.

Access Through Your library >>

Topic Home | Social Issues | Literature | Lifelong Learning & DIY | World History

Women's rights topic overview.

"Women's Rights." Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection , Gale, 2023.

Movements for the equal rights of women in the United States have been shaped in response to a system of patriarchal social norms and laws that formed the basis of US cultural, political, and economic life. Patriarchy refers to a society in which fathers or male elders hold legal authority over dependent women and children or, more broadly, to a society in which a disproportionately large share of power is held by men. Issues related to the rights of women in the United States largely fell under three categories: economic independence, or the rights to education, work, and property ownership; bodily autonomy, or the rights to control one's own sexual and reproductive choices; and political participation, or the rights to organize, vote, and run for office.

The patriarchal concept of coverture , which came to North America from England with colonial settlers, determined women's lesser status by forming colonial law and subsequent state laws. As a doctrine, coverture refers to the idea that women do not have legal identities but are instead "covered," first by their fathers' identities and later, ostensibly, by their husbands' identities. Through coverture's influence, men's authority was codified in law and suffused throughout everyday life. With no legal individual identity, women could not enter into business contracts by themselves, own property or inherit it in most cases, retain control of earned wages, claim rights to their children, or withhold consent to sexual intercourse.

Though the formalized US women's rights movement did not take shape until the mid-nineteenth century, a long tradition of women working for greater autonomy had begun in the Colonial and Revolutionary eras. The arguments for women's rights were shaped by the Declaration of Independence, which declared "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights." The US Constitution guaranteed these rights. However, the rights proclaimed to "all men" by the Constitution were limited to white, property-holding men, who were allowed to vote and participate in government. At the same time, a variety of legal and social sanctions continued to limit women's involvement in public and civic life.

The first document to emerge from an organized women's rights collective in the United States was the Declaration of Sentiments, which was drafted using the Declaration of Independence as a model and ratified at the first convention of women's rights advocates in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. Historians trace the origins of the movement for US women's suffrage (voting rights for women) to the Seneca Falls Convention, where Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Frederick Douglass argued in favor of granting women the right to vote. Women's suffrage was finally achieved more than seventy years later with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920.

Despite the achievements of women's rights activists throughout the twentieth century, feminist scholars argue that the remnants of coverture still operate in legal and social institutions in the first decades of the twenty-first century. According to the United Nations, no country in the world had achieved gender equality as of 2022, and no countries were on track to achieve it by 2030. Beginning in March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected women, reviving debates about the value of unpaid and underpaid domestic and caretaking work performed predominantly by women. The pandemic widened pre-existing social inequalities, including health disparities among women based on race, class, ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender identity, and disability.

Many advocates consider the June 2022 US Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization a significant setback for women's rights. Dobbs eliminated the federally protected right to abortion and gave state legislature broad authority to determine abortion law. In the decision, the conservative majority in the court overturned Roe v. Wade (1973), which had prohibited states from intervening in people's reproductive health care choices through the first trimester of pregnancy. According to the Guttmacher Institute, as of August 2022, 58 percent of US girls and women ages thirteen to forty-four lived in states that were either hostile or extremely hostile to abortion.

Women's rights issues in the United States primarily fall under three broad categories: economic independence, bodily and sexual autonomy, and political participation.
Patriarchy refers to a society in which men hold a disproportionately large share of power. Laws and norms are considered to be patriarchal when they perpetuate this gendered imbalance of power.
Coverture , which shaped how women's lesser status was written into law, is the concept that female persons do not have legal identities but are instead "covered" by their fathers' or husbands' identities.
Consent is central to women's rights, especially in the contexts of marriage and relationships, reproductive autonomy, health care, sexual harassment and assault, and rape.
Concerns over consent and women's rights have extended into the workplace, where sexual harassment remains prevalent across industries, as amplified by the #MeToo movement.
Pursuing greater and more diverse political representation has been a primary strategy for achieving women's rights. Research suggests responses to COVID-19 were more effective in places where women held leadership positions.
Many advocates believe that the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade , the landmark ruling that legalized abortion at the federal level, in 2022 represents a major setback for women's rights and may lead to the erosion of other achievements by the women's movement.

ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE

Stemming from coverture, the doctrine of separate spheres defined the gendered divisions of US society from before industrialization until the latter half of the twentieth century. Women and men were relegated to separate, largely segregated roles and social spaces. While it was seen as both appropriate and proper for men to participate in the economic, political, and social life of the public sphere , women were consigned to domestic and family-oriented roles in the private sphere . The doctrine of separate spheres primarily governed white women of the middle and upper classes, as women of color and poor and working-class white women often had no choice but to seek employment outside the home. These women were often employed as domestic workers in wealthy white households or in factories, where employers could legally pay women lower wages than men for the same job.

Married women argued for property rights, which could provide a measure of economic security if a woman was widowed or abandoned by her husband. Connecticut passed a law allowing women to write wills as early as 1809, but more comprehensive legislation intended to undo coverture's most strict provisions did not come until 1848 when New York state enacted the Married Women's Property Act. In the following decade other states passed similar laws, often modeled upon the New York statute. These early laws ranged from allowing women to retain separate ownership of property to extending widows' rights to defining the circumstances in which a woman could bring a lawsuit. Through the slow acquisition of married women's property rights, more women, both married and unmarried, gained the ability to survive independently from men.

The undoing of coverture persisted well into the twentieth century, with federal laws such as the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974 and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 continuing the work of expanding women's capacity to secure financial independence. The former act prohibited financial institutions from discriminating against women in credit and loan approvals, and the latter prohibited employers from discriminating against employees who become pregnant. In 1969 California became the first state to legalize no-fault divorce, which removed the legal requirement of providing evidence of wrongdoing (such as adultery or abuse) before being granted a divorce, a system that had often functioned to keep women in unwanted or unsafe marriages. New York became the last state to legalize no-fault divorce in 2010.

Activists in the 1970s also revived the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which was first proposed in the 1920s and would have amended the US Constitution to guarantee women's equal rights. The ERA passed Congress in 1972, but only thirty-five of the necessary thirty-eight states had ratified it by the extended 1982 deadline. The ratification effort was renewed in the wake of the 2016 US presidential election. Nevada, Illinois, and Virginia ratified the ERA in 2017, 2018, and 2020, respectively, bringing the total to thirty-eight states. Lawmakers have made efforts to remove the 1982 deadline for state ratification and to restart the state-by-state ratification process. As of July 2022, however, their attempts remained stalled in the US Senate.

BODILY AND SEXUAL AUTONOMY

The economic circumstances of women have always influenced their health and safety, and women's legal status has historically limited their sexual agency and bodily autonomy. The status of enslaved Black women in the antebellum period enabled white people to commit a range of physical, sexual, and psychological abuses against them with impunity. Women working in factories during the Industrial and Progressive Eras risked injury and death under the same unsafe working conditions as men yet did so at significantly lower wages. Predominantly Latina farmworkers in the 1960s and onward became ill from pesticide contamination that also made it likelier their children would be born with congenital birth defects.

Consent is central to bodily autonomy. Under coverture, marital rape was legally impossible, underscoring how patriarchal understandings of sex and gender have deprived girls and women of agency , or the capacity to act or exert power. Because a woman was absorbed into her husband's identity, she did not have the capacity to withhold or grant consent to sex. By 1993 marital rape had become illegal in every state, but the beliefs that marriage implies consent and that nonconsensual sex cannot exist within marriage persist.

The idea that women are property has arguably extended into women's professional worlds where sexual harassment is prevalent. The #MeToo movement, referring to a social media hashtag introduced by social activist Tarana Burke in 2006, emerged as an influential anti-harassment campaign in late 2017. Women from all walks of life took to social media to share their stories of sexual harassment, assault, and rape. These stories brought wide public acknowledgment to the prevalence of sexual harassment and assault in workplaces, homes, and public spaces.

Access to health care and reproductive autonomy , or the freedom to control one's own reproductive future, remain pillars of the movement for women's rights. Reproductive autonomy relies on access to knowledge and tools for preventing and terminating pregnancy as well as freedom from coercive or forced sterilization. The US Supreme Court ruling in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) prohibits the state from banning contraceptives on the basis that decisions regarding pregnancy and parenthood are private matters. Historians and activists, however, cite sterilization programs that existed in several states during the twentieth century to illustrate how marginalized women have been deprived of these decisions. Such programs attempted to control the reproduction of populations considered "less desirable" by sterilizing incarcerated women, Black women, Latinas, immigrants, and women with disabilities without their knowledge or consent.

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (2022), which challenged a Mississippi law prohibiting nearly all abortions beyond fifteen weeks of pregnancy, was the first case regarding pre-viability gestational age the Supreme Court had agreed to hear since Roe v. Wade . In its decision, the court rejected the reasoning of Roe v. Wade , denying any constitutional right to abortion, and returning the authority to legislate abortion to state lawmakers. The Dobbs ruling intensified advocates' concerns the conservative majority on the court will target other rulings that serve as cornerstones of women's reproductive autonomy, such as Griswold v. Connecticut (1965).

The Dobbs decision was the culmination of a decades-long project by antiabortion activists; politicians, lawyers and judges, and reproductive rights advocates had had been preparing for the overturning of Roe v. Wade . Before the court released its decision in Dobbs , some states had moved to protect access to abortion, many others had moved to ban or severely restrict access in the event Roe was overturned, and yet others were poised to revert to pre-1973 abortion law. In 2010 the Guttmacher Institute classified ten states as "hostile" and zero states as "very hostile" to abortion rights. By 2021 it had classified fifteen states as "hostile" and six states as "very hostile." As of August 2022, legal abortions were nearly impossible to obtain in twelve states.

CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS

What is the doctrine of separate spheres, and how does it affect gender norms and roles in the United States in the twenty-first century?
Why do you think increased women's representation in Congress has not resulted in federal legislation to protect abortion and reproductive rights nationwide? Explain your answer.
What steps, if any, should your state government take to compensate women for unpaid or underpaid domestic labor? Explain your reasoning.

POLITICAL PARTICIPATION AND WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP

Commentators noted a marked rise in women's political and social activism in the wake of the 2016 election of US president Donald Trump. Many women's rights supporters credit opposition to Trump and his administration with fueling historic results of the 2018 midterm elections. Prior to the November 2018 election, eighty-four women were serving in the House and twenty-three women were serving in the Senate. In January 2019, nearly a century after women gained the right to vote, more than one hundred seats in the US House of Representatives (out of a total of 435) and twenty-five seats in the Senate (out of a total of one hundred) were occupied by women for the first time. Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)—the first woman elected to serve as Speaker of the House, serving in the post from 2007 to 2011—reclaimed the speakership in 2019. With the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in 2021 and Pelosi continuing to serve as Speaker, women held the second and third positions in the line of presidential succession. As of August 2022, 122 women served in the House of Representatives and twenty-four women served in the Senate. Women held twelve cabinet-level positions in the Biden administration and four of nine seats on the Supreme Court. Despite these gains, women filled only about 27 percent of all national congressional seats, about 30 percent of all state legislative seats, and 18 percent of state governorships.

Because women lack equity in political representation and continue to face societal hurdles, they have been hit harder economically and socially by the COVID-19 pandemic than men. Women in the United States have taken on a greater share of unpaid child and elder care responsibilities, suffered greater job losses, and left the workforce at rates higher than men. According to a 2021 Pew analysis, Black women and Latinas represented 46 percent of all women who had left the workforce despite representing less than 33 percent of the total female US labor force. Nevertheless, the presence of women in decision-making roles, both in government and other sectors, is associated with more effective pandemic responses. A 2020 analysis published in the Journal of Applied Psychology , for instance, found lower COVID-19 fatality rates during the first several months of the pandemic in US states where women were serving as governors than in states with male governors.

With the majority of Americans opposed to the reversal of Roe v. Wade , the Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization sparked immediate and widespread protest. Girls, women, and supporters of women's and reproductive rights demonstrated across the country. Advocates outside the United States staged marches in solidarity with American women. Many Democratic lawmakers and leaders including President Biden, Vice President Harris, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi condemned the ruling. However, efforts to pass a law protecting abortion access nationwide failed in the Senate. Women's and reproductive rights advocates have predicted the court's overturning of Roe v. Wade will motivate record voter turnout among young voters in the 2022 midterm elections.

Women's rights should be enshrined in the us constitution.

"What's more, political fallout from the current administration, as well as the #MeToo and #SheShouldRun movements, have created momentum and transformed a long-languishing Amendment effort into a new, pressing matter."

Tina Rodia is a freelance writer and editor based in West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In the following viewpoint, she discusses the revived efforts to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which was first proposed nearly a century ago. The ERA would enshrine the equal rights of women into the United States Constitution, Rodia argues, and would offer greater protections and recourse to women than the constellation of federal equal rights laws that currently bar sex and gender discrimination. Although Congress passed the ERA in 1972, only thirty-five states ratified it—three short of the number needed for enactment—before the 1982 deadline. However, the author contends, a renewed focus on women's rights following the 2016 US presidential election may be enough to see a new iteration of the ERA enacted.

The Equal Rights Amendment is dead. It should stay that way

"[C]an a legislative cadaver be ratified?"

George F. Will is a political columnist for the Washington Post .

In the following viewpoint, Will criticizes the repeated attempts by legislators to pass the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the US Constitution, which would guarantee equal rights for all American citizens regardless of sex. The author faults Congress for passing the ERA in 1972 without understanding the implications of its passage, for granting states a seven-year time limit for ratification, and for extending that time limit when the required numbers of states had not yet ratified. Comparing the time allotted for the ERA's ratification to other amendments, Will asserts that the proposed amendment's inability to secure ratification within the ample time provided by Congress demonstrates its irrelevance.

Excluding Transwomen from Feminism Is Transphobic

“It must be hard to be called a bigot when you have fought against male supremacy in your actions and in your heart throughout your life.”

Josephine Livingstone is a staff writer at the New Republic .

In the following viewpoint, Livingstone responds to an essay about feminism and transgender women published in The American Conservative . The essay’s author, Natasha Vargas-Cooper, suggests that the needs of transgender women do not belong as part of the collective feminist platform. Livingstone takes issue with Vargas-Cooper’s assertions that the certain demands of transgender rights activists are unrealistic and that women’s rights are not tied to transgender women’s rights. Livingstone argues that conflict between feminists and transgender activists serves to strengthen the control of the patriarchy.

“Marketplace Feminism” and the Commodification of Empowerment

“The various media and pop culture industries whose bread and butter has rested on making women hate themselves are now not only not insulting them but even celebrating their strength and smarts.”

Susan J. Douglas is a professor of communications at the University of Michigan. She is the author of several books, including Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media and Enlightened Sexism: The Seductive Message that Feminism’s Work Is Done .

In the following viewpoint, Douglas argues that advertising that promotes female empowerment advances a superficial and depoliticized version of feminism. The author cites recent examples in both advertising and more general pop culture that use feminism as a marketing ploy, depicting the political movement as an identity that can be achieved by purchasing certain products. While others have identified the popularity of feminist tropes as an indication of widespread acceptance of feminist ideals, the author worries that celebrating feminism’s current status as a trendy accessory can distract society from the need to address to systemic gender inequality.

Looking for information on other topics?

Access Through Your Library >>

10 Essential Essays About Women’s Reproductive Rights

“Reproductive rights” let a person decide whether they want to have children, use contraception, or terminate a pregnancy. Reproductive rights also include access to sex education and reproductive health services. Throughout history, the reproductive rights of women in particular have been restricted. Girls and women today still face significant challenges. In places that have seen reproductive rights expand, protections are rolling back. Here are ten essential essays about reproductive rights:

“Our Bodies, Ourselves: Reproductive Rights”

bell hooks Published in Feminism Is For Everyone (2014)

This essay opens strong: when the modern feminism movement started, the most important issues were the ones linked to highly-educated and privileged white women. The sexual revolution led the way, with “free love” as shorthand for having as much sex as someone wanted with whoever they wanted. This naturally led to the issue of unwanted pregnancies. Birth control and abortions were needed.

Sexual freedom isn’t possible without access to safe, effective birth control and the right to safe, legal abortion. However, other reproductive rights like prenatal care and sex education were not as promoted due to class bias. Including these other rights more prominently might have, in hooks’ words, “galvanized the masses.” The right to abortion in particular drew the focus of mass media. Including other reproductive issues would mean a full reckoning about gender and women’s bodies. The media wasn’t (and arguably still isn’t) ready for that.

“Racism, Birth Control, and Reproductive Rights”

Angela Davis Published in Women, Race, & Class (1981)

Davis’ essay covers the birth control movement in detail, including its race-based history. Davis argues that birth control always included racism due to the belief that poor women (specifically poor Black and immigrant women) had a “moral obligation” to birth fewer children. Race was also part of the movement from the beginning because only wealthy white women could achieve the goals (like more economic and political freedom) driving access to birth control.

In light of this history, Davis emphasizes that the fight for reproductive freedom hasn’t led to equal victories. In fact, the movements driving the gains women achieved actively neglected racial inequality. One clear example is how reproductive rights groups ignored forced sterilization within communities of color. Davis ends her essay with a call to end sterilization abuse.

“Reproductive Justice, Not Just Rights”

Dorothy Roberts Published in Dissent Magazine (2015)

Dorothy Roberts, author of Killing the Black Body and Fatal Invention , describes attending the March for Women’s Lives. She was especially happy to be there because co-sponsor SisterSong (a collective founded by 16 organizations led by women of color) shifted the focus from “choice” to “social justice.” Why does this matter? Roberts argues that the rhetoric of “choice” favors women who have options that aren’t available to low-income women, especially women of color. Conservatives face criticism for their stance on reproductive rights, but liberals also cause harm when they frame birth control as the solution to global “overpopulation” or lean on fetal anomalies as an argument for abortion choice.

Instead of “the right to choose,” a reproductive justice framework is necessary. This requires a living wage, universal healthcare, and prison abolition. Reproductive justice goes beyond the current pro-choice/anti-choice rhetoric that still favors the privileged.

“The Color of Choice: White Supremacy and Reproductive Justice”

Loretta J. Ross, SisterSong Published in Color of Violence: The INCITE! Anthology (2016)

White supremacy in the United States has always created different outcomes for its ethnic populations. The method? Population control. Ross points out that even a glance at reproductive politics in the headlines makes it clear that some women are encouraged to have more children while others are discouraged. Ross defines “reproductive justice,” which goes beyond the concept of “rights.” Reproductive justice is when reproductive rights are “embedded in a human rights and social justice framework.”

In the essay, Ross explores topics like white supremacy and population control on both the right and left sides of politics. She acknowledges that while the right is often blunter in restricting women of color and their fertility, white supremacy is embedded in both political aisles. The essay closes with a section on mobilizing for reproductive justice, describing SisterSong (where Ross is a founding member) and the March for Women’s Lives in 2004.

“Abortion Care Is Not Just For Cis Women”

Sachiko Ragosta Published in Ms. Magazine (2021)

Cisgender women are the focus of abortion and reproductive health services even though nonbinary and trans people access these services all the time. In their essay, Ragosta describes the criticism Ibis Reproductive Health received when it used the term “pregnant people.” The term alienates women, the critics said, but acting as if only cis women need reproductive care is simply inaccurate. As Ragosta writes, no one is denying that cis women experience pregnancy. The reaction to more inclusive language around pregnancy and abortion reveals a clear bias against trans people.

Normalizing terms like “pregnant people” help spaces become more inclusive, whether it’s in research, medical offices, or in day-to-day life. Inclusiveness leads to better health outcomes, which is essential considering the barriers nonbinary and gender-expansive people face in general and sexual/reproductive care.

“We Cannot Leave Black Women, Trans People, and Gender Expansive People Behind: Why We Need Reproductive Justice”

Karla Mendez Published in Black Women Radicals

Mendez, a freelance writer and (and the time of the essay’s publication) a student studying Interdisciplinary Studies, Political Science, and Women’s and Gender Studies, responds to the Texas abortion ban. Terms like “reproductive rights” and “abortion rights” are part of the mainstream white feminist movement, but the benefits of birth control and abortions are not equal. Also, as the Texas ban shows, these benefits are not secure. In the face of this reality, it’s essential to center Black people of all genders.

In her essay, Mendez describes recent restrictive legislation and the failure of the reproductive rights movement to address anti-Blackness, transphobia, food insecurity, and more. Groups like SisterSong have led the way on reproductive justice. As reproductive rights are eroded in the United States, the reproductive rights movement needs to focus on justice.

“Gee’s Bend: A Reproductive Justice Quilt Story From the South”

Mary Lee Bendolph Published in Radical Reproductive Justice (2017)

One of Mary Lee Bendolph’s quilt designs appears as the cover of Radical Reproductive Justice. She was one of the most important strip quilters associated with Gee’s Bend, Alabama. During the Civil Rights era, the 700 residents of Gee’s Bend were isolated and found it hard to vote or gain educational and economic power outside the village. Bendolph’s work didn’t become well-known outside her town until the mid-1990s.

Through an interview by the Souls Grown Foundation, we learn that Bendolph didn’t receive any sex education as a girl. When she became pregnant in sixth grade, she had to stop attending school. “They say it was against the law for a lady to go to school and be pregnant,” she said, because it would influence the other kids. “Soon as you have a baby, you couldn’t never go to school again.”

“Underground Activists in Brazil Fight for Women’s Reproductive Rights”

Alejandra Marks Published in The North American Congress on Latin America (2021)

While short, this essay provides a good introduction to abortion activism in Brazil, where abortion is legal only in the case of rape, fetal anencephaly, or when a woman’s life is at risk. The reader meets “Taís,” a single mother faced with an unwanted pregnancy. With no legal options, she researched methods online, including teas and pills. She eventually connected with a lawyer and activist who walked her through using Cytotec, a medication she got online. The activist stayed on the phone while Taís completed her abortion at home.

For decades, Latin American activists have helped pregnant people get abortion medications while wealthy Brazilians enter private clinics or travel to other countries. Government intimidation makes activism risky, but the stakes are high. Hundreds of Brazilians die each year from dangerous abortion methods. In the past decade, religious conservatives in Congress have blocked even mild reform. Even if a new president is elected, Brazil’s abortion rights movement will fight an uphill battle.

“The Ambivalent Activist”

Lauren Groff Published in Fight of the Century: Writers Reflect on 100 years of Landmark ACLU Cases (2020)

Before Roe v. Wade, abortion regulation around the country was spotty. 37 states still had near-bans on the procedure while only four states had repealed anti-abortion laws completely. In her essay, Groff summarizes the case in accessible, engaging prose. The “Jane Roe” of the case was Norma McCorvey. When she got pregnant, she’d already had two children, one of whom she’d given up for adoption. McCorvey couldn’t access an abortion provider because the pregnancy didn’t endanger her life. She eventually connected with two attorneys: Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffee. In 1973 on January 2, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that abortion was a fundamental right.

Norma McCorvey was a complicated woman. She later became an anti-choice activist (in an interview released after her death, she said Evangelical anti-choice groups paid her to switch her position), but as Groff writes, McCorvey had once been proud that it was her case that gave women bodily autonomy.

“The Abortion I Didn’t Want”

Caitlin McDonnell Published in Salon (2015) and Choice Words: Writers on Abortion (2020)

While talking about abortion is less demonized than in the past, it’s still fairly unusual to hear directly from people who’ve experienced it. It’s certainly unusual to hear more complicated stories. Caitlin McDonnell, a poet and teacher from Brooklyn, shares her experience. In clear, raw prose, this piece brings home what can be an abstract “issue” for people who haven’t experienced it or been close to someone who has.

In debates about abortion rights, those who carry the physical and emotional effects are often neglected. Their complicated feelings are weaponized to serve agendas or make judgments about others. It’s important to read essays like McDonnell’s and hear stories as nuanced and multi-faceted as humans themselves.

What is Social Activism?

15 Inspiring Movies about Activism

15 Examples of Civil Disobedience

Academia in Times of Genocide: Why are Students Across the World Protesting?

Pinkwashing 101: Definition, History, Examples

15 Inspiring Quotes for Black History Month

10 Inspiring Ways Women Are Fighting for Equality

15 Trusted Charities Fighting for Clean Water

15 Trusted Charities Supporting Trans People

15 Political Issues We Must Address

15 Trusted Charities Fighting for LGBTQ+ Rights

16 Inspiring Civil Rights Leaders You Should Know

About the author, emmaline soken-huberty.

Emmaline Soken-Huberty is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon. She started to become interested in human rights while attending college, eventually getting a concentration in human rights and humanitarianism. LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights, and climate change are of special concern to her. In her spare time, she can be found reading or enjoying Oregon’s natural beauty with her husband and dog.

Trump Takes Fascist Threat to Next Level With New Proposal on Judges

Donald trump wants to make it a crime to criticize any judges who like him. imagine what that would mean..

Donald Trump smiles proudly as he stands in front of a row of U.S. flags.

Donald Trump thinks it should be “illegal” for the public to criticize the Supreme Court justices who rule in his favor.

In a bizarre speech over the weekend, between a bad Emmanuel Macron impression and claiming that he is better looking than Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump made a frightening declaration: He believes that those who criticize his judges should be punished.

“I really think it’s illegal what they do, with judges and justices. They’re playing the ref,” Trump said at a Saturday rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. “Remember the term. Playing the ref with our judges and justices should be punishable by very serious fines and beyond that.”

Trump on people who criticize the Supreme Court: Playing the ref with our judges and justices should be punishable by serious fines and beyond that. pic.twitter.com/bnQTHv6WIY — Acyn (@Acyn) August 17, 2024

But even as others get their First Amendment rights taken from them, Trump thinks he should still have a right to criticize the courts. “The New York court system is totally corrupt,” Trump said in the same Saturday speech, referring to the court that convicted him of 34 felonies in his hush-money trial. His rants about the judge, the prosecutors, and the witnesses in that trial were so extreme that he was slapped with a gag order back in March, part of which still remains in place.

Trump’s suggestion comes as the Supreme Court’s conservative justices are under greater scrutiny after multiple reports of corruption and ties to far-right groups . Last month, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced articles of impeachment against Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.

Watch: J.D. Vance Cruelly Pushes for Domestic Abusers’ Right to Guns

Vance prioritized gun rights over women’s safety..

J.D. Vance speaks during a Donald Trump campaign event

J.D. Vance argued Tuesday that access to firearms should only be restricted for those convicted of a crime—meaning that those under restraining orders should still be able to purchase weapons.

During a press conference in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Vance was asked what he thought about restricting firearms access for those convicted of stalking. Vance answered the question, and then some.

“Well look, I think that we certainly don’t want violent criminals to have access to weapons, and that includes people, I think, who have been convicted of stalking. But I think it’s important to say convicted,” Vance replied.

“And what a lot of those of us who are pro-Second Amendment, what we don’t want is, you know, we don’t want somebody to have their gun rights taken away when they haven’t actually been to court of law. Whether it’s a First Amendment right, a Second Amendment right, you are entitled to due process in this country,” Vance explained.

“Certainly, people who are convicted of a crime, they should not be able to carry a firearm. But people who have not gone through due process, they still have their rights,” he said.

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court upheld a New York law prohibiting domestic abusers under restraining orders from carrying firearms, with one lone dissenter: Justice Clarence Thomas. Thomas argued that the government could not “strip the Second Amendment right of anyone subject to a protective order—even if he has never been accused or convicted of a crime.”

In the majority opinion, Chief Supreme Court Justice Roberts found that the New York law was in line with constitutional law. “Our tradition of firearm regulation allows the government to disarm individuals who present a credible threat to the physical safety of others,” Roberts wrote.

Trump and Vance, Tanking in Polls, Pick a Fight With Andy Beshear

Donald trump and running mate j.d. vance are straight up lying after kentucky governor andy beshear criticized their record on abortion..

Donald Trump shakes J.D. Vance's hand and says something in his ear. Vance's head is turned away from the camera.

J.D. Vance and Donald Trump are attacking Andy Beshear over comments the Kentucky governor made on MSNBC Tuesday morning.

“I mean, think about what some people have had to go through because of these laws,” Beshear told Mika Brzezinski on Morning Joe regarding Republican states’ laws against abortion.

“J.D. Vance calls pregnancy resulting from rape ‘inconvenient.’ Inconvenience is traffic. Make him go through this,” Beshear added.

The Trump-Vance campaign seized on the words and took them out of context, claiming that Beshear actually called for Vance’s family members to be raped. Vance’s spokesperson William Martin called for Kamala Harris to “immediately repudiate” Beshear’s comments.

Twitter screenshot Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social @TrumpDailyPosts: From Trump War Room @TrumpWarRoom : BREAKING: The Trump-Vance campaign releases a statement on Kamala surrogate Andy Beshear’s vile comments at DNC (with screenshot of statement: "After speaking on the DNC main stage last night, Harris campaign surrogate Governor Andy Beshear went on national television this morning and explicitly called for a member of Senator Vance's family to be raped. His comments are disgusting, vile, and should not be tolerated in American politics. We call on Kamala Harris to immediately repudiate Governor Beshear's comments and demonstrate that regardless of partisan disagreements, this kind of violent rhetoric has no plac ein our public discourse." - William Martin, Vance Communications Director

The Republican vice presidential nominee chimed in himself, calling Beshear a “disgusting person.”

What the hell is this? Why is @AndyBeshearKY wishing that a member of my family would get raped?!? What a disgusting person. https://t.co/11Kp1h92MN — JD Vance (@JDVance) August 20, 2024

It’s pretty clear that the Trump campaign is deliberately misinterpreting Beshear’s words, looking to make an issue when in reality, Beshear was accusing Vance of downplaying pregnancies resulting from rape. Recent polls have shown that while the Harris-Walz campaign is surging , Trump and Vance are going in the opposite direction.

Vance could be attacking Beshear as a way to distract from his own views on abortion. Last week, he said that “ normal ” women don’t care about their reproductive rights, and, long before that, he said some weirder things about procreation and women who don’t have children. In any case, Vance and Trump have struggled to land any effective attack or criticism against Harris or her running mate, Tim Walz, so expect to see them try to manufacture more controversies as the election draws nearer.

Trump’s Latest Scheme to Beat Harris May Have Crossed Legal Lines

Donald trump is reportedly advising israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu, which would be a violation of the logan act..

Donald Trump holds up a fist as he walks with Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House

He may not be in office, but Donald Trump has been speaking with the powers that be about Israel’s war on Gaza—but it’s not in an effort to end the genocide.

Instead, Trump has allegedly been talking with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to avert a cease-fire deal, fearing that doing so could help Vice President Kamala Harris win in November, according to PBS.

“The reporting is that former President Trump is on the phone with the Prime Minister of Israel, urging him not to cut a deal right now, because it’s believed that would help the Harris campaign,” said PBS’s Judy Woodruff Monday night. “So, I don’t know where—who knows whether that will come about or not, but I have to think that the Harris campaign would like for President Biden to do what presidents do, and that’s to work on that one.”

Woodruff clarified on Wednesday that the anecdote was not based on her original reporting, but rather on an an Axios story last week that cited two U.S. sources as claiming that Trump and Netanyahu had spoken on the phone about cease-fire and Gaza hostage talks. Netanyahu’s office and Trump both separately denied the report.

“I did encourage him to get this over with. You want to get it over with fast. Have victory, get your victory, and get it over with. It has to stop, the killing has to stop,” Trump said at a New Jersey press conference on Thursday, referring to their meeting at Mar-a-Lago last month. But he also criticized cease-fire demands.

PBS reporting that Trump has been talking to Netanyahu trying to STOP a cease fire deal because it would “help the Harris campaign” Monstrous… and a possible violation of the Logan Act. pic.twitter.com/6jvzaEv1Q9 — Heather Gardner (@heathergtv) August 20, 2024

During Biden’s speech at the Democratic National Convention on Monday, the president promised that his administration is working around the clock to bring “humanitarian assistance into Gaza,” “peace and security to the Middle East,” and to deliver a “cease-fire” and an end to the war.

The president also nodded to the more than 3,500 protesters who took to the streets of Chicago on Monday, demanding an immediate cease-fire to the war, claiming that the demonstrators “have a point.”* The war has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians since it began 10 months ago.

Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha, who escaped the besieged country in December, reported on Monday that the humanitarian area in south Gaza is little more than 14 square miles.

“Crammed in it are more than 1.8 million people, with no water, no electricity, no food, no clinics or pharmacies, and no shelters,” he wrote , lamenting in a separate post that he cannot “understand how this government continues to fund the genocide but cannot put an end to it” and “force the aggressors to stop dropping bombs.”

* This piece has been updated to clarify the number of protesters at the DNC.

This piece has been updated with Woodruff’s statement on Wednesday.

RFK Jr.’s Running Mate Exposes Just How Far They’ll Go to Beat Harris

Nicole shanahan floated the idea of joining forces with donald trump..

Nicole Shanahan and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wave during a campaign event

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign is sinking fast. Federal Election Commission filings indicated that the fringe political candidate spent more than he brought into the campaign in July, with more than half of his donations coming out of the pocket of his running mate Nicole Shanahan , a Silicon Valley lawyer and investor.

But shortly after the dire news broke, Shanahan revealed precisely why the conspiracy theorist has remained on the ballot so long, despite his abysmal polling.

“I’ve got to keep focusing on what matters the most outside of party lines. I need to focus on a vision that goes beyond November,” Shanahan told Tom Bilyeu’s Impact Theory podcast , adding that there are “benefits” to staying in the race, including official party recognition if their campaign secures more than five percent of the vote. That could translate into a stronger third party in the next election cycle, thanks to public funds that could provide up to $13.5 million dollars to the fledgling political group.

“That means that we could position for a real third-party election in 2028, where we don’t have to go around and spend tens of millions of dollars on ballot access, which means that we can spend all of that time and money campaigning,” Shanahan said.

But there’s an entirely different outlook for the Kennedy campaign should they decide to pull out—and, according to Shanahan, it would all be for the benefit of one candidate.

“There’s two options that we’re looking at, and one is staying in, forming that new party, but we run the risk of a Kamala Harris and Walz presidency because we draw votes from Trump,” she said. “Or, we walk away right now and join forces with Donald Trump.”

That latter option would require explaining to all of Kennedy’s supporters why the alternative political pairing have, after all their efforts, ultimately bent the knee to the two-party system. And while that wouldn’t pave the way for more political representation for everyday Americans, it could translate into administration positions for Kennedy and Shanahan. In fact, Trump already floated the idea in July, pitching that Kennedy—a notorious vaccine skeptic—could lead the Health and Human Services Department should the Republican nominee win in November.

“Not an easy decision,” Shanahan said.

RFK’s VP Nicole Shanahan says they are debating whether to stay in the race or drop out and join forces with Trump: “There’s two options that we're looking at and one is staying in, forming that new party, but we run the risk of a Kamala Harris and Waltz presidency because we… pic.twitter.com/O3HrLbbCLO — End Tribalism in Politics (@EndTribalism) August 20, 2024

MAGA Melts Down Over Kamala Harris’s Stepdaughter at DNC

Donald trump’s supporters are suddenly obsessed with ella emhoff for some reason..

Ella Emhoff watches the proceedings during the first day of the Democratic National Convention. Others stand near her.

Conservatives are freaking out about Kamala Harris’s stepdaughter after she … did nothing but exist.

As Harris’s husband and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff watched on at the first night of the Democratic National Convention, his children Cole and Ella Emhoff stood by his side. Ella, a 25-year-old fashion designer, rocked the Harris-Walz camo hat, campaign swag that was so popular it sold out in just 30 minutes .

As the family shared a proud moment, Republicans zeroed in on Harris and Emhoff’s daughter and began critiquing her looks, her body language, and her love for her dad.

“Totally not weird,” wrote Charlie Kirk, who was already having a rough time at the DNC.

Twitter screenshot Charlie Kirk @charliekirk11: Totally not weird. (photo of Ella Emhoff draping an arm over Dough Emhoff's shoulders)

“Kamala Harris’ stepdaughter looks like she is ready to assassinate a former President tonight,” wrote a conservative Twitch streamer, seemingly referring to the shooter who targeted Trump last month.

“This is how Kamala Harris’s step daughter Ella Emhoff dressed to see her step mother during one of the most important moments of her career at the DNC,” wrote right-wing media personality Oli London. (London perhaps shouldn’t talk about looks when he made a name for himself by engaging in extreme ethnic plastic surgery procedures.)

Others went so far as to try to “ trans-vestigate ” Ella Emhoff and accuse her of being a man.

“This is Kamala’s family. Beyond parody,” the account End Wokeness posted , sharing a normal video of Emhoff speaking with his two children. Again, it’s unclear what exactly is supposed to be weird here.

According to conservatives, when Trump gets touchy with his daughter, it’s normal. But when a daughter hugs her dad in an important moment in their life, it’s strange beyond belief. Totally makes sense!

The Terrifying Way Literal Nazis Are Using Steve Bannon’s Podcast

Neo-nazis have co-opted the far-right podcast to recruit new members..

Steve Bannon points at supporters before going to jail

An online collective of neo-Nazis is using Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast as a recruitment tool, according to an exclusive report published by The Guardian Tuesday.

The Terrorgram collective is a network of neo-Nazis and fascists that produces and disseminates right-wing propaganda using Telegram, encouraging acts of far-right terror and sanctifying those who commit them.

The collective runs three main Telegram channels that mix mainstream news coverage with far-right content. The mainstream content gives the channels an air of legitimacy as administrators urge users to join group chats where more violent, extreme ideas are pushed, according to a report from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue .

The group has reportedly taken over a channel that is linked to Steve Bannon’s podcast, and markets itself as the “official home of the War Room Posse.” In a corresponding group chat, the channel’s administrator claimed that Bannon himself was involved in running the channel, according to ISD. The administrator has garnered more than 63,000 subscribers, only a few hundred short of the official War Room channel, and the channel’s contents have been shared by white nationalist Charlie Kirk to his nearly 170,000 followers.

The Terrorgram collective disseminates its extremist propaganda to radicalize users and encourage racially charged violence. Nineteen-year-old Juraj Krajčík, who opened fire on people outside a popular LGBTQ bar in Bratislava, Slovakia, in 2022, killing two people and injuring a third, had published a lengthy creed thanking the Terrorgram for “building the future of the White revolution, one publication at a time.” The U.K. government declared the collective a terrorist group in April.

The collective is clearly hoping to tap into Bannon’s audience, pulling the already far-right MAGA movement even further into extremism, and Bannon’s platform represents one ripe for a neo-Nazi takeover.

Bannon, who remains an influential voice on the alt-right, once admitted that he admired Donald Trump because Trump reminded him of Adolf Hitler. Bannon, who worked as Trump’s 2016 campaign manager and a strategist in Trump’s White House, was the mastermind behind creating the MAGA movement, which he reportedly hoped would rule the United States for hundreds of years. He was ultimately ousted from Trump’s administration after Nazis marched in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.

Bannon is currently serving a four-month prison sentence for refusing to testify to Congress for his role in the January 6 Capitol insurrection.

RFK Jr.’s Campaign Is Suddenly Very Short on Cash

Robert f. kennedy jr. is seriously struggling with his campaign..

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks with a mic in his hand

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign is in financial trouble.

The campaign is spending more money than it is bringing in, according to Federal Election Commission filings . It has $3.9 million in cash on hand, but is nearly $3.5 million in debt. In July, the campaign spent over $7 million while raising only $5.6 million, almost half of which came from RFK Jr.’s running mate Nicole Shanahan , a Silicon Valley lawyer and investor.

The campaign’s spending remained high despite a cutback on events, according to Politico. Kennedy has not appeared at any public events since the beginning of July, instead sporadically showing up on podcasts and at conferences. Much of the campaign’s funds have gone towards ballot access, Facebook and Google ads, and a security firm run by a longtime associate.

Even with the help of a partnership with the Libertarian Party, the campaign’s fundraising, despite a slight uptick, hasn’t kept up with spending. The fact that Kennedy seems to be relying on Shanahan’s money more than outside donations suggests that he’s not bringing in a lot of new fans, either.

Kennedy seems to be aware of his diminishing fortunes. Last month, the independent candidate spoke with Donald Trump about getting a White House job in exchange for dropping out of the race and endorsing the convicted felon. Kennedy also reached out to the Kamala Harris campaign with a similar proposition, only to be rebuffed , probably because he might actually help her by staying in the race.

RFK Jr.’s campaign was in trouble even before President Biden stepped aside, with Kennedy failing to qualify for the first presidential debate. There were also a series of damaging revelations, from reports of a worm in his brain to the news that he dumped a bear carcass in Central Park to allegations of sexual assault . With diminished polling, all of this begs the question of what the point of Kennedy’s campaign actually is.

Former Trump Insider Breaks Ranks to Support Harris at DNC

Kamala harris will get a major boost from donald trump’s former press secretary..

Stephanie Grisham watches Donald Trump during a press conference

Several Republicans are slated to speak at the Democratic National Convention this week, as Democrats attempt to unify forces against a potential second Trump presidency. But on Tuesday, Democrats announced that they had secured one of Donald Trump’s former communications directors, and she’s expected to make a splash with an endorsement of Trump’s political rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham will join the liberal party’s long list of speakers, reported NBC News .

“I never thought I’d be speaking at a Democratic convention. But, after seeing firsthand who Donald Trump really is, and the threat he poses to our country, I feel very strongly about speaking out,” Grisham told NBC. “While I don’t agree with Vice President Harris on everything, I am proud to be supporting her because I know she will defend our freedoms and represent our nation with honesty and integrity.”

Grisham had served as Melania Trump’s chief of staff and press secretary before briefly joining Trump’s administration in 2019. She was the first member of Trump’s team to resign after the January 6 riot on the U.S. Capitol and has since been an outspoken critic of the former president.

“Jan. 6, of course, was my breaking point,” Grisham told NBC News’s Meet the Press in October 2021.

Last week, Grisham made waves when she wholly dismissed the Trump campaign’s new strategy of mini-rallies and hyper-focused press events in an effort to rein in the bloviating populist’s affinity for rambling, ad hominem attacks on Harris, which don’t seem to be doing him any favors with voters.

“I imagine he will do some of them, and maybe for a week he’ll, you know, attempt to stay on message,” Grisham told CNN . “It depends on how tough his staff is being with him, but he will get bored. He doesn’t like those small events; he never has. And he will be demanding to do a large rally sooner rather than later.”

“They want him to be a fake version of himself,” she added. “Donald Trump is a bombastic narcissist, and he loves attention.”

Idiot Trump Abandoned Truth Social for Elon Musk—and It Didn’t Pay Off

Donald trump’s two favorite social media platforms are both tanking..

Donald Trump looks down as he walks at a campaign event

In a wild right-wing technologist update of Thelma and Louise , it seems that both Donald Trump and Elon Musk have officially driven their respective social media companies off of a cliff. But hey, at least they’re going down together?

Trump’s Truth Social stock appears to be in serious jeopardy, according to a new report from Forbes published Saturday. Next month, Trump—who owns well over 50 percent of the company—and other shareholders will finally be able to sell their shares of the volatile stock, but that puts the stock at risk of collapse.

Earlier this month, Truth Social’s stock value plummeted following Trump’s apparent “return” to X, formerly Twitter. It was so bad that even a booming stock market couldn’t save it. This coincided with a poor second quarter earnings report that found the company lost more than $16 million , and raised just $836,900, down 30 percent from $1.2 million a year earlier. That was still far better than the previous quarterly report, which found that the company lost $327.6 million, and only raised $770,500 in revenue.

Truth Social stock has become particularly risky, because its volatility gives it a high chance of heavy selling as soon as it becomes unlocked in September, according to Forbes . This would only worsen if the board allowed Trump to sell his stocks early, capturing the current price instead of whatever they might drop to on the downward trajectory.

As for Elon Musk’s X, not even Trump returning could give it a much-needed boost. The platform’s billionaire technocrat owner has pulled the social media site into historically bad territory, according to The Wall Street Journal .

Musk acquired X in October 2022 for $44 billion, borrowing $13 billion from several banks, including Morgan Stanley, Barclays, and Bank of America. Those banks have found themselves unable to quickly offload Musk’s debt to other investors, leaving it stuck on their balance sheets, or “hung” in industry terms, straining their loan books and, in one case, even curbing their compensation.

Apparently, Musk’s X loans have been on the books for so long, they’ve outlived every unsold deal since the 2008 financial crisis, according to data from Pitchbook LCD. While there were more hung deals during the crisis, banks were able to sell or write off their hung debt within 12 months after issuing the loan. Not only is X the longest lasting hung deal since 2008, it’s also reportedly one of the biggest.

While the banks have been able to collect a hefty interest, it’s unclear how Musk will ever repay the principal if X continues on its current trajectory. Last year, X reported that its value had plummeted by more than half, to around $19 billion. When the banks formulated a plan to restructure the loan, X didn’t follow through, according to the Journal .

Unfortunately for Musk, X has been unable to fully capitalize on its recent uptick in user engagement, because Musk went out of his way to make an enemy of all advertisers everywhere, suing a group of advertisers who didn’t want to use his platform filled with blatantly pro-Nazi content.

As Musk’s adversarial streak has continued, officials at Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, another bank that shelled out money for the acquisition, downgraded the bank’s internal credit rating on his loan, meaning they don’t think it’s likely they’ll get paid back anytime soon.

A spokesman for the bank told the Journal , “MUFG has had several constructive conversations with Mr. Musk and his leadership team. We anticipate reaching a positive outcome regarding repayment.”

While Musk isn’t in the business of robbing banks, he’s getting pretty close to the outlaw life of Thelma and Louise. One thing has become clear: When Trump and Musk started out on their right-wing social media experiments, they thought they were really goin’ somewhere. But this is it. They’re just going.

IMAGES

Essay on Women Suffrage Movement Free Essay Example
Women's Rights Essay
Women S Rights
Women's Rights Movement
Women’s Rights Movement and Civil Rights Movement Essay Example
About Women Rights and Equality

COMMENTS

Essay on Women Rights in English for Students
Answer 2: Women's rights are the essential human rights that the United Nations enshrined for every human being on the earth nearly 70 years ago. These rights include a lot of rights including the rights to live free from violence, slavery, and discrimination. In addition to the right to education, own property; vote and to earn a fair and ...
Essay on Women's Rights
500 Words Essay on Women's Rights Introduction. Women's rights, a subject that has been at the forefront of social and political discussions for centuries, is a complex and multifaceted issue. It encompasses a wide range of topics, from the right to vote and work to reproductive rights and gender equality. This essay aims to delve into the ...
138 Women's Rights Essay Topics and Examples
Abigail Adams' Inspiring Rebellion for Women's Rights. The Power of the Internet and Women's Rights in Guatemala. Pencils and Bullets Women's Rights in Afghanistan. Women's Rights in Supreme Court Decisions of the 1960's and 1970's. Women's Rights: A Path into the Society to Achieve Social Liberation.
5 Women's Rights Essays You Can Read For Free
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is one of the most influential voices in women's rights writing. Her book, We Should All Be Feminists, is a great exploration of 21st-century feminism. In this essay from Elle, Adichie takes a seemingly "small" topic about fashion and makes a big statement about independence and a woman's right to wear whatever ...
Women's Rights Essay
You can also find more Essay Writing articles on events, persons, sports, technology and many more. Long and Short Essays on Women's Rights for Students and Kids in English. We are providing students with samples of essay on an extended piece of 500 words and short writing of 150 words on the topic "Women's Rights Essay" for reference.
Comprehensive Argumentative essay example on the Rights of Women
Policies that prioritize women's health contribute to a healthier and more equitable society. (Comprehensive Argumentative essay example on the Rights of Women) Addressing and preventing violence against women is a critical component of the women's rights agenda. Gender-based violence not only inflicts harm on individual women but also ...
5 Women Empowerment Essays Everybody Should Read
This essay states that empowerment is the key. When giving authority and control over their own lives, women thrive and contribute more to the world. It's important that programs seeking to end gender inequality focus on empowerment, and not "rescue.". Treating women like victims is not the answer. Axa is a leading global insurer ...
Articles, Texts, and Reading Comprehension on Women's Rights
Study the history of women's rights in America and around the world as you learn about the fight for women's equality. Displaying texts 1 - 20 of 60 in total CommonLit is a nonprofit that has everything teachers and schools need for top-notch literacy instruction: a full-year ELA curriculum, benchmark assessments, and formative data.
Free Women's Rights Essay Examples & Topic Ideas
Argumentative Essay Topics About Women's Rights. ... A Short, Surprising History of American Women's Movements," written by Dorothy Sue Cobble, Linda Gordon, and Astrid Henry, provides an intricate exploration of the multifaceted waves of feminism in the United States. The book dissects the evolution of feminist movements from the...
Women's Rights in Today's Society: [Essay Example], 1636 words
The definition of women's rights is legal, political, and social rights for women equal to those of men. A common idea that is associated with being a feminist is destroying the status in the esteem of men to build up women, or being a "feminazi". Feminists aim for equality not for the superiority of women over men.
5 Essays About Feminism
5 Essays About Feminism. On the surface, the definition of feminism is simple. It's the belief that women should be politically, socially, and economically equal to men. Over the years, the movement expanded from a focus on voting rights to worker rights, reproductive rights, gender roles, and beyond. Modern feminism is moving to a more ...
Gender equality and women's rights
We promote women and girls' equal enjoyment of all human rights, including freedom from violence, sexual and reproductive rights, access to justice, socio-economic equality, and participation in decision-making. We do this by monitoring and advocating for women's rights, building capacity of stakeholders, and providing technical advice.
History of the Women's Rights Movement
Living the Legacy: The Women's Rights Movement (1848-1998) "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." That was Margaret Mead's conclusion after a lifetime of observing very diverse cultures around the world. Her insight has been borne out time and again […]
Equal Rights for Women: The Ongoing Struggle for Gender Equality
Governments must enact and enforce laws that protect women's rights, including laws against gender-based violence, discrimination in the workplace, and unequal access to resources. ... A Champion of Abolition and Women's Rights Essay. 4 pages / 1910 words. Problems Faced in Women Empowerment Essay. 3 pages / 1232 words. Cultural Relativism And ...
Women's Rights
We are all entitled to human rights. These include the right to live free from violence and discrimination; to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health; to be educated; to own property; to vote; and to earn an equal wage. But across the globe many women and girls still face discrimination on the basis of sex and gender.
Women in the Civil Rights Movement
Many women played important roles in the Civil Rights Movement, from leading local civil rights organizations to serving as lawyers on school segregation lawsuits. Their efforts to lead the movement were often overshadowed by men, who still get more attention and credit for its successes in popular historical narratives and commemorations. Many women experienced gender discrimination and ...
'Women's Rights are Human Rights,' 25 years on
Twenty-five years later, a single phrase from Clinton's speech has entered mainstream parlance: "Women's rights are human rights.". The concept wasn't new. But the excitement and energy ...
PDF Let's Talk About It! Essay by Melissa Bradshaw, PhD
In Let's Talk About It: Women's Sufrage, we'll remedy that. Together, we'll explore the history of the dramatic fight to win women's voting rights. Starting with the nation's founding, a patriarchal legal system prevented women—especially married women—from owning property, signing contracts, and controlling money.
Essay on Women Rights
The Rights Of Women 's Rights. The rights of women have become more than just a single movement, but an ongoing struggle. Women are continuing to fight for their rights in almost every aspect of life. Everyday life has become a struggle. The things women were born to do they are shamed for. Society has put a giant red target on their backs to ...
Women's rights movement
women's rights movement, diverse social movement, largely based in the United States, that in the 1960s and '70s sought equal rights and opportunities and greater personal freedom for women.It coincided with and is recognized as part of the "second wave" of feminism.While the first-wave feminism of the 19th and early 20th centuries focused on women's legal rights, especially the ...
Women's rights essay
Women in the Western culture are now no more satisfied with the role of a homemaker; they prefer to make their own careers and share the same rights with men (Howie, 2010). This fact means women's rights are based on freedom that can be viewed as a virtue, but not as a burden. Women continue to fight for their rights.
Scholarly Articles on Women's Rights: History, Legislation ...
The first document to emerge from an organized women's rights collective in the United States was the Declaration of Sentiments, which was drafted using the Declaration of Independence as a model and ratified at the first convention of women's rights advocates in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. Historians trace the origins of the movement for ...
10 Essential Essays About Women's Reproductive Rights
"Underground Activists in Brazil Fight for Women's Reproductive Rights" Alejandra Marks Published in The North American Congress on Latin America (2021) While short, this essay provides a good introduction to abortion activism in Brazil, where abortion is legal only in the case of rape, fetal anencephaly, or when a woman's life is at risk.
Trump Takes Fascist Threat to Next Level With New Proposal on Judges
Last week, he said that " normal " women don't care about their reproductive rights, and, long before that, he said some weirder things about procreation and women who don't have children.

Essay On Women Rights

Importance of Women Rights

How to Fight for Women Rights

FAQ of Essay on Women Rights

Customize your course in 30 seconds

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Download the App

Essay on Women’s Rights

100 Words Essay on Women’s Rights

History of Women’s Rights

Importance of Women’s Rights

250 Words Essay on Women’s Rights

Current Status

Challenges and Solutions

500 Words Essay on Women’s Rights

The Evolution of Women’s Rights

Challenges and the Way Forward

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

138 Women’s Rights Research Questions and Essay Topics

Women’s Rights Essay | Essay on Women’s Rights for Students and Children in English

Long and Short Essays on Women’s Rights for Students and Kids in English

Long Essay on Women’s Rights 500 Words in English

Short Essay on Women’s Rights 150 Words in English

10 Lines on Women’s Rights Essay in English

FAQ’s on Women’s Rights Essay

Comprehensive Argumentative essay example on the Rights of Women

80 Topic Ideas for Your Argumentative Essay

New Concept ? Let a subject expert write your paper for You​

Women's Rights

History of the Women’s Rights Movement

Equal Rights for Women: The Ongoing Struggle for Gender Equality

Cite this Essay

Related Essays

Still can’t find what you need?

Related Essays on Women's Rights

Related Topics

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

WOMEN’S RIGHTS

WHAT ARE WE FIGHTING FOR?

Women’s Suffrage

Sexual and Reproductive Rights

Freedom of Movement

FEMINISM AND WOMEN’S RIGHTS

Intersectional Feminism

HOW ARE WOMEN’S RIGHTS BEING VIOLATED?

Gender-Based Violence

Sexual Violence and Harassment

Workplace Discrimination

Discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity

WOMEN’S RIGHTS AND INTERNATIONAL LAW

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO STAND UP FOR WOMEN’S RIGHTS?

Protecting women’s rights makes the world a better place

We’re stronger when we work together

RELATED CONTENT

Collection Civil Rights History Project

'Women's Rights are Human Rights,' 25 years on

You May Also Like

Meet the 5 iconic women being honored on new quarters in 2024

Women won the vote with the 19th Amendment, but hurdles remain

A century after women’s suffrage, the fight for equality isn’t over

Related Topics

Title IX at 50: How the U.S. law transformed education for women

MLK and Malcolm X only met once. Here’s the story behind an iconic image.

The surprisingly subversive history of mini golf

These Black transgender activists are fighting to ‘simply be’

Harriet Tubman, the spy: uncovering her secret Civil War missions

History & Culture

Prologue to a social movement

women’s rights movement

Women’s rights essay

Women's Rights

Topic Home | Social Issues | Literature | Lifelong Learning & DIY | World History

ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE

BODILY AND SEXUAL AUTONOMY

CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS

POLITICAL PARTICIPATION AND WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP

More Articles

The Equal Rights Amendment is dead. It should stay that way

Excluding Transwomen from Feminism Is Transphobic

“Marketplace Feminism” and the Commodification of Empowerment

New Concept ? Let a subject expert write your paper for You