Women's rights are rights considered inherent and inalienable to every woman (girl, young woman) regardless of her citizenship, age, race, ethnicity or religion.
But it was sometimes different from this.
The 100% News interviewed and discussed the evolution of women's rights in the world from a famous woman, entrepreneur, and innovator - Olga Azarova, founder and President of the International Club of Successful Women WORLD WOMAN CLUB, Honorary UN Ambassador for Women's Entrepreneurship, Laureate of the Rating of the 500 Most Powerful Women in the world according to FORTUNE magazine.
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The article is based on a story by Olga Azarova.
"Let's start with the fact that 100 years ago WOMEN DID NOT have basic property rights, to work, study, vote, or even to live.
Stage 1. Suffragettes.
Maybe you haven't even heard of it. In post-Soviet countries, they did not talk about this. But the first women's rights were demanded in Great Britain.
Suffragettes (from the French suffrage - suffrage) are participants in the movement to give women voting rights. Suffragettes also opposed discrimination against women in general in political and economic life. They considered it possible to fight using radical actions.
The first was the British Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), a women-only movement founded in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst that engaged in direct action and civil disobedience. A good film, Surazhist, was created, led by Meryl Streep and other outstanding actresses.
In 1893, New Zealand became the first self-governing country to grant the right to vote to all women over 21 years of age. When women in Britain failed to gain suffrage in 1903, Pankhurst decided that women should “get to work themselves.” The motto of the WSPU became “deeds, not words.” Suffragettes harassed politicians, attempted to storm Parliament, were attacked and sexually harassed during clashes with police, chained themselves to railings, broke windows, set fire to mailboxes and empty buildings, planted bombs to damage churches and property, and faced wrath and ridicule in the media controlled by politicians.
2nd stage. Acts.
The suffragette campaign was suspended with the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. After the war, Britain's Representation of the People Act 1918 gave women over 30 the right to vote in recognition of their contributions to the war effort. Ten years later in 1928, women gained the right to vote on an equal basis with men when the act granted the right to vote to all women over the age of 21.
3rd stage. First UN Act
It was only after the Second World War that gender equality became part of international human rights law, adopted in the Declaration by the UN General Assembly on December 10, 1948 - 45 years after the start of the suffragette struggle.
4th stage. Feminism
A social global movement in favour of the actualization and expansion of women's rights, civil and political (the right to personal security and autonomy; the right to vote (suffrage); the right to hold public office; to work; to fair wages and equal remuneration, the right to own property; to education, to serve in the army or the right to be called up; to enter into contracts and have family, parental and religious rights) - until they are completely equal in everything with men, it is called feminism.
Expansion of women's rights in Western Europe and the USA in the 19th and 20th centuries
For a Western European woman, a special incapacity has developed, which begins with her entry into marriage and ends with the termination of the marriage. The extreme manifestation of this incapacity was provided by English law. By virtue of her marriage, a woman completely lost her legal personality. Husband and wife were one person, and that person was the husband. He could not give anything to his wife or enter into an agreement with her because one cannot negotiate with oneself; her debts before marriage became her husband’s debts; her will was destroyed when she got married; all her movable property became the property of her husband; Only though he used her immovable (or more precisely, material) property, he needed her consent to dispose of it. She was unable to conclude an agreement; if she concluded it with the consent of her husband, then he was considered responsible; he was obliged to cover her household debts, on the assumption that she was acting as his representative. All these principles of English common law have been weakened in practice by courts of "equity" and individual statutes; for example, the wife’s separate property was secured for her by the fiction that its owner was another faithful person (trustee), and the wife only used it. It was not until 1882 that women in Great Britain gained the right to own property without a trustee and the right to make a will.
In the US, Mississippi was the first state to pass a married woman's right to property law in 1839, followed by other states.
In Sweden, a similar law was passed in 1874.
Only in Germany in 1957 was a law on equality adopted, according to which the husband could no longer dispose of his wife’s property received before marriage, and property acquired during marriage became a common value subject to fair division upon divorce; the husband was deprived of the right to spend his wife’s salary according to at his own discretion (women could now open bank accounts themselves) and could no longer demand that the employer fire her.
In the United States, only in 1963 did the law on equal pay come into force, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex in the field of wages, in 1968 the law on gender equality in housing construction was adopted, in 1974 - on equality of women in education, in 1975 - on equal opportunities in lending.
Abortion without medical reasons was only legal in the UK in 1967, in the US in 1973 nationwide, in France in 1979 and has now been included in the Constitution since 2024.
5th stage. The first UN Congress of Women was only in 1975 - only 49 years ago.
As the international feminist movement began to gain momentum in the 1970s, the UN General Assembly declared 1975 International Women's Year and organized the first World Conference on Women in Mexico City. On the urgent recommendation of the Conference, the period 1976–1985 was declared the UN Decade for Women and a Voluntary Fund was established to implement the objectives of the Decade.
6th stage. Only in 1979 were Women's rights approved at the UN!
The General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in 1979, often referred to as the International Bill of Rights for Women. The Convention recognizes culture and tradition as influential forces in shaping gender roles and family relationships and is the first human rights treaty to affirm women's reproductive rights.
7th stage. The Birth of Global Feminism
In 1985, a World Conference was held in Nairobi to review and evaluate the achievements of the UN Women's Decade: Equality, Development and Peace. It was convened at a time when the movement for gender equality had finally gained truly global proportions. In addition, 15,000 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) representatives participated in the parallel NGO Forum.
This event has been described as "the birth of global feminism". Recognizing that the goals of the Mexico City Conference had not been fully achieved, representatives of the 157 participating countries adopted the Nairobi Forward Strategies for the Advancement of Women to the Year 2000. This document took the gender perspective to a new level, declaring that it should be taken into account in all considerations.
8th stage. Commission on the Status of Women
The Commission on the Status of Women is established as the premier global intergovernmental body dedicated exclusively to promoting gender equality and empowerment.
9th stage. Women's organization in the UN
It was only in 2010 that delegates to the UN General Assembly voted unanimously to create a single United Nations entity responsible for accelerating progress towards achieving the Organization's goals related to gender equality and women's empowerment. The new UN entity for gender equality and the empowerment of women, called UN Women, brings together four divisions of the world organization: the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Division for the Advancement of Women, the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and the Advancement of Women and the United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women.
10th stage. Eliminating violence against women
The UN system continues to pay special attention to the issue of violence against women. The 1993 General Assembly Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women defines violence against women and clearly sets out the rights to ensure the elimination of violence against women in all its forms. The Declaration reflected the determination of States to fulfil their obligations and the commitment of the international community as a whole to efforts to eradicate violence against women.
Violence against women is an epidemic that affects all countries, even those that have made some progress in other areas. Globally, 30 % of women have experienced physical and/or sexual violence by a partner or sexual violence by a non-partner. In the war in Ukraine and the Middle East, women are killed and raped. This malicious terror of Russia and its hangers-on must be punished both at the UN level and at the level of the Tribunal in The Hague.
The Spotlight Initiative, jointly with the European Union, allocates resources to work to end violence against women and girls as a prerequisite for equality and empowerment.
The International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women is celebrated on November 25th.
In 2023, our Club of successful women allocated significant amounts of money for the rehabilitation of women after captivity in the russian federation.
11th stage. International Women's Day
International Women's Day on March 8 emerged as a day of women's solidarity in the struggle for women's rights and emancipation.
International Women's Day was preceded by National Women's Day, which was celebrated in the United States on February 28, 1909, in memory of the events of the previous year, 1908 - a strike by textile workers in New York who demanded improved working conditions.
The annual celebration of International Women's Day began with the Second International Conference of Socialist Women, held in Copenhagen in 1910. Clara Zetkin suggested celebrating this day. One of the goals was the fight for universal suffrage for women as a continuation of the cause of the British suffragettes.
Although the idea of International Women's Day first arose at the beginning of the twentieth century, when the industrialized world was experiencing a period of turmoil, a demographic boom and the emergence of radical ideologies, it was only in March 1975, under a UN directive, that International Women's Day began to be celebrated by UN member states.
In addition to International Women's Day, the official UN days related to women are the following: International Day of Zero Tolerance towards Female Genital Mutilation (6 February), International Day of Women and Girls in Science (11 February), International Day against Sexual Violence in conflict (June 19), International Widows Day (June 23), International Day of the Girl Child (October 11), International Rural Women's Day (October 15).
12th stage. Global Partnership
Currently, women's suffrage has been introduced in most countries of the world. Among the first to introduce women's suffrage were New Zealand (1893), Australia (1902), in Europe - the Grand Duchy of Finland (1906), in the Islamic world - the Crimean People's Republic (1917). Some of the latest are Kuwait (2005), the United Arab Emirates (2006) and Saudi Arabia (2011).
Strong gender traditions, where girls and women had equal (or almost equal rights) with men since ancient times, were observed in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Kievan Rus (Ukraine). Famous female rulers of antiquity: Queens Kubaba, Nefertiti, Cleopatra, and Grand Duchess Olga.
Today, together we are building a new attitude towards a woman as completely equal in rights with men, revered and respected in society as a MOTHER, DAUGHTER, WIFE, PARTNER.
This is why we are creating the next 100 years of struggle for women's rights and the next level of intellectual feminism by holding Global Women's Forums.
EUROWOMAN - March 28 Paris
BOSSWOMAN - June 29, Istanbul.
Join us!
