Read Below To Know 99+ Unique Facts About Women's Rights

Supriya Jain
Sep 01, 2023 By Supriya Jain
Originally Published on Jan 20, 2022
Edited by Sarah Nyamekye
Fact-checked by Amanpreet Kaur
Facts about women's rights will tell you more about the struggle of American women for voting rights.

The fight for women’s rights is an issue that has been going on for a long time.

Women wonder why they can’t do the same things men do. But in recent years, women have become increasingly aware of their worth and power.

The fight has been a long one spanning decades, but it continues today with issues ranging from sexual harassment to domestic violence to equal pay. Women's rights is an issue that has seen traction over the years and that affects many different cultures around the world, but what exactly do we mean when we talk about women's rights?

Here we will learn about those extraordinary women who went out of their way to bring changes that women are naturally enjoying today. Afterwards, also check women's march facts and women empowerment facts.

Pioneers

Women's rights are the civil rights that all women should enjoy, but sadly many of them do not. Here we will help you better understand the basics of women's rights, and how to fight for them.

We will discuss tips on how to get involved in your community or follow global women's rights news so that one day women everywhere can finally experience true gender equality.

Most of us know the name of a few people that were vital in the founding of this country. These women helped to shape the nation, and they are known as the 'founding mothers' due to their affections for liberty and equality for all people.

But there have also been many other women who supported women's rights by creating a safe space where women could come together without fear or judgment from others.

One such pioneer of the rights of American women was Susan B. Anthony. She was a social reformer that has been recognized for over a century as being one of the foremost leaders of her time and a major figure in the women's rights movement.

She is remembered in history by igniting and leading many campaigns, including the women's suffrage movement and the abolition movement. The women's suffrage movement was to bring women at parity with their male counterparts in terms of voting.

Her most famous campaign was with Elizabeth Cady Stanton who worked together to bring an end to slavery. Men and women both had their share of responsibilities to support this cause, which created more structure for men and women to work together to make changes for their future generations regardless of gender differences.

Born to Nathaniel and Sophia Anthony, Susan B. Anthony was born in Adams, Massachusetts on November 15, 1820.

She was the second of eight children that would be born to this family. Her upbringing was mainly influenced by her father, who had a successful career as a lawyer, and her mother who taught her the importance of education and useful skills for women.

In her teenage years, she became interested in the needs of working people when she saw girls from the local school being sent home with all sorts of miscellaneous items due to having an extra pair of pants made for their size or shoes that were too small for them.

These girls would be sent home due to the fact that they could not pay for the items. Susan was outraged by this behavior because she believed that the school should have provided the items to these girls and it was not a girl's fault for being poor.

She then went on to become a teacher for young, impoverished children.

She was very influential in all of the children's lives; she treated them with respect and dignity and helped them learn everything that they needed to succeed in life. During this time she also got involved in public debates about women's rights, which was an act that was not very common for women at the time.

The feminist movement began as an effort between women who wanted to have control over their lives and not feel like they were oppressed. In order for women to have these rights, they needed to be seen as equal to men in society.

History

There has been a lot of struggle for women's suffrage noticed throughout history. Early on during the suffrage movement, women gained nothing but sexual violence, and human trafficking along with sexual violence just because they wanted gender equality.

The suffrage movement brought a voting age for women in the parliamentary elections. The American Revolution gave women like Abigail Adams (1744-1818) a chance to speak out against England's treatment of them. In 1776, Adams drafted a letter to her husband John Adams (1735-1826) in protest, declaring that the ladies have been particularly unfortunate.

Abigail was advocating for equality between men and women and thought it was unfair that they were not recognized as legal entities. She wanted the bill of rights to be extended to women and hoped that both men and women would enjoy the same privileges.

Following this, there were three waves of women’s rights movements wherein women did their best to make this world a better place for themselves and for other women.

A timeline of the progression of the first wave of the women's rights movement. Traditionally, women have been viewed as a weaker gender class with limited rights and privileges. However, during the late 18th century and early 19th century, society began to give new reasons for women to feel empowered by their status.

During this time period in history, there was significant progress made in terms of women's rights ambitions enhancing their socioeconomic standing while simultaneously obliging men to accommodate this shift. Between 1830 and the Civil War in the United States, women were becoming more educated, entering into professions, and gaining autonomy from men in their social situations.

The first wave encouraged women to help gain rights for themselves, whereas the second wave encouraged women to further support each other in order to gain rights for each other and express themselves as different individuals with different aims and beliefs than men.

In this sense, the second wave is more of an analogy than a continuation of the first according to some scholars such as Robert Dawidoff and Alan Toth (1999).

According to them, there are three waves of feminism in America while others make two or four waves out of it.

The third wave of feminism began in the 90s and is rooted in dissatisfaction with the second wave. The third wave feminism is a continuation of what had taken place during the second wave, however, its focus is on redefining women's rights tailored to fit a more current environment.

Women's rights are rights given to any female person as defined by Title IX and equal opportunity laws such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It includes rights, freedoms, privileges, and protections that are considered to be inherent in being female.

Movements

The past century has seen a number of movements and organizations that have fought for women's rights. Women's suffrage, created to demand that women should have the same rights as men, was an important movement toward equality for women.

Women were also able to achieve many other rights through their battle for suffrage, such as being able to vote, hold office, and fight in the military. However, women still face many severe inequalities in the workplace, in relations with men and other women, and in the family.

In addition to seeking equality between men and women, these movements are working to improve women's position within their own cultures too.

Eleanor Roosevelt was the chair of the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women.

Russia became the first country in human history to offer women in state-run hospitals free abortions. Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman in the United States to acquire a medical degree and the first woman on the UK Medical Register.

The first recorded mass protest of a woman demanding equal rights is documented by Morris Jastrow Jr., a professor at Columbia University who was arrested for speaking out against the Stamp Act 1765. In the British Museum, Jastrow's letters from the jail show he was a firebrand who railed against the injustices of slavery and colonials.

He was trying to encourage closer contact between colonists and the mother country. Jastrow is one of the most heralded early suffragists.

Another large organization, The National Women's Party established by Alice Paul, demanded only federal voting rights for women. Alice Paul went on hunger strikes on a national level in front of the White House demanding that President Woodrow Wilson in the White House pass a constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote.

She was unsuccessful and was imprisoned until she agreed to work within the party system and follow its lead.

The women's movement is a social movement that aims to change society's beliefs about gender and the ways in which women are viewed. It also seeks to change the laws of a country to make it equal for everyone regardless of gender or sex.

As women have been denied as equal as men since the creation of civilization, movements like this have always been around.

For example, in ancient Greece, there was an activist named Antifemina who fought against men who were voicing out that women should not be allowed an education. She was one of the first women to ever speak out against the idea that women did not need education in order to be successful adults.

Antifemina's life allowed women to become educated, gain employment, and be treated equally to men.

The women's suffrage movement was a social movement that aimed to give British women the right to vote. The suffragists were a group of women who wanted female suffrage to be granted before this deadline.

The suffragists – or suffragettes – formed large groups that protested against men and their abuse of women as they believed they should have given them the right to vote by that time period.

The suffrage movement formed alliances with the women's movement and changed their ways of protesting. The movements joined together over the course of a few decades to create a new movement dedicated to demanding the right to vote for women and in 1867, Britain allowed its women citizens the right.

In 1917, American suffragists met secretly in Washington DC to discuss how they could get conservative politicians involved with their cause. Eventually, they were able to get President Woodrow Wilson, who was Republican-elected into office, and he introduced a bill to give the women the right to vote in his first annual State of the Union address.

This bill was called the 19th Amendment. The 19th amendment gave all women over 21 who were US citizens the right to vote on a national level.

The 19th amendment came into effect in 1920 when the 19th Amendment was ratified by three-fourths of the states required to do so.

After this stage of the 19th amendment, the suffragists began to focus more on adoption, voting rights, and other issues that women faced as a part of liberal movements in America which were not covered in the 19th amendment.

Near the end of their lives, they began to focus on areas such as pensions and welfare for older people, and maternal care.

Their efforts have helped create women's history, but it has been largely forgotten today because it has been overshadowed by the women's rights movements that have come since their advocacy campaigns.

Interesting Facts About Women’s Rights

Do you know how many countries in the world have legislation that penalizes women for being raped?

How many countries require partners to be notified before an abortion? 27 of them.

What percentage of the world's 793 million illiterate people are female? 67%.

What percentage of households with children has a woman as the principal breadwinner, according to recent research? 40%.

Other than a woman's right to vote, for a woman to own property, and to divorce her husband; what rights do they enjoy? The United States of America has not been alone in a worldwide fight for equality.

As recently as 1997, Saudi Arabia was one of the few countries that did not suffer from discrimination based on gender. In 1970, women there were unable to attend a school or drive cars. In 2014, women made up 55% of the labor force and are permitted to run for office.

In some countries like Ethiopia, legislation is so lacking that many girls cannot receive an education without being married first. The girls get married at the tender age of six.

In other countries, the legislation is set but not enforced. In many places around the world, women are still being mutilated and murdered for trying to claim what is rightfully theirs.

In North Korea, female infanticide results in a birth rate of 110 boys born for every 100 girls. Men outnumber women by 70 million in China because of the one-child policy and in India, there are 37 million more men than women.

The WCTU became the largest women's group under Frances Willard's leadership. The next was expanding female leadership beyond the glass ceiling which was stuck since the early years. ERAs were included in succeeding parts of the Congress, but they were never ratified.

More about the same is mentioned at the Library of Congress. A congress is a formal meeting between delegates. More of the following has been mentioned in the 'Married Women's Property Act | New York City'.

Voting rights today is a basic human necessity. Voting rights ensure we bring the perfect person who will be responsible to take the country ahead, and there is no other way to decide that than voting rights.

In India, according to Rigvedic lyrics, women married at a mature age and were likely allowed to choose their own spouses.

In Greece, although most women in ancient Greece's city-states lacked political and equal rights, they did have some freedom of movement until the Archaic Age. All of this in various countries even when basic education was provided from a young age.

Unless it was a crime like the murder of her husband, a woman could not serve as judges in courts of law, be attorneys or members of juries in governments, or accuse another person of some crime which was a struggle. Governments were not as open-minded and unbiased back then as compared to today's constitution.

Women have gone through too much struggle to get the basic right of justice and constitution of their country.

Some are born with the right to vote, own property, and have an education. Others are born without these rights.

These women were simply born into a society that does not grant them these basic human rights on account of their gender.

In the past decades, we have seen a shift in values and attitudes towards gender equality and women's rights. There has been a movement to bring this topic closer to the forefront of society because of how long it has taken for these philosophies to be understood, supported, and implemented.

This is due to many factors, such as institutionalized sexism, lack of female role models in our culture, and societal individualism that makes it difficult for people to care about anything outside their own personal needs.

Many thinkers have started to emerge with the intent of making a positive change for women, but not all of these people are well known.

This means that they may have been forgotten in the history books, which is sad because they dedicated their lives to supporting human rights and creating a better future for everyone.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for read below to know 99+ unique facts about women's rights then why not take a look at Viking women facts, or women's role in Paleolithic era.

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Written by Supriya Jain

Bachelor of Commerce, Master of Business Administration specializing in Marketing

Supriya Jain picture

Supriya JainBachelor of Commerce, Master of Business Administration specializing in Marketing

As a skilled member of the Kidadl team, Shruti brings extensive experience and expertise in professional content writing. With a Bachelor's degree in Commerce from Punjab University and an MBA in Business Administration from IMT Nagpur, Shruti has worked in diverse roles such as sales intern, content writer, executive trainee, and business development consultant. Her exceptional writing skills cover a wide range of areas, including SOP, SEO, B2B/B2C, and academic content.

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Fact-checked by Amanpreet Kaur

Bachelor of Business Administration, Masters of Business Administration specializing in Accounting and Finance

Amanpreet Kaur picture

Amanpreet KaurBachelor of Business Administration, Masters of Business Administration specializing in Accounting and Finance

Amanpreet has a Bachelor's degree and a Master's degree in Business Administration from the Birla Institute of Technology and Xavier Institute of Social Service respectively, coupled with her internships at Decimal Point Analytics and the Royal Bank of Scotland, has equipped her with the necessary skills to analyze complex data and present insights in an easy-to-understand format. Her paper on the impact of COVID-19 on CSR programs has received high commendation.

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