Women’s Rights Organizations and Movements
Every woman and girl has the right to live without fear of sexual and reproductive violence, including rape or other forms of gender-based violence, and to access safe abortion and contraception. Women must also be able to choose if, when and with whom they marry, work, or have children; make their own decisions about their bodies; and have full access to education. The world cannot fully prosper if women are not free to participate in its economic and political life, and to take on leadership and peacemaking roles.
The global women’s rights movement has been long and hard-fought. But despite major advances in many areas, serious gaps persist. Only when women’s rights are truly universally respected will true equality exist. This is the premise upon which women’s rights organizations and movements around the world are founded. Women’s rights organizations and movements are a vital part of democracy, and a key part of any society that wants to be a safe and healthy place for all people.
Historically, most if not all of the issues that are now considered “women’s rights” were highly controversial at the time they were voiced. Among them: allowing women to work outside the home for pay, and to vote in national elections; employing women as factory workers, farm workers, nurses, teachers, and civil servants; and equalizing the pay scale between men and women.
It was only in the early twentieth century that people began to demand women’s suffrage and equal pay, with activists collecting signatures and protesting on the streets. By the end of the century, countries had begun to include suffrage and equal pay in their constitutions, while laws such as the Equal Credit Opportunity Act and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act expanded women’s ability to secure financial independence by owning property or by getting loans in their names.
Today, 143 countries have guaranteed equality between men and women in their constitutions. In the workforce, however, women still earn on average twenty per cent less than their male counterparts globally. And while progress has been made on issues such as eliminating child marriage and female genital mutilation, the number of cases of sexual harassment and violence remains high.
The new Sustainable Development Goals, with a stand-alone gender goal (Goal 5) that includes targets on female genital mutilation, child marriage, and ending the scourge of sexual violence against women, hold real promise for embedding these gains worldwide. But to ensure that the goals are met, governments must commit the resources to implementing them, and fund the solutions that grass-roots women’s groups are creating. And they must do so in a way that recognizes that women’s rights are everyone’s rights. Until then, the fight will continue.