Women’s Rights in the 21st Century
Gender equality is a fundamental human right, an essential prerequisite for sustainable development, and it promotes peaceful societies where people can live up to their full potential. The world has come a long way since the first women’s rights movements began in the 19th and 20th centuries, but much more work needs to be done. Medica mondiale believes that the root causes of gender inequality are patriarchal attitudes and standards that discriminate against women and girls. This is why we support and coordinate efforts to challenge these systems, while also fighting for concrete gains for women and girls, like the right to live free of harmful traditional practices (like child marriage), access to education and economic opportunities, legal protection against violence and access to quality health care.
The second major milestone in the international movement for women’s rights came in 1985 when the United Nations Conference on the Status of Women in Nairobi issued a groundbreaking document that declared that “women’s rights are human rights.” Two decades later, the Commission on the Status of Women took up the challenge to implement the promise of this declaration.
It is through this body that the international community defines global standards on gender equality and empowers women to take charge of their own lives and become leaders in their communities and countries.
As a result of the Nairobi Conference and subsequent work by NGOs, governments and UN bodies, many positive changes have been made. In the Middle East and North Africa, for example, laws have been passed that allow women to drive on public roads, and most countries now pay women the same as men for doing the same job. However, progress is uneven across the world: In a 2012 report, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights drew attention to the fact that, despite improvements in many countries, on average, women still have only half of the legal rights of men.
In the United States, the National Organization for Women, founded in 1966, was a major driver of the women’s rights movement. Its founder, Susan B. Anthony, had worked as a paid organizer in the temperance movement before applying her skills to women’s issues. She and others organized local chapters across New York state that collected signatures on petitions calling for women’s property rights, mothers’ guardianship of children in divorce cases, and women’s suffrage. The first concrete accomplishment was a law in 1860 that granted women property rights in New York.
Today, 85% of UN member states have a constitutional provision on equality between the sexes. But sex equality is far from being a reality in all countries, and even in those that have made progress, many women’s rights are under threat. In some, laws are being enforced that impose a double standard on women, as in the case of Argentina’s strict abortion law. Amnesty International has been at the forefront of campaigning alongside grassroots human rights defenders to change these laws.