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Women's rights: the story on HearLore | HearLore
Women's rights
The earliest known poet whose name has been recorded was a woman named Enheduanna, serving as the priestess of the goddess Inanna in ancient Sumer around the 23rd century before the common era. While Enheduanna and other women in ancient Mesopotamia could buy, own, sell, and inherit property, and even testify in court as witnesses, their legal standing was fragile. A husband could divorce his wife for mild infractions and remarry another woman, provided the first wife had not borne him offspring. In stark contrast to the relative legal autonomy found in ancient Egypt, where women could administer their own property and bring court action, the practice of foot binding in China would later emerge to physically restrict women's movement. Between the 10th century and the early 20th century, about 45 percent of Chinese women had bound feet, a figure that reached nearly 100 percent among the upper classes. This practice involved altering the bone structure so that feet were only about four inches long, causing immense difficulty in movement and effectively turning women into homemakers confined to their domestic spheres. The physical alteration of the body was so severe that it created a tremendous need for female doctors of Western Medicine, as women were reluctant to be treated by male physicians due to social customs forbidding men and women from being near each other.
Witch Hunts and The Roman Paradox
During the 16th and 17th centuries, thousands of people across Europe were executed for witchcraft, with 75 to 95 percent of the victims being women. The Malleus Maleficarum, a famous witchcraft manual published in 1520, established a direct link between witchcraft and women, claiming that women possessed greater credulity, impressionability, and feeble minds that made them susceptible to evil. This moral panic was fueled by the belief that women were naturally more likely to be addicted to evil, a notion that traced back to Roman mythical night creatures known as Strix. Yet, in ancient Rome, a paradox existed where women enjoyed significant legal independence compared to other ancient civilizations. Freeborn Roman women were citizens who could own property, enter contracts, and engage in business, and by the first century to the sixth century before the common era, they were accepted to participate in more public roles. A married woman retained ownership of any property she brought into the marriage, and under classical Roman law, a husband had no right to abuse his wife physically or compel her to have sex. Wife beating was sufficient grounds for divorce, and Roman law recognized rape as a capital crime, although the rape of a slave was prosecuted only as damage to her owner's property. This legal framework allowed some women to acquire and dispose of sizable fortunes, with inscriptions recording them as benefactors funding major public works, even as the state later attempted to regulate their conduct through moral legislation under Augustus.
Common questions
Who was the earliest known poet whose name has been recorded?
The earliest known poet whose name has been recorded was a woman named Enheduanna, serving as the priestess of the goddess Inanna in ancient Sumer around the 23rd century before the common era. Enheduanna and other women in ancient Mesopotamia could buy, own, sell, and inherit property, and even testify in court as witnesses, though their legal standing remained fragile.
When did New Zealand become the first country to give women the right to vote on a national level?
New Zealand became the first country to give women the right to vote on a national level in 1893, followed by Australia in 1902. The British women's movement culminated in 1918 with a bill allowing women over the age of 30 to vote, and the United States passed the 19th Amendment in 1920 to grant women the right to vote.
Who were the Famous Five in Canada and what legal change did they achieve?
The Famous Five were Emily Murphy, Irene Marryat Parlby, Nellie Mooney McClung, Louise Crummy McKinney, and Henrietta Muir Edwards. They successfully challenged the legal definition of personhood in 1929 when the British Judicial Committee of the Imperial Privy Council overturned a lower court ruling to establish that women were eligible to be appointed to the Senate.
When did the Soviet Union provide free abortions to women in state-run hospitals?
Following the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks in Russia became the first government in human history to provide free abortions to women in state-run hospitals. This radical move contrasted sharply with the patriarchal society of Muscovite Russia that had previously subordinated women to men.
When did Saudi Arabia end the male guardianship system requiring women to seek permission to travel?
Saudi Arabia ended the male guardianship system requiring women to seek permission from a male family member for several things, including traveling to other nations, in August 2019. This change removed a significant barrier to freedom of movement that had persisted for centuries.
When did France allow married women to work without the consent of their husbands?
In France, married women could not work without the consent of their husbands until 1965. This restriction was part of a broader pattern of marriage bars across Europe and the United States that restricted married women from working in many professions from the late 19th century to the 1970s.
In 1791, the French playwright and political activist Olympe de Gouges published the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen, a document that exposed the failure of the French Revolution to include women. De Gouges modeled her work on the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789, but she ironically replied to the first article which proclaimed men were born free and equal by stating that women were born free and remained equal to men in rights. She expanded the sixth article to declare that all citizens, including women, were equally admissible to all public dignities, offices, and employments. Despite these early philosophical arguments, the right to vote remained elusive for centuries. In 1893, New Zealand became the first country to give women the right to vote on a national level, followed by Australia in 1902. The British women's movement, led by figures like Millicent Fawcett and Emmeline Pankhurst, fought a public campaign that culminated in 1918 with a bill allowing women over the age of 30 to vote. In the United States, the struggle was equally fierce, with strategist Alice Paul guiding much of the movement in the 1910s. The 19th Amendment was finally passed in 1920, granting women the right to vote, but this was preceded by decades of agitation and the explicit prohibition of women from voting nationally and locally in the 1830s by the Reform Act 1832.
The Famous Five and The Property Acts
In Canada, a group of five women known as the Famous Five fought to change the legal definition of personhood. In 1927, Emily Murphy, Irene Marryat Parlby, Nellie Mooney McClung, Louise Crummy McKinney, and Henrietta Muir Edwards asked the Supreme Court of Canada if the word persons in Section 24 of the British North America Act 1867 included female persons. The court initially ruled that women were not such persons, but the judgment was overturned in 1929 by the British Judicial Committee of the Imperial Privy Council, establishing that women were indeed eligible to be appointed to the Senate. Simultaneously, in the United States and Britain, the legal doctrine of coverture had long granted husbands control over their wives' real estate and wages. Beginning in the 1840s, state legislatures in the United States and the British Parliament began passing statutes known as the Married Women's Property Acts to protect women's property from their husbands and their husbands' creditors. These laws were a direct response to the common law doctrine that had previously stripped women of their economic independence upon marriage. Courts in the 19th-century United States also required privy examinations, a practice where a married woman wishing to sell property had to be separately examined by a judge to ensure she was not being pressured by her husband. By the 1960s and 1970s, legal reforms in countries like West Germany and the United States finally dismantled laws that favored male heirs in rural farm succession or gave sole control of marital property to the husband.
The Soviet Abortion and The Marriage Bar
Following the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks in Russia became the first government in human history to provide free abortions to women in state-run hospitals, a radical move that contrasted sharply with the patriarchal society of Muscovite Russia that had previously subordinated women to men. While the Soviet Union advanced women's rights through state-run healthcare, other nations maintained strict barriers to female employment. In the United States and across Europe, marriage bars were a common practice from the late 19th century to the 1970s that restricted married women from working in many professions. In France, married women could not work without the consent of their husbands until 1965, and in Spain, the restriction lasted until 1975. In Australia, the marriage bar was not removed until 1966, and in Hong Kong, the job status of a woman changed from permanent to temporary once she was married, causing many to lose their pensions and jobs. Leslie Wah-Leung Chung, President of the Hong Kong Chinese Civil Servants' Association from 1965 to 1968, contributed to the establishment of equal pay for men and women, including the right for married women to be permanent employees. These reforms were essential for the nursing profession, where most workers were women, and they marked a shift from viewing women as dependents to recognizing them as independent economic actors.
The Guardianship and The Modern Struggle
For centuries, the right to freedom of movement was severely restricted for women in many regions of the world, often enforced by law or social custom. In Yemen, the personal law states that a wife must obey her husband and must not get out of the home without his consent. In Saudi Arabia, a male guardianship system required women to seek permission from a male family member for several things, including traveling to other nations, until the country ended these laws in August 2019. Even in Western countries, restrictions persisted; until 1983, the passport application of a married woman in Australia had to be authorized by her husband. These restrictions were often framed as measures to protect women, yet they resulted in women facing abuse, insults, and sexual harassment when they ventured outside. The United Nations has since stated that states must inform women of their rights to enable them to seek justice, recognizing that the lack of legal knowledge is a major obstacle to improvement. In 2019, the Parliament of Kuwait extended suffrage to women by a 35 to 23 vote, marking a significant step in the Middle East, while other countries like Greece and Switzerland were late adopters, granting women the right to vote in 1952 and 1971 respectively.
The Health and The Violence
Discrimination in healthcare settings often manifests when women are denied access to services that are otherwise available to others, or when specific policies neglect the biological realities of reproduction. The World Health Organization notes that discrimination occurs through the denial of services needed by certain groups, such as the strong investment in reducing maternal mortality. Acts of violence committed by men against women are recognized as a form of discrimination, with the European Court of Human Rights defining gender-based violence as a violation of human rights in the case of Opuz v Turkey. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women stipulates that states must examine gender-neutral laws to ensure they do not create or perpetuate existing inequalities. This includes the need for specific policies like maternity leave and the recognition that treating women and men similarly does not work when biological aspects such as menstruation, pregnancy, labor, and childbirth are involved. The refusal of states to acknowledge these specific needs, such as the necessity of specific policies like the strong investment of states in reducing maternal mortality, can be a form of discrimination that harms women globally.