It would be folly to maintain that change is not sorely needed to improve the lives of many women around the world. Clearly the West has long been in the forefront of fundamental change. In 1792 Mary Wollstonecraft penned A Vindication of the Rights of Woman arguing that “middle-class women’s oppression was largely due to their deficient education.” Thus,
Girls who have been thus weakly educated, are often cruelly left by their parents without any provision; and, of course, are dependent on, not only the reason, but the bounty of their brothers [.] But, when the brother marries, . . . [his sister] is viewed with averted looks as an intruder, an unnecessary burden on the benevolence of the master of the house, and his new partner.
Yet, in 2014 in Saudi Arabia, a young woman named Nadia who was not permitted to drive had to rely on her brother to take her to work. Often he refused to take her, thus making her late and at risk of losing her position.
Nineteenth century Victorian England long treated women as subordinate and disempowered. In 1869 when John Stuart Mill published his book The Subjection of Women, he shed light on Victorian culture and argued that women should be granted more political, legal, social and economic opportunities.
Nonetheless, in modern-day Pakistan “even though [women] are legally equal to men, it is common for decisions to be taken by male heads of households or male tribal chiefs [.] Traditionally, women have fewer, if any, rights of inheritance . . . resulting in difficulties accessing land or finances.”
In America “under the leadership of Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a convention for the rights of women was held in Seneca Falls, New York in 1848.” The participants wrote the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions, patterned after the Declaration of Independence. It “specifically asked for voting rights and for reforms in laws governing marital status.” Finally in 1920, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted American women the right to vote.
According “to the 2015 World Economic Forum Gender Gap Report, Yemen, has the biggest average gender gap of the 145 countries surveyed. It has the largest disparities in economic participation and opportunities for men and women, and one of the greatest differences in literacy rates between genders — with 55% of women considered literate as compared to 85% of men.” Moreover, “Yemeni women . . . cannot marry or receive health care without the permission of their male guardian (usually their father) and do not have equal rights to divorce or child custody. And the legal system has few provisions for the protection of women who experience domestic and sexual violence — leaving some women vulnerable to becoming the victims of honor killings. Around 52% of girls in Yemen are married before the age of 18 [.]”
South of the border finds Honduras as the “femicide capital of the world” where “[o]n average, one woman is murdered every 18 hours in Honduras [.] With a femicide impunity rate of 90%, most of these women’s murderers are getting away with it. The lack of accountability and prosecution of perpetrators of violence against women mean that women can’t live safe, successful lives and reach their full potential.”
