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Articles on Women's rights

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Women’s wills and last testaments provide a more nuanced picture of life in the Middle Ages than medieval stereotypes allow, such as that depicted in “Death and the Prostitute” by Master of Philippe of Guelders. Gallica/Bibliothèque nationale de France/Feminae

Gifts that live on, from best bodices to money for bridge repairs: Women’s wills in medieval France give a glimpse into their surprising independence

European women’s rights expanded in early medieval cities, though they were still limited. Last wills and testaments were some of the few documents women could dictate themselves.
An Iranian woman not wearing a mandatory headscarf walks past a group of young women who cover their hair in November 2023. Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Women’s activism in Iran continues, despite street protests dying down in face of state repression

Iranian women are still pressing for women’s rights and equality, just in quieter forms, including not wearing mandatory hair covers. Imprisoned activists are also leaking messages to others.
Claudia Sheinbaum, the favorite to become Mexico’s first female president. AP Photo/Marco Ugarte

Mexico will soon elect its first female president – but that landmark masks an uneven march toward women’s rights

Women represent half of Mexico’s Congress and hold key positions in politics and the judiciary. But the country is still dogged by high rates of femicide.
Narges Mohammadi, a jailed Iranian women’s rights advocate, won the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize. Photo taken in 2021. Reihane Taravati / Middle East Images / Middle East Images via AFP

Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi, in prison for speaking up against human rights violations, has been a voice for women for almost two decades

Narges Mohammadi is the second Iranian woman, after Shirin Ebadi, to win the Nobel Peace Prize. She remains locked up in Evin, Iran’s most notorious prison for political detainees.
‘Democracy is in decline’ says Nobel committee chair Berit Reiss-Andersen, as she gives the award to Iranian women’s rights campaigner Narges Mohammadi. Terje Pedersen/NTB

Nobel peace prize 2023: award for Iranian women’s rights protester highlights fight against declining democracy around the world

The Nobel peace prize committee noted that awards in recent years highlight pressure on democracy which they say is in decline around the world.
Spain’s Esther González holds the trophy celebrating at the end of the Women’s World Cup soccer final between Spain and England at Stadium Australia in Sydney, Australia, on Aug. 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)

FIFA Women’s World Cup successes reflect gender gap differences between countries

By examining the FIFA Women’s World Cup performances, we can gain insights into the efforts countries are making to address gender inequality beyond sports.
A Taliban fighter stands guard as women wait to receive food rations distributed by a humanitarian aid group, in Kabul, Afghanistan, in May 2023. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi, File)

The Taliban’s war on women in Afghanistan must be formally recognized as gender apartheid

The Taliban’s two years ruling Afghanistan have taught us ordinary human rights initiatives are insufficient to address gender apartheid. We need resolute collective international action.
The Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, N.Y., where on July 19 and 20, 1848, the first women’s rights conventions in the U.S. were held. Epics/Hulton Archive via Getty Images

175 years ago, the Seneca Falls Convention kicked off the fight for women’s suffrage – an iconic moment deeply shaped by Quaker beliefs on gender and equality

Most of the convention’s core organizers were Quakers. The religious movement’s beliefs about men and women’s equality before God has shaped members’ activism for centuries.
U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney speaks during a press conference in December 2022, calling to affirm the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution. Alex Wong/Getty Images

Democrats revive the Equal Rights Amendment from a long legal limbo – facing an unlikely uphill battle to get it enshrined into law

Women’s rights groups and politicians have pushed, ultimately unsuccessfully, for the Equal Rights Amendment to become part of the Constitution for the past several decades.

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