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Profiling the key members of the British women's suffrage movement.
Emmeline Pankhurst
The leader of the British suffrage movement. She began the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), which declared "Deeds, Not Words" for women's right to vote.

She and her daughters, along with WSPU activists, committed acts of vandalism and militancy and were regularly arrested, imprisoned and force-fed when they went on hunger strike. As the WSPU became more militant, Pankhurst's daughter Adele spoke out against it. Emmeline, furious, sent her to Australia.
Christabel Pankhurst
A lawyer and an executive member of the WSPU, Christabel was arrested and imprisoned with fellow suffragist Annie Kenney for interrupting a Liberal Party meeting. After this, more drastic action was deemed necessary.

Called "The Queen of the Mob", Christabel was arrested and jailed several times before escaping to Paris to avoid the 1913 law commonly known as the Cat and Mouse Act, under which police could release detained hunger strikers so they would not die in custody. She thought that women's suffrage should not be linked to any other cause, such as equality, and that it inequality would be achieved when women were granted the right to vote.
Sylvia Pankhurst
Part of the WSPU, Sylvia kept in touch with the labour movement, concentrating on the East End of London. She disagreed with her mother and her sister Christabel's politics and with WSPU mores. Sylvia was the creator of much of the tricolour WSPU paraphernalia, such as banners, jewellery and overall exhibition design.
Emily Wilding Davison
Jailed nine times and force-fed 49 times, Davison stepped out on to the Derby course in front of King George V's racehorse Anmer. She died of her injuries four days later. Her gravestone in Morpeth, Northumberland, reads "Deeds Not Words".
Marion Wallace Dunlop
The first suffragette hunger striker, perhaps inspired by Russians who had been persecuted under the tsar. Hunger striking was not part of the WSPU's code but after Dunlop became standard suffragette practice.
Lydia Becker
Becker led the early British women's suffrage movement. Speaking at an event in 1874, she inspired Emmeline Pankhurst, then aged 15. In 1880, Becker helped to secure the vote for women on the Isle of Man. She held that unmarried women needed the vote more than others, a cause that made her the butt of many cartoons.
Leonora Cohen
A member of the Leeds Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), Cohen was a personal bodyguard to Mrs Pankhurst. She was arrested many times and subject to the Cat And Mouse Act. In the 1920s, she was appointed OBE for services to public life. She lived to the age of 105, being hailed in the 1970s as a hero during the second wave of feminism.
Flora Drummond
Nicknamed "The General" for wearing an officer's cap and riding a large horse, Drummond was imprisoned nine times. She was also known as an accomplished speaker who gave short shrift to hecklers.
Norah Elam
As general secretary of the WSPU, Elam was imprisoned three times for acts of terrorism. She received a WSPU hunger strike medal decorated with three bars.
Millicent Fawcett
A suffragist, a moderate but energetic campaigner for the cause, Fawcett became president of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (the NUWSS) and was concerned for women's education.
Edith Margaret Garrud
One of the first professional female martial arts instructors, she trained the WSPU bodyguard unit in jiujitsu.
Mary Gawthorpe
She was imprisoned, badly beaten and suffered serious internal injuries after disrupting a speech by Winston Churchill in 1909. With Dora Marsden she co-edited The Freewoman: A Weekly Feminist Review.
Evelina Haverfield
A WSPU member, she was arrested many times, including for hitting a policeman in the mouth. Among 200 women arrested in London for smashing windows and damaging government property, she tried to sabotage the police by leading their horses away. She died helping orphans in Serbia in 1920.
Annie Kenney
She was a working-class English suffragette who was imprisoned with Christabel Pankhurst for heckling the politician Sir Edward Grey at a Liberal rally in Manchester about votes for women.
Lilian Lenton
She was arrested with Olive Wharry on suspicion of arson at the Tea House at Kew Gardens. She escaped prison by dressing as a boy reading a comic. She was often force-fed. Her frequent escapes earned her the description of the "tiny, wily, elusive Pimpernel".
Lady Constance Lytton
Although privileged, she was imprisoned four times, went on hunger strike and was force-fed. She called herself Jane Warton, described as an "ugly London seamstress", to avoid special treatment as the daughter of a viceroy.

She found out, first-hand, that working-class women were treated worse in prison than those of higher birth. Her death at 54 was partially attributed to force-feeding trauma.
Margaret Mackworth
Part of the Newport, south Wales, branch of the WSPU, Mackworth was arrested several times for jumping on to the running board of the prime minister Asquith's car and trying to blow up a postbox.
Hannah Mitchell
A working woman who became involved in the WSPU, her autobiography Up The Hard Way informed the script of Suffragette by the screenwriter Abi Morgan.
Mary Richardson
A WSPU member, she claimed to be at Epsom when Emily Davison walked out on to the course. Richardson said she was pursued and beaten by a mob but hidden by a railway porter at Epsom Downs station.

She committed acts of arson, window-smashing and bombing. She was one of the first two women force-fed under the Cat and Mouse Act in Holloway prison, she also slashed the Rokeby Venus at the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square.
Ethel Smyth
She wrote the suffrage anthem The March of the Women. While imprisoned for window-smashing, she conducted suffragettes marching to her songs with her toothbrush while leaning out of a window.
Olive Wharry
She was arrested with Lilian Lenton and sent to Holloway prison for an arson attack at the Tea House in Kew Gardens that caused £900 of damage when it was only insured for £500.

Wharry said that she and Lenton had ensured the house was empty before their attack, that it was owned by the Crown and that she was fighting a war. She was sentenced to 18 months, and lost more than two stone in weight while in prison.
Suffragette is released in UK cinemas on Monday 12 October. Find out more at the Suffragette Facebook page and the official Suffragette website. #INSPIRINGWOMEN GALLERY
The #InspiringWomen Gallery celebrates the women that inspire you.

The Suffragettes, Rosa Parks and Emma Watson are all inspirational women who have stood up for what they believe in. Whether it's a celebrity, an activist, a teacher or a family member, who are the women that inspire you?

Upload an image of your inspiring woman to Facebook, Twitter or Instagram using the hash tags #InspiringWomen and #Suffragette and your inspiring woman will be celebrated in the #InspiringWomen gallery on the official Suffragette website.

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Profiling the key members of the British women's suffrage movement. Emmeline Pankhurst The leader of the British suffrage movement. She began the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), which declared "Deeds, Not Words" for women's right to vote.

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International Women's Day 2018 marks a pivotal moment for women's rights, according to the United Nation's Secretary General, Antonio Guterrez. In the entertainment industry, at workplaces, on social media, and in the streets women demand an end to oppression and discrimination, and zero tolerance for sexual assault and harassment.

Historical and structural inequalities that long flourished now lie exposed. Guterrez's acknowledgement that gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls is the unfinished business of our time resounds around the world.

Women's equality is among the most persistent human rights challenges of the last several generations. Globally, almost a third of the work women do is in agriculture. Much of the work is labour intensive, and poorly paid, with inadequate labour rights protection.

Last year International Women's Day was the largest event of the year on Facebook. Following #MeToo and #TimesUp the UN sponsored day of global solidarity fans the flames that give gender equality its urgency today.

Until the world's women live lives free of violence and poverty, and lead half the world's countries, gender justice will be on womens' to-do lists. In order to bring about gender equality men will need to freely choose to do half the childcare, run half the world's households and make just half the world's decisions. Until then, women and their allies will march.

(AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)

So long as women continue to live in fear, bear the brunt of austerity, and are excluded from decision-making to make life better for themselves and future generations, women and their allies will march. And, yes, the answer is the same this year as it was last year: We still need to "protest this shit."

On March 8, 2018, women across the world will declare #MeToo more than a hashtag. They say through their actions that the time is up for gender injustice. Globally, women are united in their demands for safety, economic well-being and decision-making power in their families, communities, cultures, families, institutions and religions. It's time.

Today and every day every woman, man and child can contribute to gender justice in eight simple ways as shared by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, also known as UN Women:
1. Raise your voice
Voice amplifies, directs and changes the conversation. Don't sit silent in meetings or conversations with friends when you have something to contribute to the conversation.
2. Support one another
Recognize inherent dignity in oneself and all other human beings through acceptance of identities different from one's own.
3. Share the workload
Share the responsibility of creating safe environments for vulnerability to be freely expressed.
4. Get involved
Acknowledge that your actions are crucial to the creation of fairness and accountability. Identify your commitments. Speak about them, and act on them.
5. Educate the next generation
Listen actively and seek understanding. Share experience and knowledge to grow wisdom.
6. Know your rights
Human rights are women's rights, and women's rights are human rights. At their most basic, human rights concern reciprocity in human relationships that extend to all humanity and beyond.
7. Join the online conversation
Human beings express their identities and their aspirations through what they say. Join the IWD Conversation #TimeIsNow and #IWD2018. Social media amplifies women's voices and emboldens their collective agency.
8. Give to the cause
It takes time and effort for the gender equality conversation to reach everyone. Consider giving to the cause by donating money or time.

Women are entitled to safety, inclusion, and fairness, and they will have them. No matter how ordinary, no matter how different, women confront current realities with tantalizing possibilities of dignity for all.

Seize the moment. Take Action. Transform lives everywhere. Be there. March. Be the Change. March 8. The time is now.

(AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico)

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International Women's Day 2018 marks a pivotal moment for women's rights, according to the United Nation's Secretary General, Antonio Guterrez. In the entertainment industry, at workplaces, on social media, and in the streets women demand an end to oppression and discrimination, and zero tolerance for sexual assault and harassment.

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HELP AMPLIFY THE VOICES WHO CHANGE OUR WORLD

Global Fund for Women supports women-led groups who are demanding rights in their own communities. For Women's History Month, use your voice to support courageous activists shaping our future.

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As we reflect on 2018, we are reminded of the many powerful ways that women's movements are shaping policies, practices, and conversations-relentlessly pursuing crucial efforts to preserve or advance human rights for all, despite tremendous opposition.

Here are just a few of Global Fund for Women's highlights for rights, justice and equality from the past year-including legal wins, strategic breakthroughs, and moments of resilience and strength. Looking back on all that was accomplished reminds us of the incredible power, resolve, and boldness of women around the globe, and inspires us to bring that same spirit forward into 2019.

1. Women human rights defenders continue to work for justice

"Don't expect applause and recognition. You do this work because you believe in it...we take every attack against us as an opportunity to open up the space for debate. We don't cower down in fear and silence. We are not scared." -Zainah Anwar, women human rights defender, Malaysia

In Egypt, the government continued their crackdown on activists, including escalating pressure against Mozn Hasan, Global Fund for Women board member and founder of the Egyptian women's human rights organization Nazra. In a brazen attack in Brazil, Marielle Franco-a well-known Afro-Brazilian politician and LBTQI activist-was murdered in March at just 38 years old. And in Ukraine, prominent activist Katerina Gandzyuk was murdered, and far-right extremists are suspected. But despite the ramping up of attacks against women rights defenders in 2018, they not only intensified their work, but also found collective spaces for celebrating successes, reflection, and action.

2. Changing policies-social norms and public opinion-on abortion globally

"It seems to me that, in the story of this battle, we have arrived. All the young women who wear green handkerchiefs, out here in crowds, flooding our streets-I think they tell that story. There is no turning back."-Ruth Zurbriggen, Director of Global Fund for Women grantee partner La Colectiva Feminista La Revuelta

While efforts to restrict and roll-back abortion rights in the U.S. and across the globe continued, we also saw tremendous progress. Women's movements made incredible gains in Chile and Ireland, where abortion-previously banned completely in both countries-was decriminalized. And in Argentina, after decades of activism, women's groups galvanized public and political support and helped bring an abortion rights law closer to passing than ever before. The bill, which would allow for legal abortion in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy, passed a vote in Argentina's house, but was rejected by the Senate. While the bill was ultimately not successful this year, women's groups were galvanized by the unprecedented public support and are more hopeful than ever that reproductive justice for Argentina's women draws near.

3. Shifting the frame on climate change

"When we use the words climate justice, we have to remember that justice implies that there is injustice. And injustice implies that there is an imbalance somewhere. So the whole work of creating justice is to get the balance that you need. And this balance is as important for the environment as it is for people." -Musimbi Kanyoro

When it comes to making decisions about how to combat climate change, women-especially rural women-are typically left out. Yet it is women who bear the brunt of the extreme weather that is a result of climate change. More women are displaced by weather events like hurricanes or floods, and women produce up to 80% of the world's food-crops that suffer in drought, floods, or extreme temperatures. This year we were inspired by women's groups who are addressing climate change in ways that are grounded in the needs and realities of their communities. This includes grantee partner Women's Collective in India, which promotes women's leadership in on climate issues and works with women farmers to ensure food security, and Women and Rural Development Network in Northern Uganda, which introduces sustainable agriculture practices (including rain water harvest and greenhouse farming).

We also saw world leaders bringing this disparity to the forefront-such as former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, whose book Women's Role in Climate Justice was published this year, and who sat down with Global Fund for Women CEO and President Musimbi Kanyoro in September to discuss how grassroots women are responding to, and leading, climate change efforts.

4. Recognizing the power and leadership of girls and young women.

"I want to see myself in the future as a young woman who has a voice in the society, who has the power to question authority or institutions without being afraid. I know that the feminist leadership skills that we are going to obtain here, it will make it happen." - Faridah Abdallah, Tanzania Gender Networking Programme and participant in Global Fund for Women's Young Women Leaders - East Africa program

Young women and girls are experts of their lived realities and are mobilizing to advance positive change in new and exciting ways. We know that advancing women's rights entails work across multiple generations and activists are advancing models that build on the work of our foremothers while also giving space to youth leaders to define and advance their priorities. The importance of cross-generational and cross-movement exchanges is backed up by research and learning efforts-including by partner organizations MamaCash and FRIDA - who recently released a joint report called Girls to the Front: A Snapshot of Girl-led Organizing, highlighting the powerful work that girl-led movements are already doing, and identifying how they can best be supported.

At Global Fund for Women, we ramped up our support for young women and girls by launching, together with others, an Adolescent Girls Fund, a multi-year initiative to help strengthen girl-led movements and deepen our partnerships with them. This year, we also expanded a Young Women's Leadership Initiative ( launched in Southeast Asia in 2017) to East Africa. In November, girls and mentors from Kenya and Tanzania met in Kenya to kick off the project and connect a new cohort of young women leaders working for change directly in their communities.

5. Holding perpetrators accountable for violence against women and girls

This year, we witnessed how women human rights activists from across the globe are mobilizing against the murder of women because of their gender, also known as femicides. In May, after endless campaigning from Global Fund for Women grantee partner Cooperativa de Trabajo Mujer Ahora and other feminist groups, Uruguay saw the first conviction for femicide since it officially became a crime in October 2017. Our Palestinian partners at Women's Centre for Legal Aid and Counseling and other feminist groups are mobilizing to break the silence and impunity for the murder of women. In Israel, Palestinian and Jewish women organized a strike in December to voice their outrage after the murder of 16 year-old Yara Ayoub and 13 year-old Silvana Tsegai. Ni Una Menos, a feminist movement that started in Argentina as a collective cry against machista violence, has spread throughout the continent and beyond. Under our Freedom from Violence issue area, Global Fund for Women is committed to continuing to support these courageous groups who are fighting impunity for perpetrators of violence against women and girls.

6. Bringing feminist philanthropy to the mainstage

Large funders-including the Government of Canada, which implemented their feminist philanthropy project in 2017 and this year announced plans to commit more than $300 million to fund gender equality globally-are coming together inspired by a feminist approach to philanthropy. And we saw that there is a huge public appetite to learn more about what difference feminist philanthropy and women's funds make when President and CEO Musimbi Kanyoro delivered her TED Talk for International Women's Day in 2018, calling on listeners to "Embrace Isirika," the Maragoli concept of equal generosity, mutual responsibility, and community organizing to find solutions to help everyone-a truly feminist concept.

7. Nobel Peace Prize recognizes sexual violence as a weapon of war

In October, the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize were announced- and it turned out to be a win for survivors of sexual violence, too. The winners were Dr. Denis Mukwege, who worked extensively in the DRC, and Nadia Murad, a survivor leading the charge against sexual violence by the Islamic State. The win brought the issue of sexual violence as a weapon of war to the fore, and validated the work of many women's organizations in the DRC and beyond who have been working with sexual violence survivors and lobbying for political change for years.

8. Intersectionality in the spotlight

As women's movements strategize about how to make the most powerful impact in the face of increasing oppression, more and more organizations, leaders, and movements are recognizing the power of cross-movement organizing. The result? More collaboration, conversation, and connections between social justice organizations, leading to stronger movements. In May, Global Fund for Women hosted a panel discussion with American Jewish World Service and Sister Song Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective to explore opportunities to connect movements, how funders can support growing movements, and more.

9. When governments stifle activists, women's movements get creative

In countries from the Middle East to Latin America and beyond, oppressive governments are doing all they can to constrain, threaten, and eliminate human rights organizations that oppose their policies. (In fact, In FY2018, 84% of Global Fund for Women grants were awarded to organizations working in countries where governments repress or obstruct human rights work.

But despite risks, women's organizations are finding creative ways to meet, work together, and strategize. Together with partners, Global Fund for Women hosted 12 convenings in 2018, where activists, researchers and grantees came together to share learnings, strategies, and experiences. As explored in Urgent Action Fund's report on shrinking civil society and a new report by Funders' Initiative for Civil Society, groups are using social media and other technology to connect, creating new funding channels to bypass legal restraints in oppressive countries, using "artivism" to challenge repression, and sharpening their focus on digital and physical security to ensure the health of their movements.

10. The resistance continues

This year the Trump administration continued its repressive policies that affect women and laws globally, including the Global Gag Rule, the ban on domestic violence survivors seeking asylum, and appointing conservative and women-hostile Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. At every turn, women reacted powerfully-by mobilizing, protesting, and running for office. As a result more women and women of color - who often connected global and local issues in their campaigns- than ever will be sworn in in January as U.S. representatives, deepening the bench of advocates for women's issues in the U.S. and beyond.

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TOP TEN MOMENTS FOR WOMEN'S RIGHTS IN 2018 - Global Fund for Women

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As we reflect on 2018, we are reminded of the many powerful ways that women's movements are shaping policies, practices, and conversations-relentlessly pursuing crucial efforts to preserve or advance human rights for all, despite tremendous opposition. Here are just a few of Global Fund for Women's highlights for rights, justice and equality from the past...

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World leaders, civil society and the private sector are preparing to make 2020 the biggest year yet for the advancement of women's rights.

Over the course of the year, thousands of people are expected to attend high-level UN events and forums in Mexico City and Paris to mark the 25th anniversary of the Beijing platform for action, a landmark agreement to end gender inequality.

More than 160 countries have already submitted reports outlining the progress made and the obstacles faced in achieving the Beijing agreement. In January, the UN secretary general is expected to publish an assessment of global efforts, and member states are already negotiating ways to accelerate action.

Global gatherings for gender equality, convened by UN Women - which has launched its own Generation Equality campaign - and co-hosted by the governments of Mexico and France, will be held in May and July. Governments, women's rights activists and businesses are expected to form coalitions to agree fully-funded action plans on abortion rights, ending violence and other specific issues.

"2020 is going to be massive, and the potential [for change] is enormous," said Katja Iversen, president and CEO of Women Deliver, a global advocacy group for women's rights. "Everybody is talking about it. A lot of people are talking about how to get in on the act."

Iversen cautioned, however, that the year "has to end in strong action". "We can't have empty commitments again. We need big, bold, accountable commitments and action. If that doesn't happen after this year, we will all lose tremendously."

The Beijing platform for action was adopted unanimously by 189 governments at the UN's fourth world conference on women, held in China in 1995. It is considered the most progressive international blueprint for advancing women's rights.

It covered 12 key areas. These included eliminating violence against women, ensuring all women have access to family planning and the reproductive healthcare they need, removing barriers to women's participation in decision-making, and providing decent jobs and equal pay for equal work. The declaration urged governments to assess the impact of environmental degradation on women, and called for indigenous women to be given an equal say in sustainable development. It also recognised the disproportionate burden of unpaid care that falls on women and called for a better portrayal and representation of women in the media.

Six-year-old Norah Quasha with her father Khalil in Washington after the inauguration of Donald Trump in 2017. The Trump administration has been accused of rolling back women's rights. Photograph: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

A quarter of a century on, however, no country has achieved gender equality, and the Beijing agenda is being undermined by growing conservative populist movements that seek to roll back women's rights. The Trump administration has taken a leading role in the pushback.

There has been some progress but, globally, one in three women are still expected to experience sexual or physical violence in their lifetime, women are paid less than men for doing the same work, and they continue to bear a disproportionate burden of unpaid care work. Hundreds of thousands of women still die each year from complications in pregnancy and childbirth, and less than a quarter of MPs are women.

Françoise Girard, president of the International Women's Health Coalition, said 2020 is a "key moment to gather and push [the Beijing agenda] forward".

"We are very engaged in the Beijing+25 anniversary work. It's a moment where governments are going to negotiate a new agenda," she said.

As well as fighting for "issues that remain difficult", such as abortion rights, body autonomy and sexual orientation, Girard said the anniversary offered a chance to push for action on issues "that have really developed since Beijing". These include the impact of the climate crisis on women, targeted support for female refugees, and the impact of sexual violence at work on women's economic participation. "We're now understanding the impact that has had in keeping women back in the workplace", said Girard.

She added that activists will be calling on governments to afford greater protection to female human rights defenders, and to take more seriously online harassment and mental health issues.

"There's lots [of areas] that we have come to understand in the past 25 years that were mentioned in Beijing but not all were developed. We're eager to bring these to the fore."

As well as the Beijing anniversary, next year will mark two decades since UN security council resolution 1325 first acknowledged women's unique experience of conflict and their lack of involvement in peace negotiations. Nine subsequent resolutions have been passed. Anniversary events are being planned for October and activists will be steeling themselves for the introduction of any new resolution. In April, heavy lobbying by the US resulted in the removal of key language around sexual and reproductive health and rights from a resolution introduced by Germany.

Next year also kicks off the 10-year countdown to achieve the UN sustainable development goals, which includes a commitment to end gender inequality by 2030.

"These are all extremely important to advance women's rights," said Dinah Musindarwezo, director of policy and communications at Womankind Worldwide, a global organisation supporting women's rights groups in Africa and Asia.

She said she hoped 2020 would mark the coming together of feminist groups to create a strong, global movement for change.

"It's a crucial year because we see it as a year where we can come together and accelerate the promotion of women's rights and gender equality," said Musindarwezo.

"Twenty-five years is a long time to wait to achieve the commitments our governments have made," she added. "We can't wait another 25 years."

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'Everybody is talking about it': women's rights to take centre stage in 2020

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World leaders, civil society and the private sector are preparing to make 2020 the biggest year yet for the advancement of women's rights. Over the course of the year, thousands of people are expected to attend high-level UN events and forums in Mexico City and Paris to mark the 25th anniversary of the Beijing platform for action, a landmark agreement to end gender inequality.

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Hungary rejects opportunity to protect women from violence!!!!

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Hungary rejects opportunity to protect women from violence!!!!

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Amidst a disturbing global uptick in reports of domestic violence during Covid-19 lockdowns, Hungary has taken a leap backwards in protecting women. On May 5, parliament, where ruling party Fidesz has a two-thirds majority, blocked ratification of a regional treaty on violence against women.

The Council of Europe Convention on Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, known as the Istanbul Convention, establishes a gold standard of inclusion, recognizing everyone's right to live free from violence, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, immigration status, or other characteristics. It obliges state parties to uphold minimum standards for protection from and prevention and prosecution of violence against women.

But politicians in Hungary claim the convention promotes "gender ideology" - a term used to argue that gender equality undermines "traditional family values" and encourages homosexuality. They also claim the convention's protection of migrant and refugee women contradicts Hungary's efforts to crackdown on irregular immigration.

Hungary's government has launched persistent attacks on gender equality and the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and asylum seekers and migrants - all of which feed into a broader backslide on the rule of law in the country.

Hungary's justice minister Judit Varga argues that national laws already protect women victims of violence, but women's groups have long lamented insufficient services and poor police response to rampant domestic violence.

This week's political maneuvers reflect a disturbing trend: Bulgaria, Slovakia, and Latvia have similarly refused to ratify the convention, Poland has threatened to withdraw, and Slovakia has also opposed European Union accession to the convention.

Over 20 percent of women in the EU have reportedly experienced domestic violence. In many countries, over 50 percent of women murdered die at the hands of partners or family members. Reports of domestic abuse have soared across Europe during the Covid-19 pandemic. Government resources to prevent violence against women and ensure services to support and protect victims can save lives, and they can't wait.

The European Commission President and Equalities Commissioner have both prioritized EU accession to the convention. They should speak out as member states deliberately try to derail this process and misrepresent the convention's essential protections for women.

Instead of using inflammatory rhetoric to block needed measures, European governments should focus on keeping all women safe.

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Hungary Rejects Opportunity to Protect Women from Violence

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Amidst a disturbing global uptick in reports of domestic violence during Covid-19 lockdowns, Hungary has taken a leap backwards in protecting women. On May 5, parliament, where ruling party Fidesz has a two-thirds majority, blocked ratification of a regional treaty on violence against women.

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Child marriage is a part of women's rights too!!!

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Child marriage is a part of women's rights too!!!

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Here is an article talking about how child marriage is now illegal in Tanzania but still in many countries women face child marriage.

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Girls and boys in Tanzania have cause to celebrate: child marriage is now illegal in the country.

Tanzania's Marriage Act of 1971 sets the minimum marriage age for girls at 15 with parental consent, and 18 for boys. It permits the marriage of 14-year-old children when a court is satisfied that special, although unspecified, circumstances exist.

In a landmark 2016 decision, a Tanzanian high court ruled these provisions unconstitutional, and directed the government to raise the legal age of marriage to 18 years for both girls and boys. This ruling followed a legal challenge by the Msichana Initiative, an organization advocating for girls' right to education in Tanzania. Their petition argued that the Marriage Act violated girls' fundamental rights to equality, dignity, and access to education, and contravened Tanzania's Law of the Child Act.

The Tanzania government appealed the decision, but this week, Tanzania's Court of Appeal upheld the 2016 High Court ruling.

Three in 10 girls in Tanzania are married before their 18th birthday, according to United Nations estimates. Human Rights Watch has documented the devastating lifelong consequences for girls of child marriage, including impacts on girls' health when they become pregnant too young, the increased risks of domestic violence including marital rape, and how marriage and pregnancy ends their education. In Tanzania, school officials are permitted to expel married girls, and most girls have limited opportunities to return to formal schooling after they drop out.

The Tanzanian government has legal obligations to outlaw child marriage and end the harm suffered by girls. Having a strong law that provides for a standard minimum marriage age for boys and girls is a good starting point. Education is a key protection measure against underage marriages, and Tanzania should also end longstanding discrimination against girls in education, including by ensuring girls who become pregnant can continue their studies, and address widespread violence in schools. It is also important to engage communities on the importance of keeping girls in school and not marrying them off in their childhood. With these steps, girls in Tanzania can have the future they deserve, and be girls, not wives.

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Victory Against Child Marriage in Tanzania

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Girls and boys in Tanzania have cause to celebrate: child marriage is now illegal in the country. Tanzania's Marriage Act of 1971 sets the minimum marriage age for girls at 15 with parental consent, and 18 for boys. It permits the marriage of 14-year-old children when a court is satisfied that special, although unspecified, circumstances exist.

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More than half of the women cited in AWID's 2017 tribute to female activists were murdered for defending their rights. Among the women killed are those who fought to protect their land from the state and multinational companies, or called out injustices or corruption, or stood up for the rights of lesbian, gay and transexual people.

While thousands of men defend human rights, women face particular challenges for their activism. They are targeted for who they are, as women, not just because they are protesting. In countries that view a woman's role as being in the home, female human rights defenders are more prone to attack than men because they are seen as breaking social norms.

To mark international Women Human Rights Defenders' Day on Wednesday, we honour some of the women who have been killed this year.

Emilsen Manyoma, Colombia

Emilsen Manyoma was the leader of the Comunidades Construyendo Paz en los Territorios (Conpaz), based in Buenaventura. The organisation worked with communities displaced by companies wanting their land for mining and agricultural projects. The region is marked by the presence of paramilitaries and drug traffickers. Manyoma had documented killings and forced disappearances, and was an outspoken critic of the companies forcing people off their land. She was killed with her husband, Joe Javier Rodallega. Their bodies were found on 17 January.

Shifa Gardi, Iraq

Shifa Gardi was a reporter for the Kurdish channel Rudaw. She had been credited for breaking the "stereotypes of male-dominated journalism". She was killed by a roadside bomb while covering the battle for Mosul on 25 February.

Ruth Alicia López Guisao, Colombia

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Ruth Alicia López Guisao was a community leader who worked with the indigenous people of Medio San Juan on food security, health and education projects. She was a member of Asociación Agroecológica Interétnica e Intercultural (Intercultural and Interethnic Agroecological Association), and worked in areas overrun by paramilitary groups. On 2 March, she was shot and killed by two unidentified gunmen while visiting her family in Medellín. Since her death, her family have received threats of violence.

Sherly Montoya, Honduras

Sherly Montoya was a member of Grupo de Mujeres Transexuales - Muñecas de Arcoíris, which advocates on issues affecting transgender women. The group is a member of Asociación LGTB Arcoíris, an organisation working on equality and justice for the LGBTI community in Honduras. Her body was discovered in the capital, Tegucigalpa, on 4 April.

Miroslava Breach Velducea, Mexico

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Miroslava Breach Velducea was a reporter for the national newspaper La Jornada, among other publications, before starting her own news agency, MIR, this year. Her main beat was organised crime, politics and corruption. She was shot eight times when she left her home in Chihuahua on 23 March. According to the BBC, a note left at the scene read: "For being a loudmouth."

Miriam Rodríguez Martínez, Mexico

Miriam Rodríguez Martínez became an activist and leader of the Collective of Missing Persons in San Fernando, Tamaulipas, following the disappearance of her daughter in 2012. She started her own investigation into the disappearance and unearthed her daughter's remains and information that implicated the Los Zetas drug cartel. On 10 May, Mother's Day in Mexico, she was shot 12 times at her home by a group of armed men.

Yoryanis Isabel Bernal Varela, Colombia

Yoryanis Isabel Bernal Varela fought for the rights of indigenous women. She led the Wiwa tribe in the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta. She was killed by armed assailants on a motorbike in January.

Patricia Villamil Perdomo, Honduras

Patricia Villamil Perdomo defended the rights of migrants. She was the Honduran consul in Tapachula, Mexico, where she became vocal about a human trafficking network, allegedly operating under the nose of state authorities. She also spoke out against human trafficking groups operating along the southern Mexican border. She is understood to have received written threats signed with "Z" - for the Los Zetas drug cartel. She was found dead at her home on 20 March. She is understood to have been suffocated.

Micaela García, Argentina

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Micaela García was a women's rights activist and member of the leftwing organisation JP Evita. She was involved in the protest movement Ni una menos (Not one less), which campaigns against gender-based violence. She was studying to become a teacher. Her body was found in Gualeguay, north of Buenos Aires, a week after she disappeared in April 2017.

Meztli Omixochitl Sarabia Reyna, Mexico

Meztli Omixochitl Sarabia Reyna was a member of the Unión Popular de Vendedores Ambulantes 28 de Octubre (Upva), which defended the rights of street vendors. Many members of Upva, based in Pueblo, have been subject to death threats and attacks. She was shot twice during an attack on the group's offices on 29 June.

Idaly Castillo Narváez, Colombia

Community leader Idaly Castillo Narváez was a member of the victims' group Mesa de Participación de Víctimas del Municipio in the Colombian state of Cauca. She was killed in August. Her body was found with signs of torture and rape.

Leonela Tapdasan Pesadilla, Philippines

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Remembering women killed fighting for human rights in 2017

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More than half of the women cited in AWID's 2017 tribute to female activists were murdered for defending their rights. Among the women killed are those who fought to protect their land from the state and multinational companies, or called out injustices or corruption, or stood up for the rights of lesbian, gay and transexual people.

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Afghan women's rights activists mourn during the burial ceremony of Farkhunda, an Afghan woman who was beaten to death in Kabul on March 22. REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail

On March 19, a 27-year-old Afghan woman named Farkhunda was attacked in the center of Kabul in bright daylight, wrongly accused of burning a copy of the Quran.

The Kabul police initially tried to protect Farkhunda but eventually handed her over to a mob that savagely beat her, killed her and then burned her body.

This is the single most shocking instance of brutality and violence against a woman to occur in Afghanistan since the systematic stoning of women under the Taliban.

What makes this event different from the attacks and crimes against women that occurred under the Taliban is that it was committed by seemingly ordinary Afghan men from the relatively progressive capital of Afghanistan.

How, then, do we make sense of this shocking violence?

State should defend women's rights

Back in 2001 when the US and its NATO allies began their state building project in Afghanistan, one of the main justifications was the defense of women's rights.

After more than 12 years of military occupation, the US and NATO announced their imminent departure from Afghanistan last year.

An analysis of US-led efforts to build a state infrastructure in Afghanistan can help shed light on why the mob turned on one woman walking through a city market.

First, her killing is a failure of the new state to protect one of its citizens. In particular it demonstrates the weakness of the police and the institutions of justice and law enforcement - main pillars of a modern state.

Second, there seems to have been a failure on the part of US and NATO allies to see the potential contradiction between their nation building project and their stated goal of defending women's rights.

What I am referring to here is what Turkish feminist Deniz Kandiyoti has described as a crisis of patriarchy. In Afghanistan this crisis has reached an acute moment.

Patriarchy's hold

Patriarchal structures of rule and power have hindered the emergence of a modern state in Afghanistan.

Women's roles in the private and public spheres have been interpreted through traditional, rural and conservative norms that subordinate women to men.

In traditional patriarchal societies, men define their roles as breadwinners who work the land, ply their trade or engage in a skilled craft. However, decades of war and economic disruption have crippled most of the rural economy. This in turn has undermined the material foundations of patriarchy in Afghanistan.

It is against the background of patriarchy under pressure that women's empowerment - seen by the Western occupiers as integral to Afghanistan's rebuilding - has taken place. It is no surprise that what is, in effect, a shift in women's social status is seen as a direct threat to the deep-seated, traditional power of men.

The allies' state building has increased women's participation in public life but it has failed to enact policies to manage the crisis for men.

The country is run primarily by educated, formerly exiled Afghans who returned from Pakistan, Iran and the West after the expulsion of the Taliban by US forces in 2001-2002, and a large number of international aid groups. According to the New York Times, as of December 2014, there were more than 2,300 aid agencies and more than 3,000 international aid workers in Afghanistan. Afghan society was modernized overnight with an influx of laptops and smart phones, but there has been little effort to transform gender relations.

The result of all of this is that there is a significantly large group of men who feel excluded from the benefits of the new Afghanistan, as evidenced by my examination of comments by Afghan men on social media over the past decade. These men tend to view women, especially successful and/or independent women in public spaces, as a symbol of men's collective failure.

This crisis has reached a boiling point: women increasingly feel threatened by ordinary men in everyday situations. Previously - when the patriarchy was powerful - men felt the public space belonged to them. Now they are unemployed and unskilled, but even those who are employed feel their traditional source of power in public and private spheres vis-a-vis women is on a decline. Their anxiety about their status is being expressed violently, especially when men come together as a group, as they did in the case of Farkhunda.

Calls for justice

Public anger against Farkhunda's murder has resulted in the arrest of 19 suspects.

REUTERS/Mohammad Ismail

The country's new president Ashraf Ghani has denounced her killing as a "heinous crime" and ordered an investigation.

In the meantime, however, conservative voices such as those of Mullah Ayaz Niazi are still trying to defend the old patriarchal system and are threatening that any significant sentence against the alleged murderers of Farkhunda will result in public outrage by Afghan men across the country.

If the Afghan state is to establish its legitimacy it will have to deliver justice as a first step. As a second step, however, it must be acknowledged that women's rights and their physical safety cannot be guaranteed solely by facilitating their ability to take part in public life.

As a long-term strategy, there is a serious need for educational and vocational programs that can integrate those left out of the mainstream. It is also imperative to bring economic development to rural parts of the country and, in the process, redefine the roles of men and women to combat gender based violence.

The murder of a woman by a group of men has unified public support against the persistence of violence related to patriarchal structures of power in Afghanistan.

In the past week, thousands, including progressive men who are part of an emerging civil society in Afghanistan have taken to the streets of Kabul demanding justice from the government. Debates and discussions on Afghan television and in the media have highlighted the importance of women's rights and women's safety. At the same time, however, it is undeniable that there are conservative social forces (warlords, religious elites and a number of state officials) that still are powerful and not easily defeated by recent public mobilization.

The coming days will be a test of the Ashraf Ghani government - not just of its commitment to women but also of its ability to rule.

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Shocking violence against Afghan women reveals a crisis in status of Afghan men

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On March 19, a 27-year-old Afghan woman named Farkhunda was attacked in the center of Kabul in bright daylight, wrongly accused of burning a copy of the Quran. The Kabul police initially tried to protect Farkhunda but eventually handed her over to a mob that savagely beat her, killed her and then burned her body.

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Mexico: died 31 July 2015

Mexico: died 31 July 2015

Nadia Vera was found dead in her flat in Mexico City. She had been raped, tortured and shot in the head alongside four other people, including three women and a male journalist, Rubén Espinosa. She was the 36th female human rights defender to be killed in Mexico since 2010. Vera campaigned against attacks on journalists and the selling off of oil reserves. Her activism had led to death threats, prompting her move from Xalapa, the capital of Veracruz, to Mexico City last year.

"Nadia's murder shows us that there is nowhere safe left in Mexico for defenders fleeing threats or violence. That's how serious the human rights crisis has become," said Atziri Ávila, coordinator of the National Network of Human Rights Defenders of Mexico.

Francela Méndez

El Salvador: died 31 May 2015

Francela Méndez defended the rights of the transgender community in El Salvador. She was on the board of the Colectivo Alejandría (Alejandría Collective), which promotes the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the country. She was also involved in implementing a programme to address HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, and was a member of the Salvadoran Human Rights Defenders Network. Méndez was killed at the home of a friend in Sonsonate, outside San Salvador. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights condemned the killing.

Intisar al-Hasairi

Libya: died 24 February 2015

The bodies of Intisar al-Hasairi and her aunt were found in the boot of a car in Tripoli. Both had been shot.

Al-Hasairi was the co-founder of the Tanweer Movement, a group that promotes peace and culture in Libya. She was involved in pro-democracy protests in the country.

Joan Kagezi

Uganda: died 30 March 2015

Joan Kagezi, a Ugandan lawyer and prosecutor, was shot dead on her way home from work. She headed the directorate of public prosecutions in the international crimes and anti-terrorism division. At the time of her death, Kagezi was the lead prosecutor in a trial involving 13 men accused of involvement in an al-Shabaab terrorist attack. She also helped prosecute Thomas Kwoyelo, a former commander of the Lord's Resistance Army, for crimes of murder and kidnapping. "Her murder ended what some lawyers described as one of the most brilliant and fearless top-notch criminal prosecuting careers," wrote the Observer newspaper in Kampala at the time of her death.

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Sabeen Mahmud

Pakistan: died 24 April 2015

Sabeen Mahmud was shot dead in her car after leaving an event in Karachi with her mother. She was one of Pakistan's most prominent human rights activists, and the director of a pioneering cafe and community arts space called T2F (originally The Second Floor). On the evening she was killed, T2F had hosted an event highlighting the cases of those in Balochistan who have been "disappeared", allegedly at the hands of the Pakistani government. Mahmud had received death threats - she was not afraid of rocking the boat or taking on religious fundamentalists. "This was a woman equally at home soldering wires, discussing Urdu poetry, playing cricket, attending every progressive political demonstration in Karachi, singing the back catalogue of Pink Floyd, and being my self-proclaimed 'geek-squad for life'," wrote her friend, the novelist Kamila Shamsie, after her death.

Norma Angélica Bruno Román

Mexico: died 13 February 2015

Norma Angélica Bruno Román was killed in front of her children on her way to attend the funeral of another young activist.

She was understood to be a member of a group in Iguala that worked with families whose relatives had disappeared.

Catherine Han Montoya

US: died 13 April 2015

Catherine Han Montoya, who campaigned for civil and human rights, was killed in her home in Atlanta. She championed the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, as well as immigrants and female Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders. She co-founded the Southeast Immigrant Rights Network. Montoya worked for the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, which paid tribute to her as "an extraordinarily talented leader and skilled organiser who devoted her life to empowering people, including immigrants, communities of colour, and LGBTQ individuals and their families. She leaves a legacy of building bridges of unity and opportunity across multi-ethnic communities".

Losana McGowan

Fiji: died 4 April 2015

Losana McGowan, a journalist and women's rights campaigner, was killed at home. Her partner has been charged with her murder. McGowan combined her work as a journalist, reporting for the Fiji Times and the Fiji Broadcasting Corporation, with her activism for the Fiji Women's Crisis Centre and Fiji Women's Rights Movement, which works to change laws that discriminate against women. She was most recently the media and communications coordinator for the Secretariat of the Pacific Community. Her death has prompted calls for greater action to tackle violence against women.

Angiza Shinwari

Afghanistan: died 16 February 2015

Angiza Shinwari had recently started a second term as an active provincial council member in Nangarhar when she was killed following a bomb attack on the vehicle in which she was travelling. Before being elected to council, Shinwari was an activist and staunch defender of women's rights and the right to education. Her killing highlights the dangers women face when taking up political positions in Afghanistan. Reuters reported that, despite keeping a low profile, Shinwari had asked Afghan and foreign officials for protection, fearing her life could be in danger. "All women working in government are in great danger. And the situation is especially bad for provincial council members," she said.
Topics

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End the violence: the women's rights defenders killed in 2015 | Liz Ford and Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah

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Mexico: died 31 July 2015 Mexico: died 31 July 2015 Nadia Vera was found dead in her flat in Mexico City. She had been raped, tortured and shot in the head alongside four other people, including three women and a male journalist, Rubén Espinosa.

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In a time when the women's suffrage movement relied on patience and polite speeches, Emmeline Pankhurst paved her own path with action.

"I incite this meeting into rebellion." With those words, British activist Emmeline Pankhurst changed the way that the suffragette movement conducted itself.

The suffragette movement is often conjured with images of peaceful protests, handmade signs, and groups of women marching in the streets. It doesn't usually call to mind militant tactics and physical acts of defiance, but that's exactly what Emmeline Pankhurst encouraged.

Emmeline Pankhurst's Early Life

From the moment she was born, Emmeline Pankhurst, née Goulden, was the master of her own story and wrote it as one wrought with political unrest. Though her official birth certificate stated that she was born in Manchester, England on July 15, 1858, Pankhurst would claim her entire life that she was actually born on July 14, Bastille Day, and connected herself with the female revolutionaries who stormed the Bastille.

"I have always thought that the fact that I was born on that day had some kind of influence over my life," Pankhurst remembered later. She believed that her connection to these women was what drove her to the militant leader she became.

But activism was in Pankhurst's blood already. Her mother, Sophia, was of a long line of political activists and usurpers, and her father was a well-known supporter of equal rights for all. He was a friend of American abolitionist Henry Ward Beecher, whose sister Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the acclaimed Uncle Tom's Cabin.

In fact, when Pankhurst was a child, Sophia Goulden used Uncle Tom's Cabin as bedtime reading for her children. Inspired by the novel, young Emmeline began her career in activism by collecting donations for freed slaves.

Being so involved in this activism led Pankhurst to meet her future husband, Richard Pankhurst.

All In The Family

Richard was a barrister who had a long history of advocacy himself. He campaigned for women's rights along with freedom of speech and education reform. Though Richard was 24 years her senior, Emmeline found herself falling in love with him and with his political leanings.

As staunch a supporter of equality as Emmeline was herself, Richard was even more so. When Emmeline proposed the subject of a "free union" to avoid the legal trouble of marriage, Richard refused on the grounds that a free union did not allow her the same political freedoms as marriage did. He even drafted two Married Women's Property Acts which allowed women to keep their assets from before and after marriage.

The two were wed legally on Dec. 18, 1879, and though Pankhurst gave birth to five children during their marriage, her husband never expected her to be a conventional housewife. While she tended to her husband and children fiercely, she devoted as much of her spare time as she could to her activism, and eventually brought the two together.

As her own mother had done, Pankhurst brought her daughters along to seminars and speeches with her in the hopes of instilling her values into them. This would prove fruitful, as Emmeline's daughter, Christabel Pankhurst, would join her mother for 15 years of fighting for women's rights.

In 1888, the Pankhurst family moved to Russell Square, an upper middle-class district in London. There, they cultivated a sort of headquarters for the radical thinkers and great minds of the day. Throughout their time there they hosted such guests as the American abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, activist Annie Besant, anarchist Louise Michel, and Indian Prime Minister Dadabhai Naoroji.

The Women's Franchise League

The same year that the Pankhurst's moved to Russell Square, Britain's first nationwide coalition advocating for the women's rights to vote split up. The former National Society for Women's Suffrage split into a more traditional faction known as the Great College Street Society, and a more radical one, known as the Parliament Street Society (PSS).

Emmeline Pankhurst immediately aligned herself with the radical PSS, hoping that their "new rules" approach to women's rights would successfully secure all women the right to vote.

Unfortunately, Pankhurst quickly found out that that wasn't the case. While the PSS advocated for an unmarried single woman's right to vote when it came to married women, they didn't see much use. After all, why did married women need the right to vote when their husbands could vote for them?

Emmeline Pankhurst resolved to make her own league, then. After distancing herself from the PSS, she created her own coalition of women, dedicated to securing the right for all women, married or not, to vote. In 1889, the first ever meeting of the Women's Franchise League (WFL) was held.

The WFL was different from other groups not only in their support for married women but in their support for recently un-married women; that is, female divorcees which was a group that had been widely brushed under the rug in the equal rights conversation.

The group also set themselves apart by their actions. While other groups worked off of peace and moderation, the WFL worked through action.

"Deeds, not words, has to be our permanent motto," Pankhurst said of her attitude towards social activism. Indeed, the WFL would reflect that attitude.

Emmeline Pankhurst Gets Radical

At first, the WFL's "deeds" were peaceful, nonviolent ones.

The group regularly hosted rallies, petitioned for signatures, and published literature on their cause. However, their reputation for radicalism caused many members to defect for fear of being seen as a usurper. The group was dissolved but a year later.

Emmeline Pankhurst subsequently joined another party - the Independent Labour Party. Though she was initially denied admission into the local branch because she was a woman, she was able to join the national branch and begin her activism on a national scale.

In December 1894 she was elected to the position of Poor Law Guardian, which required she oversee the conditions at a local shelter. There, she experienced how the nations poorest were living and was disturbed by it that she later claimed this influenced her decision to become a "militant" activist.

"These poor, unprotected mothers and their babies I am sure were potent factors in my education as a militant," she wrote in her autobiography My Own Story.

Meanwhile, Emmeline's actions within the ILP had landed her in some legal troubles which put a financial and mental burden on her husband. The family relocated to the country in an attempt to heal him but it was of no use. While on vacation with her daughter, Christabel, in 1898 Emmeline came upon a newspaper announcing her husband's death.

Emmeline was forced to resign from her volunteer position as a Poor Law Guardian and instead procured work at the Registrar of Births and Deaths in Chorlton. Meanwhile, her children grew into their own with her daughter Christabel following in her activist footsteps.

In October of 1903, Pankhurst and several colleagues formed the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), a more action-prone organization. While they were active without violence, they quickly realized that direct actions sometimes required violent actions.

In 1905, a bill advocating for women's suffrage was filibustered. The WSPU made their ire over the filibustering known by inciting a large, loud, protest outside the Parliament building. The protest was so disruptive that the police eventually had to intervene and forced members of the WSPU out of the streets.

Though the protest ultimately failed in getting the bill passed, Emmeline Pankhurst proclaimed the protest - and the police's intervention - a glowing success as it was one of the group's first steps towards recognition.

"We are at last recognized as a political party," she said. "We are now in the swim of politics, and are a political force."

A Political Force, Indeed

The WSPU's reputation as a militant group was not overstated. Following their first protest, the group grew, and more of their protests popped up across the city. By 1908, the group had hundreds of thousands of followers - in June of that year, 500,000 activists turned up at a rally in Hyde Park to support Emmeline Pankhurst and her vision.

The large numbers of activists looking for something to fight for should have been exactly what Pankhurst wanted, but the numbers turned out to be more destructive than persuasive. Frustrated members ended up taking matters into their own hands after police shut down protests and hurled rocks at the Prime Minister's windows and blocked streets in front of Parliament.

The group was fond of arson which was often directed by Christabel from Paris, where she had gone to avoid arrest for conspiracy.

"If men use explosives and bombs for their own purpose they call it war," wrote Christabel in 1913, "Why should a woman not make use of the same weapons as men. It is not only war we have declared. We are fighting for a revolution!"

Christabel organized a nationwide bombing and arson campaign that was labeled the 'Suffragette Outrages.'

Before long, Pankhurst herself was imprisoned for leading a hunger strike. The women of the WSPU were arrested and then released before their incarceration in order to get well, by which time they were imprisoned. Pankhurst was released and rearrested 12 times within the year and served a total of about 30 days.

These activities pushed major players to defect from the group, including two of Emmeline's own daughters. Coupled with the impending World War I, by 1915 Pankhurst let the effort fall to the wayside.

However, Emmeline Pankhurst never gave up. During the war, she continued to host rallies and political lectures. She traveled to Russia in the hopes of convincing the Russian Prime Minister to change his ways. By the time she returned to England after the war, she was happy to learn that the suffrage movement hadn't been crushed by the economic downturn.

The 1918 Representation of the People Act gave women their first big step toward total freedom, as it allowed women over the age of 30 to vote in elections, albeit with some restrictions. Pankhurst though, considered it a victory for women, restrictions or not.

Emmeline Pankhurst's Later Years And Successes

Though Parliament had begun to step in the right direction, Emmeline Pankhurst continued to campaign for women. She fought for a woman's right to run for office and traveled to North America to spread her political activism. Eventually, she herself ran for office and tried for a seat in Parliament with the Conservative party - a move which surprised many.

Though the once window-smashing, protest-marching activist had become far more docile in her later years, her beliefs hadn't changed. Pankhurst fell ill and was sent to a nursing home at age 69. She died shortly after she entered, on June 14, 1928. Her death was international news.

Until the day she died Emmeline Pankhurst remained a staunch supporter of equal rights, not just for women, but for humans everywhere.

After learning about the militance of suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, check out some of history's most empowering speeches given by women. Then, read about the Kurdish women who are fighting back against ISIS.

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Emmeline Pankhurst: The Badass Suffragette Who Smashed Windows And Burned Buildings

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"I incite this meeting into rebellion." With those words, British activist Emmeline Pankhurst changed the way that the suffragette movement conducted itself. The suffragette movement is often conjured with images of peaceful protests, handmade signs, and groups of women marching in the streets.

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The best and worst countries to be a woman

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The best and worst countries to be a woman

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A version of this story is part of our November 2019 special issue of National Geographic magazine, "Women: A Century of Change." Read more storieshere.

No country has it all when it comes to gender equality, but some places are better than others to be a woman. The Women, Peace and Security Index seeks to understand these global differences by measuring women's inclusion in society, sense of security, and exposure to discrimination-key indicators of how women are faring. The latest data show that some of the worst countries for women have achieved gains, even as some of the best are lagging in crucial areas. (Read the feature story here.)

National Geographic partnered with theGeorgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security to illustrate the 2019 index.

When she fled her home in Pakistan last summer, half asleep in her pajamas, Gulalai Ismail wasn't thinking about the power of data.

She was on the run and escaped to New York, where she's seeking asylum from what she describes as "death threats, rape threats, acid attack threats, mob-violence threats" stemming from her activism back home with women in Pakistan's tribal areas.

One of the women weighs heavily on her mind. "She had a small piece of paper with 25 straight lines on it," Ismail recalls, etched to mark each time security forces came to her home and sexually harassed her. "She said she was an uneducated woman," but despite her illiteracy, she was creating a record of her abuse.

"That," says Ismail, "is data."

The ability to track information, to collect it, to have data readily available-whether scribbled on scrap paper or mined from global databases-has power. Power to embarrass, to highlight success, to spark media coverage, and to pinpoint where change is needed.

To join in the effort to build evidence, National Geographic teamed up with the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security and the Peace Research Institute Oslo to illustrate their upcoming 2019-2020 Women, Peace, and Security Index. The index serves as a kind of report card on women's well-being, ranking 167 countries from best to worst in three key areas: women's inclusion in society, sense of security, and access to justice.

Those three areas are broken down into specific categories, such as whether a woman has access to cell phone, feels safe walking home at night, or is surrounded by men who find it unacceptable for her to hold a paying job. Every country has something of a mixed record. The United States as a country ranks #19 overall. The subcategory of government representation -the percentage of legislative seats held by women-helped to lower its score. Mexico's overall country score ranks #103, but it happens to do well when it comes to women holding political seats.

"This exercise of rating and ranking can be really powerful because countries, like human beings, think in relative terms and compare themselves with others," says Judith Kelley, author of Scorecard Diplomacy and Dean of the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. "They care about their status and standing, and it can be a really powerful motivator." She cautions, however, that the measurements-such as gender equality- have to be meaningful to countries and that the data needs to identify actionable solutions.

The index creators see security as one way to show how meaningful women's rights should be to leaders. Women in countries steeped in conflict face increased risk, but they argue that mounting evidence indicates the flip side may also be true: Countries that don't protect women are more at risk themselves.

"We know from the preponderance of the data that there is a correlation in societies where this kind of pervasive, gender-based violence can lead to greater instability, can lead to eventual conflict," says Melanne Verveer, Executive Director of the Georgetown Institute and the former first U.S. ambassador for Global Women's Issues, nominated in 2009 by President Barack Obama. The denial of women's rights and the oppression of women, she says, usually follows "a linear track" to instability.

Verveer says the index is coming out on the cusp of 2020, which will mark 25 years since the United Nation's Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. The conference set forth multiple targets to improve the lives of women around the world. "We're going to be looking at how much progress we've made in those 25 years, and there's been progress, no doubt. Also considerable gaps."

And the simple existence of rankings has power. When meeting with leaders to discuss the Index, says Verveer, "the first thing that happens with representatives of governments is they look at the ranking" to see where they stack up.

According to the graphic, a country represented by boxes colored red are doing worse. Those doing better in certain categories appear blue. Each of those boxes, for a government official or a local organizer, can be a call to action, and for someone on the ground, can be public acknowledgement of individual experience. For example, when Ismail first started as an activist as a teen in Pakistan, she and her sister Saba created a group (one that would expand and eventually train Malala Yousafzai) to address the lack of public spaces for girls. She says the boys could play cricket outside, but the girls could only walk by while on the way to school or shopping. "Later we realized as we grew up that it was not just public parks and public spaces which are not accessible," she says. "It's actually every place where power belongs."

Turning to the index with Ismail to look at Pakistan's section on discriminatory norms, she says, even before looking, "It should be red!" And it is. The country ranks 164 out of 167 countries included in the index.

No matter where a country ranks on the list, there are surprises. "A pattern of unevenness categorizes pretty much all countries," says Jeni Klugman, managing director of the Georgetown Institute and a fellow at the Kennedy School of Government's Women in Public Policy Program at Harvard University. "For example, Afghanistan does relatively well in terms of [women's] political participation." And Yemen, the lowest on the list, has relatively low levels of intimate partner violence and even son bias, the prenatal sex determination and abortions that can result in more boys than girls born in a country.

"Son bias is basically sex-linked abortion," says Klugman. "But you need assisted technology to know the sex." Ironically, in countries like China and India, "as the middle class grew, it [son bias] actually got worse rather than better-people could actually do the ultrasound, find out what the sex was, and have the abortion" if the baby was a girl.

Ranking squarely in the middle of the list is Venezuela. It falls at #84. Norway ranks #1, outstripping Iceland after elections led to the losses of several seats held by women. Had Venezuela only been measured on the dimensions of inclusion and justice, it would jump into the 40s, says Klugman, near Singapore. What pushes it lower on the list is the category of community safety-whether females aged 15 and over report feeling safe while walking home at night.

"When young people want to get together, they go to someone's house and everyone sleeps over. If you leave after dark, your life is at risk," says Beatriz Borges, a women's and human rights activist from Venezuela. "You can be robbed, attacked, or raped with complete impunity," she says.

The sleepovers are a sort of "cultural prevention" Borges says, to avoid violence. Perhaps the index will help turn those individual and "cultural" efforts into official ones, and those experiences into memories.

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The best and worst countries to be a woman

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A version of this story is part of our November 2019 special issue of National Geographic magazine, "Women: A Century of Change." Read more storieshere. No country has it all when it comes to gender equality, but some places are better than others to be a woman.

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This is Malala's diary

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The Daily Show - Malala Yousafzai Extended Interview

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How much do you know about women's rights

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How much do you know about women's rights

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How Well Do You Know Women's Rights Around The Globe?

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What are the biggest problems women face today.

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What are the biggest problems women face today.

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It's been a historic year for women. There are more serving in Congress than ever before, and a record number are currently running for president in 2020. But even with these significant gains, women-both in the U.S. and around the world-can still find gender equality elusive.

For International Women's Day this year, we asked some of the most interesting women we know-including several of those aforementioned lawmakers and presidential candidates-to tell us: What do you think is the biggest challenge facing women in the U.S. today? And what do you think is the biggest challenge facing women internationally today? Here's what they had to say.

***

One of the struggles that underlies all of our policy battles is the continued lack of women in positions of power. From corporate boardrooms, to the courts and political leadership around the world, the lack of women in senior positions continues to stymie progress on issues from pay to humanitarian aid to discrimination in all its forms. The sooner we understand that the lack of women in leadership roles holds back not only women, but all people, the sooner we will be able to advance society as a whole.

***

Patriarchy
Keisha N. Blain teaches history at the University of Pittsburgh and currently serves as president of the African American Intellectual History Society. She is author of Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom (2018) and co-editor of several books, including To Turn The Whole World Over: Black Women and Internationalism (2019).

The biggest challenge facing women in the United States today is patriarchy. This is especially evident in the realm of politics. Regardless of a woman's experience, education or abilities, the patriarchal nature of U.S. society fosters the perception that women are less qualified and less competent than men. What patriarchy has done is convince people that a strong and intelligent woman represents a problem; a disruption to the social order rather than an integral part of it. Biased media coverage of women politicians-stories that focus on women's fashion and looks at the expense of their ideas on policy-underscores this point. It is therefore no coincidence that the U.S. is completely out of step with the rest of the world when it comes to electing a woman as president. While women have maintained the highest office of leadership in Liberia, India, the United Kingdom, Dominica and many other nations across the globe, the same cannot be said for the United States.

From a global perspective, one of the biggest challenges facing women is educational inequality. Despite the many gains of modern feminist movements in the Americas, Africa, Asia and beyond, many still believe that women are less worthy of the same educational opportunities afforded to men. While there is no denying that poverty, geography and other factors contribute to huge disparities in education, patriarchy justifies this denial of opportunity. It feeds the message that men should wield the power and women should occupy a subordinate position in all areas of society. This outdated, yet persistent, point of view fuels educational inequality and a host of other disparities along the lines of gender on national and international levels.

***

I don't think it's possible to name just one challenge-from the economy to climate change to criminal justice reform to national security, all issues are women's issues-but I believe a key to tackling the challenges we face is ensuring women are at the table, making decisions. Something I've seen over and over again in my own career is that women in power bring a different perspective, an essential perspective. We made great strides in 2018, with an unprecedented number of women running for office, and over 100 women sworn in to the 116th Congress. But we still have a long way to go; the U.S. ranks 75th out of 193 countries in terms of women's representation in government. And, this is truly a global issue. If you're trying to tackle the world's problems, you should hear from half the world's population. So, we need to keep speaking up on behalf of every woman's right to be heard and realize her power. My mother used to tell my sister and me, "You may be the first, but make sure you aren't the last." I've never forgotten that.

***

The extremely potent combination of sexism, racism and economic inequality-this may seem like too broad an answer but it pretty much covers it on both a domestic and global front. All of the individual challenges we may be tempted to rank are symptomatic of these massive systemic power imbalances, working in tandem.

***

Trauma-centered feminism
Christina Hoff Sommers is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. She is the author of several books including Who Stole Feminism? and The War Against Boys. She co-hosts The Femsplainers. Follow her @Chsommers.

The threat of harm is a human constant, but by any reasonable measure, American women are among the safest, freest, healthiest, most opportunity-rich women on Earth. In many ways, we are not just doing as well as men, we are surpassing them. But everywhere, especially on college campuses, young women are being taught that they are vulnerable, fragile and in imminent danger. A new trauma-centered feminism has taken hold. Its primary focus is not equality with men-but rather protection from them. This past June, the Reuters Foundation released a survey announcing that the U.S. was one of the top 10 most dangerous countries in the world for women-more dangerous than even Iran or North Korea. The study was ludicrously flawed and turned out to be a survey of "perceptions" of unnamed "experts." But in the current environment of fear and panic, multiple news organizations reported the absurd findings. This new ethic of fear and fragility is poisonous and debilitating-but it's gaining ground. American women should resist the urge to pretend the world is rigged against us when it is not.

The picture is different in the developing world. In countries like Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, Cambodia and Egypt women are contending with practices such as honor killings, genital mutilation, acid burnings, child marriage and gender apartheid. However, there is good news. The number of educated women in these countries has reached critical mass and they are making their presence felt. Wajeha Al-Huwaider has been called the "Rosa Parks of Saudi Arabia." In 2008, she created an international sensation by posting a video of herself driving a car. Until a few months ago, women were not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia. Because of women like her, the laws are beginning to change. Dr. Hawa Abdi, a 71-year-old Somalian doctor and lawyer, is said to be "equal parts Mother Teresa and Rambo." She founded a hospital and refugee camp in rural Somalia that offers a safe space to nearly 100,000 of the world's most imperiled men, women and children. Under her leadership, the settlement is evolving into a model civil society. The challenges facing women in the developing world are daunting. But for the first time in history, a formidable army of brave and resolute women is on the march.

***

As the former executive director of the World Food Program I was often humbled by women in conflict or crisis situations who, when asked about their needs, wanted nothing for themselves but asked that we educate their daughters. Education, these mothers believed, would provide their daughters with opportunities they, because of their gender, were denied. Unfortunately, even with adequate education, women here in the United States as well as women across much of the world still lack equal access to opportunity.

Despite decades of notable progress, at home and abroad, a reality in which opportunities are not defined by gender has yet to be universally achieved. Even more disconcerting, in too many places around the globe, women exercising or even seeking their basic rights is interpreted as a direct and destabilizing challenge to existing power structures. Some regimes are now trying to roll back the hard-won rights of women and girls.For this reason, today I join the voices of women leaders from around the world demanding governments, the private sector and civil society reinvigorate and reinvest in the policies as well as in the legal and social frameworks that will achieve worldwide gender equality and inclusion.

Here in the U.S. we recently elected a record number of new congressional representatives. In other parts of the world, political forces threaten to erode the progress that we have made at both the national level and through landmark global agendas. Whether these forces succeed will depend on whether women leaders and advocates of today and tomorrow, and all who stand with them, recognize the urgency and peril of inaction. Mothers and fathers whether in South Sudan or the South Side of Chicago, are doing their part to demand quality education for their daughters. It is up to women leaders and advocates, including the newly minted congressional leaders, many of whom benefit from past collective effort and stand upon the shoulders of so many, to push and hold wide open the doors of opportunity. Ensuring every woman and girl a possibility to lead life to her fullest potential.

***

Women in the United States who are caregivers-for children, parents, spouses, siblings or extended family members-have two full-time jobs, while trying to compete with men who have one. And over half of us are the primary breadwinners in our households. The standard response is to persuade men to "help" more. But we need a sea-change, one that can happen only with a normative revolution around the value of care. We must come to see care work-the work of investing in others through physical care, teaching, coaching, mentoring, connecting, advising and navigating-as work that is every bit as hard, important and rewarding as the more individualist work that focuses us on investing in ourselves. We must value care monetarily, by paying far more for it through government and private investment, and socially, by raising the prestige of caregiving at home and care careers (which are among the fastest growing job categories and relatively automation proof). In other words, we must come to see traditional "women's work" as truly equal to traditional "men's work."

Women in the world, particularly in developing and middle-income countries, face the far more elemental problem of still being considered property. Saudi Arabia's system, for one, is open about this relationship, requiring women to get the permission of their male "guardian" to enroll in school, travel or take a job. But in many countries, women are still forced to be legally and socially subservient to men, with no means of gaining financial or social independence, much less equal agency. A global women's movement must thus focus on creating legal and social conditions in which women and men have equal access to nutrition, health care, education, jobs and the ability to control their bodies and choose a mate. We will be making progress when parents around the world greet the birth of a girl with equal pleasure and expectation as the birth of a boy.

***

As a working mother of two young children, I believe that the big challenge facing working women is navigating career opportunities while maximizing motherhood. The good news is that economic and political freedom for American women of all races and socioeconomic backgrounds is the highest it's ever been. Working moms do have the luxury of "leaning in" to either their careers or motherhood, but rarely both at once. Enabling a mother to re-enter the workforce where she left off should be commonplace. But solving the "on-ramp problem" for talented women who choose to pause their careers to prioritize family life still eludes us.

The biggest challenge facing women internationally is the fundamental inequality of political and economic opportunity that the majority of women in the world face, but that Americans take for granted. A 21st century feminism should work to extend the human rights, political freedoms, economic opportunities enjoyed by women in the West to our sisters globally.

***

Increasing rates of maternal mortality
Daina Ramey Berry is the Oliver H. Radkey Regents Professor of History at the University of Texas at Austin and co-author of the forthcoming, A Black Women's History of the United States (Beacon, 2020).

One of the greatest challenges women in the U.S. and women throughout the world face today are increasing rates of maternal mortality. According to the World Health Organization, 830 women die every day from "preventable causes related to pregnancy." These statistics are even more staggering in developing countries and among women of color in the United States. Black women in particular are the most affected, dying at a ratio of 25.1 deaths per 100,000. According to the Journal of Perinatal Education, the rates for black women did not improve between 1980 and 1990, and these rates are not much better today. Some believe such disparities occur because of a racially divided society in which black women experience higher levels of stress and marginalization causing many of their health concerns to go unrecognized. This leads to untimely and preventable deaths.

***

The greatest challenge confronting women in America is a campaign to normalize misogyny and take women's rights backward. It starts with a president who has a long track record of making disgusting and demeaning statements about women. Perhaps even worse, his administration has translated these attitudes into concrete action. For example, despite the rise of the MeToo movement, the Department of Education has actually introduced measures to provide greater protections for college students accused of committing sexual harassment and assault by undermining Title IX. President Donald Trump has also hurt working women and their families by suspending a federal rule designed to close the gender pay gap, introduced significant restrictions on reproductive freedom, and threatened the future of Roe v. Wade by nominating Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

On the global front, perhaps the most important issue for the international community is empowering the voices of women. Right now, women and young girls everywhere face an immense range of challenges-from the inability to access food, education and employment to the threat of gender-based violence. Their perspectives and experiences must help shape our collective future. If we want to forge the best solutions for expanding peace and security moving forward, then we need to give smart, dynamic and strong women a seat at the decision-making table-both here at home and around the world.

***

Women are the primary or joint breadwinners for a majority of American households. But right now, this economy and our government is not working for them and their families. Today, a woman earns 80 cents for every dollar a man earns, and the pay gap is even worse for black and Latina women. Wages are barely budging in this country but the cost of child care has gone up so much that it's now more expensive than in-state college tuition in most states-making it harder for women and men to work if they want to. Reproductive rights have been under relentless attack even though we know that access to safe abortion services is critical to the health and economic futures of millions of women.

These core economic issues are a huge burden on women and their families. More young women go to college than men, but unequal pay makes it harder for them to pay back student loans. More women are minimum-wage workers than men, but the minimum wage no longer keeps a mom and her baby out of poverty. I don't even want to think about how many women-and men -have been sidelined from a bright future because they couldn't find a decent child care option for their kid. We've got to make this economy work for women and families all across this country.

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What Are the Biggest Problems Women Face Today?

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It's been a historic year for women. There are more serving in Congress than ever before, and a record number are currently running for president in 2020. But even with these significant gains, women-both in the U.S. and around the world-can still find gender equality elusive.

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The fight for women's rights and women's suffrage, which predated the famous Seneca Falls Convention of 1848, is one of the most important civil rights struggles in U.S. history.

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It seems you still have to be a wonder woman these days to climb the corporate ladder. Women make on average €8,000 a year less than men and few of them make it all the way to the top. The economic crisis has made the situation even worse. This year's International Women's Day on 8 March is dedicated to how women have been affected by the crisis. Find out more in our infographic.

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Wonderful to be a woman? It still pays more to be a man | News | European Parliament

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It seems you still have to be a wonder woman these days to climb the corporate ladder. Women make on average €8,000 a year less than men and few of them make it all the way to the top. The economic crisis has made the situation even worse.

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Women's history is full of trailblazers in the fight for equality in the United States. From Abigail Adams imploring her husband to "remember the ladies" when envisioning a government for the American colonies, to suffragists like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton fighting for women's right to vote, to the rise of feminism and Hillary Clinton becoming the first female nominee for president by a major political party, American women have long fought for equal footing throughout the nation's history.

And while some glass ceilings have been shattered (see: Title IX), others remain. But progress continues to be made. As Clinton said while accepting her nomination, "When there are no ceilings, the sky's the limit."

Below is a timeline of notable events in U.S. women's history.

Abigail Adams, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth

March 31, 1776: In a letter to her husband, Founding Father John Adams, future first lady Abigail Adams makes a plea to him and the Continental Congress to "remember the ladies and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation."

July 19-20, 1848: In the first women's rights convention organized by women, the Seneca Falls Convention is held in New York, with 300 attendees, including organizers Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. Sixty-eight women and 32 men (including Frederick Douglass) sign the Declaration of Sentiments, which sparked decades of activism, eventually leading to the passage of the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote.
READ MORE: Why the 19th Amendment Did Not Guarantee All Women the Right to Vote
January 23, 1849: Elizabeth Blackwell becomes the first woman to graduate from medical school and become a doctor in the United States. Born in Bristol, England, she graduated from Geneva College in New York with the highest grades in her entire class.

May 29, 1851: A formerly enslaved worker turned abolitionist and women's rights activist, Sojourner Truth delivers her famous "Ain't I a Woman?" speech at the Women's Rights Convention in Akron, Ohio. "And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man-when I could get it-and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne 13 children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?"

Contemporaneous reports of Truth's speech did not include this slogan, and quoted Truth in standard English. In later years, this slogan was further distorted to "Ain't I a Woman?", reflecting the false belief that as a formerly enslaved woman, Truth would have had a Southern accent. Truth was, in fact, a New Yorker.
READ MORE: Early Women's Rights Activists Wanted Much More than Suffrage
Suffrage Movement, 19th Amendment

May 15, 1869: Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton found the National Woman Suffrage Association, which coordinated the national suffrage movement. In 1890, the group teamed with the American Woman Suffrage Association to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association.

October 16, 1916: Margaret Sanger opens the first birth control clinic in the United States. Located in Brownsville, Brooklyn, her clinic was deemed illegal under the "Comstock Laws" forbidding birth control, and the clinic was raided on October 26, 1916. When she had to close two additional times due to legal threats, she closed the clinic and eventually founded the American Birth Control League in 1921-the precursor to today's Planned Parenthood.

April 2, 1917: Jeannette Rankin of Montana, a longtime activist with the National Woman Suffrage Association, is sworn in as the first woman elected to Congress as a member of the House of Representatives.

Aug. 18, 1920: Ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is completed, declaring "the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex." It is nicknamed "The Susan B. Anthony Amendment" in honor of her work on behalf of women's suffrage.

February 16, 1945: The Alaska Equal Rights Act is signed into law. The act is the first state or territorial anti-discrimination law enacted in the United States in the 20th century. Elizabeth Peratrovich, a Tlingit woman who was Grand President of the Alaska Native Sisterhood, spearheaded the effort to end discrimination against Alaska Natives and other non-white residents.

Rosa Parks, Civil Rights, Equal Pay

May 9, 1960: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves the first commercially produced birth control pill in the world, allowing women to control when and if they have children. Margaret Sanger initially commissioned " the pill " with funding from heiress Katherine McCormick.

July 2, 1964: President Lyndon B. Johnson, signs the Civil Rights Act into law; Title VII bans employment discrimination based on race, religion, national origin or sex.

June 30, 1966: Betty Friedan, author of 1963's The Feminine Mystique, helps found the National Organization for Women (NOW), using, as the organization now states, "grassroots activism to promote feminist ideals, lead societal change, eliminate discrimination, and achieve and protect the equal rights of all women and girls in all aspects of social, political, and economic life."
READ MORE: Six Unsung Heroines of the Civil Rights Movement
Title IX, Battle of the Sexes

Jan. 22, 1973: In its landmark 7-2 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court declares that the Constitution protects a woman's legal right to an abortion. In June 2022, the Supreme Court overturned the ruling.

Sandra Day O'Connor, Sally Ride

July 7, 1981: Sandra Day O'Connor is sworn in by President Ronald Reagan as the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. She retires in 2006, after serving for 24 years.

June 18 1983: Flying on the Space Shuttle Challenger, Sally Ride becomes the first American woman in space.

March 12, 1993: Nominated by President Bill Clinton, Janet Reno is sworn in as the first female attorney general of the United States.

Sept. 13, 1994: Clinton signs the Violence Against Women Act as part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, providing funding for programs that help victims of domestic violence, rape, sexual assault, stalking and other gender-related violence.

Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris

The daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants, Harris served as California's first Black female attorney general and won election to the U.S. Senate in 2016. She made her own unsuccessful presidential bid before being selected by former vice president Joe Biden as his running mate.
READ MORE: 7 Women Leaders That Were Elected to Highest Office
Sources

Timeline of Legal History of Women in the United States, National Women's History Alliance

Seneca Falls Convention, Library of Congress

Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I A Woman?" Sojourner Truth Memorial

Woman Suffrage, National Geographic Society

Suffragists Unite: National American Woman Suffrage Association, National Women's History Museum

A record number of women will be serving in the new Congress. PEWResearch.org.

A List of Firsts for Women In This Year's Midterm Elections. NPR.org.

Fact Check

We strive for accuracy and fairness. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate.

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From a plea to a founding father, to the suffragists to Title IX, to the first female political figures, women have blazed a steady trail towards equality in the United States. Explore famous firsts and figures in women's history with this timeline.

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Type your country into the search box to find out how it ranks for gender equality. The figures are based on the World Economic Forum (WEF)'s annual Global Gender Gap report, which measures countries according to where women are more likely to be able to participate fully in political and economic life and enjoy the most equal access to education and healthcare.
Gender pay gap 'may take 118 years to close' Sources
World Economic Forum, Unesco Institute of Statistics, OECD
Methodology
To produce the global gender gap index, the World Economic Forum analyses more than a dozen datasets relating to economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival and political empowerment.

The rankings are compiled by calculating gender-based gaps in access to resources and opportunities within each country. This enables the index to compare rich and poor countries on an equal footing.
100 Women 2015
This year's season features two weeks of inspirational stories about the BBC's 100 Women and others who are defying stereotypes around the world.

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram using the hashtag #100Women. Listen to the programmes here.

This year's report is the 10th produced by the Forum and covers 145 countries.

Data on the gender wage gap is from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The figure for each country is the latest available and ranges from 2010-13.

The OECD calculates the gender wage gap as the difference between median earnings of men and women relative to median earnings of men. The figures are calculated based on full time workers only.

Data on the proportion of university graduates that are female is from the Unesco Institute of Statistics.
Note: The data for the share of government ministers in Canada that are women was calculated before November's change of government. Produced by Nassos Stylianou, Charlotte Thornton and Richard Bangay. Additional data research by Olivia Dowsett.

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Type your country into the search box to find out how it ranks for gender equality. The figures are based on the World Economic Forum (WEF)'s annual Global Gender Gap report, which measures countries according to where women are more likely to be able to participate fully in political and economic life and enjoy the most equal access to education and healthcare.

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Women are likely to earn £300,000 less than men over their working lives, according to a new analysis that has sparked fresh calls for more shared parental leave to close the UK's stubborn gender pay gap.

Before International Women's Day on Tuesday, figures show a gap of £5,732, or 24%, in average full-time annual salaries between women and men - more than four decades after the Equal Pay Act of 1970 was introduced.

Over a career of 52 years, that gap translates into a lifetime earnings shortfall of £298,064 for female employees, according to the analysis by the recruitment company Robert Half.

The Fawcett Society, a women's rights organisation, said the analysis was the latest evidence of a financial price paid by many women after having children.

"The gender pay gap becomes a significant lifetime pay penalty. The gap widens for older women and becomes a significant pensions gap in retirement," said the Fawcett Society's chief executive Sam Smethers.
Website aims to get female teachers back to work after pregnancy
"The impact of having children means that as men's careers take off, women's often stagnate or decline," she said.

"Their salaries never fully recover. We have to make it easier for men to share care, create flexibility first at work and open up more senior roles as quality part-time jobs."

The analysis by Robert Half also highlighted faster growth for men's full-time salaries of 1.6% compared with 1.4% for women in the year to April 2015, based on earnings figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

That took the median gross pay for full-time male employees to £29,934, compared with £24,202 for women. The average for men and women combined was £27,645.

Katy Tanner, a director at Robert Half UK, said there were important lessons for employers as they increasingly report skills shortages.

"As in-demand candidates continue to be in the driver's seat, employers are needing to offer competitive remuneration and benefits packages above industry averages," she said.

"International Women's Day provides a platform to highlight the importance forrewarding all employees fairly on the basis of their contribution to the organisation, rather than their gender or indeed any other point of difference."

While this new analysis puts the gender pay gap at 24%, the ONS estimates the shortfall is 9.4%.

The two measures differ because the ONS compares median hourly earnings - rather than annual earnings - and excludes overtime. It does this because overtime can skew results, given that men work relatively more overtime than women. Using hourly earnings better accounts for the fact that men work on average more hours than women, in the ONS's view.

The pay gap of 9.4% in April 2015, the latest figure available, marked a drop from 9.6% in 2014 and was the lowest since records began in 1997 - but the ONS noted "the gap has changed relatively little in recent years".

Commenting on the potential £300,000 lifetime gap highlighted in Monday's analysis, the TUC general secretary, Frances O'Grady,said: "Far more must be done to tackle the UK's gender pay gap. We need more quality part-time jobs, better-paid fathers' leave and more free childcare from the end of maternity leave to help mothers get back to work after having children."

A government spokesman said: "This government has gone further than ever before in tackling the gender pay gap. Only last month we unveiled a raft of measures requiring companies with more than 250 employees to publish their gender pay gap and we are extending that duty across the public sector.

"We are making progress with business towards the elimination of the gender pay gap. There will always be more to do but we expect that progress to continue as we continue towards a truly equal workforce in all sectors."

David Cameron has vowed to " end the gender pay gap in a generation", and last year set out new rules forcing every company that employs more than 250 people to publish the pay differences. The UK has also introduced shared parental leave, but equality campaigners are concerned too few families can afford for fathers to take it.

The UK has made headway in some respects on gender equality at work, according to separate research published on Monday that shows the country rising up a "women in work" league table.

Britain climbed to 16th place from 21st the year before, in a ranking of 33 countries by the consultants PwC. Iceland, Norway and Sweden held their top three places in the table, which is based on data from 2014.

Pay equality statistics

The authors put the UK's improvement down to a drop in female unemployment and narrowing of the gender pay gap. But it found many women in Britain were struggling to return to work after having children or career breaks and noted a relatively low share of women in full-time employment, where the UK is 30th out of 33 countries.

Despite a narrowing pay gap, the UK still lags behind on women's earnings. PwC says the UK gender pay gap dropped from 20% to 18% in the latest index but was still higher than the average of 17% for the OECD.

PwC estimates that closing the gender pay gap would bring an £80bn boost to overall female earnings in the UK - a £5,500 average pay rise for every working woman.

Swedish aspirations

It also sees wider benefits to the economy from increasing the female employment rate. If the UK could match Sweden's 60% female employment rate, it could boost GDP by 9% or £170bn, the Women in Work report said.

"It is encouraging that the UK is making progress on the employment prospects for women, but there is still a way to go before we match the Nordic countries," said Yong Jing Teow, economist at PwC. "There are now more women in work due to the improving economy - but where we fall down is on how many of these women are in full-time work."
Topics

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Gender pay gap: women earn £300,000 less than men over working life

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Women are likely to earn £300,000 less than men over their working lives, according to a new analysis that has sparked fresh calls for more shared parental leave to close the UK's stubborn gender pay gap.

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Why 2014 was the key year for women's rights and gender equality.

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Why 2014 was the key year for women's rights and gender equality.

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Over the past few decades, the often tireless work of the women's movement around the world has brought positive change. There has been a growing recognition that countries cannot thrive if half the population is left out of education and work, or not included in decision-making. Laws have been introduced to recognise women's right to safety in and outside the home, equal pay in the workplace and equality under the law, and there have been attitudinal changes towards women.

The past 20 years have seen two landmark international agreements on women's rights. In September 1994, the International Conference on Population and Development, which met in Cairo, for the first time shifted the emphasis on population control from government efforts to reduce numbers through family planning, to look more broadly at women's empowerment and how their lives can be improved. It examined issues including access to decent reproductive health services, sexual health advice and support and through the elimination harmful practices, such as female genital mutilation (FGM) and forced marriage. About 179 countries signed up to the programme of action, which contained more than 200 recommendations.

The following year, in Beijing, the Fourth World Conference on Women committed to achieving gender equality by removing the obstacles that limit women's involvement in public and private life and prevented them from an equal share in decision-making.

But with success comes the backlash, and that backlash has been increasingly evident over the past 15 years. As the UN looks to mark the 20th anniversary of the Cairo agreement this year, women's rights organisations are, more and more, having to concern themselves with fighting reactionary policies that seek to chip away at hard-won rights.

Globally, about one in three women will be beaten or raped during their lifetime, and more than 140 million women and girls are estimated to be living with the consequences of FGM. And despite numerous UN resolutions that state the importance of women's involvement in peace and reconciliation, women are still not invited to peace talks.

Women's rights groups are underfunded. Research by the Association for Women's Rights in Development (Awid) found that the average annual income of 740 organisations it surveyed in 2010 was about $20,000 (£12,000).

On Tuesday, the Guardian launched a women's rights and gender equality section to provide a specific focus on the pressing issues affecting women, girls and transgender people around the world, and the critical work being carried out by women's rights movements.

This year is gearing up to be a key time for women's rights and gender equality. The UN Commission on the Status of Women, being held in New York in March, will discuss progress against the millennium development goals and crucially look at how women feature in what comes next.

Despite loud calls for a standalone goal for gender equality to be included in any new set of targets after 2015, it is far from certain that this will be achieved. Sexual violence against women, particularly during conflict, is expected to receive global attention once again this year, with a summit hosted by the UK, and the anniversary of Cairo will be a chance for cool assessment on whether women have achieved the right to determine when, and if, they have children.

Working in partnership with Mama Cash and Awid, we want this section to offer a safe forum for debate and for sharing ideas. We want to create a global platform for discussion that amplifies the voices of women's rights advocates who are normally left out of decision-making or not heard in mainstream media.

Tell us what you think and what you would like to hear more about. Email us at development@theguardian.com
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Why 2014 is a key year for women's rights and gender equality | Liz Ford

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Over the past few decades, the often tireless work of the women's movement around the world has brought positive change. There has been a growing recognition that countries cannot thrive if half the population is left out of education and work, or not included in decision-making.

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Emma Watson at the HeForShe Campaign 2014 - Official UN Video

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In early 20th century Britain, the cause of female suffrage was usually ignored by the press and dismissed by politicians. To gain support for their right to vote, suffragettes turned away from peaceful protest and embraced militant tactics that grew to include window breaking and arson. Their fight for equality escalated in violence in 1912 and 1913.

Here are six real-life suffragettes (plus one man) who fought to give women the right to vote:

Emmeline Pankhurst

Photo: Jimmy Sime/Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

In 1903, when she was a 45-year-old widow, Emmeline Pankhurst founded the WSPU, whose slogan became "deeds not words." In her work for the group, she gave speeches that encouraged militant action. She declared in 1913, "Militancy has brought woman suffrage where we want it, that is, to the forefront of practical politics. That's the justification for it."

Between 1908 and 1914, Pankhurst was imprisoned 13 times. She would be released after going on hunger strikes, but the police pursued her again once her health had recovered. This cycle only ended with the advent of World War I, when Pankhurst directed WSPU members to support the war effort. In 1918, after the war, Pankhurst was pleased to see women granted limited suffrage.

Hannah Mitchell

Born to a poor family in 1872, Mitchell grew up resenting unfair treatment such as being made to darn her brothers' socks while they got to relax. However, as an adult she initially considered the fight for female suffrage a middle-class issue: as there was a property requirement for voters, expanding the franchise would do little for women like her.

Instead, Mitchell, who'd worked as a domestic servant and seamstress, devoted her energies to the Independent Labour Party - until she came to feel that the ILP was more focused on universal male suffrage. By 1904, Mitchell had joined the Women's Social and Political Union, the group headed by Pankhurst whose members became known as suffragettes.

After disrupting a political meeting in 1906, Mitchell was charged with obstruction and given a three-day sentence. Working-class suffragettes with family obligations often found spending time in custody to be difficult - unlike most middle and upper-class women, they had no servants to handle cooking and cleaning while they were away. Mitchell was no exception to this rule - though her husband was a Socialist, he ignored her wishes and paid her fine so she could leave jail after one day. As she noted in her autobiography, The Hard Way Up: "Most of us who were married found that "Votes for Women" were of less interest to our husbands than their own dinners. They simply could not understand why we made such a fuss about it."

Mitchell left the WSPU in 1907 - in part because she was hurt that Pankhurst didn't visit when she was recovering from a breakdown - but continued to fight for suffrage with the Women's Freedom League.

Barbara and Gerald Gould

Photo: Museum of London/Heritage Images/Getty Images

One real-life couple who both supported female suffrage was Barbara Ayrton Gould and her husband Gerald. Barbara, who'd studied chemistry and physiology at University College, London, became a member of WSPU in 1906 and was a full-time organizer for the group by 1909. Barbara and Gerald got married in 1910.

Gerald supported women's suffrage with actions like writing a pro-suffrage pamphlet entitled The Democratic Plea. In March 1912, Barbara participated in an attention-grabbing bout of smashing store windows in the West End of London. After this, Barbara spent time in prison; in 1913, she went to France for a time to avoid being rearrested.

Frustrated by WSPU leadership, Barbara left the group in 1914. However, the Goulds didn't abandon their quest for women's suffrage: On February 6, 1914, they were among the founders of the United Suffragists, which welcomed both men and women as members. That group ended its campaign when 1918's Representation of the People Act gave women limited suffrage.

Edith Garrud

Suffragette Edith Garrud was born in 1872. While protesting, suffragettes often faced harassment and attacks, both from the police and members of the public. But thanks to Garrud's martial arts instruction, which she was offering to suffragettes by 1909, many learned how to defend themselves with jiu-jitsu.

In addition to "suffrajitsu," as this training came to be nicknamed, Garrud also organized a protective force - called "The Bodyguard" - to keep Pankhurst and other suffragette leaders safe and out of police custody. Besides their martial arts skills, women on protective duty learned to wield clubs they kept hidden in their dresses.

Olive Hockin

One target of suffragette ire was chancellor of the exchequer David Lloyd George. In February 1913, suffragettes bombed an empty house that was being built for Lloyd George.

The actual perpetrator(s) of the bombing were never found - instead, Pankhurst was arrested after declaring, "The authorities need not look for the women who did what was done last night. I accept full responsibility for it." However, police considered Olive Hockin one of the prime suspects.

Though Hockin wasn't charged with the Lloyd George bombing, police raided her home in March 1913 after a suffragette paper with her name and address was found at the site of an arson attack on the Roehampton Golf Club. Inside her apartment, they found a "suffragette arsenal" that included acid, a fake license plate, stones, a hammer and wire cutters.

Emily Wilding Davison

Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Emily Davison, who was born in 1872, joined the WSPU in 1906, and soon was devoting all her energy to the fight for suffrage. Her militant actions included attacking a man with a whip when she mistook him for George, stone-throwing and arson. (Davison has sometimes been labeled as one of the suffragettes who bombed George's house in 1913, but records indicate the police did not view her as a suspect.)

Davison was jailed nine times for her militancy. During her time behind bars, she was subjected to 49 force-feedings (many suffragettes were force-fed when they started hunger strikes in prison). In an article, she wrote that these feedings were a "hideous torture."

Davison's last militant act took place at the Epsom Derby in June 1913. There, she ran in front of, and was subsequently trampled by, the king's horse; she died a few days later. Davison's true intentions have been debated: Some feel she wanted to become a martyr, others believe she only aimed to make a statement by placing the suffragette colors of purple, white and green on the king's horse. The fact that Davison had a return train ticket in her purse and was planning a vacation in France indicate she didn't intend to commit suicide, but there is no definitive answer.

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7 People Who Fought to Give Women the Right to Vote

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In early 20th century Britain, the cause of female suffrage was usually ignored by the press and dismissed by politicians. To gain support for their right to vote, suffragettes turned away from peaceful protest and embraced militant tactics that grew to include window breaking and arson.

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https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/don-t-forget-working-class-women-who-made-suffragette-history/

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Article about the difference between men and women

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Article about the difference between men and women

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https://www.ipsos.com/en/difference-between-men-and-women-how-we-view-gender-equality

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-42879161

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Manal was born on the 25 of April 1979 in Saudi Arabia. At the time they were not allowed to drive cars so she went out and drove. She made a youtube video showing everybody what she was doing. A few days later she was arrested luckily not for too long. If men can drive, why can't women? Manal says.

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Driving was illegal for women in Saudi Arabia, but Manal Al Sharif did it anyway

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Things women were prevented from doing a century ago

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Things women were prevented from doing a century ago

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Applying for a credit card or loan in their own name

Working in the legal profession and civil service

Claiming equal pay for doing the same work as men

Prosecuting a spouse for rape

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Marie curie changed the world not once but twice. She founded the new science of radioactivity – even the word was invented by her – and her discoveries launched effective cures for cancer.

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Rosa Parks is a black woman that wanted equality from black and white people. One day she was sitting in a bus and a white person came in and wanted to sit down. She was supposed to stand up but she didn't so she got in big trouble. Sadly she died on October 24 2005.

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Rosa Parks, Civil Rights Activist | Biography | History

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Malala Yousufzai Shot, Recovering: Pakistani Girl Travels to England for Treatment

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A global history of women’s rights, in 3 minutes

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Women’s rights is the fight for the idea that women should have equal rights with men. Like being able to vote.

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Malala was born in 1997 in Pakistan. She is the youngest person ever to get a nobel peace prize, she got it when she was 17. Malala was shot in the head by a Taliban. Malala is a girl and girls were not allowed to go to school at the time. She is now an activist saying that girls should go to school.

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Malala Yousafzai – Children are change makers