Women's rights

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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The Trylon and Perisphere, two modernistic structures at the New York World's Fair of 1939-1940
Photo: Trylon, Perisphere and Helicline (Samuel H. Gottscho)

Women’s rights, as a term, typically refers to the freedoms inherently possessed by women and girls of all ages, which may be institutionalized, ignored or illegitimately suppressed by law, custom, and behavior in a particular society. These liberties are grouped together and differentiated from broader notions of human rights because they often differ from the freedoms inherently possessed by or recognized for men and boys, and because activism surrounding this issue claims an inherent historical and traditional bias against the exercise of rights by women.

Feminism and most modern sociological theory maintain that the differences between men and women are, at least in part, socially constructed 'differences', (i.e. determined through history by specific human groups), rather than biologically determined, immutable conditions. See article on women, a term some feminists see as a "gender unbiased term."

Issues commonly associated with notions of women's rights include, though are not limited to, the right: to bodily integrity and autonomy; to vote (universal suffrage); to hold public office; to work; to fair wages or equal pay; to own property; to education; to serve in the military; to enter into legal contracts; and to have marital, parental and religious rights. Today, women in most nations, can vote, own property, work in many different professions, and hold public office. These are some of the rights of the modern woman. But women have not always been allowed to do these things. They and their supporters have waged and in some places continue to wage long campaigns to win the same rights as men and be viewed as equals in society.

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Women's rights

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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