Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls of many societies

worldwide.
In some places, these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behavior,
whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed. They differ from broader notions of human rights
through claims of an inherent historical and traditional bias against the exercise of rights by women and
girls in favour of men and boys.
[1]

Issues commonly associated with notions of women's rights include, though are not limited to, the right: to
bodily integrity and autonomy; to vote(suffrage); to hold public office; to work; to fair wages or equal pay;
to own property; to education; to serve in the military or be conscripted; to enter into legal contracts; and
to have marital or parental rights.
[2]


And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living."
Property rights
During the 19th century some women in the United States and Britain began to challenge laws that
denied them the right to their property once they married. Under the common law doctrine
of coverture husbands gained control of their wives' real estate and wages. Beginning in the 1840s, state
legislatures in the United States
[96]
and the British Parliament
[97]
began passing statutes that protected
women's property from their husbands and their husbands' creditors. These laws were known as the
Married Women's Property Acts.
[98]
Courts in the 19th-century United States also continued to require
privy examinations of married women who sold their property. A privy examination was a practice in which
a married woman who wished to sell her property had to be separately examined by a judge or justice of
the peace outside of the presence of her husband and asked if her husband was pressuring her into
signing the document.
[99]


dditionally, on the national level, individual countries have also organized efforts (legally, politically,
socially) to prevent, reduce and punish violence against women. As a particular case study, here are
some developments since the 1960s in the United States to oppose and treat violence against women:
[31]

1967: One of the country's first domestic violence shelters opened in Maine.
1972: The country's first rape help hotline opened in Washington, D.C.
1978: Two national coalitions, the National Coalition Against Sexual Assault and the National
Coalition Against Domestic Violence, were formed, to raise awareness of these two forms of violence
against women.
1984: The US Attorney General created the Department of Justice Task Force on Family Violence, to
address ways in which the criminal justice system & community response to domestic violence
should be improved.
1994: Passage of the Violence Against Women Act or VAWA, legislation included in the Violent
Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, sponsored by then-Senator Joseph Biden, which
required a strengthened community response to crimes of domestic violence and sexual assault,
strengthened federal penalties for repeat sex offenders and strengthened legislative protection of
victims, among many other provisions.
2000: President Clinton signed into law the VAWA of 2000, further strengthening federal laws, and
emphasizing assistance of immigrant victims, elderly victims, victims with disabilities, and victims of
dating violence.
2006: President Bush signed into law the VAWA of 2006, with an emphasis on programs to address
violence against Indian women, sexual assault, and youth victims, and establishing programs for
Engaging Men and Youth, and Culturally and Linguistically Specific Services.
2007: The National Teen Dating Abuse Hotline opened.
2009: President Obama declared April as Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
Other countries have also enacted comparable legislative, political and social instruments to address
violence against women. Experts in the international community generally believe, however, that solely
enacting punitive legislation for prevention & punishment of violence against women is not sufficient to
address the problem. For example, although much stricter laws on violence against women have been
passed in Bangladesh, violence against women is still rising.
[34]
Instead, it is thought that wide societal
changes to address gender inequalities & women's empowerment will be the way to reduce violence
against women.
[19][34][39][40]


Violence against women throughout the life cycle
Phase Type of violence
Pre-birth
Sex-selective abortion; effects of battering during pregnancy on birth
outcomes
Infancy Female infanticide; physical, sexual and psychological abuse
Girlhood
Child marriage; female genital mutilation; physical, sexual and
psychological abuse; incest; child prostitution and pornography
Adolescence
and adulthood
Dating and courtship violence (e.g. acid throwing and date rape); economically coerced
sex (e.g. school girls having sex with sugar daddies in return for school fees); incest;
sexual abuse in the workplace; rape; sexual harassment; forced prostitution and
pornography; trafficking in women; partner violence; marital rape; dowry abuse and
murders; partner homicide; psychological abuse; abuse of women with disabilities;
forced pregnancy
Elderly
Forced suicide or homicide of widows for economic reasons; sexual,
physical and psychological abuse

Womens World Congress Insistence on Empowerment of Women:
In continuation of the UN Declaration of 1975, the Third Womens World Congress [or conference]
was held at Nairobi [Kenya] in 1985. A document released on this occasion recommended efforts
towards empowerment of women. In this document, the question of women political participation
was highlighted and it was recommended that 35% of the total seats should be reserved for women.
It was also recommended that some posts should be reserved for women at the block and village
level bureaucracy. On the economic front, a number of income generating schemes were introduced
for women. In addition to that provisions were also made to certain proportion of women as
beneficiaries in all the developmental schemes like the IRDP, JRY, TRYCEM, and so on.
The Fourth World Conference on Women was held in Beijing [China] in 1995 in which
representatives from 189 nations including India had taken part. The Conference recognised some
12 serious areas such as women and poverty, health, economic position, media and rights,
environment, girl child, human rights and women, institutional arrangement for womens
development, women in decision taking process, education and training for job, etc. in order to
strengthen women. The Conference unanimously passed a resolution on gender equality.
Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly was also convened in the year 2000 in
New York to assess the progress of the programmes held in the direction of establishing gender
equality.
The topic of the conference was Women 2000: Equality, Development and Peace for the 21st
Century. Only the NGOs, [Non-Governmental Organisations] had to take part in it. The basic
purpose of the conference was to convince the member nations regarding the need for empowering
women and to take appropriate steps in that direction.
The Indian Response towards the Conference Issue:
On the basis of the proceedings of the world conference on women, the Government of India
prepared a National Document concerning the development of women. The document lays down
various strategies for womens development. The Government also declared the year 2001 as the
Strategies for Womens Development:
The national document which the Government of India had prepared with the intention of promoting
womens development highlights the importance of three strategies which are mentioned below.
(i) Obtaining Greater Political Participation of Women:
The document recommends that 33% of the seats should be reserved for women in order to get the
effective participation of women in politics. It was also recommended that some power positions
[posts] should be reserved for women at the block and village level bureaucracy.
(ii) Income Generating Schemes for Women:
On the economic front, a number of incomes- generating schemes were to be introduced to women
as per the provisions of this document. It was insisted that sufficient provisions were to be made in
all the rural developmental programmes [such as, IRDP: Integrated Rural Developmental
Programme; JRY: Jawahar Rozgar Yojana; TRYSEM: Training of Rural Youth and Self-
Employment, etc.] enabling a certain proportion of women to become their beneficiaries.
(iii) Increasing Female Literacy Level:
On the social front, it was recommended to obtain proper co-ordination between governmental and
non-government institutions to increase considerably the literacy level of women. It was hoped that
with the help of literacy, women would be able to lead a life of self-reliance.
Empowerment of Women and The 73 Constitution Amendment Act, 1993:
The 73 Constitution Amendment Act 1993 was undertaken mainly to give constitutional status to the
The Panchayat Raj System and to introduce it in India on a uniform basis. Another purpose behind
the Act was to assure the empowerment of women.
The framers of the 73rd Constitution Amendment Act believed that social and economic status of
women could not be improved much without political power. The females in the village need to be
given some political power. They should have their share in the decisions made about the
development of their villages. The new Panchayat Raj is a part of the effort to empower the women
at least at the village level