Rights of Women: A Historical Perspective

Abstract

Since Mary Wollstonecraft’s seminal work - A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792), there has been almost centuries of the evolution of the rights of women. The world has witnessed social, economic and legislative reforms around these rights. They are asserting their right to shape their life from within and not to have it shaped for them. Fortunately, the philosophy that a woman being equal is well recognized widely understood and also practically accepted. Still, there exists lack of knowledge how women gained the existing rights. Large number of concerns about the women’s evolving personality and incidental claims are being countered at various levels. More participation of women themselves along with various activists is bringing transformation in this area. Some of the issues have indeed been settled, others not yet. The historical development of their rights is the main focus of this work. The core of the paper may be summed up in the words of Vance Thomson in Woman (1917) – “Whether you like it or not Woman is the Paladin, enormous and strong, of the ideals of tomorrow. She is the future; she is the future home; she is the future state – for she is in the majority both in numbers and in common sense and she has withal a kind of civic integrity, which may be unscrupulous, but which makes nevertheless for victory.”