women's rights - events

1629	Japan	Female actors are banned in Japan, so kabuki theatre, a popular form of theatre originated by a woman that employs music and dancing and depicts scenes of everyday life, is developed by all-male companies.
1762	France	The French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau writes that women should be passive and weak, and their education should be directed towards pleasing the man and raising the children. According to him, a wife should not only be faithful, but also ensure that others acknowledge her fidelity.
1792	England	The English writer and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft publishes her Vindication of the Rights of Woman.
c. 1800	Europe	Schoolgirls in Europe are deprived of food, exercise, and fresh air to achieve the fashionable look of pallor and thinness.
1869	England	The English philosopher John Stuart Mill publishes ‘The Subjection of Women’, an essay arguing for sexual equality.
9 August 1870	UK	The Married Women's Property Act is passed by the British Parliament, making small but significant concessions to equality in Britain. It recognizes a woman's right to keep any money she earns and some of her own possessions.
1909	United Kingdom	The suffragette Marion Wallace Dunlop becomes the first hunger striker in Britain: she is released after 91 hours.
1915	United Kingdom	Women in wartime Britain are increasingly taking on men's responsibilities in the workplace, and are proving more productive in many fields.
28 November 1919	United Kingdom	In Britain, Lady Nancy Astor is elected in a by-election and becomes the first woman member of Parliament to take her seat.
c. 1930	United Kingdom	It becomes socially acceptable for women to wear trousers when playing golf or riding a horse.
1932	Brazil	Women in Brazil gain the vote.
1932	France	The French Senate denies women's suffrage for the third time.
1932	Thailand	Women in Thailand win the right to vote and to hold public office.
1936	USSR	A system of maternity welfare is established in the USSR, including child care and financial support for women.
1939	Philippines	Women gain the right to vote in the Philippines.
1941	Panama	Women in Panama gain the right to vote on the same basis as men.
26 May 1944	Syria	There are street riots in Damascus after the Syrian government permits women to remove their veils in public.
1946	France	Women are granted a statutory right to equal pay in France.
1946	Italy	Women gain the vote in Italy.
5 May 1947	Japan	The Japanese parliament adopts an equal-rights amendment that bans discrimination by sex and gives women the power to bring lawsuits charging bias.
9 September 1947	Argentina	Women in Argentina gain the right to vote thanks to the efforts of First Lady Eva Perón.
1949	France	The French writer and philosopher Simone de Beauvoir publishes Le Deuxième Sexe/The Second Sex, a classic of feminist literature.
1950	India	Women in India gain the right to vote on the same basis as men.
1964	USA	The US author and publisher Helen Gurley Brown publishes Sex and the Office, which argues that single women should pursue careers (at least until they get married).
7 September 1968	USA	About 200 female activists demonstrate against the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
1970	Australia, England	The Australian feminist Germaine Greer writes The Female Eunuch, a radical independent statement of feminism which argues that women should take responsibility for their lives rather than blaming men.
1971	France	Over 300 women in France announce they have had abortions and demand legalization of the procedure.
October 1972	France	A French teenager is tried for having an illegal abortion and is acquitted after outspoken support by influential figures, resulting in increased availability of free abortions in major cities.
15 December 1972	Australia	Australian law orders equal pay for women.
1973	France	A physician in France is arrested for performing an illegal abortion; 10,000 protesters march to protest the abortion laws, resulting in the introduction of abortions rights legislation in parliament.
1974	Japan, France, Australia, Denmark, Germany, UK	Women's pay as a percentage of men's pay is 53.9% in Japan; 86.7% in France; 80.1% in Australia; 77% in Denmark; 69.9% in Germany; and 60.7% in the UK.
1975	UK	Britain's birthrate falls to 12.2 per 1,000, the lowest rate since 1933.
1978	USA	The Pregnancy Discrimination Act is passed in the USA, protecting women from being denied employment because of pregnancy.
1979	Pakistan	New laws in Pakistan called the Hadood Ordinances ban women's testimony in serious criminal trials and require four adult males as witnesses to prove rape charges. If the accused is not convicted, under the Qazf Ordinance a woman may receive 80 lashes for false testimony.
1979	Egypt	The Egyptian feminist Nawal El Saadawi publishes The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World, which reveals female genital mutilation and discusses the traditional emphasis on virginity and family honour.
1979	Iran	Woman march in protest in Teheran, Iran, against Ayatollah Khomeini's legislation that impinges on women's rights and obliges them to wear the chador, a heavy veil over the face, in public.
1979	Japan	The women's movement is launched in Japan to campaign for equal women's rights to government housing, bank loans, benefits, and tax reductions.
1980	Iraq	Women in Iraq earn the right to vote and hold office.
12 November 1981	UK	The General Synod of the Church of England votes to recognize the sacraments of the Free Churches and their women ministers and to allow women to be ordained as deacons.
1982	China	The Chinese writer Zhang Jie publishes her novella Ark, widely seen as the first genuinely feminist work to come from modern China.
1982	Kenya, Singapore, Australia, France, Switzerland, UK	Women's pay as a percentage of men's pay: Kenya, 84%; Singapore, 63%; Australia, 83%; France, 80%; Switzerland, 67%; UK, 70%.
1985	world	Conservative Judaism accepts women as rabbis.
1986	Australia, Austria, Canada, China, France, West Germany, India, Libya, Senegal, Spain, UK	Percentages of homicides committed by women: Australia, 13.5%; Austria, 16%; Canada, 10.6%; China, 9.4%; France 15.6%; West Germany, 11%; India, 2%; Libya, 7.6%; Senegal, 27.3%; Spain, 11.3%; UK, 10%.
1987	UK	The British House of Commons is made up of 41 women and 609 men.
22 April 1998	UK	The UK army introduces ‘gender-free’ physical recruitment tests to give women a better chance of entering the armed forces.
16 May 2005	Kuwait	In the conservative Arab state of Kuwait, the National Assembly passes legislation granting women the right to vote and stand for office in elections.