Ninety-seven years ago — on Aug. 18, 1920 — the 19th Amendment was ratified and added to the Constitution, giving white women the legal right to vote. (Asian and Native American women faced naturalization and legal barriers, while Latinas who didn’t speak or write in English were refused ballots in many cities. Black women’s suffrage, curtailed by Jim Crow laws, suffered until the Voting Rights Act of 1965.)
Despite the strides we’ve made, women’s rights are still suppressed in the United States and around the world.
Here’s what women face in different countries:
1. Rapists can claim parental rights in seven states
There aren’t any laws blocking rapists from claiming parental rights In Maryland, Alabama, Mississippi, Minnesota, North Dakota, Wyoming and New Mexico. (Source: World Economic Forum)
2. Women in Saudia Arabia can’t drive
Saudi Arabia allowed women to vote starting in 2015 but remains the only country in the world where women can’t drive. (Source: The Independent)
3. In the Arab Republic of Egypt, a married woman “can leave the house only for purposes allowed by law or custom, otherwise she needs her husband’s permission or she loses her right to financial support.”
Similar laws exist in 16 other countries. (Source: "Women, Business and the Law 2016,” p. 8)
4. There are 32 countries where women need their husband’s permission to apply for a passport.
In 30 countries, women can’t choose where to live. (Source: "Women, Business and the Law 2016,” p. 9)
5. In Israel, a woman needs her husband’s permission to get a divorce.
(Source: The Economist)
6. A Nigerian husband is permitted to hit his wife, under Section 55 of the Penal Code, for the purposes of “correcting” her.
(Source: “Women and the Law in Nigeria: A Reappraisal,” p. 289)
7. No doesn’t mean no in North Carolina.
It’s not considered rape if a woman withdraws her consent once sex is underway. A proposed bill to change the law is being stalled. (Source: The Fayetteville Observer)
8. Russia’s gender-equality legislation, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, has been pending for over 13 years.
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January 13, 2020
January 13, 2020
