The Importance of Women’s Rights

In 1965, Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique, a book that ignited a movement for women’s rights. Friedan’s work helped launch the National Organization for Women (NOW), a non-profit advocacy group that works to advance women’s economic, political and social status. NOW’s founders quickly recognized that polite requests to government officials and union representatives were insufficient, and they created their own pressure group to push for equality.

Today, nearly nine-in-ten Americans across demographic and partisan lines say it is very important or somewhat important for women to have equal rights with men in this country. Democrats and those who lean Democratic are more likely than Republicans and Republican leaners to hold this view.

But there are still large gaps in views of the importance of gender equality. Among all adults, Democrats and those who lean Democratic are more than twice as likely to believe that the Democratic Party has done a great deal or a fair amount to advance women’s rights. Conversely, two-thirds of Republicans and those who lean Republican say that the GOP has done a great deal or a good job in this area.

A similar divide exists in the view of what is the most important milestone in advancing women’s rights. Those with more education are more likely to name women’s suffrage as the most important milestone, while those with less education see more recent improvements in pay and access to health care as being more important. In 26 countries, those with more education are also more likely to say that it is very important for women to have the same rights as men.

When women’s rights are respected, they improve everyone’s lives. For example, when women are paid equally with men, they have more money to spend and can provide better healthcare, food and opportunities for their children. Likewise, when women have control over their reproductive choices, they are more likely to make smart decisions about how many children they want and when they do want to have them. And if and when they do get pregnant, they are more likely to be healthy during pregnancy and delivery, which has positive consequences for the health of their babies.

Gender equality is also essential to ending global poverty. Gender inequality is the most persistent predictor of poverty, and it is largely due to lack of economic empowerment, which starts with women’s rights. When women are economically empowered, they become agents of change for their communities, nations and the planet.

As the world marks 50 years since the United Nations Conference on the Status of Women, we must redouble our efforts to ensure that women have the same rights as men and are fully able to participate in the world’s development. Achieving this goal will require deep legal and legislative changes, but it is a crucial first step. As a result of the Nairobi conference, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 5, “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls,” was established as a stand-alone goal.