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163-566: The Women's International Democratic Federation ( WIDF ) is an international women's rights organization. Established in 1945, it was most active during the Cold War when, according to historian Francisca de Haan , it was "the largest and probably most influential international women's organization of the post-1945 era". Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, its headquarters were moved from Berlin to Paris. In 2002, with

326-504: A right to resist occupation. According to Joint Publication 1-02, the United States Department of Defense defines a resistance movement as "an organized effort by some portion of the civil population of a country to resist the legally established government or an occupying power and to disrupt civil order and stability". In strict military terminology, a resistance movement is simply that; it seeks to resist (change)

489-591: A Soviet ally caused the cold war to heat up. The Congress of American Women was targeted by the Committee on Un-American Activities of the United States House of Representatives (HUAC) in 1949 due to the support it had been given by the Communist Party. The committee described WIDF as being a communist front using feminism as a guise to lure women to join the organization and concluded that

652-652: A US representative to the Commission on the Status of Women, suggested that the commission revisit the idea of a conference in 1974 to avoid the appearance that only communist women were supporting the initiative. The UN General Assembly approved hosting what would be the World Conference on Women of July 1975 in Mexico City , but authorized no funds for the event. Individuals and affiliated organizations of

815-592: A campaign to establish Children's Day , an international day dedicated to protection of children, as an annual observance on 1 June. The United States had not endorsed a policy of containing communism until after the communists came to power in 1949 at the end of the Chinese Civil War . US focus was on Europe, and specifically the Soviet actions in Berlin. Thoughts by both superpowers that China would become

978-494: A condition that a widow's right to property should cease on remarriage, and the Leonine Constitutions at the end of the 9th century made third marriages punishable. The same constitutions made the benediction of a priest a necessary part of the ceremony of marriage. Women throughout historical and ancient China were considered inferior and had subordinate legal status based on Confucian law . In Imperial China,

1141-612: A consultant body to the United Nations until 1967, when newly independent former colonies pressed for a restoration of its status. In 1969, US-USSR relations entered a period of détente , and that year, WIDF was elevated to Consultative Status A. The improvement in relationships, between the United States, USSR, and resumption of US relations with China in 1972 , allowed nations in the Global South, which had become

1304-466: A crime in which the victim bore no guilt and a capital crime. The rape of a woman was considered an attack on her family and father's honour, and rape victims were shamed for allowing the bad name in her father's honour. As a matter of law, rape could be committed only against a citizen in good standing. The rape of a slave could be prosecuted only as damage to her owner's property. The first Roman emperor , Augustus , framed his ascent to sole power as

1467-628: A delegate from each member country, was to meet every year. The secretariat was composed of a secretary general and four staff members, who would carry out the management of the federation's business, with the exception of bookkeeping, which was assigned to a three-member commission. Among the founding members were Elizabeth Acland Allen (UK), Cécile Brunschvicg (France), Tsola Dragoycheva (Bulgaria), Dolores Ibárruri (Spain), Ana Pauker (Romania), Kata Pejnović (Yugoslavia), Nina Popova (Russia), Rada Todorova (Bulgaria); Jessie Street (Australia), and Marie-Claude Vaillant-Couturier (France), Among

1630-486: A divorced husband could easily remarry another woman, provided that his first wife had borne him no offspring. Female deities, such as Inanna , were widely worshipped. The Akkadian poet Enheduanna , the priestess of Inanna and daughter of Sargon , is the earliest known poet whose name has been recorded. Old Babylonian law codes permitted a husband to divorce his wife under any circumstances, but doing so required him to return all of her property and sometimes pay her

1793-498: A dowry from the husband, which she could administer as her personal property, the Qur'an made women a legal party to the marriage contract . While in customary law, inheritance was often limited to male descendants, the Qur'an included rules on inheritance with certain fixed shares being distributed to designated heirs, first to the nearest female relatives and then the nearest male relatives. According to Annemarie Schimmel "compared to

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1956-680: A facility in Havana. These courses continued through 1985, leading up to the UN's Third World Conference on the status of women, known as the Nairobi Conference. WIDF activists also visited the war-torn Palestinian territories and Western Sahara . According to Regina Marques, a member of the WIDF board of directors in 2021, the organization was honored as a United Nations Messenger of Peace in 1986 by Javier Pérez de Cuéllar , Secretary-General of

2119-537: A fact-finding mission in 1946 through Latin America , visiting Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay, to build networks and learn about the issues women faced there. They collected reports from women in India and Algeria to evaluate how the lack of development programs led to poverty and how economic policies and customs systemically exploited agricultural workers. In 1947, WIDF was granted consultative status category B for

2282-409: A fine. Most law codes forbade a woman to request her husband for a divorce and enforced the same penalties on a woman asking for divorce as on a woman caught in the act of adultery . Some Babylonian and Assyrian laws, however, afforded women the same right to divorce as men, requiring them to pay the same fine. The majority of East Semitic deities were male. In ancient Egypt, women enjoyed

2445-503: A historical context, Muhammad "can be seen as a figure who testified on behalf of women's rights." Women's rights were protected already by the early Medieval Christian Church: one of the first formal legal provisions for the right of wives was promulgated by council of Adge in 506, which in Canon XVI stipulated that if a young married man wished to be ordained, he required the consent of his wife. The English Church and culture in

2608-558: A husband and eventually becoming a mother. That was the core purpose set out both culturally and religiously across Medieval Europe. Rape was also seen in medieval England as a crime against the father or husband and a violation of their protection and guardianship of the women whom they look after in the household. Women's identities in the Middle Ages were also referred through their relations with men they associated with, such as "his daughter" or "so and so's wife". Despite all this,

2771-583: A husband's transferring property without the consent of his wife, but he still retained the right to manage it and to receive the money which it produced. French married women suffered from restrictions on their legal capacity which were removed only in 1965. In the 16th century, the Reformation in Europe allowed more women to add their voices, including the English writers Jane Anger , Aemilia Lanyer , and

2934-496: A lesser degree than their children. This archaic form of manus marriage was largely abandoned by the time of Julius Caesar , when a woman remained under her father's authority by law even when she moved into her husband's home. This arrangement was one of the factors in the independence Roman women enjoyed. Although women had to answer to their fathers in legal matters, they were free of his direct scrutiny in their daily lives, and their husbands had no legal power over them. When

3097-468: A man. They were simultaneously disparaged as too ignorant and weak-minded to practice law, and as too active and influential in legal matters—resulting in an edict that limited women to conducting cases on their own behalf instead of others'. But even after this restriction was put in place, there are numerous examples of women taking informed actions in legal matters, including dictating legal strategy to their male advocates. Roman law recognized rape as

3260-565: A married man did not commit adultery when he had sex with a prostitute, slave , or person of marginalized status ( infamis ) . Most prostitutes in ancient Rome were slaves, though some slaves were protected from forced prostitution by a clause in their sales contract. A free woman who worked as a prostitute or entertainer lost her social standing and became infamis , "disreputable"; by making her body publicly available, she had in effect surrendered her right to be protected from sexual abuse or physical violence. Stoic philosophies influenced

3423-784: A movement meeting the definition prior to World War II might be considered by some to be an anachronism . However, such movements existed prior to World War II (albeit often called by different names), and there have been many after it – for example in struggles against colonialism and foreign military occupations. "Resistance" has become a generic term that has been used to designate underground resistance movements in any country. Resistance movements can include any irregular armed force that rises up against an enforced or established authority, government , or administration . This frequently includes groups that consider themselves to be resisting tyranny or dictatorship . Some resistance movements are underground organizations engaged in

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3586-543: A number of non-English names, including: According to de Haan, Cold War policies and investigations and repercussions from the investigations of McCarthyism had long-lasting effects on knowledge about the WIDF and international women's interactions after World War II. Although it was inaugurated in Paris, the WIDF was described by 20th-century scholars as originating behind the Iron Curtain . Cold War stereotypes impacted

3749-493: A professed religious life, and of due provision for the wife. The church also supported the political power of those who were friendly toward the clergy. The appointment of mothers and grandmothers as tutors was sanctioned by Justinian. The restrictions on the marriage of senators and other men of high rank with women of low rank were extended by Constantine , but it was almost entirely removed by Justinian . Second marriages were discouraged, especially by making it legal to impose

3912-614: A report, We Accuse , which was translated into Chinese, Korean, English, German, and Spanish, and described the bombing raids carried out by the United States Air Force and war crimes committed by the United Nations Forces . WIDF's report caused apprehension on the part of the US government about public opinion of its Korean activities, and specific concern within the United States Department of State and

4075-503: A return to traditional morality , and attempted to regulate the conduct of women through moral legislation . Adultery , which had been a private family matter under the Republic, was criminalized, and defined broadly as an illicit sex act ( stuprum ) that occurred between a male citizen and a married woman, or between a married woman and any man other than her husband. Therefore, a married woman could have sex only with her husband, but

4238-648: A similar fire accident at Triangle Shirtwaist Company, New York, 1911, killing 146 workers, which caused a labor resistance by 100,000 people. He argued that no resistance took place in response to the fire accident in Hamlet because most of the people who died there were black and women workers, and he believed that not only class but also other identities such as race, gender, and sexuality were important factors in understanding nature and outcome of resistance. For an effective resistance, he proposed that four tasks should be undertaken: First, social justice must be defined from

4401-468: A strong philosophical basis. Roman law, similar to Athenian law, was created by men in favor of men. Women had no public voice and no public role, which only improved after the 1st century to the 6th century BCE. Freeborn women of ancient Rome were citizens who enjoyed legal privileges and protections that did not extend to non-citizens or slaves . Roman society , however, was patriarchal , and women could not vote, hold public office , or serve in

4564-490: A struggle for national liberation in a country under military occupation or totalitarian domination. Tactics of resistance movements against a constituted authority range from nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience , to guerrilla warfare and terrorism , or even conventional warfare if the resistance movement is powerful enough. Any government facing violent acts from a resistance movement usually condemns such acts as terrorism , even when such attacks target only

4727-519: A study of the Korean commission and its report, stating that declassification of military documents and research by South Korean academics, have confirmed that the conditions described by the WIDF commission were true. Omissions in the WIDF report that some of the atrocities committed resulted from the activities of Korean right-wing youth groups were possibly due, according to Kim, to reliance on North Korean interpreters and government manipulation of some of

4890-494: A successful crusade in 1954 to strip WIDF of its consultative status for the United Nations, largely because of its anti-colonial work and exposé on Korea. French authorities banned WIDF in 1951 after its activists launched a campaign against French aggression in Vietnam and urged French women to refuse to allow their sons to participate in the war. The organization relocated to East Berlin where it began to strengthen its ties to

5053-399: A woman in such a position was called frilla . There was no distinction made between children born inside or outside of marriage: both had the right to inherit property after their parents, and there were no "legitimate" or "illegitimate" children. These liberties gradually disappeared after the introduction of Christianity, and from the late 13th century, they are no longer mentioned. During

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5216-433: A woman's father died, she became legally emancipated ( sui iuris ) . A married woman retained ownership of any property she brought into the marriage. Girls had equal inheritance rights with boys if their father died without leaving a will. Under classical Roman law , a husband had no right to abuse his wife physically or compel her to have sex. Wife beating was sufficient grounds for divorce or other legal action against

5379-483: Is an officially recognized category by the Indian government covering those who took part in the country's independence movement ; people in this category (can also include dependant family members) get pensions and other benefits like special railway counters. People described as freedom fighters are often also called assassins , rebels , insurgents or terrorists . This leads to the aphorism "one man's terrorist

5542-560: Is another man's freedom fighter". The degree to which this occurs depends on a variety of factors specific to the struggle in which a given freedom fighter group is engaged. During the Cold War , the term freedom fighter was first used with reference to the Hungarian rebels in 1956. Ronald Reagan picked up the term to explain America's support of rebels in countries controlled by communist states or otherwise perceived to be under

5705-412: Is another term for those engaged in a struggle to achieve political freedom for themselves or obtain freedom for others. Though the literal meaning of the words could include "anyone who fights for the cause of freedom", in common use it may be restricted to those who are actively involved in an armed rebellion, rather than those who campaign for freedom by peaceful means, or those who fight violently for

5868-689: Is categorized as "power". In fact, they believe that resistance has its own characteristics and spatialities. In Steve Pile's (1997) "Opposition, Political Identities and Spaces of Resistance", geographies of resistance show: That people are positioned differently in unequal and multiple power relationships, that more or less powerful people are active in the constitution of unfolding relationships of authority, meaning and identity, that these activities are contingent, ambiguous and awkwardly situated, but that resistance seeks to occupy, deploy and create alternative spatialities from those defined through oppression and exploitation. From this perspective, assumptions about

6031-739: Is not always about the dominated versus the dominator, the exploited versus the exploiter, or the oppressed versus the oppressor. There are various forms of resistance for various reasons, which then can be, again, classified as violent and nonviolent resistance (and "other" which is unclear). Different geographical spaces can also make different forms of resistance possible or impossible and more effective or less effective. Furthermore, in order to understand any resistance – its capacity to achieve its objective effectively, its success or failure – we need to take closely into account many variables, such as political identities, cultural identities, class, race, gender and so on. The reason

6194-502: Is often taken for granted that resistance takes place where domination, power, or oppression occurs and so resistance is often understood as something that always opposes to power or domination. However, some scholars believe and argue that looking at resistance in relation to only power and domination does not provide a full understanding of the actual nature of resistance. Not all power, domination, or oppression leads to resistance, and not all cases of resistance are against or to oppose what

6357-458: Is that of safeguarding the household property created by men. According to Aristotle, the labour of women added no value because "the art of household management is not identical with the art of getting wealth, for the one uses the material which the other provides". Contrary to Plato's views, the Stoic philosophers argued for equality of the sexes, sexual inequality being in their view contrary to

6520-481: Is that these variations can define the nature and outcome of resistance. Harvey (1993), who looked at resistance in relations to capitalist economic exploitation, took on a fire accident happened in the Imperial Foods chicken processing plant in Hamlet, North Carolina in 1991, in which 20 of 200 workers were killed and 56 were injured due to poor working conditions and protections. He compared this accident with

6683-511: Is to go free, without any payment of money" ( Exodus 21:10–11 ). The Qur'an , which Muslims believe was revealed to Muhammad over the course of 23 years, provided guidance to the Islamic community and modified existing customs in Arab society . The Qur'an prescribes limited rights for women in marriage , divorce , and inheritance . By providing that the wife, not her family, would receive

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6846-409: The oikos headed by the male kyrios . Until marriage, women were under the guardianship of their father or another male relative. Once married, the husband became a woman's kyrios . As women were barred from conducting legal proceedings, the kyrios would do so on their behalf. Athenian women could only acquire rights over property through gifts, dowry, and inheritance, though her kyrios had

7009-886: The Eritrean People's Liberation Front , the Hindustan Socialist Republican Association in India and the National Resistance Army in Uganda, which were considered freedom fighters by supporters. However, a person who is campaigning for freedom through peaceful means may still be classed as a freedom fighter, though in common usage they are called political activists , as in the case of the Black Consciousness Movement . In India, "Freedom fighter"

7172-634: The Global South or the Eastern world for their own efforts in asserting their agency . WIDF regarded peace as a prerequisite for fighting against fascism and obtaining rights for women and children. Unlike the pacifist western feminist groups, WIDF members did not see peace as the avoidance or absence of war; rather, they viewed it as the achievement of social justice and the cessation of oppression and exploitation. The organization strongly supported decolonization and national independence movements, and

7335-992: The Hellenistic period in Athens, the philosopher Aristotle thought that women would bring disorder and evil, therefore it was best to keep women separate from the rest of the society. This separation would entail living in a room called a gynaikeion , while looking after the duties in the home and having very little exposure to the male world. This was also to ensure that wives only had legitimate children from their husbands. Athenian women received little education, except home tutorship for basic skills such as spinning, weaving, cooking, and some knowledge of money. Although Spartan women were formally excluded from military and political life, an extremely small " upper crust " enjoyed considerable status as mothers of Spartan warriors. As men engaged in military activity, women took responsibility for running estates. Following protracted warfare in

7498-688: The International Alliance of Women , attended the congress. Ashby later wrote to her husband that failure to organize women in the Near East would result in the communist women's dominance there. After the founding of the WIDF, an intense rivalry developed between the three major international women's groups – the International Alliance of Women, the International Council of Women , and the WIDF. Both

7661-672: The Republic of China was overthrown by communist guerillas led by Mao Zedong , and the People's Republic of China was founded in the same year. In May 1950 the People's Republic of China enacted the New Marriage Law to tackle the sale of women into slavery. This outlawed marriage by proxy and made marriage legal so long as both partners consent. The New Marriage Law raised the legal age of marriage to 20 for men and 18 for women. This

7824-714: The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and its Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). To assess the conditions of women living under British colonial rule in Asia in 1948 another WIDF delegation toured British Burma , British Malaya , and the Dominion of India . A similar trip, which was scheduled to evaluate the Dutch East Indies and French Indochina , had to be canceled because Dutch and French authorities refused to grant visas to

7987-624: The United States Women's Bureau about accusations of germ warfare, which were picked up and investigated by the International Association of Democratic Lawyers . The US government sought to red-bait the authors, and the CIA covertly funded the Committee of Correspondence to work against WIDF. Women United for United Nations , a group of 30 women's organizations established in 1947 to disseminate information about

8150-671: The city states of ancient Greece, they enjoyed a certain freedom of movement until the Archaic age . Records also exist of women in ancient Delphi , Gortyn , Thessaly , Megara , and Sparta owning land, the most prestigious form of private property at the time. However, after the Archaic age, legislators began to enact laws enforcing gender segregation, resulting in decreased rights for women. Women in Classical Athens had no legal personhood and were assumed to be part of

8313-616: The laws of war in the form of a series of international treaties took place. In the Preamble to the 1899 Hague Convention II on Land War, the Martens Clause was introduced as a compromise wording for the dispute between the Great Powers who considered francs-tireurs to be unlawful combatants subject to execution on capture and smaller states who maintained that they should be considered lawful combatants. More recently

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8476-426: The " Three Obediences " promoted daughters to obey their fathers, wives to obey their husbands, and widows to obey their sons. Women could not inherit businesses or wealth and men had to adopt a son for such financial purposes. Late imperial law also featured seven different types of divorces. A wife could be ousted if she failed to birth a son, committed adultery, disobeyed her parents-in-law, spoke excessively, stole,

8639-499: The 15th century the terminology "witchcraft" was definitely viewed as something feminine as opposed to prior years. Famous witchcraft manuals such as the Malleus Maleficarum and Summis Desiderantes depicted witches as diabolical conspirators who worshipped Satan and were primarily women. Culture and art at the time depicted these witches as seductive and evil, further fuelling moral panic in fusion with rhetoric from

8802-586: The 1950s, stating that WIDF activists launched their campaign for women's rights and global peace during the Cold War with their anti-war campaign against the conflict in Korea. She also concluded that long before second-wave feminists began promoting intersectional analysis , the WIDF incorporated the principles of evaluating overlapping factors such as class, gender, race, and religion to determine how inequalities were perpetuated globally. Scholar Taewoo Kim made

8965-714: The 1955 World Congress of Mothers hosted in Lausanne , 1959 Women of Latin America Conference held in Santiago , Chile, the 1960 Copenhagen celebration of WIDF's 50th anniversary, and the 1961 Afro-Asian Women's Conference of Cairo. The organization published documents, such as Pour la defense des droits de la personne humaine ( For the Defense of Human Rights ), to reiterate their position that human rights included women's rights. The WIDF would not be readmitted as

9128-666: The 1977 Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts , referred in Article 1. Paragraph 4 to armed conflicts "... in which peoples are fighting against colonial domination and alien occupation and against racist regimes..." This phraseology, according USA that refused to ratify the Protocol, contains many ambiguities that cloud

9291-467: The 19th century. For the upper classes, it was almost 100%. In 1912, the Chinese government ordered the cessation of foot-binding. Foot-binding involved the alteration of the bone structure so that the feet were only about four inches long. The bound feet caused difficulty in movement, thus greatly limiting the activities of women. Due to the social custom that men and women should not be near each other,

9454-471: The 4th century BC, Spartan women owned approximately between 35% and 40% of all Spartan land and property. By the Hellenistic Period, some of the wealthiest Spartans were women. Spartan women controlled their own properties, as well as the properties of male relatives who were away with the army. But despite relatively greater freedom of movement for Spartan women, their role in politics

9617-673: The Christian Middle Ages, the Medieval Scandinavian law applied different laws depending on the local county law, signifying that the status of women could vary depending on which county she was living in. The 16th and 17th centuries saw numerous witch trials , which resulted in thousands of people across Europe being executed, of whom 75–95% were women (depending on time and place). The executions mostly took place in German-speaking lands, and during

9780-572: The Christianization of Europe, there was little space for women's consent for marriage and marriage through purchase (or Kaufehe ) was actually the civil norm, as opposed to the alternative marriage through capture (or Raubehe ). However Christianity was slow to reach other Baltic and Scandinavian areas with it only reaching King Harald Bluetooth of Denmark in the year 950 AD. Those living under Norwegian and Icelandic laws used marriages to forge alliances or create peace, usually without

9943-487: The Church still emphasized the importance of love and mutual counselling within marriage and prohibited any form of divorce so the wife would have someone to look after her. In overall Europe during the Middle Ages, women were inferior to men in legal status. Throughout medieval Europe, women were pressured to not attend courts and leave all legal business affairs to their husbands. In the legal system, women were regarded as

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10106-512: The Church. The origin of the female "witch" myth traces back to Roman mythical night creatures known as Strix, who were thought to appear and disappear mysteriously in the night. They were also believed by many to be of transformed women by their own supernatural powers. This Roman myth itself is believed to originate from the Jewish Sabbath which described non-supernatural women who would suspiciously leave and return home swiftly during

10269-563: The Garden of Eden. Women's inferiority also appears in much medieval writing; for example, the 1200 AD theologian Jacques de Vitry (who was rather sympathetic to women over others) emphasized female obedience towards their men and described women as slippery, weak, untrustworthy, devious, deceitful and stubborn. The church also promoted the Virgin Mary as a role model for women to emulate by being innocent in her sexuality, being married to

10432-586: The Icelandic Grágás and the Norwegian Frostating laws and Gulating laws. The paternal aunt, paternal niece and paternal granddaughter, referred to as odalkvinna , all had the right to inherit property from a deceased man. In the absence of male relatives, an unmarried woman with no son could, furthermore, inherit not only property, but also the position as head of the family from a deceased father or brother. A woman with such status

10595-670: The International Alliance of Women and the International Council of Women claimed to be apolitical, but according to historian Francisca de Haan , the leading scholar on the WIDF, they "used imperialist notions of western superiority to support their claims for women's rights". Both organizations condoned colonial and imperial systems and stressed the importance of democracy in achieving fundamental human rights such as freedom of conscience , press, and speech. Their members were typically conservative, upper-class, Christian women from Europe, or places such as Australia, Canada, and

10758-507: The International Alliance of Women and the International Council of Women fostered interaction with ruling elites. For example, the International Council of Women and the WILPF, created in 1915 by members of the International Alliance of Women and other elite women's groups, approached peace activism by urging heads of nations towards pacifism and avoidance of war through diplomatic channels and improved understanding of cultural differences. Fears of red-baiting prevented Western organizations like

10921-415: The Middle Ages regarded women as weak, irrational, vulnerable to temptation, and constantly needing to be kept in check. This was reflected on the Christian culture in England through the story of Adam and Eve where Eve fell to Satan's temptations and led Adam to eat the apple. This belief was based on St. Paul , that the pain of childbirth was a punishment for this deed that led mankind to be banished from

11084-485: The People) organizations. The focus of the congress was fostering peace in light of on-going conflicts like the Korean War and the war to end French rule in Vietnam . Resolutions were adopted at the congress to support an immediate end to both wars and to publish a Declaration on the Rights of Women. The declaration included provisions for the right to work, maternity leave, and equal pay for women; creation of child care and kindergarten centers for working women; protection of

11247-399: The Soviet Union. Held in 1953 in Copenhagen, the third congress attracted 613 delegates from 67 countries. Among the nearly 2,000 attendants were over 1,300 guests and observers. The Indonesian delegation, led by Soerastri Karma Trimurti and a number of other members of Gerwani, included women from the Minahasa Women's Union, Wanita Democrat (Democratic Women) and Wanita Rakyat (Women of

11410-421: The United Nations . Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the WIDF headquarters moved from Berlin to Paris. The federation was reorganized in 1994 under the leadership of Sylvie Jan . At the 1995 World Conference on Women , many WIDF activists from Eastern Europe explained that their organizations had been dissolved and their voices had been silenced. In 2002, when Brazilian member Márcia Campos

11573-414: The United Nations. It was as a result of proposals from WIDF representatives on the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) that the United Nations declared 1975 as International Women's Year . From the beginnings of World War II left-leaning women who were communist , liberal , or socialist were active in the fight against fascism and the spread of the racist and sexist ideology of Nazism . During

11736-578: The United States, where large numbers of Europeans had settled. After World War I, the International Council of Women and International Alliance of Women actively recruited affiliates in Latin America, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, but the leadership tended to be from Europe and the United States, the congresses were held primarily in Europe, and the official languages of the groups were English, French, and German. To resolve women's issues,

11899-437: The WIDF as an active feminist organization advocating for women's rights, and not merely a communist attempt to manipulate women. The WIDF, according to academics like Elisabeth Armstrong and Suzy Kim, played an important role in supporting women's anti-colonial and anti-racist struggles in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In examining the WIDF's role in the peace movement, Suzy Kim refuted that feminism and pacifism declined during

12062-410: The WIDF board established a vice presidency post for a Chinese delegate, which was filled by Cai Chang in 1948. The executive council that year consisted of members from Algeria, Argentina, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, China, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, India, Italy, Korea, Norway, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United States, USSR, and Yugoslavia. Egyptian feminist Saiza Nabarawi , who

12225-433: The WIDF delegates were terminated from their workplaces and imprisoned, but none waivered in their belief that the report was factual. Rodríguez and another Cuban WIDF activist, Edith García Buchaca , led a campaign advocating prevention of Cuban troops from participating in the war and were successful in changing public opinion, which had previously favored Cuban participation. The United States, with support from Britain, led

12388-459: The WIDF is difficult to ascertain, as there are only partial organizational records from Berlin. Chinese records are not widely available to academics and many records appear to have been lost. De Haan stated that records of the early organization in France remain in private hands; some materials were destroyed, and others moved multiple times. Scholars of the 21st century have subsequently described

12551-707: The WIDF members. The observers compiled their report The Women of Asia and Africa , in preparation for a conference planned for 1948 to be held in Calcutta (now Kolkata), in honor of India's independence from the United Kingdom . The report detailed the need to reach out to rural women, whether they were peasants, owned land, or were refugees; and to confront gendered policies that created inadequate health care, food, and wages for women or subjected them to trafficking and cultural practices that impeded their safety and security. It also focused on informing activists in

12714-746: The WIDF participated in both the UN Conference and the WIDF Congress. The Mexico City Conference spawned the United Nations Decade for Women , establishing calls to draft the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and host follow-up World Conferences on Women in 1980 and 1985 . WIDF members were involved in both of the conferences and the proposal for CEDAW. The WIDF Congress

12877-709: The WIDF, the Congress of American Women formed in 1946, along the lines of the popular front . Although the Congress of American Women declared itself to be independent of political alliance, the Communist Party publicly endorsed the organization upon its founding. That same year, the Kongres Wanita Indonesia ( Indonesian Women's Congress , Kowani) formed and joined the WIDF because of its support for decolonization. WIDF members participated in

13040-536: The WILPF from criticizing colonial systems and exploitation until the 1960s. Publications such as International Alliance of Women member Adele Schreiber-Krieger 's Journey towards Freedom (1955) emphasized the role of western women in assisting women from the "third world" in eliminating prevalent customs like child marriage , foot binding , seclusion , veiling , and widow sacrifice , without evaluating how western systems impacted colonized women or crediting women of

13203-559: The West about the issues associated with imperialism, under-development and the violence colonial wars caused for other women. Immediately following India's independence, its Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru began implementing policies to silence dissent, imprisoning or driving activists and communists underground. Neither land reforms to protect peasants and rural women nor changes to hiring and wage systems to produce job and income stability were implemented. WIDF activists recognized that there

13366-734: The Women International Democratic Federation. Subsequently, she attended a celebration of International Women's Day in London in 1945 where she met with a group of women from Belgium, China, France, Italy, the Soviet Union , Spain, the United Kingdom, and Yugoslavia . Although the war had ended only six months earlier in Europe and was still continuing in Asia, consensus was reached to form an International Initiative Committee and host an international congress to bring left-leaning women together. Sponsors of

13529-440: The absence of their brothers, do certain trades without their husbands, and widows could receive dower. In areas governed by Roman-based written laws, women were under male guardianship in matters involving property and law , with fathers overseeing daughters, husbands overseeing wives and uncles or male relatives overseeing widows. Throughout Europe, women's legal status centered around their marital status while marriage itself

13692-469: The activities of the UN, prepared a critique of the WIDF report, which the Department of State widely disseminated through Radio Free Asia and Radio Free Europe . Women United also sent their report to women's organizations and major newspapers like The New York Times and The Washington Post . Delegation members thereafter faced arrest and interrogation for treason upon returning home. Several of

13855-446: The authority of their husbands by transferring the authority to their male relatives. A wife's property and land also could not be taken by the husband without her family's consent but neither could the wife. This meant a woman could not transfer her property to her husband without her family or kinsman's consent either. In Swedish law, a woman would also only get half that of her brother in inheritance. Despite these legal issues, Sweden

14018-402: The basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behavior, whereas in others, they are ignored and suppressed. They differ from broader notions of human rights through claims of an inherent historical and traditional bias against

14181-501: The civil and educational rights of women and children; support for women's suffrage and the right to political representation; equal rights with men in owning property and protecting peasant women's land ownership; and the right for women to freely associate and participate in organizations. Throughout the following decades, WIDF continued to host world-wide conferences, including the 1952 Conference in Defense of Children held in Vienna,

14344-711: The college was enabled in Guangzhou, China, by a large donation from Edward A.K. Hackett (1851–1916) of Indiana, US. The college was aimed at the spreading of Christianity and modern medicine and the elevation of Chinese women's social status. During the Republic of China (1912–49) and earlier Chinese governments, women were legally bought and sold into slavery under the guise of domestic servants. These women were known as Mui Tsai . The lives of Mui Tsai were recorded by American feminist Agnes Smedley in her book Portraits of Chinese Women in Revolution . However, in 1949

14507-476: The development of Roman law. Stoics of the Imperial era such as Seneca and Musonius Rufus developed theories of just relationships . While not advocating equality in society or under the law, they held that nature gives men and women equal capacity for virtue and equal obligations to act virtuously, and that therefore men and women had an equal need for philosophical education. These philosophical trends among

14670-450: The domination/resistance couplet become questionable. We can better understand resistance by accounting different perspectives and by breaking the presumptions that resistance is always against power. In fact, resistance should be understood not only in relations to domination and authority, but also through other experiences, such as "desire and anger, capacity and ability, happiness and fear, dreaming and forgetting", meaning that resistance

14833-782: The drive for UNESCO to recognize 1979 as the International Year of the Child . In 1980, the WIDF worked to establish a second United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW) center in Sofia to focus on training women from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East for leadership positions in the socio-political-economic fight for their rights. The WIDF also established similar development courses for Latin American women which were hosted at

14996-473: The early Vedic period enjoyed equal status with men in all aspects of life. Works by ancient Indian grammarians such as Patanjali and Katyayana suggest that women were educated in the early Vedic period. Rigvedic verses suggest that women married at a mature age and were probably free to select their own husbands in a practice called swayamvar or live-in relationship called Gandharva marriage . Although most women lacked political and equal rights in

15159-599: The election of Márcia Campos as president, the office relocated to Brasília . Subsequently, in 2007 the WIDF secretariat was located in São Paulo . Since 2016, the president has been Lorena Peña of El Salvador and the world headquarters has been located in San Salvador . The WIDF's magazine, Women of the Whole World, was published in six languages: Arabic, English, French, German, Russian, and Spanish. WIDF

15322-544: The event were the Union des Femmes Françaises and the Soviet Women's Anti-Fascist Committee . WIDF's internal sources about its origin are vague in regard to the political affiliations of the founders, focusing instead on their involvement in resistance and anti-fascist movements during and immediately following the war, and their intent to establish an organization which was open to all progressive women. The congress

15485-651: The exercise of rights by women and girls, in favor of men and boys. Issues commonly associated with notions of women's rights include the right to bodily integrity and autonomy , to be free from sexual violence , to vote , to hold public office, to enter into legal contracts, to have equal rights in family law , to work , to fair wages or equal pay , to have reproductive rights , to own property , and to education . Women in ancient Sumer could buy, own, sell, and inherit property. They could engage in commerce, and testify in court as witnesses. Nonetheless, their husbands could divorce them for mild infractions, and

15648-616: The existing cultural norms in many societies. Resistance can also be mapped in various scales ranging from local to national to regional and to global spaces. We can look at a big-scale resistance movement such as anti-globalization movement that tries to resist the global trend of capitalist economic system. Or we can look at the internal resistance to apartheid , which took place at national level. Most, if not all, social movements can be considered as some forms of resistance. Not all resistance takes place in physical spaces or geographies but in "other spaces" as well. Some resistance happens in

15811-425: The exploitation of the capitalist economic systems and the capitals, while other resistance takes place against the state or authority in power. Moreover, some other resistance takes place in order to resist or question the social/culture norms or discourse or in order to challenge a global trend called " globalization ". For example, LGBT social movements is an example of resistance that challenges and tries to reform

15974-496: The family business or to acquire literacy skills that enabled them to work as scribes and secretaries. The woman who achieved the greatest prominence in the ancient world for her learning was Hypatia of Alexandria , who taught advanced courses to young men and advised the Roman prefect of Egypt on politics. Her influence put her into conflict with the bishop of Alexandria , Cyril , who may have been implicated in her violent death in

16137-443: The fight against fascism and in favor of world peace , in protecting public health with particular focus on child welfare, in improving the status of women's rights, and in building internationalist friendships among women. The delegates adopted an International Charter of Women, which aimed at creating global standards protecting women's rights and opportunities as citizens, mothers, and workers. They also had numerous debates about

16300-503: The form of Protest Art or in the form of music. Music can be used and has been used as a tool or space to resist certain oppression or domination. Gray-Rosendale, L. (2001) put it this way: Music acts as a rhetorical force that sanctions the construction of the boys' new black urban subjectivities that both challenge urban experience and yet give voice to it...music contributes a way to avoid physical and psychological immobility and to resist economic and cultural adaptation...and challenges

16463-727: The freedom of others outside the context of an uprising (though this title may be applied in its literal sense) Generally speaking, freedom fighters are people who use physical force to cause a change in the political and or social order. Notable examples include uMkhonto we Sizwe in South Africa, the Sons of Liberty in the American Revolution , the Irish Republican Army in Ireland and Northern Ireland ,

16626-429: The husband. Because of their legal status as citizens and the degree to which they could become emancipated, women in ancient Rome could own property, enter contracts, and engage in business. Some acquired and disposed of sizable fortunes, and are recorded in inscriptions as benefactors in funding major public works. Roman women could appear in court and argue cases, though it was customary for them to be represented by

16789-537: The idea in Women of the Whole World . When the WIDF raised the suggestion for International Women's Year to the Commission on the Status of Women, it did not gain traction because of WIDF's observer status. Undeterred, the WIDF drafted a proposal, which was presented to the commission by Romanian official representative Florica Andrei , a member of the National Council of Romanian Women, a WIDF affiliate. After

16952-477: The idea of a UN-sponsored international women's conference for 1975. WIDF activists Shahnaz Alami  [ fa ] (Iran) and Hertta Kuusinen (Finland) promoted the idea within the Commission on the Status of Women. WIDF members of the Magyar Nők Országos Tanácsa ( National Council of Hungarian Women ) and Consiliu Național al Femeilor Române ( National Council of Romanian Women ) promoted

17115-799: The influence of the Soviet Union, including the Contras in Nicaragua , UNITA in Angola and the multi-factional mujahideen in Afghanistan . In the media, the BBC tries to avoid the phrases "terrorist" or "freedom fighter", except in attributed quotes, in favor of more neutral terms such as " militant ", " guerrilla ", " assassin ", " insurgent ", " rebel ", " paramilitary ", or " militia ". Partisans often use captured weapons taken from their enemies, or weapons that have been stolen or smuggled in. During

17278-542: The issue of who is or is not a legitimate combatant: ultimately, in US Government opinion the distinction is just a political judgment. Some definitions of resistance movement have proved controversial. Hence depending on the perspective of a state's government, a resistance movement may or may not be labelled a terrorist group based on whether the members of a resistance movement are considered lawful or unlawful combatants and whether they are recognized as having

17441-584: The laws of nature. In doing so, they followed the Cynics , who argued that men and women should wear the same clothing and receive the same kind of education. They also saw marriage as a moral companionship between equals rather than a biological or social necessity and practiced these views in their lives as well as their teachings. The Stoics adopted the views of the Cynics and added them to their own theories of human nature, thus putting their sexual egalitarianism on

17604-611: The legacy of the organization, effectively erasing it from the history of international women's movements. When the WIDF was described by scholars or activists, it was depicted as a pro-Soviet, communist front organization, which received both political and financial support from the USSR . Some of these accounts were based on recovered records of the FBI and the House Un-American Activities Committee. Because

17767-539: The majority of members of the United Nations, to assert their power and oppose policies of the superpowers, leading to a broader focus on women's issues by the organization. At the WIDF council meeting in East Berlin in 1971, preliminary discussions took place about hosting a year for women. The Committee of the Bulgarian Women's Movement hosted the WIDF council meeting in Sofia in 1972 and first proposed

17930-557: The military or security forces. Resistance during World War II was mainly dedicated to fighting the Axis occupiers. Germany itself also had an anti-Nazi Hitler, German resistance movement in this period. Although the United Kingdom did not suffer invasion in World War II, preparations were made for a British resistance movement in the event of a German invasion (see Auxiliary Units ). When geographies of resistance are discussed, it

18093-639: The military. Women of the upper classes exercised political influence through marriage and motherhood. During the Roman Republic , the mothers of the Gracchus brothers and of Julius Caesar were noted as exemplary women who advanced the careers of their sons. During the Imperial period , women of the emperor's family could acquire considerable political power and were regularly depicted in official art and on coinage. The central core of Roman society

18256-586: The minimum age for girls was 12, while it was 14 for boys. The rate of Wergild suggested that women in these societies were valued mostly for their breeding purposes. The Wergild of woman was double that of a man with the same status in the Aleman and Bavarian legal codes. The Wergild of a woman meanwhile was triple that of a man with the same status in Salic and Repuarian legal codes for women of child-bearing age, which constituted from 12 to 40 years old. One of

18419-472: The mistreatment of women during this time. He was well known for advocating for marital equality among the sexes in his work during the 17th century. According to a study published in the American Journal of Social Issues & Humanities, the condition for women during Locke's time were as quote: Resistance movement The Oxford English Dictionary records use of the word "resistance" in

18582-529: The most Germanic codes from the Lombard tradition legislated that women be under the control of a male mundoald , which constituted her father, husband, older son or eventually the king as a last resort if she had no male relatives. A woman needed her mundold's permission to manage property but still could own her own lands and goods. Certain areas with Visigothic inheritance laws until the 7th century were favorable to women while all other laws were not. Before

18745-925: The negative reactions to the HUAC report. Twenty-one WIDF activists from Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe spent twelve days evaluating the conditions on the Korean peninsula during the war in May 1951,. The investigation was focused on North Korea and attempted to objectively evaluate government claims of civilian casualties . Among the delegates were Nora Rodd (chair, Canada), Liu Qingyang  [ zh ] (vice chair, China), Ida Bachmann (vice chair, Denmark), Trees Sunito Heyligers (secretary, Netherlands), Abassia Fodil (Algeria), Monica Felton (Britain), Kate Fleron (Denmark), Candelaria Rodríguez (Cuba), Hilde Cahn (East Germany), Eva Priester (Austria), and Lilly Wächter (West Germany), among others. They wrote

18908-551: The night. Authors of the Malleus Maleficarum strongly established the link between witchcraft and women by proclaiming a greater likelihood for women to be addicted to "evil". The authors and inquisitors Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprengerh justified these beliefs by claiming women had greater credulity, impressionability, feeble minds, feeble bodies, impulsivity and carnal natures which were flaws susceptible to "evil" behavior and witchcraft. These sorts of beliefs at

19071-460: The official stance of communism was to view feminism as a "bourgeois ideology promoted by upper-class women seeking to advance their own interests at the expense of class solidarity", the perception of the WIDF was that it was not a women's rights organization but rather an organization designed to spread socialist ideology. Historian Celia Donert states that the activists of the WIDF were involved in developing transnational socialist networks and that

19234-486: The organization was a wing of Soviet propaganda mechanisms which used a peace campaign to promote disarmament and foster the communist take-over of democratic nations. The Indonesian group Kowani withdrew from WIDF in 1949 because of objections by some of its affiliates to the organization's ties to socialism, but the following year, another Indonesian organization, Gerwis (later re-named Gerwani ), affiliated with WIDF. The Congress of American Women disbanded in 1950 because of

19397-500: The perspective of the oppressed; second, a hierarchy of the oppressions has to be defined…..; third, political actions need to be understood and undertaken in terms of their situatedness and position in dynamic power relations: and finally, an epistemology capable of telling the difference between different differences has to be developed. There are many forms of resistance in relations to different power dominations and actors. Some resistance takes place in order to oppose, change, or reform

19560-403: The physical spaces. In other cases, people sometimes simply resist to certain ideology, belief, or culture norms within their minds. These kinds of resistance are less visible but very fundamental parts of all forms of resistance. On the lawfulness of armed resistance movements in international law , there has been a dispute between states since at least 1899, when the first major codification of

19723-498: The policies of a government or occupying power. This may be accomplished through violent or non-violent means. In this view, a resistance movement is specifically limited to changing the nature of current power, not to overthrow it; and the correct military term for removing or overthrowing a government is an insurgency . However, in reality many resistance movements have aimed to displace a particular ruler, especially if that ruler has gained or retained power illegally. Freedom fighter

19886-493: The political context of party and state ideology impacted how they advocated for women's interests, but that they were focused on resolving women's issues. Focus by scholars on the social and cultural history of the Cold War and increased feminist scholarship on communist women's activism since the dissolution of the Soviet Union have led to a clearer understanding that women's international relationships were more complex and diverse than previously acknowledged. The full history of

20049-614: The pre-Islamic position of women, Islamic legislation meant an enormous progress; the woman has the right, at least according to the letter of the law , to administer the wealth she has brought into the family or has earned by her own work." For Arab women , Islam included the prohibition of female infanticide and recognizing women's full personhood. Women generally gained greater rights than women in pre-Islamic Arabia and medieval Europe . Women were not accorded such legal status in other cultures until centuries later. According to Professor William Montgomery Watt , when seen in such

20212-614: The property of men so any threat or injury to them was the duty of their male guardians. In Irish law, women were forbidden to act as witnesses in courts. In Welsh law, women's testimony could be accepted towards other women but not against men, but Welsh laws, specifically The Laws of Hywel Dda , also reflected accountability for men to pay child maintenance for children born out of wedlock, which empowered women to claim rightful payment. In France, women's testimony had to corroborate with other accounts or it would not be accepted. Although women were expected to not attend courts , this however

20375-537: The prophetess Anna Trapnell . English and American Quakers believed that men and women were equal. Many Quaker women were preachers. Despite relatively greater freedom for Anglo-Saxon women , until the mid-19th century, writers largely assumed that a patriarchal order was a natural order that had always existed. This perception was not seriously challenged until the 18th century when Jesuit missionaries found matrilineality in native North American peoples. The philosopher John Locke opposed marital inequality and

20538-695: The proposal was seconded by Helvi Sipilä , the Finnish representative of the commission, it was passed by the commission and presented to the UN General Assembly , which adopted a resolution in December 1972 to honor women with International Women's Year in 1975; however, it did not approve hosting a conference. WIDF activists made their own plans to host their organization's 30th anniversary congress in East Berlin in October 1975. Patricia Hutar ,

20701-531: The right to dispose of a woman's property. Athenian women could only enter into a contract worth less than the value of a " medimnos of barley" (a measure of grain), allowing women to engage in petty trading. Women were excluded from ancient Athenian democracy , both in principle and in practice. Slaves could become Athenian citizens after being freed, but no woman ever acquired citizenship in ancient Athens. In classical Athens women were also barred from becoming poets, scholars, politicians, or artists. During

20864-435: The rights to purchase, own, sell, and inherit property. The Bible guarantees women the right to sex with their husbands and orders husbands to feed and clothe their wives. Breach of these Old Testament rights by a polygamous man gave the woman grounds for divorce: "If he marries another woman, he must not deprive the first one of her food, clothing and marital rights. If he does not provide her with these three things, she

21027-506: The ruling elite are thought to have helped improve the status of women under the Empire. Rome had no system of state-supported schooling, and education was available only to those who could pay for it. The daughters of senators and knights seem to have regularly received a primary education (for ages 7 to 12). Regardless of gender, few people were educated beyond that level. Girls from a modest background might be schooled in order to help with

21190-414: The same rights under the law as a man, however rightful entitlements depended upon social class . Landed property descended in the female line from mother to daughter, and women were entitled to administer their own property. Women in ancient Egypt could buy, sell, be a partner in legal contracts , be executors in wills and witnesses to legal documents, bring court action, and adopt children. Women during

21353-535: The sense of organised opposition to an invader from 1862. The modern usage of the term "Resistance" became widespread from the self-designation of many movements during World War II, especially the French Resistance . The term is still strongly linked to the context of the events of 1939–45, and particularly to opposition movements in Axis-occupied countries. Using the term "resistance" to designate

21516-700: The social injustice prevalent within the Northern economy. In the age of advanced IT and mass consumption of social media , resistance can also occur in the cyberspace.The Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council of NSW's Tobacco Resistance and Control (A-TRAC) team created a Facebook page to help promote anti-smoking campaign and rise awareness for its members. Sometimes, resistance takes place in people's minds and ideology or in people's "inner spaces". For example, sometimes people have to struggle within or fight against their inner spaces, with their consciousness and, sometimes, with their fear before they can resist in

21679-412: The status of women's rights, and in building internationalist friendships among women. During the Cold War era, WIDF was described in recovered FBI files as Communist -leaning and pro- Soviet . The international day for protection of children, observed since 1950 in many countries as Children's Day on 1 June, was established on the initiative of a WIDF campaign held in 1949. In 1951, the organization

21842-450: The stories about shieldmaidens are unconfirmed, but some archaeological finds such as the Birka female Viking warrior may indicate that at least some women in military authority existed. A married woman could divorce her husband and remarry. It was also socially acceptable for a free woman to cohabit with a man and have children with him without marrying him, even if that man was married;

22005-402: The time could send female hermits or beggars to trials just for offering remedies or herbal medicine. This set of developed myths eventually lead to the 16–17th century witch trials which found thousands of women burned at the stake. By 1500, Europe was divided into two types of secular law. One was customary law, which was predominant in northern France, England and Scandinavia, and the other

22168-429: The use of germ warfare in Korea. Between its congresses, WIDF also organized large conferences to address peace, motherhood, and women's issues. WIDF's membership and leadership included women from throughout the world. Although primarily held in Europe, its conferences were also held in Asia, and Latin America. It was an explicitly anti-racist organization, whose members were working-class. For example, at its founding,

22331-406: The voting system to be used; the naming of the organization, replacing the original wording using "anti-fascist" with "democratic"; and whether WIDF would have any authority to control member organizations. The delegates ultimately decided to host triennial congresses with votes on issues based on the size of the population that each national delegation represented. The executive council, made up of

22494-452: The war, many of the activists, who were primarily aristocrats and intellectuals, took part in anti-fascist conferences throughout Europe, and began to develop a transnational framework for social and political policies that would prevent future conflicts. Eugénie Cotton attended a meeting of the Union des Femmes Françaises (Union of French Women) in 1944, which sparked the idea for forming

22657-446: The witnesses. Kim also found the WIDF report significant in that it reveals and documents sexual violence against women during the war. De Haan called the WIDF "the largest and probably most influential international women's organization of the post-1945 era", an assessment which was seconded by Taewoo Kim. Women%27s rights Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed

22820-687: The women of China were reluctant to be treated by male doctors of Western Medicine. This resulted in a tremendous need for female doctors of Western Medicine in China. Thus, female medical missionary Mary H. Fulton (1854–1927) was sent by the Foreign Missions Board of the Presbyterian Church (USA) to found the first medical college for women in China. Known as the Hackett Medical College for Women (夏葛女子醫學院),

22983-556: The women sending congratulations and support for the founding of WDIF were Clementine Churchill , wife of the British Prime Minister; Eleanor Roosevelt , First Lady of the United States , and Isie Smuts , wife of the Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa . Gabrielle Duchêne , a vice president of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), and Margery Corbett Ashby , president of

23146-566: The women's say or consent. However divorce rights were permitted to women who suffered physical abuse but protections from harm were not given to those termed "wretched" women such as beggars, servants and slave women. Having sex with them through force or without consent usually had no legal consequence or punishment. During the Viking Age , women had a relatively free status in the Nordic countries of Sweden, Denmark and Norway, illustrated in

23309-457: The year 415 at the hands of a Christian mob. Since Byzantine law was essentially based on Roman law, the legal status of women did not change significantly from the practices of the 6th century. But the traditional restriction of women in public life as well as the hostility against independent women still continued. Greater influence of Greek culture contributed to strict attitudes about women's roles being domestic instead of being public. There

23472-552: Was Roman-based written law, which was predominant in southern France, Italy, Spain and Portugal. Customary laws favoured men more than women. For example, inheritance among the elites in Italy, England, Scandinavia and France was passed on to the eldest male heir. In all of the regions, the laws also gave men substantial powers over the lives, property and bodies of their wives. However, there were some improvements for women as opposed to ancient custom; for example, they could inherit in

23635-561: Was a vice president of the International Alliance of Women, attended WIDF's 1952 Vienna Congress and was asked by the board of the IAW to choose which organization she preferred. She resigned from the International Alliance of Women's board and became a vice president of WIDF in 1953. WIDF's monthly magazine, which became a quarterly publication in 1966, Women of the Whole World, was produced in six languages – Arabic, English, French, German, Russian, and Spanish from 1946 to 1990. The US affiliate of

23798-484: Was active in the anti-war movement pushing for peace in Africa and Asia. WIDF organized its activities directly with its women members, bypassing government officials. It was typical for the organization to send letters to members urging action and protest over government policies. For example, the organization rallied Frenchwomen to have their sons refuse to participate in colonial wars, and urged American women to protest

23961-454: Was also a growing trend of women who were not prostitutes, slaves or entertainers to be entirely veiled. Like previous Roman law, women could not be legal witnesses, hold administrations or run banking but they could still inherit properties and own land. As a rule, the influence of the church was exercised in favor of the abolition of the disabilities imposed by the older law upon celibacy and childlessness, of increased facilities for entering

24124-481: Was an essential part of countryside land reform as women could no longer legally be sold to landlords. The official slogan was "Men and women are equal; everyone is worth his (or her) salt". Both before and during biblical times, the roles of women in society were severely restricted. Nonetheless, in the Bible, women are depicted as having the right to represent themselves in court, the ability to make contracts, and

24287-459: Was attended by women from 43 African nations, 33 Asian countries, 29 European states; the remaining 33 countries were represented by delegates from the Americas, Australia, and New Zealand. In 1976, the WIDF sponsored an international conference in Sofia, Women in Agriculture , focused on educational training and developing cooperative farms in the Global South. The organization co-initiated

24450-460: Was banned by French authorities and relocated to East Berlin . Other international women's organizations became concerned that WIDF would use appeals to rally participation in women's rights and motherhood as propaganda to increase anti-American sentiment and promote communism. At various points in its history, the WIDF enjoyed consultative status with the Economic and Social Council ( ECOSOC ) of

24613-528: Was elected president, the office relocated to Brasília , and in 2007 the WIDF's secretariat was located in São Paulo . Campos was succeeded by Salvadoran Lorena Peña after her election at the 2016 WIDF Congress of Bogotá , and the worldwide headquaters moved to the Palomo neighborhood of San Salvador at 23 Calle Poniente & Avenida Las Victorias #123. Peña continued to lead the organization in 2023. The Women's International Democratic Federation (WIDF) has

24776-498: Was encouraged by the state. By 27–14 BCE the ius tritium liberorum ("legal right of three children") granted symbolic honors and legal privileges to a woman who had given birth to three children and freed her from any male guardianship. In the earliest period of the Roman Republic, a bride passed from her father's control into the "hand" (manus) of her husband. She then became subject to her husband's potestas , though to

24939-478: Was founded in Paris in 1945 as an anti-fascist organization with the intent of engaging women in efforts to prevent war and to combat the racist and sexist ideology of fascist regimes. At its organizing conference, Eugénie Cotton was elected as president and the organization's goals were defined as promoting active participation in the fight against fascism and in favor of world peace , in protecting public health with particular focus on child welfare, in improving

25102-493: Was given to bouts of jealousy, or suffered from an incurable or loathsome disease or disorder. But there were also limits for the husband – for example, he could not divorce if she observed her parents-in-law's mourning sites, if she had no family to return to, or if the husband's family used to be poor and since then had become richer. Confucian thinking relegated women in China to subordinate roles and foot binding left them homemakers. About 45% of Chinese women had bound feet in

25265-519: Was held between 26 and 30 November 1945 at the Palais de la Mutualité in Paris. As a result, 850 delegates from 40 countries, representing 181 women's organizations, attended the founding meeting of the Women's International Democratic Federation. Cotton was elected president of WIDF and served in that capacity until her death in 1967. The organizational goals were defined as promoting active participation in

25428-417: Was largely ahead and much superior in its treatment towards women than most European countries. Medieval marriages among the elites were arranged in a way that would meet the interests of the family as a whole. Theoretically a woman needed to consent before a marriage took place and the Church encouraged this consent to be expressed in present tense and not future. Marriage could also take place anywhere and

25591-517: Was no difference between the struggle against colonial administrations or newly created governments, meaning that their demands for a realignment of power hierarchies to include working- and middle-class women would not be supported. To that end, the conference was rescheduled to be held in 1949 in Peiking (now Beijing). It was the first anti-imperialist and pan-Asian women's conference bringing together women from Africa and Asia. That year, WIDF also led

25754-442: Was not always true. Sometimes, regardless of expectations, women did participate and attend court cases and court meetings. But women could not act as justices in courts, be attorneys or members of a jury, or accuse another person of a felony unless it was the murder of her husband. For the most part, the best thing a woman could do in medieval courts was to observe the legal proceedings taking place. Swedish law protected women from

25917-416: Was referred to as ringkvinna , and she exercised all the rights afforded to the head of a family clan, such as the right to demand and receive fines for the slaughter of a family member, unless she married, by which her rights were transferred to her husband. After the age of 20, an unmarried woman, referred to as maer and mey , reached legal majority, had the right to decide her place of residence, and

26080-483: Was regarded as her own person before the law. An exception to her independence was the right to choose a marriage partner, as marriages were normally arranged by the clan. Widows enjoyed the same independent status as unmarried women. Women had religious authority and were active as priestesses ( gydja ) and oracles ( sejdkvinna ); within art as poets ( skalder ) and rune masters ; and as merchants and medicine women. They may also have been active within military office:

26243-663: Was the pater familias or the male head of the household who exercised his authority over all his children, servants, and wife. Girls had equal inheritance rights with boys if their father died without leaving a will. Similar to Athenian women, Roman women had a guardian or as it was called "tutor" who managed and oversaw all her activity. This tutelage had limited female activity but by the first century to sixth century BCE, tutelage became very relaxed and women were accepted to participate in more public roles such as owning and managing property or acting as municipal patrons for gladiator games and other entertainment activities Childbearing

26406-457: Was the biggest factor in restricting women's autonomy. Custom, statute and practice not only reduced women's rights and freedoms but prevented single or widowed women from holding public office on the justification that they might one day marry. According to English Common Law , which developed from the 12th century onward, all property which a wife held at the time of marriage became a possession of her husband. Eventually, English courts forbade

26569-435: Was the same as Athenian women. Plato acknowledged that extending civil and political rights to women would substantively alter the nature of the household and the state. Aristotle , who had been taught by Plato, denied that women were slaves or subject to property, arguing that "nature has distinguished between the female and the slave", but he considered wives to be "bought". He argued that women's main economic activity

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