The Legal rights of women refers to the social and human rights of women.

One of the first women's rights declarations was the Declaration of Sentiments.The dependent position of women in early law is proved by the evidence of most ancient systems. The Constitutional and Legal Rights of Women: ases in Law and Social Change is designed to provide undergraduate students with a comprehensive, sophisticated treatment of the legal status of all American women. Authors Baer and Goldstein skillfully blend doctrinal and political developments to document and explain the evolution of women's rights and the law--as well as the dynamics and dissension within the feminist movement. Building on Goldstein's previous editions, this book combines updated material on

constitutional law, gender discrimination, and women's rights with new cases and readings on family law, gay rights, and criminal law. This edition takes a more socio-political and institutional approach than other books on women and the law. The authors consider issues such as institutional questions of constitutional interpretation, the scope of judicial power, the balance of federal-state power, the interaction between law and other social and political institutions, and the capacity of law to effect societal change. The inclusion of state and lower federal court decisions greatly strengthens the book's focus on the law's relationship to gendered inequality. Topics also include constitutional history, job discrimination, gender equality, advances in reproductive technology law, divorce, child custody, education, same-sex marriage,

pornography, and domestic violence. Women's Legal Rights Limitations on women's legal rights and participation in civil society are widespread. In no region in the developing world do women and men have equal access to education, financial services, and other economic assets. Despite some recent progress, women around the world are still largely absent from national and local decision-making bodies. Women have a right to participate in decisions that affect them, their families, and their communities. Yet unequal access to government forums continues to restrain them and their potential contributions to economic and social development.

In addition, legal and customary restrictions on women's land and property ownership continue to hamper women's ability to acquire productive assets and reduce their vulnerability when family crisis or some other calamity strikes. Womens secure access to land can lead to improved family welfare and womens empowerment. Strengthening womens property rights is a critical step toward empowering women and reducing poverty. Ensuring that women understand and can implement these rights is equally important. Learn more. USAID helps countries address barriers to women's participation in formal employment, ensures women's access to financial services such as credit and savings, improves the nature and conditions of the work women do, provides adequate support when

women leave the labor market, and works to enable women to gain secure access to land. The WID Office is working to increase public awareness of women's legal rights and is building support for womens legal rights through host country civil society organizations and legislative and judicial branches of government. Towards Real Rights The UN-HABITAT led Global Campaign for Secure Tenure emphasizes that securing tenure for the household does not necessarily secure tenure for women and children. In undertaking the Global Campaign for Secure Tenure, the extension of secure tenure must benefit women and

men equally. So far, womens land and property rights have remained mainly illusory rather than substantive and the majority of women have therefore not been able to enjoy these rights. The Habitat Agenda, Millennium Development Goals, various Resolutions of the UN Commission on Human Rights and of the UN-Habitat Governing Council, provide the mandate to UN-HABITAT to be on the forefront of efforts to improve womens land, housing and property rights, including their equal secure tenure. On the basis of ongoing research, UN-HABITAT, together with various governments, and partner organizations at international, regional, national and

local level, is working on identifying and developing strategies and tools towards womens enjoyment of land and property rights. Some of the activities currently undertaken are: (a) Advocacy for further participatory law and policy reform with a holistic approach (linking laws and policies related to rural and urban land, housing, water, credit, marital property, inheritance, and gender). Ongoing research is identifying particular needs for law and policy reform in specific countries and the Global Campaigns for Secure Tenure and Urban Good Governance can use those research findings as advocacy entry points, while linking up with various lobbying and advocacy alliances

already working towards law and policy reform;(b) Technical advice on how to include wome (b) Technical advice on how to include womens rights, concerns and needs in regulations and guidelines for the implementation of laws and policies; (c) Technical advice on gender inclusive adjudication; (d) Technical advice and advocacy on innovative, affordable and flexible land tenure systems; (e) Training of judges, police officers, Members of Parliament, local councilors, land officials etc. on gender awareness and womens land and property rights ( this activity is carried out by UN-HABITAT partners and others); (f) Training of paralegal networks who disseminate information on womens

land, housing and property rights in their communities, intervene in disputes and have been seen to successfully prevent evictions of widows etc. and who are challenging local customs when discriminating against women (this activity is carried out by UNHABITAT partners and others); (g) Awareness raising: wide dissemination of international and regional human rights instruments recognizing womens equal land, housing and property rights; (h) Linking up and supporting the already existing initiatives of women slum dwellers who through innovative approaches have managed to collectively gain access to land and housing, e.g. through saving schemes and cooperatives;

(i) Identifying joint tenure types that improve womens security of tenure and mechanisms to increase independent registration of land and housing in womens names; (j) Gender perspective in slum upgrading: ensuring that in slum upgrading and regularization programs, womens rights and specific needs and interests are actively taken into account; (k) Womens inclusion in decisionmaking: ensuring that women are well represented in all decision-making processes surrounding slum upgrading and regularization. Nineteenth Century Women's Rights Movement he effort to secure women's rights began at a convention in Seneca Falls,

New York, in 1848. A group of women and men drafted and approved the Declaration of Sentiments, an impassioned demand for equal rights for women, including the right to vote. The declaration was modeled after the language and structure of the Declaration of Independence of 1776. Many of those gathered at Seneca Falls, including early women's rights leaders susan b. anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, had been active in the abolitionist movement, seeking an end to Slavery. However, these women realized that they were second-class citizens, unable to vote and possessing few legal rights, especially if they were married. Some leaders, like Lucy Stone, saw parallels between women and slaves: both were expected to be passive, cooperative, and obedient. In addition, the legal status of both slaves and women was unequal to that of white

men. After the Civil War ended in 1865, many of these reformers fully committed their energies to gaining women's suffrage. Stanton and Anthony established the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) that sought an amendment to the U.S. Constitution similar to the Fifteenth Amendment, which gave nonwhite men the right to vote. In 1872, Anthony was prosecuted for attempting to vote in the presidential election. Stone, on the other hand, helped form the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA). AWSA worked for women's suffrage on a state by state basis, seeking amendments to state constitutions. The U.S. Supreme Court was hostile to women's suffrage. In Minor v. Happersett, 88 U.S. 162, 22 L. Ed. 627

(1875), the Court rejected an attempt by a woman to cast a ballot in a Missouri election. The Court stated that the "Constitution of the United States does not confer the right of suffrage upon any one." In addition, the Court said, "Women were excluded from suffrage in nearly all the States by the express provision of their constitutions and laws." In essence, the Court relied on past exclusions to justify current exclusions, concluding that because women had never been allowed to vote, they could continue to be excluded. The Modern Women's Rights Movement For many decades of the twentieth century, supporters of women's rights had little success in legislatures or in the courts. Gender inequality meant that women could legally be discriminated against in employment, education, and other important areas of everyday life. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s

drew the support of many collegeeducated women, much like the women who supported the abolitionist cause a little more than a hundred years before. Like their predecessors, these civil rights workers realized that discrimination based on race existed side by side with discrimination based on gender. The result was the birth of the modern feminist movement and the quest for women's rights. Reproductive Rights The reproductive rights of women were recognized by the Supreme Court in the 1960s and 1970s, overturning one hundred years of legislation that restricted birth control and banned legal abortions. In the 1980s and 1990s, however, the Court retreated, allowing states to place restrictions on abortion. Womens Lack of Legal Rights in Islam O womenfolk, you should ask for forgiveness for I saw you in bulk

amongst the dwellers of Hell. A wise lady said: Why is it, Allahs Apostle, that women comprise the bulk of the inhabitants of Hell? The Prophet observed: You curse too much and are ungrateful to your spouses. You lack common sense, fail in religion and rob the wisdom of the wise. Upon this the woman remarked: What is wrong with our common sense? The Prophet replied, Your lack of common sense can be determined from the fact that the evidence of two women is equal to one man Promotion of Women's Human and Legal Rights Comprehensive review of the existing legal systems with regard to women's human rights; Strategies for legal formulation of new legislation with a view to attaining a gender responsive legal system

consistent with rhe current international framework for human and lega rights; Strategies to promote legal literacy among women and men at all levels and to introduce legal education in the school system; Technical assistance to strengthen the institutional capacity of organizations that provide legal services to the public; Technical assistance with regard to the establishment of legal, para-legal and mobile legal services in the rural communities; Organizing training, seminars and workshops to increase awareness and stimulate ideas for the promotion of human and legal rights of women. Problems Faced by Working Women in India he status of Indian women has

undergone considerable change. Though Indian women are far more independent and aware of their legal rights, such as right to work, equal treatment, property and maintenance, a majority of women remain unaware of these rights. There are other factors that affect their quality of life such as age of marriage, extent of literacy, role in the family and so on. In many families, women do not have a voice in anything while in several families; the women may have a dominating role. The result is that the empowerment of women in India is highly unbalanced and with huge gaps. Those who are economically independent and literate live the kind of life that other women tend to envy about. This disparity is also a cause for worry because balanced development is not taking place.