Summary
The women's movement was probably the most influential social phenomenon of the last quarter of the 20th century. Many governments were forced to respond to its calls for change. In 1979 a new international convention rejecting all forms of discrimination against women was born. Twenty years later it has been ratified by 165 countries. Yet, at the beginning of the 21st century, millions of women worldwide are still denied the most fundamental rights.
In this book, 12 journalists from Africa, Asia and Latin America investigate struggles to reform punitive personal status laws, to introduce fair marriage contracts, to allow divorced women child custody rights and independent access to land, to end sexual harassment in education, discriminatory employment practices and domestic violence. Personal accounts by women from widely different backgrounds, combined with searching analysis, make a compelling case for the radical overhaul of laws and social policies that shape attitudes and define what rights women have in practice.
A unique aspect of this book is its holistic approach. In each chapter, the particular issue under scrutiny is also examined from the perspective of its effect on women's reproductive rights and health - still the area of women's experience over which societies exercise the most rigid, though often hidden, control.
