Page 285 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol V

2062 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

Susan B. Anthony.

Background Revolution
During the nineteenth cen- and Suffrage
tury, women in many While over time women
parts of the world began have been successful in
working to achieve such gaining the vote, that
personal liberties as the right has been hard won.
right to hold property Although women organ-
and the right to divorce, ized for broader gender
with the goal being to rights, the majority of the
obtain protection under leaders of women’s rights
the law and legal recourse movements from World
in matters related to their War I through the post-
daily lives. By the mid- colonial period realized the
nineteenth century, women’s franchise was necessary if
movements became increas- they were to have power and
ingly political, and the center- promote positive change. In
piece of the various movements 1945, in post–World War II Japan,
was women’s suffrage. From the latter about 67 percent of the newly enfran-
part of the nineteenth century through chised women voters turned out to vote,
the twentieth century women made great strides and by the 1970s tatakau onnatachi (“fighting
in obtaining human and political rights, including women”) were fighting against sexist laws, seeking wage
voting rights. New Zealand (1893), Australia (1902), equity, and establishing themselves as politically
Finland (1906), Norway (1913), Great Britain (1918), informed voters.
Russia (1917), Germany (1919), and the United Women have often entered the suffrage arena through
States (1919) were among the first nations to grant participating in national struggles for independence, as
women the vote. was the case for women in Egypt, Vietnam, and South
During the early years of the various women’s move- Africa. In those countries, women and men worked
ments, thousands of women marched through the together toward national independence, and in that
streets making themselves heard, flooded the legisla- context nationalism promoted women’s suffrage and
tures with petitions for the vote, and continually allowed for women’s voting rights. For example in
appealed to male politicians to support the female fran- Egypt, the nationalists who worked toward building a
chise. Historians, political scientists, and sociologists modern nation-state independent of Great Britain saw
have argued that cultural transformations brought improvements in women’s restrictive lives as integral to
about through rapid industrialization, war, and other their program. Feminist activists became the center of the
social upheavals contributed to shifts in political par- anticolonial movement. Egyptian women began to push
ticipation and the shaping of a political identity for for women’s rights, including the vote, in earnest after
women globally. Some have argued that nations that World War II, and liberal (male) nationalists supported
have undergone restructuring due to decolonization or the early efforts of women like Bahithat Al Badiya, who
war have become more progressive, with the most dem- pushed a feminist political agenda that called for equal-
ocratic of these nations gradually implementing more ity and opportunity for Egyptian women. However, by
egalitarian policies in government that recognize the 1950s Islamic traditionalists were mounting resist-
women’s value as voters and political leaders. ance to women’s suffrage, and some of the liberal