Landmarks in the Global Movement

for Womens Rights: A Timeline

On January 21, 2017, the Womens March on Washington, DC, drew a record-breaking public display of support for womens rights
and civil rights in a mass demonstration, estimated to be the largest one-day protest in U.S. history. With over 600 sister
marches held in every major city and dozens of small towns across the United Statesas well as at sites on every continent
around the worldcrowd assessments from police forces and organizers tallied up millions of participants globally. Participants
from Boise to Nashvilleand from Kolkata to Santiagoflooded the streets and airwaves, with an unprecedented 11.5 million tweets
around the world to date using the hashtag #womensmarch.
The Womens March joins other landmark historical events in the global movement for gender equality. And although the scale of
the march signifies that the rights of women and girls have risen on the world stage, the persistent inequalities highlighted by
marchers underscore the significant unfinished business that remains.
Here is a list of significant events in the global movement for womens rights:

1792
Mary Wollstonecrafts A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
The English writer and philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft penned a widely-distributed treatise entitled A Vindication of the Rights
of Woman, in which she argues that women are not naturally inferior to men, but rather lack education. The essay suggests that
women should have equal access to co-educational schooling and that womens participation in society is essential to any nations
wellbeing.

July 19, 1848

Seneca Falls Convention
A group of abolitionist activists, led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, gathered in Seneca Falls, New York, to
press for womens rights. We hold these truths to be self-evident, proclaimed the Declaration of Sentiments the delegates
produced, that all men and women are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that
among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

March 19, 1911

First celebration of International Womens Day
After the attendees of a 1910 meeting in Copenhagen proposed that one day each year be set aside to honor the womens rights
movement and build support for universal suffrage, International Womens Day was marked for the first time in Austria,
Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland in March of 1911. More than one million women and men attended rallies in support of
womens right to vote, hold public office, access vocational training, and enter the labor force and participate without discrimination.

April 28, 1915

International Congress of Women
In the spring of 1915, over one thousand women delegates from the U.S. and eleven European nations
gathered in The Hague for the first International Congress of Women, which would later become known
as the Womens International League for Peace and Freedom.

December 10, 1948

United Nations Declaration of Human Rights
In 1948, the newly-formed United Nations (UN) adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the first international
document to assert the dignity and worth of the human person and [the] equal rights of men and women. Only decades later, at
the 1995 Beijing Fourth World Conference on Women, would womens rights become widely recognized as fundamental human
rights.

June 19-July 2, 1975

UN First World Conference on Women in Mexico City
Coinciding with International Womens Year, the UN General Assembly and Commission on the Status of Women called on
representatives from 133 member states to gather in Mexico City for the First World Conference on Women. The conference
resulted in a forward-looking World Plan of Action to achieve the objectives for the advancement of women over the next decade,
and the UN General Assembly proclaimed 1976-1985 the United Nations Decade for Women: Equality, Development
and Peace.

December 18, 1979

CEDAW: An international bill of rights for women
Adopted by the UN General Assembly, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against
Women (CEDAW) is often described as an international bill of rights for women. It explicitly defines discrimination against
women, establishes legal obligations for state parties to end discrimination in the public and private spheres, and outlines a vision of
substantive equality between women and men. As of 2017, 189 parties have ratified the treaty, making it the second most ratified UN
human rights treaty.

September 4-15, 1995

UN Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing
The landmark UN Fourth World Conference on Women brought an unprecedented 17,000 official participants and
30,000 activists to Beijing, China, and galvanized progress for the advancement of women worldwide. At the conference, which
addressed issues of human rights, poverty, economic inclusion, and gender-based violence, then-U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham
Clinton famously proclaimed that womens rights are human rights, which became a rallying cry around the world. The
conference resulted in the unanimous adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action by 189 countries, and global
reviews held every five years since the declarations passage have evaluated progress toward its realization.

January 21, 2017

Womens March on Washington
On January 21, 2017, the Womens March on Washington, DC, became the largest international mass demonstration in support of
womens rights. Affiliated marches ranging in size from several dozen to several hundred thousand people were held in towns and
cities around the world, including Accra, Bangkok, Paris, Nairobi, Belgrade, Buenos Aires, Krakow, and
even Antarctica. Many marches were accompanied by training sessions for women seeking political office, youth initiatives,
and discussions of issues ranging from wage inequality to freedom from violence.