Jordan repeals law allowing rapists to avoid punishment if they marry their victims
The decision is expected to be approved by the upper house, and then ratified by King Abdullah II.
Women's rights & well-being
This archive covers documented progress on women’s rights and well-being worldwide — from legal reforms and health advances to economic gains and shifts in policy. Stories here focus on what’s working, who’s driving change, and where meaningful progress is taking hold.
Proportion of female CEOs leading Forbes 500 companies at an all-time high
There are a record number of women who are CEOs of the Fortune 500, which was unveiled Wednesday morning, June 7, and Cleveland is well represented in those ranks.
Over 100 U.S. companies sign the White House Equal Pay Pledge
The Equal Pay Pledge, announced by the Obama White House in December 2016, drew more than 100 companies — from AT&T to Adobe — into a public commitment to audit their pay and review hiring practices. At the time, the typical American woman working full-time earned 80 cents for every dollar a man made. A voluntary step, but a visible one.
Icelandic women walk off the job to protest a 14 percent pay gap
Iceland’s women walked off the job at 2:38 p.m. on October 24, 2016, the exact moment each day they effectively stopped getting paid compared to men. Thousands filled the streets of Reykjavík, echoing the legendary 1975 strike. Two years later, Iceland became the first country to legally require employers to prove equal pay.
Pakistan passes criminal law to prosecute honour killings
Pakistan’s honour killing law, passed in October 2016, closed a devastating loophole that had let families “forgive” relatives who killed their own — almost always women — and walk free. The mandatory 25-year sentence arrived months after the murder of social media star Qandeel Baloch galvanized public outrage. It marked a quiet but meaningful shift: the state, not the family, now decides.
California lawmakers vote to mandate prison time for rape of unconscious victims
California’s 2016 rape sentencing law closed a quiet but consequential gap: judges could no longer hand down probation when a victim was unconscious or intoxicated rather than physically forced. The Assembly passed it 66–0, weeks after the Brock Turner case drew national outrage. A narrow fix, but one that aligned the law with how assault actually happens.
Hillary Clinton becomes first woman nominated for US presidency by a major party
Hillary Clinton’s nomination came on July 26th, 2016, when Democratic delegates in Philadelphia made her the first woman ever nominated for president by a major American party. Speaker after speaker traced a longer lineage, from Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 to Barbara Mikulski in the Senate. A barrier that had long defined American politics by its absence finally moved.
Egypt prosecutes doctors as FGM ban begins to take hold
Egypt’s fight against female genital mutilation reached a turning point in 2016, when the death of 17-year-old Mayar Mohamed Mousa during a procedure in Suez triggered a public criminal investigation. A UN survey captured the deeper shift: 92 percent of Egyptian mothers had undergone FGM, but only 35 percent intended it for their daughters.
Vigdís Finnbogadóttir becomes the first democratically elected female head of state
On June 29, 1980, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, a Reykjavík theatre director and French teacher, won Iceland’s presidency with 33.6% of the vote in a four-way race. She became the first woman anywhere elected head of state by direct popular vote, opening a door that dozens of countries have since walked through.
Margaret Thatcher is elected as Britain’s first female prime minister
Margaret Thatcher walked into 10 Downing Street on May 4, 1979, as the first woman to lead the United Kingdom. A grocer’s daughter from Lincolnshire who studied chemistry at Oxford, she would go on to serve eleven years — long enough that a generation of British girls grew up seeing a woman govern as a matter of fact.