Vermont governor signs 1st-in-nation shield bills that explicitly include medicated abortion
The bills protect providers from discipline for providing legally protected reproductive and gender affirming health care services.
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.
Women created almost half of all new businesses in the U.S. last year
5 million businesses were founded in the U.S. in 2022. 47% of those new businesses were founded by women. Before the pandemic, just 29% of American entrepreneurs were women.
Japan approves first abortion pill
Japan’s first abortion pill won approval in 2023, and clinical trials there showed 93% of participants had a complete abortion within 24 hours using the two-pill combination. Until that vote, Japan had been one of the last developed nations offering only surgical options, including a method the World Health Organization calls obsolete. The ministry took the unusual step of opening a public comment period before deciding, drawing strong responses from doctors and advocates who had pushed for years. The approval is historic, though spousal consent requirements still shape who can actually access care. As reproductive rights contract in some countries and expand in others, Japan’s shift is a reminder that progress is uneven, hard-won, and worth celebrating wherever it lands.
Pope Francis gives women right to vote in bishops’ meeting for first time
Women voted at the Vatican’s Synod of Bishops for the first time in October 2023, after Pope Francis rewrote the rules to seat them as full participants. Five religious sisters joined five priests as voting representatives for religious orders, and Francis appointed 70 non-bishop members to the synod, asking that half be women. The meeting itself grew out of a two-year listening process that gathered the hopes of lay Catholics across dozens of countries — one of the largest such exercises in modern religious history. For an institution two thousand years old, even a measured shift like this one suggests something powerful: when a church commits to listening widely, the question of who gets to answer becomes harder to set aside.
New Zealand cabinet reaches gender equality for the first time
New Zealand’s cabinet reached gender parity for the first time ever, with women and men now sharing the top table 10-10. The shift came when Prime Minister Chris Hipkins promoted Willow-Jean Prime, who holds the conservation and youth portfolios, bringing the number of Māori ministers in cabinet to a record six. Counting ministers outside cabinet too, women now outnumber men across the full ministerial ranks — a quieter milestone that may matter even more. It builds on 2020’s election of the most diverse parliament in the country’s history, including the highest share of female lawmakers in the OECD. For democracies still wrestling with who gets to govern, it’s a hopeful glimpse of what representative government can actually look like.
Washington State passes “shield law” to protect people from out-of-state seeking gender-affirming care and abortions
H.B. 1469 prohibits Washington legal authorities from cooperating with out-of-state subpoenas, court orders, warrants, and extradition requests regarding gender and reproductive health care.
Uzbekistan adopts landmark legislation on domestic violence
Under the new law, people found guilty of assaulting a current or former partner will face fines or prison time, and sexual offenders will not be eligible for early release.
New project to bring education to 10 million girls in rural India
Working in partnership with the government, Educate Girls operates in over 20,000 villages serving adolescent girls and young women who have permanently dropped out of school.
Pakistani president upholds equal rights for female employees in groundbreaking move
The President further emphasized that discrimination against women is against the spirit of the founders of Pakistan, against the fair practices of Islam, and against the Constitution.
Women make up 40% of boards at top U.K. companies for first time
Women on boards have hit a remarkable milestone in Britain: 40.2% of seats across the FTSE 350 are now held by women, reaching a target campaigners had set for 2025 a full three years early. Just over a decade ago, 152 of those same companies had no women on their boards at all. The shift came without legal quotas, driven instead by the business-led FTSE Women Leaders Review, regulator backing, and steady pressure from investors. The next frontier is the executive suite, where women hold a third of senior roles and the real day-to-day power still lies. Britain’s voluntary path offers other countries a hopeful template for closing leadership gaps without waiting on legislation.