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.
For years, Honduras was the only nation in the Americas to have an absolute ban on the sale or use of emergency contraception, also known as morning-after or “Plan B” pills.
Among the new professions available to female domestic workers are driver, personal care worker, home tailor, home manager, private tutor and home farmer.
Rayyanah Barnawi will join the crew of the AX-2 space mission, Axiom Space’s second all-private astronaut mission to the International Space Station in the second quarter of 2023.
Council Delegate Crystalyne Curley, 37, who represents Tachíí/Blue Gap, Many Farms, Nazlini, Tsélání/Cottonwood, Low Mountain, has become the first woman to head the Navajo Nation Council.
The Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Act calls for a 30% minimum quota of women in parliament and cabinet and requires companies to set aside 30% of senior-level jobs for women.
Saudi Arabia launched it’s national women’s football team last year. Last week, Anoud Al Asmari made history by becoming the first Saudi female referee to be accredited by Fifa.
Although patients will still need prescriptions to get the pills, this change will drastically widen their access.
Speaking at the launch of the US Initiative on Global Women’s Economic Independence, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that they are working to expand that number.
Afghan girls and women with internet access will be able to study more than 1,200 courses from 20 top British institutions at no cost to themselves.
Stéphanie Frappart made history on December 1, 2022, when she blew the opening whistle for Costa Rica vs. Germany — the first woman ever to referee a men’s FIFA World Cup match. She led an all-female team that day, joined by Brazil’s Neuza Back and Mexico’s Karen Díaz Medina, and called the game so cleanly that her performance drew no controversy at all. That quiet competence was the whole point: she earned the spot through the same FIFA assessment process as everyone else, building on a decade of firsts in Ligue 1, the UEFA Super Cup, and the Champions League. Her story is a reminder that real equality often arrives not with fanfare, but with someone simply doing the job well.
