women

Women, many of whom not only raised children but also tended food crops to support their families—in some cases without the assistance of their husbands—often bore the greater burden. The situation began to change slowly after independence, as even the conservative Pres. Hastings Kamuzu Banda…

…the role and status of women in Nigeria have continuously evolved. However, the image of a helpless, oppressed, and marginalized group has undermined their proper study, and little recognition has been granted to the various integral functions that Nigerian women have performed throughout history.

…gender came to stand for women. A primary question in these early studies was how and why women were subordinated in patriarchal social systems. Soon, however, the awareness that men, too, have gender sparked a much deeper analysis of the ways in which definitions of gender were mutually constructed. Rather…

Lévi-Strauss suggested that, because women’s fertility is necessary to the reproduction of the group, women are the “supreme gift.” With no fair return for a woman except another woman, they must have been reciprocally exchanged rather than simply given away. The simplest form of exchange in this schema involved…

In the West there was no successor to either the woman-developed comic character—i.e., Marie Duval’s Ally Sloper in the 1870s—or a major female comic character such as Wilhelm Busch’s Fromme Helene (1872). As there were relatively few…

Women performers were widespread during the period as jugglers, acrobats, dancers, singers, and musicians. There were women troubadours and jongleurs, and many of the French chansons are written from the point of view of female narrators, notably the chansons de mal mariée, or complaints by…

…innovation was the introduction of actresses. Talented, confident, and flamboyant ladies replaced the Elizabethan boy actors. Records indicate that “splendidly clothed” persons lent costumes, and wardrobe keepers aided players in selecting from available stock. No attempt was made at character dressing or historical accuracy.

…dramatized the economic importance of women. Women had always contributed indispensably to the operation of farms and often businesses, while they seldom acquired independent status; but, when war removed men from the locality, women often had to take full charge, which they proved they could do. Republican ideas spread among…

…eggs, and so on are women’s tasks. This division of labour seems obviously related to men’s relative ability to range far from camp, women being too burdened with the tasks of motherhood to track animals wherever they may lead. But the separation of tasks is usually more rigid and confining…

…(1767) became the first all-girl lay institution.

…training for occupations open to women were included, though some female educators stressed intellectual attainment rather than practical learning.

During the century, the education of girls was not entirely neglected, and France was notable for its efforts. Mme de Maintenon, for instance, had been a pupil of the Ursuline nuns in Paris and then a governess at the court of Louis XIV…

…foundation of secondary schools for girls was in its way one of the most notable achievements of the Third Republic. It was inaugurated by the law of December 22, 1880, named for its author, the Loi Camille Sée. Until World War II the curricula were different from those of the…

In Prussia, as elsewhere, the higher education of girls lagged far behind that of boys and received little attention from the state or municipality, except insofar as the services of women teachers were needed in the elementary schools. Thus it came about that…

Girls and boys were taught in separate schools except when it was uneconomical to do so. Boys usually received training in manual work, and girls in domestic science. Graduates of the Volksschule found it almost impossible to enter the secondary school, which was attended almost…

…education rights for girls and women, complex changes were not adopted swiftly. Of the 120 million children excluded from education systems at the turn of the 21st century, for example, approximately 60 percent were girls and nearly three-fourths were living in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time,…

During the Mughal period, girls received their education at home or in the house of some teacher living in close proximity. There were special arrangements for the education of the ladies of the royal household, and some of the princesses were distinguished scholars. Vocational education was imparted through a…

…prejudices against the education of girls. The impetus came from the national movement launched by Gandhi, which led thousands of women to come out of the purdah for the cause of national emancipation. It was also realized that the education of the girl was the education of the mother and,…

…in promoting the education of girls and other socially disadvantaged groups, largely through fiscal grants for the support of particular programs (e.g., reimbursement of tuition, where it is charged, for girls in classes IX–XII), and in launching a variety of progressive educational initiatives. In addition to publicly financed schools, there…

Educational provision for girls in medieval society was much more restricted. Wealthy families made some provision in the home, but the emphasis was primarily on piety and secondarily on skills of household management, along with artistic “accomplishments.” Neither girls nor boys of the lowest social ranks—peasants or unskilled…

…urban access to education and women’s education. Although female school enrollment ratios rose throughout the Middle East, they remained considerably lower than male ratios in every country except Lebanon and Israel, which achieved almost universal elementary literacy. Moreover, at the higher levels of education, the percentage of women students became…

The new system recognized women’s right to formal education in public schools, and women began to play an increasingly important role as teachers. The Government College at Rangoon and the Judson College established in the 19th century were incorporated as the University of Rangoon under the University Act of…

The education of women was promoted, and the first higher courses for women were founded in main cities.

…founding of a number of girls’ high schools and boarding schools offering an education that was comparable to that available in boys’ public schools and grammar schools. Several training colleges for teachers were established by voluntary agencies, and universities and university colleges toward the end of the century undertook the…

…age and sex group—for example, females aged 30–34—who work for gain. Among males, activity rates in the earlier years of working age are as a rule low, because so many remain in education and training. Between the ages of 25 and 50, male activity rates approach 100 percent, but from…

The proportion of women in the labor force—more than half of the total—is one of the largest in the world, an imbalance created in part by the massive destruction of men during the period of Khmer Rouge rule. By law, women are guaranteed equal rights, but traditional views…

…the principle that men and women should be compensated equally for work requiring comparable skills, responsibilities, and effort.

Famous female political leaders such as Cleopatra VII, Isabella I, and Elizabeth I were enormously influential in the history of diplomatic relations, but historically women largely played a secondary—but substantial—role as the wives of diplomats. Without large fortunes or many servants, diplomatic wives were…

Women often were used as envoys because of their perceived mysterious sanctity and their use of “sexual wiles”; it is believed that women regularly were entrusted with the vitally important task of negotiating peace in primitive cultures.

…employ many retired workers, immigrants, women, and those who have not found work or have lost their jobs in the large firms. While the law forbids discrimination against women and minorities, Japanese women traditionally have been excluded from the lifetime employment system and from higher-level jobs in corporations.

More women entered the labour force in the 1990s, particularly women from poor households. The high rate of urbanization was one of the factors that led to the increase. Although the number of women in the labour force increased by one-fifth by the end of the…

…in 1980 to empower professional women through networking at sponsored events and to promote the economic advancement of women throughout the world. TIAW’s membership includes thousands of individuals and associations. International headquarters are in Markham, Ont., Can.

…following these shifts toward white-collar, female, and service-sector employment, unions endeavoured to match strides with the rapidly changing composition of the work force—just as, earlier in the century, they had broken through the divide separating skilled from unskilled manual labour. However, though their composition was modified profoundly, with greatly increased…

…two-thirds of its members are women (the union maintains a quota to ensure that women occupy executive positions in rough proportion to their overall membership), and it has organized sections representing the interests of its women, black, disabled, and gay and lesbian members. Workers are also organized along function lines,…

Women have had the right to vote since 1961, but few have held political positions of power; a notable exception was Sylvie Kinigi, Burundi’s first female prime minister, who held the office for almost seven months beginning in July 1993. Female representation in Burundi government…

The participation of women in Liberia’s political process was highlighted in late 2005 when Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was elected president, becoming the first woman to be elected head of state in Africa. In the first decade of the 21st century, women held about one-seventh of seats in both…

Women are poorly represented in government and parliament, and relatively few women become prominent in political parties. Since 1990 there has been a significant increase in the activity of women’s organizations pursuing equality issues, particularly fairer representation in parliament and the government. A vote by…

…abound, especially with regard to women. Electoral quotas have increased the participation of women in legislative bodies: 90 seats are reserved for women in the House of Representatives, while one-third of the seats are reserved in regional and local bodies.

women by law to vote in national or local elections.

…especially in Scandinavia, breakthroughs for women in British national elections have been rare. Throughout much of the 20th century, only a few women won elections; before the 1980s the high point for female representation in the House of Commons was 29 in 1964. Indeed, many women who were able to…

…agents are particularly valuable for women in relationships in which mutual monogamy or condom use has failed or is not possible. Some of the first gels tested in large trials included Ushercell, which was made up of cellulose sulfate, and PRO 2000, which contained a polymer of naphthalene sulfonate. Each…

Women produce about one-twelfth as much androgen as men. Androgens are essential precursors of estrogens, and no estrogens can be produced without them. Whether androgens have physiological actions in women is less clear. Some evidence suggests that androgens contribute to bone growth and libido.…

…autoimmune diseases afflict far more women than men. Women are affected more often than men with most of the better-known disorders, including myasthenia gravis, systemic lupus erythematosis, Graves disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and Hashimoto disease. The reason for this is not fully understood, but researchers think it probably is related to…

…with a greater number of women dying from COPD than men. COPD is a general term that refers to respiratory diseases in which airflow is obstructed. Women’s airways appear to be more sensitive to the effect of cigarette smoke. Women with COPD often experience greater breathlessness and a disproportionately greater…

In women it results primarily in excess growth of facial hair, decreased frequency or cessation of menstrual periods, and infertility. In contrast, the effects are minimal in men because androgen production by the testes far exceeds adrenal androgen production, even when the latter is excessive.

…gaining weight; consequently, he or she reduces nutritional intake below the amount needed to maintain a normal minimal weight. Severe electrolyte disturbances and death can result. Bulimia is a behavioral disorder marked by binge eating followed by acts of purging (e.g., self-induced vomiting, ingestion of laxatives or diuretics, or vigorous…

…and forced participation of the girl can render the surgery a terrifying experience. In such cultures it is increasingly common for girls or some of their relatives to resist or delay the surgery, even to the point of requesting political asylum.

…disease most frequently occurs in women. The thyroid gland becomes enlarged, and most patients complain of tenderness in the front of the throat and difficulty in swallowing. Other symptoms include those of hyperthyroidism (e.g., accelerated heart rate, sweating, tremor), which are transient, and thyroid gland pain, fatigue, muscle aches, and…

The majority of patients are women, who are five to eight times more likely to develop this condition than men; it occurs more frequently in older women. There is a genetic predisposition to the disease, and a high iodine intake may contribute to its onset.

…the health care of pregnant women, mothers, and their young children. The health care needs of these three groups are generally recognized to be so closely related as to require a highly integrated service that includes prenatal care, the birth of the baby, the postnatal period, and the needs of…

…increasingly in the abortion of female fetuses following prenatal gender testing. With time, slight improvements have been seen in women’s participation in decisions about their own earnings (from 82 percent in 2015−16 to 85 percent in 2019–21) and about major household purchases (73 percent in 2015−16 to 80 percent in…

The care of women, especially of childbearing and childrearing women (often called maternal-child nursing), has long been a particular nursing concern. As early as the 1920s, nurses worked with national and local governments, private charities, and other concerned professionals to ensure that mothers and…

A woman’s nutritional status before and during pregnancy affects not only her own health but also the health and development of her baby. If a woman is underweight before becoming pregnant or fails to gain sufficient weight during pregnancy, her chance of having a premature or…

…is most common in postmenopausal women over age 50. It is estimated that approximately one-fourth of the world’s population of women over age 60 have some degree of osteoporosis. For these women, fracture is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality.

…to be sex-specific; in general, females appear to be especially sensitive to oxytocin, possibly because of differences in estrogen and progesterone levels.

…condition occurring primarily in young women that is characterized by spasms in the arteries to the fingers that cause the fingertips to become first pale and then cyanotic—bluish—upon exposure to cold or in response to emotional stress. Upon cessation of the stimulus, redness develops and there is a tingling or…

…common cause of hypopituitarism in women, Sheehan’s syndrome has become less common with improvements in obstetric practice.

However, women are affected about 30 times more often than men; roughly one in five women experiences a UTI in her lifetime. Girls and women are at high risk of infection because of the short female urethra. In addition, sexual intercourse, especially when a diaphragm is…

…to set minimum wages for women workers in the District of Columbia. Congress in 1918 had authorized the Wage Board to ascertain and fix adequate wages for women employees in the nation’s capital.

…acquisition of citizenship by a woman through marriage to a citizen was the prevailing principle in modern times until after World War I. Under this system, the wife and children shared the nationality status of the husband and father as head of the family. From the 1920s, under the impact…

…Norman custom, that dictated a woman’s subordinate legal status during marriage. Prior to marriage a woman could freely execute a will, enter into contracts, sue or be sued in her own name, and sell or give away her real estate or personal property as she wished. Once she married, however,…

…for homicide, and in Britain women constituted only 5 percent of the total prison population. Nevertheless, in most Western societies the incidence of recorded crime by women and the number of women in the criminal-justice system have increased. For instance, from the mid- to late 1990s in the United States,…

…unequal pay were these: working women had a higher turnover rate because of family obligations; some state laws prohibited women from working at night; and other laws limited the actual number of hours women could work and the amount of weight women could lift. The laws reflected the historical bias…

…federal laws that discriminate against women; its central underlying principle is that sex should not determine the legal rights of men or women.

…by the transfer of a female from her father’s family to the power and guardianship of her husband. Even with regard to the relationship between parent and child, legal concepts such as guardianship, custody, and legitimacy were associated with family power structures and family economic interests. Family law also traditionally…

…in Anglo-American common law, a woman in the unmarried state or in the legally established equivalent of that state. The concept derived from feudal Norman custom and was prevalent through periods when marriage abridged women’s rights. Feme sole (Norman French meaning “single woman”) referred to a woman who had never…

…Code concerning the rights of women in marriage were less restrictive than those of the French Civil Code. After World War II nearly all rules contravening the principle of equality of men and women were repealed. The ordinary statutory marital-property regime, with the husband administering and using the wife’s estate,…

…is the full equality of women. (There is, however, one loophole in the system—namely, the Russian patronymic, which is automatically derived from the father’s name, whereas equality understood in this way would demand a choice between the father’s or the mother’s name.) In Spain the married woman normally retains her…

Although the Revolution proclaimed women to be equal in rights with men, it did little to implement this view in law. The drafters of the code saw no reason to modify the traditional situation, and Napoleon himself favoured subordination of the wife to the husband. The code expressly stated…

…a patriarchal system in which women are viewed as the property of men. Whatever its origins, rape is a serious crime and is treated as a felony in most countries with common-law systems. In many rape trials, the guilt or innocence of the accused hinges on whether or not the…

…previous sovereign only through a woman were excluded from succession to the throne. Gradually formulated in France, the rule takes its name from the code of the Salian Franks, the Lex Salica (Salic Law).

Mothers of newborn children are considered both as participants of the sacred by having brought forth a new being into the world and as persons who are ritually unclean (e.g., among the Israelites and Zoroastrians), probably because of the presence of blood at birth, the…

Institutional celibacy for women is also typically conceived of as an aid to spiritual advancement. Virginity and celibacy are regarded as assets in the attainment of spiritual goals. Most institutional female celibates are nuns in residential cloisters—though there have been occasional solitary figures, such as the anchoress (female…

…food taboos to which a woman is subject for four or five days after giving birth. She may not eat raw meat or blood and is restricted to those foods that, according to tradition, have beneficial effects on the child (for example, eating ducks’ wings will make her child a…

…these observances falls on the women; their ritual and secular statuses are always inferior to those of men. It is the task of the housewife to be sure that meat and dairy foods are not mixed, that ritually slaughtered meat is not blemished, and that cooking equipment and dishes and…

(Bacchanalia) quickly won converts among women. Men, however, met them with hostility. In Thrace Dionysus was opposed by Lycurgus, who ended up blind and mad.

Women’s rituals comprise an important part of practical Hinduism. Some male-authored Hindu scriptures limit women’s religious roles, consider women more subject than men to bodily impurities, and subordinate them to their fathers and husbands. Priests in temples and other public spaces are…

…that of certain famous saintly women in Hindu India, today and in the past, who were known for their extreme piety or, more importantly, for their physical-mental (yogic) and mesmeric (hypnotic) powers. These women gained high charismatic (spiritually influential) status that placed them, as individuals, above male monastics. Yet, with…

…discerned in ceremonial remains are females and children, sometimes along with young pigs. This practice is similar to fertility and agricultural rites that are known to have been practiced in the early Mediterranean civilizations. It is also similar to beliefs and practices observed among present-day “primitive” agrarian peoples (in which…

…objects, sense-related objects, and professions: women in general (because they menstruate), pregnant women, prostitutes, and widows (the latter because of their additional association with death); pigs, dogs, and other scavengers because they eat or associate with excrement and garbage; carrion-eating animals because of their association with death; leftover food, because…

…demiurge and the origin of women (e.g., the myths of Prometheus and Epimetheus in ancient Greece and of Paliyan in southeast Australia) or between the demiurge and the origin of sexuality (e.g., the myths of the trickster Coyote and of the gnostic demiurge). In the Platonic anthropology, the first incarnation…

The flaminica, the wife of the flamen Dialis, participated in his sacredness and official status, and so vital was her association with him and his office that if she died he ceased to perform his functions.

…open to married or single women of equivalent social status, including emancipation from their fathers’ rule and the ability to handle their own property.

…document the ways in which women have been excluded from participation in research projects. More philosophically ambitious is the attempt to show how women’s exclusion led to a bias in the conclusions that scientists accept. Here there is a classic and compelling example: during the 1950s and ’60s, (male) primatologists…

…and the Soviet Union, no women were initially selected as astronauts. (In the United States, 13 women, the “Mercury 13,” underwent some of the same testing as the seven Mercury astronauts. Wally Funk, who later became the oldest person in space in 2021, was among them.) In 1962 the Soviet…

…in Roman law, an offending female spouse could be killed, but men were not severely punished. The Jewish, Islamic, and Christian traditions are all unequivocal in their condemnation of adultery. The culpability of both men and women is more explicitly expressed in the New Testament and the Talmud than in…

…of minority groups and for women. Affirmative action began as a government remedy to the effects of long-standing discrimination against such groups and has consisted of policies, programs, and procedures that give limited preferences to minorities and women in job hiring, admission to institutions of higher education, the awarding of…

Cretan women wore short-sleeved jackets that left the breasts bare and ankle-length flounced skirts, although shorter skirts to just below the knees are also attested. Marble figurines of men from the Cyclades assigned to the Early Bronze Age have belts and narrow codpieces like those of…

… the prejudice against smoking by women was broken, and the practice became widespread among women in Europe and the United States in the 1920s.

Most notably, women, having gained the right to vote in 1920 via constitutional amendment, also have made many gains in the area of employment rights. The women’s rights movement has thus far been stopped short of passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, which would have codified equal…

…usually a man and a woman (almost always from different lineages and not related by blood) along with their offspring, usually living in a private and separate dwelling. This type of unit, more specifically known as a nuclear family, is believed to be the oldest of the various types of…

Throughout most of Western history, women were confined to the domestic sphere, while public life was reserved for men. In medieval Europe, women were denied the right to own property, to study, or to participate in public life. At the end of the 19th century in France, they were still…

…defined until 1955, men and women have had gendered roles throughout history in most societies. For example, beginning in the early 19th century, many European societies subscribed to the Victorian gender ideology of separate spheres, which stated that men and women were meant for different roles in society.

…about 1845, campaigned to rescue women who were victims of moral and physical corruption and to reassert woman’s centrality to family life.

Women’s magazines frequently reflect the changing view of women’s role in society. In the 18th century, when women were expected to participate in social and political life, those magazines aimed primarily at women were relatively robust and stimulating in content; in the 19th, when domesticity…

The bond with advertising is probably most evident in magazines for women, since they are the greatest buyers of consumer goods. In the United States, up to the mid-1930s, such magazines were largely “trade-papers for home-makers.” There were exceptions,…

…War II; there are more women than men, and a sizable proportion of the female population is past the age of fertility. The natural rate of population increase is very small. A tendency toward small families is a reflection of both difficulties in housing and increased participation by both parents…

…historically most prostitutes have been women and most clients men.

…championed the sexual freedom of women.

…the male or by the female; the individual who receives contact generally rejects or accepts the other person’s overtures but refrains from playing a more aggressive role. Such physical contact, in some form, is a near-universal human experience and is valuable not only in mate selection but as a means…

…in progress—was the emancipation of women, which brought with it an increasing acceptance of premarital sexual activity, the concept of woman as a human being with her own sexual needs and rights, and the possibility of terminating an unhappy marriage without incurring serious social censure. A second major change was…

In areas where women have few rights and where there is a large income difference between the poor and the wealthy, infant mortality rates tend to be high. Contributing to the problem are poor education and limited access to birth control, both of which lead to high numbers…

…and greater personal freedom for women. It coincided with and is recognized as part of the “second wave” of feminism. While the first-wave feminism of the 19th and early 20th centuries focused on women’s legal rights, especially the right to vote (see women’s suffrage), the second-wave feminism of the women’s…

Many upper-middle-class women played golf, tennis, and field hockey; a few lower-class women boxed and wrestled. Women have had to campaign strenuously for access to “inappropriate” sports such as rugby and weightlifting, but they have been relatively successful in their efforts and now participate in a great…

Although women were playing baseball as early as the 1860s, their involvement in the sport was confined for the most part to the role of spectator. To counter the game’s reputation for rowdiness, baseball promoters took pains to encourage women to attend. “The presence of an…

Women have played organized baseball since the 1860s. Students at the all-female Vassar College formed baseball teams as early as 1866. In 1875 three men organized a women’s baseball club in Springfield, Illinois, divided it into two teams, the Blondes and the…

Clara Baer, who introduced basketball at the H. Sophie Newcomb College for Women in New Orleans, influenced the women’s style of play with her set of women’s rules, published in 1895. On receiving a diagram of the court from Naismith, Baer mistook dotted…

Separation of the sexes in chess dates from about 1500 with the introduction of the queen. Chess became a much faster, more exciting game and, thus, came to be perceived as a more masculine pursuit. Women were often barred from the coffeehouses…

Women first played cricket in England in the 18th century. In 1887 the first club, White Heather, was formed, and it survived to 1957. In 1890 two professional teams known collectively as the Original English Lady Cricketers were in action.

…hockey became increasingly popular among women. Although women’s teams had played regular friendly games since 1895, serious international competition did not begin until the 1970s. The first Women’s World Cup was held in 1974, and women’s hockey became an Olympic event in 1980. The international governing body, the International Federation…

The Under-19 Women’s World Championship was inaugurated in 2002.

Though sometimes considered primarily a male sport, hockey has been played by women for more than 120 years. The first all-female game was in Barrie, Ontario, Canada, in 1892, and the first world championship was held in 1990. Recognizing the growing popularity of…

Popular in the British Isles, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Switzerland, and the United States, women’s lacrosse was first played in Scottish and English private schools in the early 1900s and was introduced to schools and colleges in the eastern United States by…

…Roberta Gibb became the first woman to complete the race, though she ran without an official number. In 1967 Kathy Switzer, who had given her name as K.V. Switzer on the race application, was issued an official number and completed the marathon, although the race director tried to have her…

In 2000 it became a women’s event in the Olympics. Originally a five-day contest, the modern pentathlon was shortened to four days in 1984 and to one day in 1996. The fencing competition is a round-robin tournament comprising one-minute, one-touch épée duels. The freestyle swim covers 200 meters. Competitors draw…

One of the greatest misconceptions about physical culture in the modern era was that it was meant for men only. Early efforts to incorporate European gymnastics into a liberal education were instigated by Catharine Beecher, scion of a New England family that…

British and American women also played polo in the 20th century. In the United States, women competed against women on the collegiate level, and a women’s National Handicap competition was introduced. Occasionally a woman also acted as the fourth member of an otherwise all-male team.

Most prominent rodeos also include women’s barrel racing and team steer roping as regular program events. Steer roping, a traditional cowboy practice and a familiar rodeo event for several decades in the early 1900s, is today an infrequent competition because of considerations of animal welfare.

While rugby was being professionalized during the 1990s, a parallel revolution was under way in the sport. Because the relationship between masculinity and rugby has been passed between fathers and sons, and rugby participation became synonymous with learning to be a man…

There were originally so few women surfers that often they would compete in men’s events, and this continued well into the 1970s. A women’s professional circuit began in 1977, but not until the mid-1990s did women take up surfing in large numbers.