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We provide the first comprehensive documentation of enactment by U.S. states of two types of Acts removing married women's legal impediments in the economic sphere: the Married Women's Property Acts (MWPAs) and the Earnings Acts (EAs). We identify MWPAs that granted married women the right to own and control real and personal property, and Earnings Acts that granted married women the right to own and control their market earnings. Such Acts were passed by most states between 1850 and 1920, and were critical in weakening the patriarchal common-law doctrine of coverture. Scholars studying the Acts’ causes and consequences have used different enactment dates. We describe a three-step method for determining accurate dates of passage, apply that method to the contiguous 48 states, uncover dates not listed in previous studies, and show how our dates differ from the present published lists. We also show how enactment varied across regions, and across states with different marital property regimes. We relate Act timing to social changes occurring at those times, such as women's suffrage group organizing and the passage of compulsory schooling laws. We hope that our investigation will inform future empirical study of these important legal changes.

The United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) requires that women’s experiences, needs, and perspectives are incorporated into the political, legal, and social decisions in order to achieve transitional justice. In a post-conflict society, peace, and security should be understood in a wider context of justice encompassing accountability process and mechanisms, reparations for victims and upholding the principle of equality in all spheres of lives. Thus, the objective of the UNSCR 1325 is to increase women’s participation in decision-making in the peace process to address the wider context of women’s situation in post-conflict society and committing to protect women’s socioeconomic rights. It is obvious that women’s mere presence in decision-making process is insufficient in restoring stability in post-conflict society. Women’s participation will only be meaningful if they are empowered to be active rather than passive participants. Hence, it is argued that women’s leadership could only be built, if they are given adequate representation in decision-making process and institutions. Women’s participation in decision-making and women’s economic empowerment has a symbiotic impact on each other. When women are not stable economically and unable to freely make social choices and take responsibilities, they will not have the courage to compete in an election. Thus, this brief study argues that the economic marginalization (overt and covert discrimination) exposes women to multiple discrimination in post-conflict society in Sri Lanka. Hence, countries like Sri Lanka need to address the existing gap in this sphere of women empowerment and leadership. It concludes that the realization of women’s rights to equality in post-conflict Sri Lanka may be a slow process, but the Sri Lankan experiences provide a good case study on how to face the different challenges in post-conflict context.

The purpose of this paper is to address both the neglect of non-Anglo-centric accounting gendered practices beyond the predominant professional setting and the controversial roles of women and accounting in power relationships inside the household. Analyzing a Spanish upper-middle class Catholic family in the early nineteenth century, the research focuses on the reciprocal interaction of accounting with practices and processes of daily life in a rigid patriarchal socio-cultural and juridical context.

This microhistory draws upon several archives, including in Spain the Archivo Histórico Provincial de Cádiz. In England, the Bath Record Office has preserved documents and correspondence, both personal and business related, and the Worcester Record Office preserved notarial documents concerning the family. The large number of letters which have survived has facilitated an in-depth study of the people who were affected by accounting calculations.

In a juridical context where women were conceived as merely the means for the circulation of property between two families, the evidence shows that accounting provided the proof of women’s patrimony value and the means to facilitate their recovery in this cosification process. Although women had a little involvement in the household’s accounting and management, they demonstrated confidence in accounting, fulfilling a stewardship function for the resources received. Also, evidence shows that by using accounting practices to shield supposedly defenseless women, this reinforced male domination over women and promoted the view that the role of women was as an ornament and in need of a good husband.

Contrasting with the Anglo-Saxon contemporary context, the Spanish law preserved a woman’s property rights, guaranteeing recovery of properties owned by her before marriage should the marriage be legally annulled or be dissolved because one of the spouses’ death. This required a detailed accounting of the wife’s properties brought to her marriage, most especially regarding the dowry provided by her family.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the Village Saving and Loans Association (VSLA) on sustainable development (SD) and to explore VSLA as an approach that leads to women’s financial empowerment and its impact on SD in Egypt.

A mixed method was applied for this study, including qualitative and quantitative methods. Qualitative method includes 50 individual interviews with women in the upper Egypt communities that applied the VSLA approach, the quantitative method, on the other hand, relied on secondary data, such as the outcomes of (knowledge, attitude, and practices [KAP]). The VSLA was applied in the Egyptian Community in 2015–2019, according to KAP study reports presented by international funders.

This study concludes that this VSLA approach helped many women and families to improve their economic situation and overcome financial hardship, which reflected on rural SD. Furthermore, the concept equipped and empowered women with a needed financial hardship that allowed them to improve their family situation and to participate in the process of developing their communities in a sustainable way. Also, women participated in VSLA leading initiatives and took an active role in rural SD in their community.

The findings only apply to the sample that has participated in the VSLA project implemented by an international donor. A longitudinal quantitative evaluation of the VSLA approach and its impact on SD strategy of Egypt would be recommended in terms of further research study, highlighting the role of VSLA’s impact on achieving the Egyptian sustainable strategy 2030.

This paper is unique in presenting the concept of the VSLA as an intervention and approach for rural SD in the rural community by empowering marginalized women financially. Although this approach has been used by international donors as part of large programs implemented in Egypt and other countries since 1979 aimed at SD in rural areas, there is scarcity in the literature related to this approach.

By studying Annie Besant’s leadership style as a transformational leader, women can learn how to effectively lead and empower themselves and others in their pursuits.

This qualitative study explores the potential of Annie Besant’s personality traits and leadership style to derive a model for sustainable women’s empowerment.

This study provides valuable insights into a potential framework for sustainable women empowerment based on Annie Besant’s personality traits and proposes a sustainable women empowerment model.

This is a theoretical model represented in a graphical mode, the societal impact of the model is yet to be ascertained.

This article is an original concept inspired by the life of Annie Besant, an Irish woman of many virtues.

This article is a marginally shortened version of Supplement No. 15 to Women in Europe. The European Community answers a series of 50 questions relating to women and employment.

Building on the content of papers of this volume, this final section asks the key question of whether, after prolonged discussions undertaken for almost half of the century by major world-scale institutions and numerous governments, gender equality is found in todays’ countries, communities, and families across the world. It attempts to delineate whether some researchers are correct stating that great gender equality across the world was achieved since the 1970s at job opportunities, family relations, education, and social position of women in comparison to men. Or whether others are correct showing that women contribute significantly more time to working hours and perform more societal duties while spending less time on rest than men. Finally, whether governments and policy makers created gender-sensitive policies and programs that aim at enhancement and protection of women’s rights, economic empowerment and improvement of women’s well-being, and hence citizens of the global world embrace gender equality in everyday practices. In conclusion, we propose potential policies that could build a better, more equal world for future generations.

What is marriage? Existing treatments identify the gains to marriage but say little regarding the foundations of the institution itself. This paper proposes that marriage is designed to facilitate sexual co‐operation in a world without reliable contraception and paternity verifiability. By allocating control rights, it functions to mitigate the hazards of sexual opportunism. Recently, however, the technology shocks of the pill, legal abortion and paternity testing have weakened the links between marriage and both sex and reproduction. This has undermined the traditional justification for marriage. What remains is a bundle of legal and economic benefits that are gradually losing significance as the focus of family law shifts from marriage to parenthood as its fundamental organising principle.

This paper aims to explore the extent to which the internet has created new opportunities for Iranian women in Tehran. It analyses both challenges and opportunities offered to Iranian women by the internet as a means of economic empowerment.

This paper adopts a qualitative approach and based on 13 semi-structured interviews with female internet users between the ages of 20 and 55 years. The qualitative data was collected through open-ended questions in face-to-face interviews. This study uses ethnography as a research tool to explore the question of whether the internet has made a difference in the economic lives of Iranian women.

Result reveals that the internet and working online have significant impact on the economic lives of Tehrani women by enabling them to engage in new forms of online business. This technology is being used for online advertising to attract more clients, to establish business contacts with peers and to manage households positively.

The result of the research cannot be regarded as applicable to all women in Iran, as the opportunity to access online economic activities is only available to those women who are highly trained and well-educated. In addition, the result of the research may not reflect the barriers that women from different social classes and ethnic groups have faced in the achievement of economic empowerment online.

The study highlights that due to a generally lack of computer proficiency, women in these areas are unable to effectively maximise their participation in the online economic sphere. This barrier must be removed by enhancing women’s computer literacy and ICT (information, communication and technologies) and establishing development networking programme centres for internet skills training.

The internet has created opportunity for Iranian women to expand their participation in the online economic sphere. However, research in the field of online economic activities in Iran, especially concerning women working online, is scant. The key contribution of this paper is to fill the gap in this area of study, in particular offering insights into the ways in which women use the internet to overcome the boundaries of physical space and become empowered.