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v t e

The timeline of women's legal rights (other than voting) represents formal changes and reforms regarding women's rights. The changes include actual law reforms, as well as other formal changes (e.g. reforms through new interpretations of laws by precedents). The right to vote is exempted from the timeline: for that right, see Timeline of women's suffrage. The timeline excludes ideological changes and events within feminism and antifeminism; for that, see Timeline of feminism.

Before the 21st century

• Before the 19th century
• 19th century
• 20th century

21st century

In the 2000s

2001

• Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe outlawed marital rape.^[1][2]
• Liechtenstein: Liechtenstein made marital rape illegal in 2001.^[3]
• United States: The Mexico City policy, which directed the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to withhold USAID funds from NGOs that use non-USAID funds to engage in a wide range of activities—including providing advice, counseling or information regarding abortion, or lobbying a foreign government—to legalize or make abortion available, was reinstated by President George W. Bush, who implemented it through conditions in USAID grant awards, and subsequently extended the policy to "voluntary population planning" assistance provided by the Department of State.
• United States: Ferguson v. City of Charleston, 532 U.S. 67 (2001), is a United States Supreme Court decision that found Medical University of South Carolina's policy regarding involuntary drug testing of pregnant women to violate the Fourth Amendment. The Court held that the search in question was unreasonable.
• United States: Nguyen v. INS, 533 U.S. 53 (2001), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court upheld the validity of laws relating to U.S. citizenship at birth for children born outside the United States, out of wedlock, to an American parent. The Court declined to overturn a more restrictive citizenship requirement applying to a foreign-born child of an American father and a non-American mother who was not married to the father, as opposed to a child born to an American mother under similar circumstances.^[4][5]
• France: On 4 July, the nationwide ten-week limit on abortion was extended by two weeks.^[6]
• France: Minor girls no longer need mandatory parental consent for abortion. A pregnant girl in France under the age of 18 may ask for an abortion without consulting her parents first if she is accompanied to the clinic by an adult of her choice, who must not tell her parents or any third party about the abortion.^[7][8][9]
• China: China amended its marriage law so that abuse was considered grounds for divorce.^[10]
• United Kingdom: The Widowed Mother's Allowance, part of the United Kingdom system of Social Security benefits, was established under the National Insurance Act 1946 and abolished and replaced by Widowed Parent's Allowance.
• Tasmania, Australia: From 1925 until 2001, Tasmania's Criminal Code prohibited "unlawful abortion" without specifically stating what was lawful or vice versa. While it had never actually been prosecuted, it had been held that Victoria's Menhennitt ruling of 1969 and New South Wales' Levine ruling applied in Tasmanian law. In late 2001, the Criminal Code was clarified to state that an abortion must be carried out under a set of criteria resembling those of the South Australian requirements.
• Tasmania, Australia: Tasmania's Evidence Act prohibited publication of information identifying survivors of sexual assault since 2001.^[11] In practice, this prevented survivors from speaking publicly about their experiences.^[12][11]

2002

• United States, California: In 2002, the California State Legislature passed a law that said: "The state may not deny or interfere with a woman's right to choose or obtain an abortion prior to viability of the fetus, or when the abortion is necessary to protect the life or health of the woman."^[13][14]
• Nepal: Abortion became legalized in March, under the 11th Amendment to the Civil Code. The legal services were successfully implemented on 25 December 2003.^[15] Prior to 2002, Nepal had strict anti-abortion laws which ensured not only the imprisonment of the pregnant women seeking abortion but also their family members. In fact, about 20% of women prisoners were imprisoned for abortion-related choices.^[16]
• Malaysia: As a Muslim country, Malaysia has a dual legal system with Muslims being subject to Sharia law. The National Fatwa Council issued a fatwa permitting abortion up to 120 days of gestation in cases when the woman's life is deemed to be in great danger or there is fetal impairment. Abortion on the grounds of rape or incest is still illegal.^[17]
• India: Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, Amendments, 2002
• Switzerland: Abortion was legalized by popular vote after its criminal prohibition had ceased to be observed in practice for some time.
• United Kingdom: Sex Discrimination (Election Candidates) Act 2002
• Benin: Abolition of the requirement that married women must have their husbands' permission to initiate judicial proceeding.^[18]
• Nepal: Married daughters under 35 can inherit property.^[18]
• United States, Florida: Sultaana Freeman filed a religious discrimination lawsuit against Florida when the state's Department of Highway Safety suspended her license when she refused to be re-photographed without her niqab. Her legal license was suspended without change in policy or law following the September 11, 2001 attacks. Her lawsuit argued that her religious beliefs required her to wear a veil "in front of strangers and unrelated males". It also stated that other states allowed photo-free licenses for religious reasons. Judge Janet C. Thorpe denied her lawsuit that year, and a state appeals court later upheld Thorpe's ruling.^[19][20]
• United States: In Apessos v. Memorial Press Group, a Massachusetts state court made a ruling forbidding employers from firing domestic violence survivors who need to take time off from work to obtain a court order of protection.^[21]
• Bangladesh: Bangladesh introduced the death penalty for acid attacks, the Acid Crime Control Act (ACCA), and the Acid Control Act (ACA).^[22] The ACCA and ACA are laws that strictly control the sale, use, storage, and international trade of acids. The acids are used in traditional trades carving marble nameplates, conch bangles, goldsmiths, tanneries, and other industries, which have largely failed to comply with the legislation. Salma Ali of the Bangladesh National Women Lawyers' Association derided these laws as ineffective.^[23]
• New Zealand: The Queen v Epifania Suluape (2002) NZCA 6, deals with a wife who pleaded provocation after she killed her husband with an axe when he proposed to leave her for another woman. There was some evidence of neglect, humiliation, and abuse but the court concluded that this was exaggerated. On appeal, the court was very conscious of the Samoan culture in New Zealand in restricting the power of the wife to act independently of her husband and reduced her sentence for manslaughter to five years.^[24]
• Serbia: Marital rape was criminalized in March; before that date rape was legally defined as forced sexual intercourse outside of marriage.^[25]
• Australia, Australian Capital Territory: References to abortion as a criminal offence were repealed by the Crimes (Abolition of Offence of Abortion) Act 2002.

2003

• United States, New Hampshire: In June, the New Hampshire Parental Notification Prior to Abortion Act, "an act requiring parental notification before abortions may be performed on unemancipated minors," was narrowly passed by the New Hampshire General Court.^[26] This law was repealed in 2007, making rehearing at the district court level moot.^[27]
• United States: Scheidler v. National Organization for Women, 537 U.S. 393 (2003), is a United States Supreme Court case involving whether abortion providers could receive damages from protesters under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).^[28] National Organization for Women (NOW) obtained class status for women seeking the use of women's health clinics and began its court battle against Joseph Scheidler and PLAN et al. in 1986. In this particular case, the court's opinion was that extortion did not apply to the defendants' actions because they did not obtain any property from the respondents (NOW and the class of women).
• Australia: The rights and responsibilities of pregnant and potentially pregnant workers in the workplace were clarified by the Sex Discrimination Amendment (Pregnancy and Work) Act 2003.
• Bosnia and Herzegovina: Before a new Criminal Code came into force in 2003,^[29] the law on rape contained a statutory exemption for marriage, and read: "Whoever coerces a female not his wife into sexual intercourse by force or threat of imminent attack upon her life or body or the life or body of a person close to her, shall be sentenced to a prison term of one to ten years".^[30]
• United Kingdom: the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003 (applies to England and Wales and Northern Ireland)
• Canada: Trociuk v British Columbia (AG), 1 S.C.R. 835 is a leading Supreme Court of Canada decision on section 15(1) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms where a father successfully challenged a provision in the British Columbia Vital Statistics Act, which gave a mother complete control over the identity of the father on a child's birth certificate, on the basis that it violated his equality rights.
• Benin: A 2003 law bans all forms of female genital mutilation (FGM).^[31]
• Benin: Under Benin's abortion law passed in that year, a woman can only terminate her pregnancy if her life is deemed to be at great risk, if the pregnancy is a result of incest or rape, or if the foetus has a particularly serious medical condition.^[32][33] A select list of experts were allowed to examine a pregnancy to determine whether the only option for saving the woman's life is to induce abortion.^[34]
• Niger: A law banning FGM was passed by the government.^[35]
• United States: Nevada Department of Human Resources v. Hibbs, 538 U.S. 721 (2003), was a United States Supreme Court case which held that the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 was "narrowly targeted" at "sex-based overgeneralization" and was thus a "valid exercise of power under Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment."^[36]
• United States: The Indiana Supreme Court recognized the medical malpractice tort of "wrongful pregnancy" when a woman became pregnant after a failed sterilization procedure. The court decided that the damages may include the cost of the pregnancy but may not include the ordinary cost of raising the child, as the benefits of rearing the child could not be calculated.^[37]
• United States: The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 (Pub. L.Tooltip Public Law (United States) 108–105 (text) (PDF), 117 Stat. 1201, enacted November 5, 2003, 18 U.S.C. § 1531,^[38] "PBA Ban") is a United States law prohibiting a form of late-term abortion that the Act calls "partial-birth abortion", referred to in medical literature as intact dilation and extraction.^[39] Under this law, "Any physician who, in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, knowingly performs a partial-birth abortion and thereby kills a human fetus shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 2 years, or both."
• England: In R v Charlton (2003) EWCA Crim 415, following threats of sexual and violent abuse against herself and her daughter, the defendant killed her obsessive, jealous, controlling partner while he was restrained by handcuffs, blindfolded and gagged as part of their regular sexual activity. The term of five years' imprisonment was reduced to three and a half years due to the terrifying threats made by a man determined to dominate and control the defendant's life. The threats created a genuine fear for the safety of herself and more significantly, her daughter, and this caused the defendant to lose control and make the ferocious attack.^[40]
• Papua New Guinea: Papua New Guinea criminalized marital rape.^[41]
• New Zealand: In April, Justice Durie ruled that women seeking medical abortions must take medications in a licensed facility but need not remain there between taking the two sets of tablets, which are taken 48 hours apart. Women also need not stay in the facility until the expulsion of the fetus completes the abortion.^[42][43][44]
• New Zealand: The Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 allows for conscientious objection to abortion by medical professionals.^[45][46]
• India: Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act Rules, 2003

2004

• China, Guizhou: A ban was enacted on abortions in non-medically necessary cases after 14 weeks of pregnancy.^[47]
• European Union: Allonby v Accrington & Rossendale College (2004) C-256/01 is a European Union law case concerning the right of men and women to equal pay for work of equal value under Article 141 of the Treaty of the European Community. Part-time lecturers at Accrington and Rossendale College did not have their contracts renewed. They were rehired through an agency, ELS, and said to be "self-employed independent contractors" under the new arrangement. They were denied access to the Teachers Superannuation Scheme. It was apparent that more of the part-time lecturers were women than the staff that remained under permanent contracts with the college. They brought a claim for unfair dismissal and sex discrimination. The ECJ held^[48] that despite the contract saying they were self-employed, and despite national legislation under the Equal Pay Act 1970 applying only to employees, workers and those personally performing work (which may have brought the outside the Act's protection^[49]) the lecturers did fall within the Community definition of worker. However, while they fell within the category of "worker", their claim failed because she could not point to a comparator that came from the same "single source". Yet the ECJ stated that the rule that only "employees" could join the Teachers' Superannuation Scheme could well be incompatible with Article 141. The rule would be incompatible and should be disapplied if it shown to have an adverse impact on more women than men. If it is disapplied, it is not necessary for the claimant to point to a comparator of the opposite sex working for the same employer who has been adversely affected by the rule.
• Switzerland: The law was changed to allow women to become fighter pilots.^[50]
• Botswana: The marital power is abolished by the Abolition of Marital Power Act.
• Mozambique: Abolition of the requirement that married women must have their husbands' permission to initiate judicial proceeding.^[18]
• South Africa: Bhe and Others v Magistrate, Khayelitsha and Others; Shibi v Sithole and Others; SA Human Rights Commission and Another v President of the RSA and Another,^[51] an important case in South African customary law, was heard in the Constitutional Court on 2 and 3 March, with judgment handed down on 15 October. Chaskalson CJ, Langa DCJ, Madala J, Mokgoro J, Moseneke J, Ngcobo J, O'Regan J, Sachs J, Skweyiya J, Van Der Westhuizen J, and Yacoob J were the presiding judges. The court held that section 23 of the Black Administration Act, in applying the system of male primogeniture, was incompatible with sections 9 (equality) and 10 (dignity) of the Constitution.
• Pakistan: On 8 December, under international and domestic pressure, Pakistan enacted a law that made honor killings punishable by a prison term of seven years, or by the death penalty in the most extreme cases.^[52] Women and human rights organizations were, however, skeptical of the law's impact, as it stopped short of outlawing the practice of allowing killers to buy their freedom by paying compensation to the victim's relatives, which was problematic because most honor killings are committed by close relatives.^[53]
• France: A law was passed banning "symbols or clothes through which students conspicuously display their religious affiliation" (including hijab) in public primary schools, middle schools, and secondary schools,^[54] but this law does not concern universities (in French universities, applicable legislation grants students freedom of expression as long as public order is preserved).^[55]
• Austria: Marital rape became a state offense meaning it can be prosecuted by the state even in the absence of a complaint from the spouse, with procedures being similar to stranger rape.^[56]
• Switzerland: Marital rape became a state offense.^[57]
• New Zealand: Section 38 of the Care of Child Act 2004 allows a young woman under the age of 16 to consent to an abortion but that she must still go through the process outlined in the Contraception, Sterilisation, and Abortion Act 1977 (CS&A Act 1977).^[58][59][45]

2005

• United States, South Dakota: The state's legislature passed five laws curtailing the legality of abortion.^[60]
• New South Wales, Australia: NSW does not have a child destruction enactment,^[61] but the Crimes Amendment (Grievous Bodily Harm) Act 2005 (NSW) amended the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) so that s 4(1)(a) now defines "grievous bodily harm" as including "the destruction (other than in the course of a medical procedure) of the foetus of a pregnant woman, whether or not the woman suffers any other harm".^[62]
• United States: The U.S. Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (implemented in January 2007) prevented college health centers and many health care providers from participating in the drug pricing discount program, which formerly allowed contraceptives to be sold to students and women of low income in the United States at low cost.
• Nepal: Chhaupadi was outlawed by the Supreme Court of Nepal in 2005.^[63]
• Scotland: The Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation (Scotland) Act 2005
• Mexico: Supreme Court rules that forced sex in marriage is rape (marital rape).^[64]
• International: The United Nations Human Rights Committee ordered Peru to compensate a woman (known as K.L.) for denying her a medically indicated abortion; this was the first time a United Nations Committee had held any country accountable for not ensuring access to safe, legal abortion, and the first time the committee affirmed that abortion is a human right.^[65] K.L. received the compensation in 2016.^[65]
• Ethiopia: On 9 May, the new Ethiopian Penal Code came into effect, which removed the marital exemption for kidnapping and rape, largely due to a campaign by Equality Now inspired by Woineshet Zebene's case.^[66][67]
• India: The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 ("Domestic Violence Act") was passed in order to provide a civil law remedy for the protection of women from domestic violence in India.^[68] It was brought into force by the Indian government from 26 October 2006. The Domestic Violence Act provides for the first time in Indian law a definition of "domestic violence", with this definition being broad and including physical violence as well as other forms of violence such as emotional/verbal, sexual, and economic abuse. It is a civil law meant primarily for protection orders and not meant to penalize criminally. The Domestic Violence Act, among other things, outlaws marital rape.^[69] However, it offers only a civil remedy for the offence.^[70][71] The act does not extend to Jammu and Kashmir, which has its own laws: the Jammu and Kashmir Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act was enacted in 2010.^[72]
• India: The Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005,^[73] amended Sections 4, 6, 23, 24 and 30 of the Hindu Succession Act, 1956. It revised rules on coparcenary property, giving daughters of the deceased equal rights with sons, and subjecting them to the same liabilities and disabilities. The amendment essentially furthers equal rights between males and females in the legal system.
• United States: McCorvey v. Hill, 385 F.3d 846 (5th Cir. 2004), was a case in which the principal original litigant in Roe v. Wade,^[74] (1973) Norma McCorvey, also known as 'Jane Roe', requested the overturning of Roe. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that McCorvey could not do this; the United States Supreme Court denied certiorari on 22 February,^[75] rendering the opinion of the Fifth Circuit final.
• United States: The lawsuit Eduardo Gonzalez, et al. v. Abercrombie & Fitch Stores, Inc., et al. (No. C03-2817), filed in June 2003, alleged that the nationwide retailer Abercrombie & Fitch "violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by maintaining recruiting and hiring practice that excluded minorities and women and adopting a restrictive marketing image, and other policies, which limited minority and female employment."^[76][77] The female and Latino, African-American, and Asian American plaintiffs charged that they were either not hired despite strong qualifications or if hired "they were steered not to sales positions out front, but to low-visibility, back-of-the-store jobs, stocking and cleaning up."^[78] In April 2005, the U.S. District Court approved a settlement, valued at approximately $50 million, which requires the retail clothing giant Abercrombie & Fitch to provide monetary benefits to the class of Latino, African American, Asian American and female applicants and employees who charged the company with discrimination.^[78][79] The settlement, rendered as a Consent Decree, also requires the company to institute a range of policies and programs to promote diversity among its workforce and to prevent discrimination based on race or gender.^[76][79] Implementation of the Consent Decree continued into 2011. Abercrombie did not admit liability.^[78]
• United States, New York City: New York City Council passed a law requiring all new establishments falling under the terms of the legislation to maintain roughly a two-to-one ratio of women's bathroom stalls to men's stalls and urinals. Existing establishments were required to come into compliance when they undergo extensive renovations, while restaurants, schools, hospitals, and municipal buildings were excluded.^[80][81]
• United States: Jackson v. Birmingham Board of Education, 544 U.S. 167 (2005), is a case in which the United States Supreme Court held that retaliation against a person because that person has complained of sex discrimination is a form of intentional sex discrimination encompassed by Title IX.
• Some countries in Africa: The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, better known as the Maputo Protocol, guarantees comprehensive rights to women including the right to take part in the political process, to social and political equality with men, to control of their reproductive health, and an end to female genital mutilation.^[82] As the name suggests, it was adopted by the African Union in the form of a protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights in Maputo, Mozambique. The protocol was adopted by the African Union on 11 July 2003 at its second summit in Maputo.^[83] On 25 November 2005, having been ratified by the required 15 member nations of the African Union, the protocol entered into force.^[84]
• United States: Castle Rock v. Gonzales, 545 U.S. 748 (2005), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court ruled, 7–2, that a town and its police department could not be sued under 42 U.S.C. §1983 for failing to enforce a restraining order, which had led to the murder of a woman's three children by her estranged husband.
• Brazil: Article 107 was repealed; it stated that a perpetrator's penalty was annulled when he married the person he made a victim, according to crimes listed elsewhere in the Code, including rape.^[85]
• England and Wales: Equal Opportunities Commission v Secretary of State for Trade and Industry IRLR 327 was an application for judicial review of the new implementation by the government of the Employment Equality (Sex Discrimination) Regulations 2005. It was alleged, and found by the High Court of England and Wales, that they were incompatible with the Framework Directive, 2000/73/EC.
• Turkey: The rape-marriage law was repealed, as part of efforts to join the European Union.^[86]
• Victoria, Australia: The lack of success in raising self-defense in Australia for battered women has meant that provocation has been the main focus of the courts.^[87] Based on the Victorian Law Reform Commission's Defences to Homicide: Final Report,^[88] the Victorian government announced changes to the homicide laws in that jurisdiction, which are intended to address this perceived imbalance. Under the new laws, victims of family violence will be able to put evidence of their abuse before the court as part of their defense. In addition, they are able to argue self-defense even in the absence of an immediate threat, and where the response of killing involved greater force than the threatened harm.^[89]
• China: Sex-selective abortions were banned.
• China: New provisions were added to the Law on Women's Right Protection to include sexual harassment.^[90] "The Shanghai Supplement" was drafted to help further define sexual harassment in China.^[91]
• Turkey: Marital rape was outlawed.^[92]
• Cambodia: Marital rape was outlawed.^[93]
• United States, Tennessee: Prior to its repeal in 2005, the law in Tennessee stated that a person could be guilty of the rape of a spouse at a time they are living together only if that person either "was armed with a weapon or any article used or fashioned in a manner to lead the alleged victim to reasonably believe it to be a weapon" or "caused serious bodily injury to the alleged victim". This meant that, in practice, most cases of marital rape could not be prosecuted, since few rapes involve such extreme circumstances. The law was finally repealed, allowing for marital rape to be treated like any other type of rape.^[94][95][96]
• Thailand: The Medical Council of Thailand issued a regulation in which it explicitly interpreted both physical and mental health as possible factors necessitating abortion.^[97]

2006

• Spain: King Juan Carlos I decreed a reform of the succession to noble titles from male-preference primogeniture to absolute primogeniture.^[98][99]
• Liberia: Marital rape was outlawed.^[100]
• Nepal: Marital rape was outlawed.^[101]
• France: A law, passed 4 April, makes rape by a partner (including in unmarried relationships, marriages, and civil unions) an aggravating circumstance in prosecuting rape.^[102]
• Brazil: Brazil's Federal Law 11340, also called Maria da Penha Law (Lei Maria da Penha) – the law against domestic violence against women was enacted.
• India: Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 came into force in October.
• Greece: Law 3500/2006 on Combating Domestic Violence criminalizes domestic violence against women, including marital rape.^[103] This legislation also prohibits numerous other forms of violence within marriage and cohabiting relations, and various other forms of abuse of women.^[104]
• Lesotho: the marital power is abolished by The Married Persons Equality Act 2006.^[105]
• United States: Khalid Adem, an Ethiopian American, was both the first person prosecuted and first person convicted for FGM in the United States,^[106][107] stemming from charges that he had personally excised his two-year-old daughter's clitoris with a pair of scissors.^{[108][109][110]}
• United States: On 24 November, the Title IX regulations were amended to provide greater flexibility in the operation of single-sex classes or extracurricular activities at the primary or secondary school level.^[111]
• United States: Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, 546 U.S. 320 (2006), was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States involving a facial challenge to New Hampshire's parental notification abortion law. The First Circuit had ruled that the law was unconstitutional and an injunction against its enforcement was proper. The Supreme Court vacated this judgment and remanded the case, but avoided a substantive ruling on the challenged law or a reconsideration of prior Supreme Court abortion precedent. Instead, the Court only addressed the issue of remedy, holding that invalidating a statute in its entirety "is not always necessary or justified, for lower courts may be able to render narrower declaratory and injunctive relief."
• United States: Jespersen v. Harrah's Operating Co., No. 03-15045 (9th Cir. 14 April 2006, en banc) was a United States federal employment law sex discrimination case. Darlene Jespersen was a 20-year employee at Harrah's Casino in Reno, Nevada. In 2000, Harrah's advanced a "Personal Best" policy, which created strict standards for employee appearance and grooming, which included a requirement that women wear substantial amounts of makeup. Jespersen was fired for non-compliance with its policy. Jespersen argued the makeup requirement was contrary to her self-image, and that the requirement violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.^[112][113] In 2001, Jespersen filed a lawsuit in United States District Court for the District of Nevada, which found against her claim. The district court opined that the policy imposed "equal burdens" on both sexes and that the policy did not discriminate based on immutable characteristics of her sex. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the decision, but on rehearing en banc, reversed part of its decision. The full panel concluded, in contrast to the previous rulings, that such grooming requirements could be challenged as sex stereotyping in some cases, even in view of the decision in Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins. However, the panel found that Jespersen had not provided evidence that the policy had been motivated by stereotyping, and affirmed the district court's finding for Harrah's.^{[114][115][116]}
• United States: In Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. White, the standard for retaliation against a sexual harassment complainant was revised to include any adverse employment decision or treatment that would be likely to dissuade a "reasonable worker" from making or supporting a charge of discrimination.
• United Kingdom: The Equality Act 2006 (c 3) is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom covering the United Kingdom. The 2006 act is a precursor to the Equality Act 2010, which combines all of the equality enactments within the United Kingdom and provide comparable protections across all equality strands. Those explicitly mentioned by the Equality Act 2006 include age; disability; gender; proposed, commenced or completed gender reassignment; race; religion or belief and sexual orientation. The changes it made were:
  • creating the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) (merging the Commission for Racial Equality, the Equal Opportunities Commission and the Disability Rights Commission);
  • outlawing of discrimination on goods and services on the grounds of religion and belief (subject to certain exemptions);
  • allowing the Government to introduce regulations outlawing discrimination on the ground of sexual orientation in goods and services, which led to the Sexual Orientation Regulations 2006;
  • creating a public duty to promote equality on the ground of gender (The Equality Act 2006, section 84, inserting section 76A of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, now found in section 1 of the Equality Act 2010).
• Canada: Stopps v Just Ladies Fitness (Metrotown) Ltd was a discrimination by sex case heard before the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal that was significant in Canadian law because it found that a women-only admission policy of a public gym was not discrimination.
• Italy: After a few cases of infibulation practiced by complaisant medical practitioners within the African immigrant community came to public knowledge through media coverage, the Law n°7/2006 was passed on 9 January, becoming effective on 28 January, concerning "measures of prevention and prohibition of any female genital mutilation practice"; the act is also known as the Legge Consolo ("Consolo Act") named after its primary promoter, Senator Giuseppe Consolo [it]. Article 6 of the law integrates the Italian Penal Code with articles 583-Bis and 583-Ter, punishing any practice of female genital mutilation "not justifiable under therapeutical or medical needs" with imprisonment ranging from 4 to 12 years (3 to 7 years for any mutilation other than, or less severe than, clitoridectomy, excision or infibulation). Penalty can be reduced up to 2⁄3 if the harm caused is of modest entity (i.e. if partially or completely unsuccessful), but may also be elevated up to 1⁄3 if the victim is a minor or if the offense has been committed for profit. An Italian citizen or a foreign citizen legally resident in Italy can be punished under this law, even if the offense is committed abroad; the law will as well afflict any individual of any citizenship in Italy, even illegally or provisionally. The law also mandates any medical practitioner found guilty under those provisions to have his/her medical license revoked for a minimum of six up to a maximum of ten years.^[117]
• Pakistan: In March 2005, the Pakistani parliament rejected a bill which sought to strengthen the law against the practice of honor killing, declaring it to be un-Islamic.^[118] The bill was eventually passed in November 2006.^[119] However, doubts of its effectiveness remained.^[120]
• Pakistan: In Pakistan, the Hudood Ordinances of 1979 subsumed prosecution of rape under the category of zina, making rape extremely difficult to prove and exposing the victims to jail sentences for admitting illicit intercourse.^[121][122] Although these laws were amended in 2006, they still blur the legal distinction between rape and consensual sex.^[123] The amending of the laws was done by the Women's Protection Bill.
• Israel: Israel Supreme Court ruled that women should be allowed to deliver eulogies and that the burial societies, or chevra kadisha, should not impose gender segregation in the cemetery.^[124] The ruling was in response to an incident in Petach Tikvah in which a woman was stopped from eulogizing her father.^[124] However, the court's ruling was not backed up by the Religious Services Ministry until 2012, when Israel's Chief Rabbinical Council ruled that women can deliver eulogies at funerals, but that it is up to the community rabbi to decide on a case-by-case basis.^[124]
• Uruguay: Article 116 of the Penal Code, and Articles 22 and 23 of the executive order nº 15.032 were repealed. The articles stated that in crimes of sexual assault, statutory rape, abduction, and disrespect of modesty, the penalty would be extinguished in cases where the assailant and the victim made a matrimonial contract.^[125][126]
• Guatemala: Article 200^[85] stated that a rapist could be exonerated if he promised to marry his victim, provided she had reached the age of 12.^[127] It was repealed in 2006.^[127]
• Tunisia: The authorities launched a campaign against the hijab, banning it in some public places, where police would stop women on the streets and ask them to remove it, and warn them not to wear it again. The government described the headscarf as a sectarian form of dress which came uninvited to the country.^[128]
• United States, Louisiana: Governor Kathleen Blanco signed into law a ban on most forms of abortion (unless the life of the mother was in danger or her health would be permanently damaged) once it passed the state legislature. The bill would only go into effect if the United States Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade. Louisiana's measure would allow the prosecution of any person who performed or aided in an abortion. The penalties include up to 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $100,000.^[129]
• United States, Michigan: The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative (MCRI), or Proposal 2 (Michigan 06-2), was a ballot initiative that passed into Michigan Constitutional law. MCRI was a citizen initiative aimed at stopping discrimination based on race, color, sex, or religion in admission to colleges, jobs, and other publicly funded institutions – effectively prohibiting affirmative action by public institutions based on those factors.^[130] Its constitutionality was challenged in federal court, but its constitutionality was ultimately upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States.^[131]
• Central African Republic: Prior to 2006, law in the Central African Republic explicitly outlawed abortion. In 2006, the National Assembly legalized abortion care in cases of rape, as women regularly faced sexual violence, rape, and gang rape in the war-ravaged country.^[132]
• Colombia: After 24 weeks, abortion in Colombia is only allowed in cases where there is deemed to be a very high risk of death to the woman, when there is fetal malformation, or when the pregnancy was the result of rape, according to a Constitutional Court ruling in 2006.^[133]
• Guyana: In 2006, the Guyanese government theoretically cleared the way for public hospitals to "perform abortions". In actuality, the public hospitals only complete abortions which have already been partially undertaken by pregnant women.^[134] They began doing so in 2008.
• Nicaragua: Abortion in Nicaragua is completely illegal. Prior to a change in the law, which took effect on 18 November, the law allowed pregnancies to be terminated for "therapeutic" reasons, but this clause is no longer in effect.^[135]

2007

• United States, New Hampshire: In June 2003, the New Hampshire Parental Notification Prior to Abortion Act, "an act requiring parental notification before abortions may be performed on unemancipated minors," was narrowly passed by the New Hampshire General Court.^[26] This law was repealed in 2007, making rehearing at the district court level moot.^[27]
• United States, Massachusetts: The Massachusetts legislature passed a law that established a 35-foot buffer zone around abortion clinics.^[136] However, this law was struck down in 2014.^[136]
• Singapore: Marital rape was legally recognized under certain circumstances that signaled marriage breakdown.^[137]
• Malaysia: Marital rape was outlawed.^[138][139]
• Mauritius: Marital rape was outlawed.^[140]
• Ghana: Marital rape was outlawed.^[141]
• Costa Rica: Law on Criminal Sanctions for Violence Against Women (Ley de Penalización de la Violencia Contra las Mujeres).^[142]
• Costa Rica: Costa Rica repealed its marry-your-rapist law.^[143][144] The law was Article 92, which stated that punishment of an accused or condemned person would be cancelled if he married his underage victim, if legally possible and no objections existed from her legal representatives and the National Children's Fund.^[85]
• New Zealand: Human Rights (Women in Armed Forces) Amendment Act 2007
• Venezuela: Organic Law on the Right of Women to a Life Free of Violence (Ley Organica Sobre el Derecho de las Mujeres a una Vida Libre de Violencia) was enacted.^[145]
• England and Wales and Northern Ireland: The Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act 2007 (applicable in England and Wales, and in Northern Ireland) was passed, which enables the victims of forced marriage to apply for court orders for their protection.
• Egypt: The June 2007 Ministry ban on FGM eliminated a loophole that allowed girls to undergo the procedure for health reasons.^[146]
• Eritrea: All forms of FGM were outlawed with Proclamation 158/2007 in March.^[147][148]
• United States: Gonzales v. Carhart, 550 U.S. 124 (2007), is a United States Supreme Court case that upheld the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003.^[149]
Zdroj:https://en.wikipedia.org?pojem=Timeline_of_women's_legal_rights_(other_than_voting)
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