Women's Rights

Women's Rights (acrylic on canvas) 36" x 24"

Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls of many societies worldwide. In some places, like the United States, these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behavior, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed. They differ from broader notions of human rights through claims of an inherent historical and traditional bias against the exercise of rights by women and girls, in favor of men and boys.

For this painting, I concentrated on portraits of iconic 20th Century women who spoke out and acted against female (and often human) repression.

Suffragists in the U.S.who advocated the extension of the franchise to women as a group may be seen at the bottom protesting for women's right in about 1910.

Molly Brown, an American socialite, philanthropist, and activist who became famous after surviving the 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic, after exhorting the crew of Lifeboat No. 6 to return to look for survivors.

Rosa Louise McCauley Parks, an African-American Civil Rights activist, whom the United States Congress called "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement."

Gloria Marie Steinem,an American feminist, journalist, and social and political activist who became nationally recognized as a leader and spokeswoman for the feminist movement in the late 1960s and early 70s.

Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, who besides being First Lady from 1933 to 1945, was an activist for human rights, a diplomat and a politician, and in 199was ranked ninth in the of Gallup's List of Most Widely Admired People of the 20th Century.