Promoting Women's Rights: a path to equality

Promoting Women’s Rights: A Path to Equality

Why women’s rights are a public health issue

Promoting women’s rights is essential for justice, democracy, and public health. Violence, discrimination, and gender inequality have major effects on women’s physical, mental, sexual, and social health, as highlighted in many recent reports in France and internationally. This article offers a concise overview, focused on violence prevention and human rights, to support health, social, education, and medico‑social professionals in their work.; 
Objectives:
- Provide key landmarks on the evolution of women’s rights and current challenges.;
- Highlight policies, tools, and resources that can be mobilised in practice.;
- Offer an analytical lens based on literacy, empowerment, participation, ethics, intersectoral work, and anti‑discrimination.;

Historical landmarks: hard‑won and still fragile rights

Throughout the 20th century, the right to vote, access to education and paid work, recognition of sexual and reproductive rights, and the criminalisation of domestic violence marked crucial steps toward equality. These achievements remain incomplete: violence, economic inequality, and gender stereotypes continue to limit women’s agency in many contexts.; 
Figures such as Simone de Beauvoir, who showed that gender is socially constructed, and Malala Yousafzai, a global symbol of the fight for girls’ education, helped frame women’s rights as a universal human rights issue. Their legacy continues today in movements against gender‑based violence, for workplace equality, and for the recognition of sexual and reproductive rights.; 

Current challenges: violence, inequalities, discrimination

Violence and discrimination at the centre

Resources in the “Lutte contre les violences” (Violence prevention) section show how widespread gender‑based violence remains: intimate partner violence, rape and sexual assault, economic violence, maltreatment, anti‑LGBTI violence, racist sexual abuse, and violence against migrant and disabled women. Recent reports (ONVS, studies on economic violence, CIIVISE, surveys on violence against migrant women and LGBTI people, etc.) document the scope of the problem and its long‑term impact on health and life trajectories.; 
Addressing violence cannot be separated from addressing discrimination: sexism, racism, LGBTI‑phobia, ableism, poverty, and migration status often intersect and expose some women to specific forms of violence. Guidance on preventing discrimination in health care and reports from institutions such as the French Defender of Rights provide essential ethical and legal reference points.; 
 
Social inequalities and access to rights

Inequalities in access to information, rights, resources, and care increase vulnerability to violence. Work on complex trauma, child maltreatment, sexual violence among young people, and violence against migrant women shows how social insecurity and low health literacy can hinder help‑seeking and access to protection mechanisms.; 
This is why health literacy is crucial: documents, campaigns, and systems must be understandable, accessible (language level, formats, channels), and tailored to the audience; otherwise those who most need information are left out.; 
 
A practical lens for action: using your core values

Literacy: making information accessible
Many of the tools featured on Pratiques en Santé (guides on consent, reporting tools, resources for 11–15‑year‑olds, LGBTI guides, etc.) are designed to be usable by different audiences. Quality materials should:; 
- use clear, non‑blaming language,
- explain rights and available support,
- provide concrete examples and step‑by‑step guidance,
- plan for adaptations (translation, accessible formats, visuals).;
 
Empowerment: strengthening women’s agency
Guides on violence against women, reporting mechanisms, materials on understanding consent, and reports on economic violence all contribute to empowerment: they make mechanisms of control visible and offer practical ways to act. Empowerment also means recognising women’s lived experience and integrating it into the design of actions and services.; 
 
Participation and community health: co‑creating responses
Many initiatives presented on the site – web‑documentaries, feedback from child protection services, work on health democracy, and collaboration with local associations – show how vital it is to involve those most concerned. Community health approaches seek to co‑create actions with women, grassroots groups, and neighbourhood organisations, starting from real needs, local constraints, and existing resources.; 
 
Ethics and human rights: a framework to “do no harm”
The “Éthique et droits humains” section emphasises that prevention and care must be grounded in ethics: dignity, consent, professional confidentiality, equity, and respect for diverse life paths and identities. Guides on confidentiality, ageing, sexuality and disability, parenting, end‑of‑life issues, and AI in health illustrate how shared ethical reflection is needed to avoid re‑traumatising or stigmatising women.[2]
 
Intersectorality and partnerships: connecting health, social care, justice, and education
The plans and mechanisms presented (reporting procedures in the public sector, Miviludes, CIIVISE reports, guidance for youth settings, etc.) show that tackling violence against women relies on cooperation between health, social services, justice, education, child protection, and the voluntary sector. Intersectoral work is a key quality criterion: effective systems help women avoid having to “start their story from scratch” at every door and ensure proper handovers between services.; 
 
Combating discrimination: a cross‑cutting priority
Discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, origin, religion, disability, or poverty is deeply intertwined with many of the violent situations documented in the reports and guides listed on Pratiques en Santé. Integrating an explicit “discrimination” lens into every action (training, protocols, tools, campaigns) helps identify biases, adjust practices, and move towards greater equity in health.; 

Concrete pointers for professionals
Here are some guiding questions you can use to assess or design actions and materials on women’s rights:
- Is the document readable for people with low literacy skills? (literacy);
- Does it offer concrete ways to act, or only a diagnosis of the problem? (empowerment);
- Have women, associations, and community groups been involved in designing it? (participation);
- Does it respect dignity, consent, and the diversity of situations? (ethics and human rights)[2]
- Does it clearly connect the roles of different actors (health, social services, justice, education, police, associations)? (intersectorality);
- Does it take intersecting discrimination (gender, origin, disability, poverty, sexual orientation, etc.) into account? (anti‑discrimination);

Going further
To explore these issues in more depth, you can rely on:
The “Lutte contre les violences” section: ONVS reports, studies on economic violence, CIIVISE reports, guides on consent, reporting tools, LGBTI resources, and more.;
The “Éthique et droits humains” section: key texts on ethics in public health, guidance on preventing discrimination, resources on consent, parenting, end‑of‑life care, and AI in health.
Publications from the French Defender of Rights and other bodies on discrimination in health care. 

https://www.ohchr.org/fr/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/declaration-elimination-violence-against-women
https://www.amnesty.org/fr/what-we-do/discrimination/womens-rights/