From Women's Suffrage to Reproduction Rights? Cross-national Considerations'

Abstract

While women's suffrage has become completely institutionalized around the world, liberalized abortion is one indicator of the status of women that remains contested. Moreover, abortion rights differ fundamentally from women's suffrage in that they are not derivative of rights originally extended to men. In this article, we summarize and compare the results of prior studies that assess the effects of independence era, international linkages, modernization, state activism, and status of women on the rate of the adoption of women's suffrage and reproduction rights. We argue that world cultural models of progress and justice foster expanded models of political citizenship; these then provide more compelling rationales for further women's rights.