 History of the Movement for Gender Equality Gender Equality, also known as sexual equality, is the state of equalies of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making, and the state of valuing different behaviors, aspirations and needs equally, regardless of gender. Throughout history, women have faced intense discrimination from a lack of legal rights and very little independence from their husbands, to being thought to have inferior brains. For example in 1691, following criticism for studying secular texts, nuns or Juana Nesta la Cruz of Mexico memorably defended women's rights to education in 1691 by proclaiming one can perfectly well philosophize while cooking supper. A national icon, today she appears on Mexican currency. Also in 1860, Ana Filosofova co-founded a society to provide support to the poor, including not only affordable housing but also decent work for women. And another example is Doria Shafiq. She catalyzed a women's rights movement in Egypt when in 1951 she, alongside 1,500 women, stormed parliament demanding full political rights, pay equality and reforms to personal status laws. These efforts, along with countless others to come, helped pave the way to women's right to vote in 1956. From its early origins in cataloging great women in history, in the 1970s it turned to recording ordinary women's expectations, aspirations and status. Then, with the rise of the feminist movement, the emphasis shifted in the 1980s towards exposing the oppression of women and examining how they responded to discrimination and subordination. In more recent times women's history has moved to charting female agency, recognizing women's strategies, accommodations and negotiations within a male-dominated world. Although it developed out of a feminist agenda, gender history has somewhat different objectives.