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v t e

The term men's rights are the freedoms and rights claimed by boys and men.

These rights are determined by many different ways, such as the cultural norms or laws of respective location. Issues commonly associated with men's rights include, though are not limited to; property rights, reproductive rights, rights regarding marriage and divorce, inequalities in domestic violence laws, and military conscription.

History

Ancient Greece

In ancient Athens, men who served in the military were considered full citizens with the right to vote, take part in legal proceedings, enter into contracts, and have full property ownership. The men of ancient Athens were required to provide their own arms and armament, even without receiving any payment. A father or husband had legal guardianship over a daughter or wife and was allowed to make decisions on her behalf.

In ancient Sparta, men became wards of the state at age 6, moving into a military barracks of 64 other boys until the age of 30 and were required to complete 12 years of military service.

China

Confucianism "largely defined the mainstream discourse on gender in China from the Han dynasty onward." After the death of a spouse, men were free to remarry and have concubines, whereas women were supposed to uphold the virtue of chastity when they lost their husbands. Men could legally have multiple wives and concubines until the formation of modern China in 1911.

The Middle Ages

According to English Common Law, which dates back to the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215, all property which a woman owned at the time of a marriage became a possession of her husband.

Ireland

In pre-Christian Ireland, men maintained total legal rights over women, as though they were children. Additionally, only men were normally able to inherit unless a woman died without any male relatives. In that case she was able to leave her property to a surviving female relative, a legal right that was otherwise unheard of in 8th century Europe.

Regency England

English Common Law dictated that men had the right to use physical violence against his wife, children, and apprentices. He was, however not allowed "flagellis et fustibus acriter verberare uxorem" . When the Married Women's Property Act of 1882 was made law, it forbade a husband's transferring property without the consent of his wife, but he retained the sole right to manage it and to receive the money which it produced.

Pakistan

In Pakistan under the Hudood Ordinance, prior to the passage of the Women's Protection Bill in 2006, a man could not be accused of the rape of a woman unless she had four male witnesses. The ordinances also decreed that man's testimony was equal to that of two women and that in compensation cases, the value of a man's life was to be twice that of a woman's.

Modern movements

The Coalition of Free Men, commonly known as the National Coalition of Free Men was founded in 1977. It has 22 chapters in United States and in chapters in 5 other countries. The American Coalition for Fathers and Children was founded in 1995 by Stuart A. Miller and Dianna Thompson in an effort to provide a forum for discussion of male rights.

The supporters of these groups are considered part of the men's movement, and go by the moniker of "men's rights activists," or MRAs. supporters are particularly concerned with the effect of sexual harassment laws, divorce, custody, false rape allegations, and Violence Against Women Act-type laws, on men's rights and freedoms.

Men's rights in social context

Marriage and divorce

Legal and religious tradition dictated that rights to make decisions and take actions that influence both partners have lain with the male.

Alimony

In the US, spousal support may be awarded regardless of gender. A legal precedent for gender-blind spousal support in the United States was made in Orr v. Orr, where the Supreme Court invalidated Alabama's statutes by which husbands, but not wives, were required to pay alimony upon divorce. This statute was considered a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. The percentage of alimony recipients in the US who were male rose from 2.4% in (1996–2001) to 3.6% in (2002–2006) and is expected to increase as more marriages feature a female primary earner.

In India, under the Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act (1956) the wife is entitled to be provided for the rest of her life by the husband. If the wife is windowed the father-in-law is required to support the wife, assuming she has no other way to support herself.

Divorce

In 2003, a Malaysian court ruled that, under sharia law, a man has the right to divorce his wife via text messaging.

Rights according to religious tradition

Islam

The Quran introduced rules on inheritance with certain fixed shares being distributed to designated heirs, first to the nearest female relatives and then the nearest male relatives.. According to the Quran, men are allowed to have multiple wives under certain restrictions, but women are not allowed to have multiple husbands. The Quran however discourages polygamy by saying 'do justice to them all, but you won't be able to, so don't fall for one totally while ignoring other wife(wives)'.

Awrah or Awrat (Arabic: عورة‎) is a term used within Islam which denotes the intimate parts of the body, for both men and women, which must be covered with clothing. Exposing the awrah is unlawful in Islam and is regarded as sin. According to Sunni interpretations, the awrah of a man refers only to the part of the body between the navel and the knees which must be covered when in public and also during prayer. This is opposed to the women's awrah which can change depending on the circumstances, such as prayer in public requires covering of the entire body except for face and hands or being amongst other women is the same as men's (covering from the navel to the knee).

Christianity

The Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches, and many conservative Protestant denominations assert today that only men can be ordained—as clergy and as deacons although some Protestant denominations now ordain women.

Circumcision

Male circumcision is the removal of the foreskin of the penis. It is considered by advocacy groups to be a euphemism for male genital mutilation. The World Health Organization has estimated that 664,500,000 males aged 15 and over are circumcised (30% global prevalence), with almost 70% of these being Muslim. Prominent medical organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, have stated that there is no reason for routine neonatal circumcision. In the United States and Israel, circumcision has been traditionally performed at or shortly after birth; in the case of Israel, it is most often performed when the boy is eight days old in accordance with Jewish religious law. Advocates believe that men have a right to make their own decisions regarding such procedures.

Military Conscription

These countries currently require only men for conscription into military service include but may not be limited to; Bermuda, Cyprus, Egypt, Finland, Greece, Mexico, Russia, Singapore, Switzerland, Turkey and Taiwan.

These countries require a longer conscription period for men include but may not be limited to; Chad and Israel.

These countries can enact a draft currently by law including only men include but may not be limited to; Germany, New Zealand, Serbia and United States .

In the United States, the case Rostker v. Goldberg alleged that the Military Selective Service Act violates the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment by requiring that men only and not also women register with the Selective Service System. The Supreme Court eventually upheld the Act, stating that "the argument for registering women was based on considerations of equity, but Congress was entitled, in the exercise of its constitutional powers, to focus on the question of military need, rather than equity. The proposed Equal Rights Amendment in the United States might also have addressed single-gender Selective Service registration, but was never ratified into law.

Refugees

In Australian immigration policy a distinction is regularly made between women and children (often treated erroneously as equivalent to "family groups") and single men. The details are subject to current debate and recently failed legislation (August 2006) in the Australian Parliament. But for example in one recent case, former Minister for Immigration, Senator Amanda Vanstone, determined as follows concerning Papuan asylum seekers: "The single men on the boat would be sent to an immigration detention centre, but families would not be split up and would be housed in facilities in the community".

Reproductive rights

Spousal Notification Laws

In China the law states that a woman has no overriding priority over her spouse in deciding whether to have a child.

Egypt, Guinea-Bissau, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Republic of Korea, Kuwait, Malawi, Morocco, Nicaragua, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates all legally require that an abortion must be authorized by the woman's husband. However, in some countries, this authorization law can be overridden if there is genuine concern for maternal health.

Adoption

Until Hindu Adoptions and Maintenance Act (1956), the right to adopt children in India was reserved for Hindu men.

In the US state of Oregon an adoption may be granted without the consent of a married woman's husband if it has been determined that her husband at such time was not the father of the child; in this case, consent of the husband (or father) is not required.

The Male Abortion

Melanie McCulley, in her 1998 article, "The Male Abortion: The Putative Father's Right to Terminate His Interests in and Obligations to the Unborn Child" argued that when a woman becomes pregnant she has the option of abortion, adoption, or parenthood; and therefore, in the interests of gender equality the father should have the right to relinquish all future parental rights and financial responsibility – leaving the informed mother with the same three options. The male abortion, sometimes called a "financial abortion", describes a putative father's right to terminate his interests in and obligations to the unborn child. This concept has been supported by a former president of the National Organization for Women, attorney Karen DeCrow but not by the National Organization for Women.

In the US in 2006, Dubay v. Wells argued that in the event of an unplanned pregnancy, the male should have an opportunity to decline all paternity rights and responsibilities. Supporters said that this would allow the woman time to make an informed decision and give men the same reproductive rights as women. In its dismissal of the case, the U.S. Court of Appeals (Sixth Circuit) stated that "the Fourteenth Amendment does not deny to State the power to treat different classes of persons in different ways."

There are also those on the pro-life side of the abortion debate, who consider it a father's reproductive right to veto the woman's option of abortion. They argue that fathers should be given equal power over an abortion decision in order to protect their offspring.

Critics argue that the concept of a "financial abortion" presents a problem in and of itself. Some men and women argue that the availability of abortion should not relieve men of equal financial responsibility to a child they helped conceive. Additionally, opponents say, in a country such as the U.S. where government assistance is often railed against ( see welfare state) the question remains: how does a society take care to ensure children do not descend into poverty? And who should be on the line for the financial support of these children?

Political representation

In the United Kingdom, where there is a Minister for Women, there have been calls for an analogous "Minister for Men." Lord Northbourne, who made the first Parliamentary call for such in 2004, told the BBC that "f the government feels they need a minister to address women's issues, it should be the same for men." Northbourne's proposal was put to the Prime Minister during PMQs the same year. his proposal was rejected by the Government. Northbourne and others argue that such a minister is needed, pointing to a relatively poor standard of health for men, Fathers' rights, male suicide rates, and males underperforming in education compared to females.

Domestic Violence

Although more recent CDC research shows that 7.6 percent of men reported being raped and/or physically assaulted by a current or former spouse (compared to 25 percent of women), The National Family Violence Survey (1985) reported that men and women act violently toward their partners in about equal percentages.

The National Coalition of Free Men and its affiliates sued ten women's shelters in California with the goal of forcing them to admit men. Many women's shelters will assist male victims of domestic abuse but do not house men, instead offering hotel vouchers, counseling, case management, legal services and other support services.

498a in India, outlawing cruelty to women by their husband or his relatives, are being fought by groups such as Save Indian Family Foundation.

See also

• Alimony
• Fathers' rights movement
• Feminism
• Human rights
• Male abortion
• Masculism
• Paternal rights and abortion
• Parental leave
• Sexism
• Women's rights

References

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12. Farrell, W. (1994) The Myth of Male Power: Why Men Are the Disposable Sex, London: Fourth Estate.
13. Ridley-Duff, R. J. (2010) Emotion, Seduction and Intimacy: Alternative Perspectives on Human Behaviour (Third Edition), Seattle: Libertary Editions ISBN 978-1-935961-00-0
14. Ridley-Duff, R. J. (2008) Silencing the Victim: The Paradox of Sexual Harassment Law, published at www.scribd.com
15. Worrall, B. (2004) Without Authority, Bracknell: Cyberman Books, ISBN 0-9754300-0-9
16. Kanin, E. (1994) False Rape Allegations, Archives of Sexual Behavior, 23(1): 81–92
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18. OPSI, Married Women's Property Act 1882
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22. Esposite, John L. (2001). Women in Muslim family law. Syracuse University Press. pp. 3–5. ISBN 9780815629085. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
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54. Traister, Rebecca. (March 13, 2006). "Roe for men?." Salon.com. Retrieved December 17, 2007.
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Bibliography

• The Myth of Male Power by Warren Farrell, 1993.
• Flood, Michael: Backlash: Angry men's movements in: Rossi, Staceay E.: The Battle and Backlash rage on. 2004, XLibris Corp., ISBN 1-4134-5934-X, S. 261–287
• Flood, Michael: Men's movements in: XY magazine, vol. 6. 1996
• Emotion, Seduction and Intimacy: Alternative Perspectives on Human Behaviour (Third Edition) by Rory Ridley-Duff, Seattle, OR: Libertary Editions, ISBN 978-1-935961-00-0, http://www.libertary.com/book/emotion-seduction-intimacy

External links

Bibliographic

• The Men's Bibliography, a comprehensive bibliography of writing on men, masculinities, gender and sexualities, listing over 16,700 works. (mainly from a constructionist perspective)
• Boyhood Studies, features a 2200+ bibliography of young masculinities.

Other

• NIMH Web Pages on Men and Depression, talks about men and their depression and how to get help.
• The Men's Tribune: Explores and advocates men's rights through modern and classical works.
• Men's Rights Association, an NGO founded in Pune, India

• Misplaced Pages neutral point of view disputes from March 2011
• Anthropology
• Gender
• Sociology
• Men
• Men's rights