Equality of the sexes

Gender equality, also known as sex equality, gender egalitarianism, sexual equality, or equality of the genders, is the belief that everyone should receive equal treatment and not be discriminated against based on their gender. Gender equality is one of the objectives of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. They seek to create equality in law and in social situations, such as in democratic activities and securing equal pay for equal work. The objective of gender equality is for people of different genders to acquire, if they so choose, equal treatment throughout a society, not just in politics, the workplace, or any other policy-designated sphere. To avoid complication, genders besides women and men will not be discussed in this article.

Christine de Pizan, an early advocate for gender equality, states in her 1405 book The Book of the City of Ladies that the oppression of women is founded on irrational prejudice, pointing out numerous advances in society probably created by women.

The Shakers, an evangelical group, which practiced segregation of the sexes and strict celibacy, were early practitioners of gender equality. They branched off from a Quaker community in the north-west of England before emigrating to America in 1774. In America, the head of the Shakers' central ministry in 1788, Joseph Meacham, had a revelation that the sexes should be equal. He then brought Lucy Wright into the ministry as his female counterpart, and together they restructured society to balance the rights of the sexes. Meacham and Wright established leadership teams where each elder, who dealt with the mens' spiritual welfare, was partnered with an eldress, who did the same for women. Each deacon was partnered with a deaconess. Men had oversight of men; women had oversight of women. Women lived with women; men lived with men. In Shaker society, a woman did not have to be controlled or owned by any man. After Meacham's death in 1796, Wright became the head of the Shaker ministry until her death in 1821.

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