“Women’s suffrage is the correlate of the economic emancipation of women from the household and of their economic independence from family owing to their professional work.” Resolution of the International Socialist Women's Conference, Germany, 1907
In 19th-century Europe, a long struggle was fought, primarily by women, to make men and women equal before the law. "Feminist" demands primarily concerned education, the right to vote and the right to ownership, so that women could live independently of a male guardian and have the same rights as men. Winning the right to access certain professions and to vote was difficult and took time. For example, women in France could become doctors from 1875, and vote from 1944. At the dawn of the 20th century, women in the Arab and Ottoman world, previously largely excluded from public life, began to attend modern schools and to participate in politics. Some women began to make a name for themselves, especially in Egypt, notably Zaynab Fawaz (1846–1914), Malek Hifni Nassif (1886–1918) and Afifa Karam (1883–1924). The struggle for women's rights took on a new dimension with the fight against European colonialism in the Arab and Ottoman world, for example in Lebanon and throughout North Africa.