The women's movement in India has taken up various major issues across different historical phases.

In the nineteenth century, the women's question arose as part of middle class social reform movements. The emphasis was on addressing the backward aspects of tradition. Key issues included the anti-sati campaign led by Raja Rammohun Roy in Bengal, the widow remarriage movement in Bombay Presidency led by reformers like Ranade, and Jyotiba Phule's simultaneous attack on caste and gender oppression. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan led social reform movements in Islam. The main concerns were sati, child marriage, and the ill-treatment of widows.

In the early twentieth century, numerous women's organisations emerged at both all-India and local levels. Women participated actively in the national movement, and women's rights became integral to the nationalist vision. The 1931 Karachi Session of the Indian National Congress issued a declaration on Fundamental Rights, committing to women's equality before law irrespective of religion, caste, creed, or sex.

Two decades after Independence, in the 1970s, women's issues re-emerged with emphasis on 'modern' issues. These included the representation of women in popular media and the gendered consequences of unequal development.

In the 1980s and after, the law became a major site for reform. It was discovered that many laws concerning women had remained unchanged since the nineteenth century.

As we enter the twenty-first century, new sites of gender injustice are emerging. The declining sex ratio and the sharp fall in the child sex ratio represent new challenges, reflecting the implicit social bias against the girl child.