ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that rationality requires morality and explains that only an accessible, secular conception of morality can support the use of coercion against dissenters. It explores that even the most minimal secular conception of morality supports a robust conception of women's rights. There are a number of approaches currently being used to defend women's rights internationally. One approach, the International Law Approach, defends women's rights by appealing to international agreements. Morality can be seen to be a nonarbitrary compromise between self-interested and altruistic reasons, and the "moral reasons" that constitute that compromise can be seen as having an absolute priority over the self-interested or altruistic reasons that conflict with them. The compromise must be a nonarbitrary one, for otherwise it would beg the question with respect to the opposing egoistic and altruistic views. The right to welfare supported by a libertarian minimal morality can, in turn, be used to support a robust conception of women's rights.
