There has been a lot of talk over the past year of the Arab Spring and women’s role across the Middle East in these protests. No doubt, many of these protests have proven successful, resulting in the toppling of dictatorial governments that people the world over never thought they would see end in their lifetimes. In many nations where women’s rights were minimal or nonexistent (the exception to this perhaps being Tunisia), women rose up and demanded governments that would value them, that would protect their rights as human beings, that would recognize their need for representation and equal treatment under the law.

The role of women in the Arab Spring cannot be minimized. Of the thousands of people who have been killed or gone missing in their struggle against repressive regimes, we cannot forget the women who suffered and died in the fight.

But the toppling of these governments alone does not melt a long and icy winter into spring. The transition between dictatorship and democracy is one of the most dangerous times for a country. The Transitional National Council in Libya faced a crisis last week after protesters broke into its offices in Benghazi, breaking windows and throwing grenades. In a scene that will prove familiar to Americans who saw coverage of Occupy Wall Street protests across U.S., Libyan protesters set up a tent city in Libya’s capital, Tripoli. Protesters are demanding greater transparency from the council and feel it is not seeking out the opinions of the public in forming the new, democratic government.

Egypt’s transition, governed by the military, also proved dangerous to its citizens — women in particular. According to Michele Dunne of the Atlantic Council, the military murdered protesters, stripped women protesters naked, submitted them to virginity tests, and put more than 10,000 citizens on military trial. In forming its transitional government, the military made no efforts to work with women’s rights groups and publicly questioned the morals of women protesters.

Earlier this month, the results of Egypt’s elections for parliament revealed a wide margin of victory for the Freedom and Justice Party, the political party of the Muslim Brotherhood. Though much has been said in the west of the dangers of an Islamist-controlled government, that does not mean such government is inherently bad. The New York Times Nicholas Kristof, after interviewing many Egyptians involved both in the Brotherhood and secular politics, reported a collective dismissive attitude toward concerns of ultraconservatism. Much like in the U.S., people are focused on the economy — one of the main factors that drove so much of the Arab world into protest in the first place — not socioreligious issues.

In Egypt, Libya, and other nations now faced with the daunting task building governments brick by brick in a way that is fair and democratic, women must continue their fight for equal treatment under the law. It is a foregone conclusion that men will compose the majorities of these newly formed governments, as they do the world over. I have no doubt that women will continue their fight for equal rights, but it is a fact that in order for such rights to be recognized, men will have to take on the mantle of women’s rights.

We cannot shy away from the fact that this is only the very, very beginning of that fight. It was 11 years after the U.S. declared its independence from Great Britain that the constitution was adopted. It took 89 years after the signing of a document that declared “all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights…” to abolish slavery and 144 years passed before women were granted the right to vote. The road to equality is a long one, and one whose end we have yet to see anywhere on Earth.

One truth in all of this is that women’s rights cannot succeed without the support of a vigorous fight from men. The 14th amendment banning slavery, the 19th amendment granting the vote to women, and every other piece of landmark legislation supporting equal rights to minorities in the U.S. has been signed into law by a man. The governments of Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, and other Arab Spring nations will be led by men and composed of a majority of men. Women’s rights will not succeed without their support. The onus of implementing women’s rights lays with men. However, men will not take on this fight unless women of the Arab Spring continue to fearlessly demand it.