Final answer:
Accused women have historically extended their lives by being exempt from certain penalties, leveraging societal norms, or through movements for workplace rights. Gender-based laws in the 1800s England often spared women from the death penalty, and survival for some depended on improvements in societal structures such as healthcare and education.
Step-by-step explanation:
Throughout history, accused women have had limited options to extend their lives in the face of capital punishment or during times of war and oppression. Women could sometimes avoid execution due to societal conventions or gender-based laws, one such being that it was thought too shocking to publicly hang a woman.
In other cases, survival strategies included tactical approaches to safeguard jobs and rights in the workplace, as demonstrated by the women's rights movement in the 1960s, or motherhood, which sometimes provided protection from capital punishment.
The perception of women as weaker and needing protection played a role as well, though this often did not extend to immigrant and minority women who faced harsh conditions and the threat of abuse in domestic and labor jobs.
Additionally, during the Congo wars, women who were captured and survived abuse and slavery had the tragedy of often ending their own lives once freed, highlighting the dire need for societal improvements in healthcare, education, and safety for women.
Contemporary issues continue to challenge women's survival, where in some nations, they are still denied basic rights and face restricted liberties that directly impact their lifespan and quality of life.