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Now I realize things in the West aren't perfect, but there's no question that relatively speaking when it comes to rights of the people, rights for women, rights for others in general the West has been far more progressive than the East, why is that? The west has adopted and accepted more secular views on things that the majority in the East haven't even despite the West having slavery, laws against women etc. So why is it while the good majority of the West ended up accepting and embracing all the rights we enjoy, why has the East been so slow to accept and for many have views/laws that you would expect from the middle ages?
Now I realize things in the West aren't perfect, but there's no question that relatively speaking when it comes to rights of the people, rights for women, rights for others in general the West has been far more progressive than the East, why is that? The west has adopted and accepted more secular views on things that the majority in the East haven't even despite the West having slavery, laws against women etc. So why is it while the good majority of the West ended up accepting and embracing all the rights we enjoy, why has the East been so slow to accept and for many have views/laws that you would expect from the middle ages?
The question is, what "East" do you have in mind.
If it's "East" in terms of the "West and the rest" - then the issue of the difference is most likely the religion.
If you are talking "East" as in "Eastern Europe," then the turning point is the "Age of Enlightenment" - that's when the major split happened.
What "East"? Are you talking about Europe, exclusively?
AFAIK, it all started with the Enlightenment. The Orthodox Church was very conservative. Furthermore, "easterners" would point out the role that the invading Asian hordes played. But historians say that even without that, the eastern church held society back. Though they say that democracy started in the Russian peasant commune. And speaking of east/west a bit more broadly, didn't Russia free the serfs before the US ended slavery?
Now I realize things in the West aren't perfect, but there's no question that relatively speaking when it comes to rights of the people, rights for women, rights for others in general the West has been far more progressive than the East, why is that?
Jews, Freemasonry.
The East didn't have them, the West is controlled by them
since the late 18th century.
Human rights protection and progressive secularism are traits of modern western civilization but it is still and always a struggle. East or west or indigenous cultures define things differently and strive for different values. I'm not quite sure who you have in mind. Traditional cultures might not see things as progressive
Capitalism, the Protestant Reformation, English Common Law, the Enlightenment, the US Bill of Rights and trade unions were stepping stones along our way toward what we have now. There were horrific mistakes that helped shape our perceptions and understanding of human rights. Slavery and Japanese internment are uniformly viewed as abhorrent now in the west but maybe we had to go through that to get to where we are...I don't know. We condemn torture but still fudge a little when it suits our purposes so apparently we have a priority system in place on human rights. (I'm sure that topic could go on forever.) What we have is people secure enough to stand up and demand their rights. That is relatively new and is certainly more common in western culture. I find it interesting to see people fleeing as refugees from repressive cultures who come to the west and realize for the first time that they have a voice and rights.
I need more clarification by the OP. By "the west" I assume you mean Europe and America (post 1500s). But let's not forget the period known as the Dark Ages. From roughly 500 AD to 1400 AD, basically the collapse of Rome to the Italian Rennasaince, the west was a land of barbarians and barely recognized nation-states compared to "The East". Essentially no governments and no organization aside from the church and some localized serfdoms (the crusades ironically kind of brought things together on a religious level). The east was considered the technologically advanced empires, and in some sense much more progressive (the Mongol Empire for example had very progressive freedom of religion principles).
That isn't true at all, until the late 1700s-1900s, and the women's right and civil rights movements happened slowly, like over centuries.
Women had a lot of rights and influence in Al-Andalus (Muslim Spain) from about 700 to almost 1500. It was a flourishing of culture, science, and architecture too.
Mayan culture was quite advanced, with engineering, agriculture, science and astronomy achievements that surpassed anything going on in Europe at that time. Then that civilization collapsed, for reasons we still don't fully understand.
The Tang dynasty in China (around 600 to 900) had many advanced achievements in science, math, medicine, commerce, trade, astronomy, technology, agriculture, printing and literature, etc.. It was a very prosperous time for China.
Ancient Persia was the cradle of science and technology. So the later Mediterranean civilizations, including Ancient Greece, and thus "western" achievements in these areas, never would've happened without this foundation.
The OP question kind of indicates a total ignorance of civilizations outside modern western ones. History is full of civilizations that rose and declined, and achieved stunning things in the interim. Progress hasn't been a linear march upward in western countries from zero to a hundred starting in 1900. The west "borrowed" much of its intellectual heritage from older civilizations and cultures.
My guess has to do with travel, cultural exchanges and contacts with other peoples.
Europe was something of a crossroads of Vikings in the North, Muslims in the South, Eastern Hordes, wandering Roma ('gypsies') and Jews and so on. The southern parts of Africa, south-east Asia, and so on was pretty self contained.
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