Editors' Note and Acknowledgments: When Will There Be a "New World Order" for Women?

Abstract

Editors' Note and Acknowledgments When Will There Be a "New World Order" for Women? This issue of the JOURNAL of WOMEN'S History went to press during the cease fire in the Persian Gulf War. Rather than joining in the chorus of comments on the meaning of the "end" of the Cold War (to say nothing of the "end" of history in general and the "end" of purpose and identity in the history of women in particular),1 we thought it appropriate to make some comments on a few beginnings—for this publication and the United States. First, it is well known that President George Bush has proclaimed a "New World Order" wherein peace, freedom, and global stability will prevail in the wake of the war in the Middle East.2 While some suspect this term is a euphemism for "Here Comes Pax Americana Again," we, however, are willing to take the president at his word. Consequently, this issue presents a timely article in the International Trends section by legal scholar Elizabeth F. Defeis, which suggests that part of this new international order should include belated ratification by the United States of the major human rights treaties, especially the women's convention. As the only leading democratic nation that has refused to sign these United Nations' documents, the time seems right to show a new commitment by the United States to all international laws and norms—not just some of them. National feminist leaders in the United States have correctly pointed out in the New York Times that the war in the Middle East was not waged to defend democracy.3 The least the United States can now do is to underscore political, civil, and socioeconomic rights of women, thereby supporting citizenship for them even though most Arab governments allied with it during the Gulf War do not. Second, we have solicited a number of historical articles about women from Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East. The first, on Poland by Renata Siemienska, appears in the Dialogue section of this issue with a comment by Peggy Simpson. We want to carry such essays periodically for the next several years, as we watch for and hope that substantial consideration for women's rights and needs emerges from these new national and regional configurations of power. In the regular Articles section, for example, appears an essay on the importance of biography in the writing of Egyptian women's history, by Marilyn Booth, and there is an extensive abstract of a new book on Arab feminist writing. (Readers might also want to note that the Journal of © 1991 Journal of Women's History, Vol 3 No. 1 (Spring) 1991 Editors' Note 7 WOMEN'S HISTORY 2 (Winter 1991) carried a detailed analysis of the education of women in the Islamic Republic of Iran by Hammed Shahidian ). Additionally, we carefully selected the ten-year-article review in the Bibliography section in this issue to reflect the dramatically changed post-Cold War world conditions, including the recent war in the Persian Gulf. The subtopics include "women and the military," "women in the Middle East," and "women in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union." Third, the editorial board meeting of the JOURNAL OF WOMEN'S HISTORY in December 1990 endorsed the policy of carrying articles from international scholars, not in translation, as we have already done, but in the original language. English abstracts will accompany these pieces. If, indeed, we are on the threshold of a more peaceful, interdependent world, then, as specialists in women's history, we must broaden our linguistic horizons as well. The editorial board also approved the idea of publishing, in the Book Review section, short abstracts of all books published in English on the history of women everywhere in the world. These abstracts, combined with the ten-year bibliographical listings of periodical literature, detailed abstracts of foreign language books published outside the United States, and review essays of books on specific themes or topics, will allow readers to keep abreast of the continuing explosion of publications in women's history. The first short abstracts of all books received during 1990 and through the spring of this year will appear...