Getting Our History Right: How Were the Equal Rights of Women and Men Included in the Charter of the United Nations?

Abstract

The article analyses the founding conference of the United Nations in San Francisco in 1945 to find out how a nearly completely male-dominated assembly could proclaim the equal rights of men and women as part of the fundamental human rights. The participation and proceedings of the conference are studied on the basis of official UN documents, autobiographies from women delegates and reports. It is noted that the accounts provided by the UN itself in basic reference books as well as the UN website are partly incomplete, partly incorrect. The processes described are oversimplified, important actors are left out and others are attributed with roles they did not in fact play. Regarding the actual course of events, the active lobbying of women's nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), the differing views of various female delegates and the supportive action of leading male politicians are particularly worthy of notice.