Women Students in Our Institutions: A Response to the U.N. Decade for Women (1976-1985)

Abstract

A recent issue of the Decade For Women Post Date (International Women's Tribune Center, 1985b) shows a picture of a woman carrying a sign on her head which reads, it's not appropriate for women, it's not The message carried in these words from the third international women's conference held during the United Nations Decade for Women (1976-1985) rings as true for our field of endeavor as it did for those attending the workshop on appropriate technology at the University of Nairobi, where the stinging words first echoed. If our programs, institutions, and classes are not appropriate for the women we serve, then they are not appropriate. The United Nations World Conference to Review and Appraise the Decade for Women was held in Nairobi from July 15 to July 25, 1985. Over 157 governments and 2,020 official delegates were represented at the World Conference, with an additional 14,000 persons attending the concurrent Forum '85, the nongovernmental organization counterpart to the official World Conference. Including press and rural women from different parts of Kenya, the unofficial estimate of participants in this international meeting of women rises to 20,000 persons (International Women's Tribune Center, 1985a). The purpose of the World Conference was to review women's gains and losses during the past decade, a decade officially designated by the United Nations as the Decade for Women, and to propose new strategies for the years 1985-2000. One of the major preparatory documents for the conference was Forward Looking