International Women's Conference Research Articles

Uma memória das lutas feministas brasileiras: 1976 a 1988

Este artigo tem como objetivo narrar a chegada das feministas das gerações dos anos 1960/70 ao espaço político brasileiro e desta forma recuperar a história dessas lutas e que culminaram com a escrita dos direitos cidadãos na Carta Constitucional do Brasil de 1988. Mas, esta narrativa foi elaborada como notas memorialistas da autora que viveu com paixão estes momentos da luta pela democracia no Brasil e seu encontro com o ideário feminista que emergia, naqueles anos, no cenário da sociedade brasileira. Assim, estas memórias foram construídas da seguinte forma: primeiro faz-se um breve histórico das lutas feministas ao longo da primeira República, para situar os leitores nos tímidos avanços conquistados pelas brasileiras ao longo daquelas décadas. Em seguida narra os tempos de mobilização, conquistas e derrotas vivenciadas pelo movimento feminista do Brasil, a partir da convocatória da ONU para a “Conferência Internacional da Mulher”, em 1975 e que permitiu as ativistas feministas, em pleno regime militar, a criarem o Centro da Mulher Brasileira (CMB). Enfatiza que este intenso ativismo possibilitou que mulheres tenham tido uma participação pioneira na gestão da política pública nacional. Sem dúvida este teve seu marco mais significativo, em 1985, com criação do Conselho Nacional dos Direitos da Mulher (CNDM), órgão público responsável por esta política e pelas vitórias obtidas pelas mulheres na redação da Carta Constitucional de 1988, embora diversas derrotas tenham acontecido, como mostra estas memórias. Estas explicadas pelo forte sexismo presente tanto ontem como hoje na política brasileira.

Women's Antiwar Diplomacy during the Vietnam War Era by Jessica M. Frazier

Reviewed by: Women's Antiwar Diplomacy during the Vietnam War Era by Jessica M. Frazier Frances P. Martin (bio) Women's Antiwar Diplomacy during the Vietnam War Era. By Jessica M. Frazier. (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2017. Pp. 236. $80.00 cloth; $29.95 paper; $19.99 ebook) As the title suggests, Jessica Frazier's book Women's Antiwar Diplomacy [End Page 139] during the Vietnam War Era examines the role of women in antiwar diplomacy and activism during the Vietnam War. The main crux of Frazier's argument asserts the relationship between the American and Vietnamese women was not U.S. cultural imperialism, but rather a genuine collaborative relationship where each side actively worked to forward their own goals and agenda. Spanning from 1965 to 1978 Frazier documents the collaborative anti-war efforts of Vietnamese and American women and how the nature of the relationships forged by these groups changed over the course of the war as the nature of the Vietnam War also changed. However, while the war provides the context for her primary argument, the women's anti-war activism frames a broader discussion of the role identity and imperialism played in activism during the 1960s and 1970s. Frazier breaks the war into six sections, allowing her to focus on particular issues during each phase. First, Frazier looks at mothers as experts in 1965 to 1967 by focusing on the burgeoning activism of women's antiwar groups in the United States and Vietnam. Motherhood appears as a continuous theme throughout Frazier's argument. She illustrates how both groups used motherhood and maternal duty as a way to justify fighting against the war or fighting in it. After explaining how alliances formed and connections strengthened through international activism and conferences from 1968 to 1970, Frazier uses chapter three to discuss 1970 and the development of "Third World" feminist networks. The chapter focuses on African American, Chicana, and Asian American women activists and how they drew inspiration from the Vietnamese women in their different fight against sexism, racism, and imperialism. In chapter four she examines the years 1969–1972 and focuses on the struggle among feminist movements worldwide to include war as a feminist issue. Using the International Women's Conference as the backdrop for the discussion of war as a feminist issue Frazier shows that the feminist movement and the antiwar movement were hardly a homogenous group with identical goals and agendas. The last two chapters span from 1970–1978 and focus on the more practical ways that women's [End Page 140] antiwar activism impacted the discussion of the Vietnam War concerning women's rights and the conditions of Prisoners of War, and expose the shifting context of alliances between the activists after the war. Overall, Frazier has a well-developed argument aided by a rich set of case studies. By focusing on the individual's experience, she provides a densely woven analysis that propels her argument forward. Frazier also has extensive bibliography-based sources. Her use of oral histories provided the Vietnamese perspective vital to her central thesis and the incorporation of these interviews strengthened the overall narrative. By giving us a glimpse of the Vietnamese women's view, Frazier solidifies her claim of collaborative and mutually beneficial relations between the American and Vietnamese women. Despite the excellent use of oral histories, Frazier's analysis was from a primarily American or western perspective, which at times sidelined the voices of the Vietnamese women involved in the narrative. However, this does not lessen Frazier's contribution to the historiography. This book challenges previous conventions about the level of women's involvement in the anti-war movement and the type of relationships forged on an international level between Vietnams and American women. Rather than creating yet another imperialistic encounter between the United States and Vietnam, Frazier shows that these women came together to fight the imperialism that American intervention in Vietnam represented. Finally, this book shows the underlying complexities and intersections of identity and activism present in the antiwar movement around the world. [End Page 141] Frances P. Martin FRANCES P. MARTIN is a PhD student at the University of Connecticut. She currently researches...

1985 to 1995: A Decade of Power and Progress for Women?

As we prepare this issue of AL-Raida for publication, thousands of women throughout the world are busily preparing for the Fourth International Women's Conference, to be held in Beijing in September.

International Women's Conference

International Women's Conference

For Whom Does the Speaking Woman Speak?

Since the first ever International Women Conference, the plurality of female voices addressing the issue of women’s inequality, marginality and empowerment has flourished. The credibility and authenticity of these voices have been questioned. Rather than helping woman, these questions have deepened the chasm between the rural woman’s voice and the voice of the urban female advocate.It is the contention of this paper that the representation of the rural woman’s experience as subject fails the authenticity and fidelity criteria because the rural women is invisible in the articulation of her voice by the other. When the rural woman ever participates in action, it is upon trumpeted and highly advertised invitations. The structure of the relationship between her and them is downward sloping than horizontal. This has effect on the nature and success of activism. In effect, the rural woman is yet to speak for and on behalf of herself. This paper seeks to know whose voice is telling the rural woman’s story and argues that the mediation by the urban advocate appears more elitist than grassroots especially with programmes of action constructed like intellectual activism rather than participatory mass movements. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n26p22

Empowerment of Women in India: A Critical Analysis

The principle of gender equality is enshrined in the Indian Constitution in its Preamble, Fundamental Rights, Fundamental Duties and Directive Principles. The Constitution not only grants equality to women, but also empowers the state to adopt measures of positive discrimination in favour of women. ‘Empowerment’ may be described as a process which helps people to assert their control over the factors which affect their lives. Empowerment of women means developing them as more aware individuals, who are politically active, economically productive and independent and are able to make intelligent discussion in matters that affect them. Present article discusses about various initiatives taken by Government of India for empowering women by analysing position of India in Gender Inequality Index and Global Gender Gap Index of United Nations. Article concludes with the note that due recognition must be given to women and society should come forward to ensure equal status for women in all spheres of life. ‘EMPOWERMENT’ MAY be described as a process which helps people to assert their control over the factors which affect their lives. Empowerment of women means developing them as more aware individuals, who are politically active, economically productive and independent and are able to make intelligent discussion in matters that affect them. 1 Women empowerment as a concept was introduced at the International women Conference in 1985 at Nairobi, which defined it as redistribution of social power and control of resources in favour of women. 2 The United Nations

Virginia Henderson International Nursing Library

Virginia Henderson International Nursing Library

Looking back and ahead: The media and the struggle for gender equality after the Nairobi UN women's conference

abstract This briefing examines the role the media has played in furthering gender equality, peace and development as was spelt out by the Nairobi International Women's Conference in 1985. The conference, in many ways, presented opportunities for new forms of engaging the media with the struggle against poverty and women's rights. This paper surveys the performance of the media and how the African media in particular have engaged with agendas set at the Nairobi Conference with regards to transforming attitudes, creating more space for women and, most importantly, setting a proactive agenda for working towards gender equality. How have women's voices and images as forms of expression found presence in the media since 1985?

Globalization, Militarism, and Women's Collective Action

Feminists and women's groups have long been involved in peace work, and their analyses and action have contributed much to our understanding of the roots of conflict and the conditions for conflict resolution. The activities of groups such as Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), Women Strike for Peace, and the Women of Greenham Common are legendary, and their legacy lies in ongoing efforts to feminize peace, anti-militarism, human rights, and development. At the Nairobi International Women's Conference in 1985, women decided that not only equality and development, but also peace, with its dark side of war, were their affairs (Pietila and Vickers 1994). As the Development Alternatives with Women in a New Era (DAWN) statement expressed it, Where is the rationality, not to mention humanity, in a situation where nuclear missiles can go from Western Europe to Moscow in six minutes, while the average woman in Africa must walk several hours to fetch water for her family? (Sen and Grown 1987). Since at least the 1980s, feminists have recognized the connections among development, equality, peace, and human rights. The Nairobi International Women's Conference took place in the midst of the crisis of Third World indebtedness and the implementation of austerity policies policed by the World Bank and the IMF (International Monetary Fund). Feminists were quick to see the links between economic distress, political instability, and violence against women. As Lucille Mair (U.N. Secretary General for the 1980 Copenhagen Conference) noted after Nairobi:

Post-Fordist technology and the changing patterns of women's employment in the Third World.

Literate but unskilled--and largely female--labor has thus far fueled the tremendous increase in manufactured exports of garments and microelectronic products from the Third World to the industrially advanced economies of the North. The future growth of these sectors, however, may require literate and skilled workers--a category in which women are woefully under-represented, especially in the Third World. In the case of the garment industry, defensive innovation in the industrially advanced countries, including automation and flexible management, has initiated a relocation of jobs to these countries or to offshore locations geographically close to their markets. Automated garment production in these countries requires fewer but computer-literate workers. In the case of microelectronics, development policies of East Asian countries and the competitive pressures on start-up companies in the North have led to an increased demand for computer-literate, skilled technicians over the unskilled and overwhelmingly female workforce of manual-assembly workers. Women's continued employment and advancement in these industries globally will depend upon their acquisition of new technical skills. The ratification by the 1995 international women's conference at Beijing of the demand for better access to education and skills training for women, especially in the Third World, is a step in the right direction.

Women's status: Vision and reality, bridging east & west International Women's Conference 27 February–3 March 2000, New Delhi, India

Women's status: Vision and reality, bridging east & west International Women's Conference 27 February–3 March 2000, New Delhi, India

The Impact of “World Opinion” on National Identity

This article examines the construction of national identity, considered as a negotiation between a nation's Selbstbild (the image the nation's citizens or leaders have of themselves) and their Fremdbild (their image or reputation in world opinion). It argues that this theory helps explain the manner in which the New York Times and the People's Daily discuss world opinion on the Fourth International Women's Conference in Beijing.

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

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

United Nations International Women's Conference in Nairobi, Kenya

"United Nations International Women's Conference in Nairobi, Kenya." The Black Scholar, 16(2), pp. 2–3

Equality, Peace and Development Highlighted at Conference

In preparing for the Fourth International Women's Conference in Beijing, the Institute for Women's Studies in the Arab World (IWSAW) organized an important national meeting, sponsored by Lebanese First Lady Mona AI-Hrawi at the Riviera Hotel in Beirut on August 12 and 13, 1995.