Women's NGOs

This article is based on an article written for the NGO Handbook by Kate Perchuk titled "Women and Civil Society."

The modern landscape of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) devoted to causes and issues critical to women is the legacy of human rights activism in times of historical crisis and is rooted in the fundamental principles of equality first articulated by philosophers in the age of Enlightenment (Rachel, I really think the best way to describe is 18th century in American and European thought).

Early women’s rights groups challenged the prevailing social order arguing that all individuals were born with natural rights that made them free and equal; that all inequalities that existed among citizens were the result of an inadequate educational system and an imperfect social environment; and that these inequalities would be justly remedied by improved education and more egalitarian social structures.

Among these thinkers was Mary Wollstonecraft, a British author best known for her book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), which was one of the first to claim that women should have equality with men, and which was inspired by the democratic principles of the French Revolution (1789-1799). Wollstonecraft argued that the quality of women’s lives was directly related to their inferior educational opportunities.

Riding the momentum of the American Revolution, the nascent campaign for women’s rights in the U.S. was born from the passion of patriots with a mission to improve American democracy by helping to deliver on the promise of better, more egalitarian lives for all its citizens, outlined in the Declaration of Independence (adopted on July 4, 1776). A small group of educated women, known to one another through their work in the Abolitionist movement , gathered in a corner of New York State in 1848 to address “the social, civil, and religious conditions and rights of woman,” and invoked the powerful language of the seminal document to make their case. The positions articulated in their “Declaration of Sentiments” echoed the hallowed predecessor: “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Early Accomplishments: Education Reform and the Workplace

Throughout the 1830s, 1840s, and 1850s, America's evangelical denominations became persuaded that educating women was in the best interest of their social causes and began not only to build female seminaries but to encourage their members to build them as well. Of the 6,085 seminaries and academies in existence in America in 1850, a sizeable percentage was educating women either exclusively or together with men. Whereas in pre-Revolutionary America women had an estimated literacy rate of one-half that of men, by 1850 the federal census revealed that women had become equal to men in literacy skills. Thus numerous women's organizations emerged, primarily for social works under the auspices of the Christian church. The Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA, originally the Ladies Christian Association), which opened its first branch in New York City in 1858, was an early advocate for the economic empowerment of women and their social welfare in the workplace. Recognizing women's needs for jobs in 1860, the YWCA held the first typewriting classes for women, formerly considered a man's occupation, and opened the first employment bureau (the organization also reached out to immigrant women with bilingual instruction). Based on its work with women in industrial plants, the YWCA fought for minimum wage requirements and 8-hour-day shifts to protect women from unfair and unsafe conditions in the workplace.

The YWCA was also groundbreaking in its efforts to address interracial tension, speaking out against lynching and mob violence and calling for interracial cooperation rather than segregation. Great After the Civil War, activists fought to have women included in new constitutional amendments giving rights to former slaves. The 14th Amendment defined citizens as "all persons born or naturalized in the United States" and guaranteed equal protection of the laws – but in referring to the electorate, it introduced the word "male" into the Constitution for the first time. The 15th Amendment declared that "the rights of citizens . . . to vote shall not be denied or abridged . . . on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude" – but women of all races were still denied the ballot.

The YWCA continues to be a key player on the stage of women’s rights – the organization is hosting the International Women’s Summit and World Council meetings in Nairobi, Kenya, in July 2007.

The Road to Suffrage

The new century brought profound change to the lives of women, who joined the workforce in increasing numbers and led the movement for progressive social reform, opposed slavery by joining the Abolitionist cause and finally generated enough mass power to win the vote, in 1920. The National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) was a mainstream lobbying force of millions at every level of government. Alice Paul and the National Woman’s Party were a small, militant group that not only lobbied but conducted marches, political boycotts, picketing at the White House, and civil disobedience. The actions of both groups stirred the country’s conscience, and support for woman suffrage grew.

The forerunner to the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), the Woman's Peace Party (WPP), was formed in January 1915 in Washington, D.C. The approximately 3,000 women attendees approved a platform calling for the extension of suffrage to women and for a conference of neutral countries to offer continuous mediation as a way of ending war. WPP sent representatives to an International Women's Congress for Peace and Freedom, held in The Hague from April 28 to April 30, 1915. The organizers of the Congress were prominent women in the International Suffrage Alliance, who saw the connection between their struggle for equal rights and the struggle for peace. The (WILPF) rejected the theory that war was inevitable and defied all obstacles to their plan to meet together in wartime. They assembled more than 1,000 women from warring and neutral nations to work out a plan to end the war and lay the basis for a permanent peace.

In 1919, as the suffrage victory drew near, the National American Woman Suffrage Association reconfigured itself into the League of Women Voters to ensure that women would take their arduous victory seriously and use it wisely. A year later the Women’s Bureau of the Department of Labor was established to gather information about the situation of women at work, and to advocate for changes it found were needed. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was founded in 1920 to preserve the integrity of the Bill of Rights and the protections they stipulated. When it was won in 1920, the 19th Amendment became the first -- and continues to be the only -- specific written guarantee of women’s equal rights in the Constitution, declaring, "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex." Although the 1920 ratification of the 19th Amendment had guaranteed American women the right to vote, suffragist leader Paul argued that without a Constitutional edict there would remain vestiges of legal discrimination based upon gender. In 1923, Paul drafted the Equal Rights Amendment, intended to guarantee equal rights under the law for Americans regardless of sex.

Though the ERA was introduced in every session of Congress between 1923 and 1970, it almost never reached the floor of either the Senate or the House of Representatives for a vote. Exceptions occurred in 1946, when it was defeated in the Senate by a vote of 38 to 35, and in 1950, when it was passed by the Senate in a modified form unacceptable to its supporters.

The Fight for Reproductive Rights (controversial issue and not issue if we should include it in distribution to NGOs worldwide, especially those operating in religious states (especially in the Islamic world).

Post-War Progress: the United Nations and NGOs

Notwithstanding the repeated failure of the ERA, the women’s movement gained ground in the years following World War II when the atrocities of Nazi Germany brought into sharp focus the responsibility of the international community to take a clearer stand on human rights. The post-War period saw the ratification of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the General Assembly (in 1948), and the formation of several commissions to define and enforce the new treaty as well as a wealth of organizations addressing women and children affected by war. By the terms of the Charter of the United Nations, the Declaration, combined with related human rights treaties, laid down a comprehensive set of rights to which all persons, including women, were entitled. Established in 1946, the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) was developed to delineate the general guarantees of non-discrimination in these instruments from a gender perspective. Originally a subcommission of the Commission on Human Rights, but quickly granted the status of full commission as a result of the pressure exerted by women's activists, the mandate of the CSW included the preparation of recommendations relating to urgent problems requiring immediate attention in the field of women's rights with the object of implementing the principle that men and women should have equal rights.

The Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW) was established in 1946 as the Section on the Status of Women, Human Rights Division, Department of Social Affairs. Grounded in the ideal of equality of the United Nations Charter, DAW advocated the improvement of the status of women of the world and the achievement of their equality with men. Aiming to ensure the participation of women as equal partners with men in all aspects of human endeavor, DAW sought to promote women as equal participants and beneficiaries of sustainable development, peace and security, governance and human rights. Part of its mandate was to stimulate the mainstreaming of gender perspectives both within and outside the United Nations system.

In 1948, the United Nations Women’s Guild was formed when a group of wives of U.N. Secretariat officials formed an association to help needy children in war-torn Europe. The purpose of the Guild continues to be the assistance of children in need and/or mother-child care programs throughout the world, and to serve as a mutual bond and center of interest for women connected with the United Nations organizations around the world.

The CSW’s Convention on the Political Rights of Women was adopted by the General Assembly in 1952. And by 1963 the GA requested the Economic and Social Council to invite the CSW to prepare a draft declaration that would combine in a single instrument, international standards articulating the equal rights of men and women. This process was supported throughout by women activists within and outside the U.N. system. Originally a statement of moral and political intent without the contractual force of a treaty – the drafting of the resolution by a committee selected from within the CSW, began in 1965 but wouldn’t be formally adopted by the GA until 1967.

‘60s Social Change

In the 1960s, over a century after the fight to end slavery fostered the emergence of the women’s rights movement, the civil rights battles of the decade provided another impetus for social change. Women organized to demand their birthright as citizens and persons, and the Equal Rights Amendment rather than the right to vote became the central symbol of the struggle. With the rise of the civil rights movement, feminists again made their place in the political arena. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 came to Congress, and feminists lobbied hard for the addition of an amendment prohibiting sex discrimination in employment. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was formed in 1965 to enforce the Civil Rights Act. Pro-ERA advocacy was led by the National Organization for Women (NOW) and ERAmerica, a coalition of nearly 80 other mainstream organizations. NOW is the largest organization of feminist activists in the United States, with 500,000 contributing members and 550 chapters in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The ERA passed the U.S. Senate and then the House of Representatives, and on March 22, 1972, the proposed 27th Amendment to the Constitution was sent to the states for ratification. But the ERA is still not part of the U.S. Constitution; the Amendment has been ratified by 35 of the necessary 38 states. When three more states vote yes, the ERA might become the 28th Amendment.

The 1960s saw the emergence, in many parts of the world, of a new consciousness of the patterns of discrimination against women and a rise in the number of organizations committed to combating the effect of such discrimination. In 1974, at its 25th session and in the light of the report of this working group, the CSW decided, in principle, to prepare a single, comprehensive and internationally binding instrument to eliminate discrimination against women. This instrument was to be prepared without prejudice to any future recommendations that might be made by the United Nations or its specialized agencies with respect to the preparation of legal instruments to eliminate discrimination in specific fields.

1975: Women’s Year

The First World Conference on the Status of Women was convened in Mexico City to coincide with the 1975 International Women's Year, observed to remind the international community that discrimination against women continued to be a persistent problem in much of the world. The NGO Committee on the Status of Women (NGO CSW) was then founded to recommend that international action be intensified to promote equality between men and women; to ensure full integration of women in the total development effort; to recognize the importance of women’s increasing contribution to the development of friendly relations and cooperation among states and to strengthen world peace.

The Conference, along with the United Nations Decade for Women (1976-1985), proclaimed by the General Assembly, launched a new era in global efforts to promote the advancement of women by opening a worldwide dialogue on gender equality with three objectives in relation to equality, peace and development for the Decade: Full gender equality and the elimination of gender discrimination; the integration and full participation of women in development; and an increased contribution by women toward strengthening world peace. Excellent World Plan of Action, a document that offered guidelines for governments and the international community to follow for the next 10 years set minimum targets, to be met by 1980, that focused on securing equal access for women to resources such as education, employment opportunities, political participation, health services, housing, nutrition and family planning. Governments were called upon to formulate national strategies and identify targets and priorities in their effort to promote the equal participation of women.

By the end of the United Nations Decade for Women, 127 Member States had responded by establishing some form of national machinery, institutions dealing with the promotion of policy, research and programs aimed at women's advancement and participation in development. This approach marked a change, which had started to take shape in the early 1970s, in the way that women were perceived. Whereas previously women had been seen as passive recipients of support and assistance, they were now viewed as full and equal partners with men, with equal rights to resources and opportunities. A similar transformation was taking place in the approach to development, with a shift from an earlier belief that development served to advance women, to a new consensus that development was not possible without the full participation of women.

The Mexico City Conference led to the establishment of the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW) and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), which serve as institutional frameworks for research, training and operational activities in the area of women and development. Women played a highly visible role at the conference; of the 133 delegations from Member States, 113 were headed by women. Women also organized the International Women's Year Tribune, which attracted some 4,000 participants, and a parallel forum of NGOS that signaled the opening up of the United Nations to NGOs, which enable women's voices to be heard in the organization's policy-making process.

CEDAW

As part of the its World Plan of Action, the Mexico City Conference encouraged drafting work on the text of the Treaty for the Rights of Women, formally named the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the most comprehensive international agreement on basic rights of women. Often described as an international "Bill of Rights" for women, it defines what constitutes discrimination against women and sets up an agenda for national action to end such discrimination. The treaty has been ratified by 182 nations and has become an important tool for partnerships among nations to end human rights abuses and promote the health and well-being of girls. In many countries worldwide that have ratified the treaty, women have worked with their governments in partnership to change inequitable laws: to help girls receive a primary education; to enable women to get assistance to set up small businesses; to stop sex slavery; to improve health care services; to secure the right to own or inherit property; and to protect women and girls against violence. The Treaty requires regular progress reports from ratifying countries but it does not impose any changes in existing laws or require new laws of countries ratifying the treaty. It lays out models for achieving equality but contains no enforcement authority. Currently, the United States is the only western country not to have ratified it.

Global Forums

Following the World Conferences in Mexico City, Copenhagen (1980) and Nairobi (1985), the United Nations convened the Fourth World Conference on Women in September 1995 in Beijing, China. Delegates had prepared a Platform for Action that aimed at achieving greater equality and opportunity for women. The official name of the Conference was "Action for Equality, Development and Peace." The Conference was participated in by 189 Governments and more than 5,000 representatives from 2,100 NGOs.

The overriding message of the Fourth World Conference on Women was that the advancement of women and the achievement of equality between women and men are a matter of human rights and a condition for social justice and should not be seen in isolation as a women's issue. They are the only ways to build a sustainable, just and developed society. Empowerment of women and equality between women and men are prerequisites for achieving political, social, economic, cultural and environmental security among all peoples.

The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action was adopted by consensus on 15 September 1995. The Declaration embodied the commitment of the international community to the advancement of women and to the implementation of the Platform for Action, ensuring that a gender perspective is reflected in all policies and programs at the national, regional and international levels. The Platform for Action set out measures for national and international action for the advancement of women over the five years until 2000.

In June 2000, women from around the world gathered for a series of symposia to analyze the impact of globalization on women and girls, and to review the progress of the Beijing Platform for Action. Dubbed Beijing +5, the United Nations’ post-mortem drew 3,000 delegates, 7,000 NGO representatives and thousands of world press representatives to determine the effectiveness of the 1995 Beijing conference. The Beijing delegates adopted a platform signed by 189 countries -- 120 of them adopted action plans of their own -- that called for big changes in 12 areas they said were of critical importance to women, including: poverty, education and training, health, violence, armed conflict, the economy, power and decision-making, institutional mechanisms for advancement, human rights, media portrayals, the environment and "the girl child."

Profound changes in the status and role of women have occurred in the years since the start of the United Nations Decade for Women in 1976, some more markedly since the Beijing Conference. Women have entered the labor force in unprecedented numbers, increasing the potential for their ability to participate in economic decision making at various levels, starting with the household. Women, individually and collectively, have been major actors in the rise of civil society throughout the world, stimulating pressure for increased awareness of the gender equality dimensions of all issues, and demanding a role in national and global decision making processes. Thus, the role of NGOs, especially women's organizations, in putting the concerns of women and gender equality on the national and international agenda is critical.

“Elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child” was the priority theme of the 51st  session of the Commission on the Status of Women, held in February and March 2007. For the first time, young women's voices were included, featuring an opening address given by a 17-year-old South African girl, who reminded attendees that discrimination and violence waged against girls continues to undermine their rights, as well as having harmful effects on societies overall. 

Over 1,000 NGO representatives participated in the Session among more than 100 member states of the United Nations, as well as representatives from UN agencies and multilateral institutions. One crucial issue that was addressed at length was the recommendation to strengthen the gender equality architecture of the U.N. The key characteristics for a women-specific entity at the U.N. include: agency autonomy, high-level leadership, universal country presence, and adequate resources. At this year's CSW, and in honor of International Women's Day, representatives from over 150 women's organizations and allies delivered an Open Letter to the Secretary-General of the U.N. and to U.N. Member States to support the proposed gender architecture at the U.N. This statement was born out of a series of discussions held in the NGO Linkage Caucus convened by the Center for Women's Global Leadership (CWGL), the Women's Environment and Development Organization (WEDO), and the Committee on the Status of Women. The General Assembly will convene to discuss the Panel's recommendations in the coming months, and in the meantime civil society, and in particular women groups will be strategizing and organizing around next steps in the process.

Measuring the Global Gender Gap

In 2005, the World Economic Forum (WEF) published a study to assess the current size of the gender gap by measuring the extent to which women in 58 countries have achieved equality with men in five critical areas: economic participation, economic opportunity, political empowerment, educational attainment, and health and well-being. Consolidating publicly available data from international organizations, national statistics and the WEF’s own Executive Opinion Survey, “Women’s Empowerment: Measuring the Gender Gap” evaluates the status accorded to women in a broad range of countries. While noting the heightened international awareness of gender issues, the authors maintain that no country has yet managed to eliminate the gender gap. Those that have succeeded best are the Nordic countries, with Sweden standing out as the most advanced in the world. These are followed by New Zealand (6); Canada (7), United Kingdom (8), Germany (9) and Australia (10), countries that have made considerable progress in removing obstacles to the full participation of women in their respective societies. France (13) is ranked ahead of the United States (17) among the 58 nations. Seven East European nations hold places among the top 25, with Latvia (11), Lithuania (12) and Estonia (15) the highest ranking in that group. Switzerland (34), Italy (45) and Greece (50) perform poorly, lower in rank than many East European group, and below Latin American nations such as Costa Rica (18), Colombia (30) and Uruguay (32). Brazil (51) and Mexico (52), India (53), Korea (54), Jordan (55), Pakistan (56), Turkey (57) and Egypt (58) occupy the lowest ranks.

In its introduction, the study refers to the disheartening but true facts of life for women and girls in different parts of the world. For instance, in many places rape is not considered a crime, goes unpunished and continues to be used as a tool of war. Unbelievably true Even in highly developed countries, violence against women of all kinds is routine, and often condoned. Female sexual slavery and forced prostitution are still terrible “facts of life “ for the poor, often very young women. Genetic testing for defects of the unborn is used in some part of the world to determine the sex of the fetus, so that females can be aborted, while in some countries female infants are buried alive. Forced marriage and bride-burning are still prevalent in the Asian subcontinent. A pregnant woman in Africa is 180 times more likely to die of pregnancy complications than in Western Europe. Women, mostly in rural areas, represent more than two-thirds of the world’s illiterate adults. In the United States, 90 percent of AIDS cases under 20 years of age are girls. In many developed countries, where basic gender equality appears to have been achieved, the battlefront has shifted to removing the more intangible discrimination against working women. Women still only hold 15.6 percent of elected parliamentary seats globally.

In recent years NGOs have become ever more prominent and visible in the broad arena of women’s issues and are often seen as the foremost defenders of women's causes. Governments and international organizations increasingly rely on them to implement aid programs and deliver development assistance, supporting NGOs in their capacity to address social and environmental problems with greater efficiency than government agencies. Today, thousands of internationally operating NGOs work for global progress on a diverse agenda that embraces the entirety of women’s quality of life and deliver billions of dollars of assistance annually. In many cases, NGOs have been the first to document horrendous women's rights abuses. The Global Fund for Women was established in 1987 to address the lack of funding available to women activists worldwide with the creation of a global foundation dedicated to their support. The Fund is currently the largest grant-making foundation exclusively focusing on women’s human rights internationally, and supported local women’s organizations in 160 countries. Excellent In 1997, DAW, in collaboration with United Nations Development Fund for Women, UNIFEM and INSTRAW, founded WomenWatch, a central gateway to information and resources on the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women throughout the United Nations system, including the United Nations Secretariat, regional commissions, funds, programs, specialized agencies and academic and research institutions. Originally created to provide Internet space for global gender equality issues and to support implementation of the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action, since 1997 the intergovernmental mandate has expanded and the website now also provides information on the outcomes of, as well as efforts to incorporate gender perspectives into follow-up to global conferences.

The United Nations support system also includes the U.N. Department for Health and Human Services Office for Population Affairs and the HHS Office for Women’s Health, both of which work with government agencies, non-profit organizations, consumer groups, and associations of health care professionals to address health care prevention and service delivery, research, public and health care professional education, and career advancement for women in the health professions and in scientific careers. In addition, the UNAIDS joint program on HIV/AIDS, combines the efforts and resources of 10 U.N. system organizations to the global AIDS response. Based in Geneva, it works with UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank.

Conclusion

The Women's movement has much to teach about sheer will, spirit and conviction as well as organization, lobbying, and fundraising and perhaps most significantly, the ideals of equality as an inalienable right of all citizens in a civilized and progressive society. While the network of women’s NGOs has evolved to encompass local, regional, national and international influence, with many successes to its credit, its goals to make education accessible to all continues to be the cornerstone of its vision. Nonetheless achieving gender equality is more than stating policy or mandating law; it challenges a deeply entrenched human attitude that prevails in many societies and cultures, and justifies the community of agencies dedicated to bringing social enlightenment.

Select Bibliography

The Female Seminary Movement and Women’s Mission in Antebellum America, by Leonard I. Sweet; Church History, Vol. 54, 1985. Vote and Voice: Women's Organizations and Political Literacy, by Wendy Sharer; Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2004. The History of American Women's Voluntary Organizations, 1810-1960, by Karen J Blair, G.K. Hall, 1989. Progress Achieved in the Implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women: Report by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (A/CONF.177/7); the United Nations Department of Public Information Women’s Empowerment: Measuring the Global Gender Gap; The World Economic Forum, 2005