Difference between revisions of "Women's NGOs"
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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 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 | + | 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: |
| − | 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. | + | #Full gender equality and the elimination of gender discrimination |
| + | #The integration and full participation of women in development | ||
| + | #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. | 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. | + | 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== | ==CEDAW== | ||
Revision as of 07:40, 5 August 2008
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.
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. The book was inspired by the democratic principles of the French Revolution (1789-1799). Wollstonecraft argues 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.”
