International Women’s Year

International Women's Year (IWY) was the name given to 1975 by the United Nations. Since that year March 8 has been celebrated as International Women's Day, and the United Nations Decade for Women, from 1976 to 1985, was also established.

After years of work by the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) to adopt a declaration to eliminate discrimination against women, in 1965, CSW began working in earnest to obtain passage of a declaration to secure women's human rights. Collating responses covering education, employment, inheritance, penal reform, and other issues, from government actors, NGO representatives and UN staff, CSW delegates drafted the Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (DEDAW), which was passed by the General Assembly on 7 November 1967. Once support had been garnered for the declaration, the next step was to prepare it to become a Convention. Though there were delays, by 1972, when the United States Congress passed Title IX, eliminating discrimination in education for any institution receiving federal funding, hope that passage could be secured surged. In the meantime, members of the Women's International Democratic Federation (WIDF) had long been pressing for an international women's year and conference to address women's inequality. As WIDF was designated as an observer and not a member of the CSW, they could not propose the event directly, but drafted a proposal. Persuading the Romanian delegate of CSW to present their proposal, it was seconded by Finland. In turn, CSW approved the proposal and submitted it to the General Assembly, which proclaimed 1975 as International Women's Year in December 1972. The date was significant because it would take place on the thirtieth anniversary of the creation of the United Nations. But there were problems with the conference. Initially Soviet women rejected the call for a conference and filibustered the negotiations, preferring to host their own conference in East Berlin that would not be subject to the UN structure. As part of the Cold War politics, the United States then proposed that the conference not be limited to women, but should be gender neutral, because an all-woman conference would not be taken seriously. Finally, Mexico City agreed to host the conference, and CSW set about the tasks to prepare the "machinery" necessary to secure passage of CEDAW. Helvi Sipilä, was selected as the Assistant Secretary General for Social Development and Humanitarian affairs and placed in charge of organizing events for the year

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